Chapter 18 Aurora #2
His wings folded away with a soft susurration, settling behind him on the wooden floor like the richest cape woven with silk.
Not a single bruise marred his pretty face, and I knew that under his forest green sweater his abdomen bore a red scar that still needed healing but was otherwise closed and without any sign of infection.
The chestnut ringlets of his hair bounced as he turned to wave at us, a boyish smile lighting his features.
I smiled at him, but Selena shattered the moment by stomping her way in and promising violence. “I thought I told you to stay in bed,” she barked and propped her hands on her hips. “Your intestines literally grew back from nothing. They need time to settle.”
“I’m fine,” came his reply, though it sounded breathier than usual. “See? I can sit up without—” A sharp inhale cut him off.
“Fine my ass,” Selena muttered and dashed to check on him. “Scoot over.”
She straddled the bench, pressed one hand to his forehead, and the other over his heart. A soft red light radiated from her palms at the same time her floral scent spiked.
“Projector.” Hummingbird’s face turned pleading when his eyes landed on me again. “Can you please tell the lieutenant I’m fine? She’s been hovering like a mother hen ever since she woke up.”
Selena cast a razor-sharp scowl in his direction that would wither a stout winter rose.
“You ingrate,” she muttered as she retrieved a syringe from her kit, flicked it a few times, and squirted out some of the yellowish liquid.
Then she rolled up his sleeve and administered the medicine with practiced care.
“I annoy you because I want to make sure you’re healing properly. ”
You could say whatever you wanted about Selena—that she was cold, uncaring, headstrong—but when she took you under her wing, you could always count on her to have your back. I’d never met anyone more loyal than she.
Well, Harbinger, but that was beside the point.
“Can you blame her?” I pulled a squeaky chair from the maple dining set hidden under the covers. “You were dying. We almost lost you.”
Sorrow of the darkest kind seeped into his eyes. His easy smile faltered, replaced by a gravity that made him look older. The kind that said he’d seen too many atrocities. “I remember bits and pieces. The energy bolt, Quakelord…” His voice grew airy with grief. “He saved my life, didn’t he?”
The silence that followed felt heavy enough to crush us all.
I’d found out later, after we’d returned and licked our wounds, that Quakelord had used his earth magic to catapult Hummingbird from harm’s way.
But he’d been too slow to evade the attack and save himself.
That’s why Hummingbird had landed so hard against that rock face.
“Yes,” Selena said in a murmur. “He did.”
Hummingbird’s face crumbled before he pressed the heels of his hands over his eyes. His shoulders shook with silent sobs.
Survivor’s guilt.
That terrible weight of being alive when others weren’t. Of wondering why you deserved to breathe when they didn’t.
Tears burned the back of my eyes.
“Hey.” I leaned forward, squeezing his knee. “He made that choice. We all did. That’s what being in a guild means. We protect each other, no matter the cost.”
“Aurora’s right,” Selena added, her clinical mask slipping to reveal the grief underneath. “Quakelord knew the risks, he died doing what he believed in—keeping his family safe.”
Family. That’s what they were, and what I’d also started to feel in the short months I’d spent with them. Not bound by blood but by choice, by shared battles and unbreakable loyalty.
“How much longer before he’s fully healed?” I asked Selena.
“Physically? Another day or two of rest should do it.” She traced her fingers over Hummingbird’s ribs, checking for tenderness. “But what he went through—regenerating entire organs—it’s not something you just bounce back from. His body needs time to remember how all the pieces fit together.”
What she didn’t say was that emotionally it would take longer.
Years, decades maybe. We’d all lost people we cared about.
Me, my father, whose absence I still felt in my heart even after almost a century.
My Sparrows. Phoenix, Quakelord. Others who’d fallen along the way.
The dead left scars that never fully healed, phantom limbs of grief that ached in quiet moments.
“Quakelord’s gone,” he whispered as though he’d finally come to terms with it. Lowered his hands, then met my gaze. “We’ll remember him by living, by fighting. His sacrifice won’t be meaningless.”
I felt a tear slip down my cheek. The conviction in his voice reminded me why I’d grown to care so deeply for these people.
Not just for their strength or their loyalty, but for their ability to find hope in the darkest places.
To keep believing in something better even when the world tried to crush that belief.
