Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I awoke to the beeping of the machine. My eyes wanted to roll back in my head. Everything was swimming. My throat was raw. I made a noise, a low groan, and my hand was squeezed.
‘Stacy?’ It was Robbie’s voice and my eyes flared open to stare at my fiancé.
I was still in the Common, and as such I could only see him as humans could. He didn’t look like an ogre. He looked … skinny, like an athlete. Modest and almost unremarkable. His hair was a meeker shade of brown, and I missed the tusks that usually dominated his silhouette.
This was his camouflage, I realised. And it was deadly. People would underestimate this man, and he could tear them in two with his bare hands.
Then I remembered everything.
The Domini. The battlefield. Jingo. Reed.
‘Troy?’ I asked.
‘He’s in intensive care,’ Robbie confirmed. ‘But the witches say he’ll make a full recovery. They have him in a healing coma. You saved his life.’ His eyes turned flat, and here in the Common realm, his eyes were merely blue, and I missed his stunningly rare liquid silver.
‘Kate?’
‘She’s fine. Upset, but fine. Her sister Beth is with her.’
I coughed, throat rasping, and that was it. I was bent over, coughing hard. I gestured to my neck, hoping he’d understand my plea for a drink. Thankfully, he did.
He held out a cup of water and guided the straw to my lips.
I pulled on the water gratefully.
‘The battle,’ I said when the coughing fit had gone. ‘Is everyone okay?’
‘Okay is a bit of a stretch,’ he admitted. ‘But it does not look like any will die from their wounds, though some were severe. Ivan lost an arm.’
I closed my eyes. ‘God, that’s awful.’
‘He is in pain, but he will survive.’
Guilt ripped into me. He’d lost an arm fighting to protect me. I’d dragged him into a trap, and it had snapped around us more thoroughly than I’d been braced for. I’d been cocky, arrogant and—
‘Channing?’ I asked urgently, pushing myself up.
‘He’s fine. Just knocked out.’
I slumped back onto my cushions. ‘And the Domini?’
‘Oh, they suffered fatalities. A lot of fatalities.’ His eyes were fierce on mine. ‘I sent them a message. You are not to be touched.’
‘Did you send them an actual message? Or did you mean you implied a message with all of their deaths?’
‘Implication can be misconstrued, and I’m not a barbarian,’ he said primly. He smiled, and even in this form, it was feral. ‘I wrote an actual message, of course.’
Hanlon snorted, and only then did I realise he was present. ‘In entrails. He spelled out the message with their entrails.’
‘There are a lot of entrails in one person, and I didn’t have a pen and paper handy,’ Robbie explained.
I didn’t know how, but I shook my head and offered a shaky laugh. ‘God, Robbie.’
Hanlon nodded at me. ‘You were something to behold. You blew out their flames with ease, and we waged war on them with joy in our hearts and blood on our hands. Thank you for protecting us, hersmóeir.’
I blinked. ‘Well, you were protecting me. It seemed only fair.’
‘You protected us from flame. Fire is one of our biggest vulnerabilities,’ Hanlon said grimly. ‘We all hate it. And we are grateful, all of us. Even Edda.’
‘Fuck You?’ I gaped.
Hanlon smirked. ‘She’s not thrilled that particular nickname has stuck.’
There was a knock and Amber walked in, looking pissed off.
Upon seeing me awake, her eyes narrowed further.
‘You do realise that contact poison is poisonous on contact right? And giving CPR to someone you’ve splashed poison onto the face and lips is a monumentally stupid idea? You could have died, Stacy.’
‘Yeah.’ I shrugged. ‘I was hoping it had worn off a bit. He wiped it off with his hands.’
‘And that’s all that saved you,’ she said in exasperation. ‘You didn’t get exposed to the full hit, just the trace elements, but even so it was touch and go for a while there. Your organs were shutting down by the time Krieg carried you in bellowing for help and terrifying half the hospital.’
I squeezed my fiancé’s hand. ‘All’s well that ends well. Troy is fine, the ogres are fine, Channing is fine, Kate is fine.’ A yawn overtook me, and then another thought flared with panic in my mind.
Loki? I reached out. LOKI!
He didn’t respond. I clawed at our bond, panic flooding me when I couldn’t feel a damned thing.
‘Loki?’ I said in panic to Robbie. ‘Where the fuck is Loki?’ I sat up and pulled back the sheets to stand.
‘Goddess bless!’ Amber exclaimed. ‘Get back into bed!’
‘No. I need to see my bird. Where the hell is my bird?’
‘He’s here,’ Robbie said, but his voice was reserved, measured, promising nothing. He reached into his jacket pocket and gently cradled the small white bird in his hand. My heart gave a solid thump to see my little friend so limp and wan.
‘Loki!’
‘Back into bed,’ Robbie ordered. ‘And then I’ll pass him to you.’
I hesitated for a moment before complying. When I was nestled safely against my pillows, Krieg handed me my caladrius. His tiny chest was moving, but his eyes were closed.
He needed me, needed my magic.
‘Get me to a portal,’ I said. ‘Now.’
‘Stacy,’ Robbie began.
‘NOW! Or he won’t make it. He needs my magic.’
I pulled back the sheet again and stood. There was a breeze around my nether regions, and I realised I was in one of those backless gowns, buck naked, arse out for all and sundry to see.
Hanlon gasped, and I realised my butt crack wasn’t all he could see. He could see my scars. The puckered ruin of my skin thanks to Jude fucking Jingo.
And I almost couldn’t bear it that the bastard had got away again.
He’d got away but I’d ruined his plans with the merpeople and disrupted his organisation.
With his subsummation of Reed, he’d need a new second.
He’d need to regroup. He’d be off licking his wounds, and I’d be honing my weapons in the meantime.
He wouldn’t escape me again. I’d won this battle, and dammit, I’d win the war against anyone who waged it against me.
Him, the Domini. And truly, I wasn’t sure if one meant the other in any event.
As I walked out of my hospital room, I paused mid-step. Elvira, McCaffrey, and a tired-looking Channing with Frost nuzzled suspiciously close were there. Bland was next to Laura, and beside him was Ji-ho.
‘What the hell is this?’ I snapped. ‘Social hour? Get back to work.’
McCaffrey straightened. ‘Told you she’d be fine.’ She looked at me. ‘Boss, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like shit. Someone got it in for you?’
‘Yeah,’ I admitted. ‘It looks that way.’
‘We’d better crush them then,’ she said simply.
I smiled a little. ‘Yeah. That’s on my to-do list.’
‘Do it faster,’ she suggested, ‘or you might not be around to finish the list.’
‘The same thought had occurred to me,’ I agreed. ‘Get back to work, the lot of you.’
‘We’re off shift,’ Elvira said. ‘Don’t bitch. Thackeray called in a couple of other Inspectors for us so we could be here for you. Moral support and shit. A show of unity.’
‘I don’t need unity. I need magic.’
‘And some knickers,’ Laura suggested, making the others snicker.
I tilted my chin up. ‘Actually, I prefer to go commando.’
With the tatters of my dignity firmly gathered around me, I walked out.