Chapter 18 Aurora
I made it halfway to Selena’s room before her door swung open. She appeared in the doorway, one dark brow arched high, and the golden ear cuffs I’d gifted her for her hundredth birthday gleamed against her obsidian hair.
I swept my gaze from her booted feet, up her black leggings and oversized tee, to the crown of her head, making sure she was alright. Her creamy skin had regained its healthy glow, no longer bearing the black veins that had terrified me after she’d drained herself saving Hummingbird.
“Well, well, well. The prodigal daughter returns,” she mocked, but opened her arms in invitation.
I chuckled and rushed to wrap her in my arms. Radu and I hadn’t exactly been quiet during our extended… reunion.
Bending slightly, I pulled her tight. “You look good,” I said, exhaling a loud breath as relief flooded through me.
Though I’d known her condition wasn’t critical after the healing, that she needed only rest to replenish her reserves, seeing her upright and sarcastic meant everything was back to normal.
“Sabin made sure to keep my veins happy every time I so much as twitched in bed.” Sel delivered it in a humorous tone, but the underlying affection was unmistakable.
I glanced past her at the rumpled sheets twisted across her mattress. The mingled scents of jasmine and ripe berries lingered in the air. Proof of how thoroughly the vice-captain had been tending to her needs.
“He’s good for you.”
She let go, a strand of hair falling free from behind her ear as she nodded. “He is.” Her eyes went dreamy for a second. I could only imagine what debauched thing she was remembering. Or maybe she was simply in love.
But it didn’t last long. She took a sniff and fixed me with a shrewd stare I knew meant trouble. “You seem quite satisfied yourself,” she drawled. “How’s that whole ‘I’ll-only-use-Harbinger-as-a-blood-source-and-nothing-more’ philosophy working out for you?”
“Oh, shut up. It’s not like I planned any of it.”
“What, to fuck him like there’s no tomorrow?”
“Sel!”
She shrugged, reached over to the dresser mounted on the wall beside the door, and grabbed her medical kit. It was a small silver case with a fingerprint lock similar to the one that held my Nexus and Astral Visor.
Music drifted through the thin walls, a soft and melancholy song that made my chest tighten. It came from somewhere above us.
Selena looked at the ceiling and shook her head. “Come on,” she said on an exhale, stepping into the hallway. “You can tell me all about your unplanned sex marathon on our way to check on Hummingbird. That stubborn fool completely disregarded my orders to stay in bed.”
“Again?” I slapped a hand over my mouth at the same time she halted.
The stare she leveled at me was nothing short of murderous. “What do you mean, again?” Her voice rose an octave in three words flat. “This isn’t the first time he’s wandered off?”
Underworld’s tits. I didn’t mean to get Hummingbird into trouble. He’d barely stayed put since he’d come to, but I wasn’t about to dig his grave deeper.
“I’m not snitching,” I said, miming a zipper closing over my lips.
“You don’t need to. Your guilty face says everything.” She huffed and strode across the hallway to the console table that had housed the priceless vase I’d shattered. With the press of her finger on what seemed like a random spot on the faded wallpaper, a hidden door popped open.
My jaw hit the floor. “How did you know about this when I didn’t?”
“Maybe because I pay attention to my surroundings?” she said, with all the sass she could muster, and disappeared into the dark stairwell.
I rolled my eyes and followed her up. What could I say? She had a point. The secret passage had been right in front of my room and I’d never noticed it.
A musty scent of old wood and decades of dust greeted us, stinging my nostrils.
The sneeze that followed echoed in the corridor, and I half-expected a colony of bats to descend upon us.
They didn’t, but that didn’t stop me from raising my hands protectively over my head just in case they changed their minds and decided to snag their little claws in my hair.
“So?” Selena asked without looking back.
She had chin-length hair—she didn’t care if she lost it to those flying rats.
“Spill it. Giving in once I can understand. Blood Pacts can be intense. But an entire night?” Her voice dropped to a hush, as if that would help in a house full of mixed-breeds.
“I thought you didn’t want to ‘cater to his every whim’? ”
I let out a frustrated breath and tried to sort through the hurricane of thoughts revolving around Radu and me. “It’s not like that. I don’t know how to explain it. Things get… complicated around him.”
She paused on the squeaky step above me and turned. We were nearly the same height now, her obsidian eyes glittering with curiosity in the candlelight filtering up from the hallway.
“Explain.”