A soft knock disconnected the moment. We all turned toward the door as it creaked open, revealing Harbinger’s broad silhouette.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said, his golden eyes scanning Hummingbird for signs of improvement. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got struck by lightning and had my guts rearranged,” Hummingbird replied, a lopsided grin tilting his full mouth. “But alive. Thanks to you. All of you.”
Harbinger stepped into the room, wearing a light brown shirt that made his bronze skin glow and black cargo pants tucked into combat boots. If he looked like a dark god in leather, he was impossible to resist now. A warrior ready for battle. A commander who would do anything to protect his people.
“Actually,” he said, his gaze sliding to me, “I came to talk to Aurora. About our conversation earlier.”
My pulse jumped. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”
“Never.”
The room went silent except for the distant ticking of a clock somewhere under the sheets. Selena’s eyes widened as understanding dawned. She gathered her supplies, arranging them in their designated spots in the metal box.
“The Republic? When?” she asked, closing the lock with a loud click. Her stiff shoulders told me she wasn’t eager to go back, and I bet Terraknight had everything to do with it—not the chauvinist dickheads she used to work under.
“As I told Harbinger earlier,” I said. “It’s enough if I go alone. No reason to put you at risk as well.” Her body relaxed a little, but her jaw was still set. “Besides, I’d much rather you stay here in case someone needs you.”
“Aurora made a compelling argument,” Harbinger said, ignoring my pointed suggestion that he stay put and let me go alone. “If Dracula can grant her the Blood Aura, if we can convince him to help… it might be our only chance to level the playing field.”
“Or it might be a death sentence,” Selena muttered, “for both of you.”
The fear in her voice made my heart clench. She was thinking exactly what had kept me awake for the past two nights—of Lev, of the Tribunal, of all the ways this could go catastrophically wrong. I didn’t blame her.
“Which is why we need to be smart about it,” I said, coming to terms with the fact that Harbinger was going to tag along.
I needed him to teleport me close enough to the walls to avoid being seen by the guards.
There was no way he was going to stay put.
“Quick in and out. I present the threat to Dracula, get the Blood Aura or do the unthinkable—wake him up—and we’re back here before anyone realizes what happened. ”
“And if the Wurdulak prince tries to stop you?” Hummingbird asked.
“He won’t get the chance,” Harbinger replied before me. “I’ll make sure of that.” His eyes flashed with an amber glow, and I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw the golden patterns pulsing beneath his skin too. More and more, his varcolac was making an appearance.
Regardless, the promise in his voice made my breathing quicken. Possessive. Protective. Utterly serious. This coming after he’d so eloquently said he’d burn the Republic down if something happened to me… The predator in me purred with satisfaction.
“Good.” Selena nodded appreciatively, then leveled her stare at Harbinger. “How precise is your magic? Can you portal directly to the Temple, where our Creators rest?”
He shook his head, and candlelight reflected in the silver of his hair. “Chronoportal doesn’t work that way. It’s not enough to know about a place. I have to physically visit it before I can teleport there again.”
She let out a dejected sigh and looked at me. “In and out, my left toe.” She pointed her chin at Radu. “You need him to get inside.”
After seeing my confused expression, she raised her hand and started ticking off items with her fingers.
“Even if he portals you outside the seventh ward, you won’t be able to get in undetected.
They have guards posted at every entrance—gates, tunnels, you name it.
But even if you somehow manage to slip past them, you won’t trick the blood wards. ”
My entire body sagged, my arms hanging like overcooked noodles at my sides. I’d forgotten about those damn blood wards.
“I gather that’s bad?” Harbinger’s gaze bounced from me to Selena.
“Bad?” I scoffed. “The government put them up after the Total Rendition to detect any mixed-breed who might trespass over our borders. The problem is they don’t just sense mortal blood. They flare up at any type of blood.”
Selena picked up where I left off. “They have an entire department dedicated to overseeing and reinforcing them. That’s how they track if everyone crossing the inner gates has approval from the Obayifo—the Master of Keys, the man in charge of that sector.”
“They linked the wards to the National Gene Bank,” I continued, the full scope of our problem hitting me. “The institution that safeguards every citizen’s blood sample.”
No way I could pass through without Lev knowing of my return.
“Radu, you said you remember the fountain in front of the Corvin Palace. Could you teleport us there?” I asked.