Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
KAIROTH
I awoke knowing something was wrong. The feeling of dread settled over me like a net. I rose from my bed and shrugged on a shirt and a pair of black pants. I wrenched open the doors to my bedroom, stalking down the hallway, looking for any signs of trouble. If there was trouble, I could only think of one thing causing it.
A pair of boots pounded on the floor below me. I looked over the railing, seeing Bellamy’s two friends running for the stairs, followed by Wesley, Jerome, and Goji. A rock settled in my stomach, and cold dread crept over me.
No Bellamy, though.
What had that foolish woman done now?
I met them on the stairs. “What happened?” I snapped.
The red-haired woman stared at me with an open mouth while the tall, lanky man froze, staring at the shadows whirling around me.
I huffed impatiently. “Somebody better tell me what’s going on.”
Goji looked at the taller man. Driscoll was his name. Yes, that’s what Bellamy had called him. “Well,” the pixie said. “Go on. Tell him what you told us.”
“The east wing,” Driscoll burst out. “I think I saw Bellamy disappear into there earlier, and she hasn’t returned.”
My entire body went cold, my shadows lashing out and hissing. Driscoll winced, and Leoni just looked at me in horror. I wanted to flee from the terror on their faces, the fear in their eyes that reminded me all too well of the monster I was, why Bellamy had stopped coming to see me.
I stepped closer. “What do you mean you ‘think’?”
Driscoll swallowed, the sound audible.
“We saw her,” Leoni said more firmly, an odd expression flashing across her face, but before I could decipher it, it was gone. “We tried to call for her, but she ignored us and disappeared through that curtain.”
No. If she went too far, too deep into east wing... she’d run into her .
I whipped around, racing down the stairs to the second floor. Shouts rang behind me, questions from the pixies, warnings from the elementals, but I didn’t stop, tearing open the curtain and stalking into the dark. I was darkness myself, so I always felt at ease here where no light shone. My vision adjusted, and I could easily see the hallway that stretched on, floorboards busted and cracked, wallpaper shredded and hanging in tatters. Broken glass littered the floor, all the sconces that once hanged destroyed. I didn’t see Bellamy anywhere. My gaze trailed to the stairwell next to me that led down into the dungeons below.
Foolish, impulsive woman.
I stalked down the stairs, gaze roaming for any sign of her. I got to the bottom, and still I didn’t see her.
My pulse spiked. If she’d gone too close, done something stupid... I ran around the corner, but she wasn’t here.
“Hello?” a silky voice said. “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
I didn’t answer, searching for Bellamy, but she was nowhere to be found. So what in the bloody hells were her friends talking about?
“You know, the least you could do is say hi.”
I turned again, sure that I was missing something, but Bellamy was not down here. Which meant... they lied. Why would they lie to me?
She said something again, but I ignored her, barely hearing her.
My feet didn’t touch the ground as I flew up the stairs, through the curtain and back up to where they all still stood on the fourth balcony.
“You lied,” I said as I landed in front of them.
“You’re going to kill us now, aren’t you?” Driscoll asked, his dark skin losing some of its color. He shot a glare at the woman—Leoni, Bellamy had called her. “I told you this was a stupid plan.”
“Plan?” Goji asked, crossing her arms. “A plan for what?”
Jerome let out a nervous chuckle while Wesley ran a hand over his blonde hair. “Maybe we should all sit in the parlor, have some tea and scones?—”
“What plan?” I asked, echoing Goji. I didn’t have time for this, but Bellamy was up to something. That must’ve been why she was avoiding me.
‘“It’s the stupid nettle weeds.” Driscoll threw up his hands, and Leoni swatted him in the arm. “What? He was going to kill us.”
“No he wasn’t,” Goji said drily. “What about the nettle weeds?”
“Did she finally decide to stop harvesting them?” Jerome shuddered. “Her hands are ghastly, so swollen she can barely sign with them.”
“She’s not stopping,” Leoni said. “She needs them.”
“Why?” I asked. Bellamy wouldn’t tell me, so maybe these companions would.
Leoni’s lips thinned and she pressed them together. My shadows reached out toward her, slithering along her arms.
“Wouldn’t you rather she tell you?” Leoni asked, a tremble to her voice as the shadows wrapped around her arms. “Do you really want to force us to tell you? Break her trust like that instead of earning it enough so that she’ll feel comfortable opening up to you?”
My shadows reeled back because damnit, she was right. I did want that. I didn’t know why I wanted it, but I just did.
“Tell me where she is,” I growled.
A commotion broke out outside the window. All of our heads snapped toward the noise, and I tilted my head.
Seven swans flew outside the windows, wings flapping erratically as they tapped on the glass with their beaks.
What in the fuck was going on?
“Oh, I just cleaned those.” Wesley rolled his eyes. “Do you know what a pain it is to get those windows sparkling?”
“Why are they here?” Leoni’s alarmed voice set me on edge.
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good,” Driscoll said, staring at the birds with wide eyes.
“What?” I asked. “What are you talking about? Someone speak plainly for fuck’s sake.”
“They know her.” Driscoll winced. “They’re—uh...” He scratched his head.
“She’s in trouble,” Leoni said, exasperated. “That’s the only reason they’d be acting like this, that they’d be here. I think they’re trying to tell us something, to get someone to help her.”
I stiffened.
“We all are seeing birds, right?” Jerome asked. “We’re talking about birds.”
“I don’t think they’re just birds,” Goji said, stroking her chin.
“Where did she go?” I turned to Driscoll and Leoni, fear prickling along my spine. I hadn’t felt scared of anything, not in thousands of years. “If she’s in trouble, I’m her best chance, so tell me and let me go to her.”
Driscoll shot Leoni a look. “She went to find more nettle weed. The garden ran out, so she needed to get outside these walls, to the jungle, to find more.”
Ice filled my veins.
“Oh no,” Goji said.
“What?” Leoni asked. “The jungle isn’t unsafe unless you try to leave.”
“She has to leave in order to get the nettle weed. There’s another place it grows on the island. Just outside the jungle.”
If I knew Bellamy, she would go after it, and my shadows would attack.
Driscoll whimpered.
“So what are you going to do?” Leoni asked, voice shaking.
“Find her,” I said, then rose into the air and took off.