“Well, you probably don’t know since you were unconscious, but he disappeared again. Eighteen hours without a word.”
She nodded, but her brows furrowed. “Where did he go?”
I shrugged, but couldn’t hide the irritation in my voice.
“No idea. But it wasn’t anywhere on our side of the Gloom.
” Which raised even more questions about him.
If he could leave this battlefield, why choose to stay?
The only explanation that made sense was his determination to free his brother from the Shepherd’s control. Otherwise, why endure so much grief?
I swore to Derzelas, the man had secrets by the dozen.
“Beyond?” she shrieked.
“I think so. The glimpse I had of his memory was murky.”
She paused, deep in thought. Then she tsked, shaking her head. “And after vanishing without explanation, you took him straight to bed? A, I thought you were smarter than this.”
“What was I supposed to do when he portaled into my bedroom half-lost to bloodlust?” I whisper-yelled.
“What?”
“He was hurt, bleeding, barely coherent. He asked me to let him feed, and I—”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
Her stare could have reached into my soul; it was so laser-focused. “So, you satisfied his hunger and then happily let him into your pants?”
“Not happily,” I lied through my teeth. “I wanted to demand answers, but then I felt his overwhelming grief and sorrow while he was feeding. Sel, they’re battling the same war we are.”
She startled. “Who’s ‘they’?”
It was almost comical—if the subject wasn’t so serious—how her chastising expression changed into absolute confusion.
“I’m not entirely sure,” I said. “I heard a woman speaking Russkayan, saw other elementals in the distance.”
“Uh-huh. And you didn’t think to ask for details?”
“He told me not to before I had the chance.” I clamped my lips shut as soon as the words left them. It sounded as bad as it had in my head. Aurora zero, Radu one. I always forgot my brain when I was around him.
“Uh-huh.” I could tell by her tone she knew exactly what had happened. “And you listened because…?”
I welded my teeth together. “And then I had sex with him. Happy now? I chose to postpone the interrogation and live in the moment.”
“Well, you certainly seized that moment.” She raised her hand and grabbed something invisible. “Hooonk. Hooonk.”
“What are you doing?”
“All aboard the express zeppelin to Bad Decision Territory.” She tugged the imaginary cord again. “Hooonk. Hooonk.” Her voice dropped to mimic the deep, resonant sound of an airship horn.
“It won’t happen again,” I said half-heartedly. Maybe if I repeated it enough, it would become true.
“Like it didn’t happen after Brasov? Or that time in his room? Face it, A—you’re developing a pattern.”
Elena’s voice found that exact moment to echo in my mind. ‘Impulsive decisions lead to permanent consequences, Aurora.’
I sighed. I hated when my mother’s sayings randomly crowded into my head to sour my already bad mood.
“Men like him only enjoy the chase,” I said. “And now that he’s gotten what he wanted—”
“Multiple times.”
“—he’ll lose interest.” I glared at her. “He’ll finish his task and leave. It’s over.” My lips moved, but I wasn’t entirely sure of the words that left my mouth.
“Men expecting to get bored don’t seek out a woman’s help when they have perfectly capable friends to turn to.” She paused as if pondering whether she should say what was on her tongue next. “And they certainly wouldn’t spend all night sampling the goods if they were already over it.”
“It’s the blood exchange. It complicates everything.”
“So you keep saying.” She waved dismissively. “It’s obvious you’re falling for him, I think you should tell him how you feel.”
I couldn’t deny it, so I didn’t try. But… “I’m not telling him anything.”
Her eyes narrowed into a challenge if I’d ever seen one. “Coward.”
“I’m not a coward.” I smacked her backside.
She shook her head and resumed climbing. “Bawk, bawk.”
“Selena—”
“Bk, bk, bk—”
“Selena, seriously—”
“Bawk-awk!”
“I’m not telling him because I’m afraid, I just don’t want things to get awkward when we still need to focus on killing the Shepherd. Which, by the way—”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” We reached a nondescript door at the top of the stairs. With a smile drenched in saccharine, she winked, said, “Hold that thought,” and twisted the brass knob.
The door opened to reveal a massive attic filled with hardwood furniture and priceless belongings under dusty white sheets. But what caught my attention was a grand piano taking center stage. Dozens of candles crowded its ebony surface, spilling their wax in washed-white rivers down the sides.
And right there, sitting on a burgundy velvet bench, under waving shadows, was Hummingbird. Alive. Whole.