Chapter 9 #4
‘I have to go,' Lia mutters suddenly. She puts a hand on my arm. 'Your human is in safe hands with Gwen. I’ll find Morgan and Jak and let them know she’s here with you.’
And then she’s stalking from the room. I hear her leave the house, I assume to open the Breach outside.
Gwen brings the final vial, making Bryn drink it, even though she flails about. Her breathing is erratic, her eyes wide as she looks around the room in a panic.
'Wrap your arms around her,' Gwen says. 'Carefully, while the vials do their work.'
But Bryn scrambles away from me. She lets out a sound of upset when she realizes she has no clothes on, lunges toward the other side of the room, hits the wall, and then sinks down into a ball on the floor, breathing hard.
'Bryn,' I say gently, but it's like she doesn't even hear me.
'Give her a moment,' Gwen says. 'She's terrified. She may not know where she is. She may not even know who you are. Just let her?—'
Gwen goes over and drapes a blanket over Bryn, which she clutches at, her eyes unfocused as her gaze darts around like a cornered animal.
'You're safe, Bryn,' Gwen tries. 'You remember we met?'
Bryn nods jerkily, not saying a word.
'In the healer's rooms. In the apothecary. Remember?'
'Gwen,' she says shakily.
'That's right,' Gwen says very calmly. 'You're in my home. Locke found you.'
'Locke?' Bryn asks.
She laughs, and it's cutting. 'How? Why would he have been looking for me? He doesn’t care about me. He hasn’t even spoken to me in days.’
It's like a punch to my gut, those words. I thought I was getting somewhere, but I still have so far to go, I realize.
'No,' Gwen says. 'Locke brought you here. He found you by the river.'
'Yes,' Bryn whispers. 'I was tricked. Brought far from the wards by some of the fae, pushed down the hill.'
'Did they only beat you, Bryn?' Gwen asks meaningfully. 'Or did they?—'
‘The cowardly pricks only beat me,' Bryn says adamantly. ‘But it wasn’t the fae who did it. It was some of Tavish’s men, I think.’
My jaw clenches.
Fucking Tavish!
I'm going to get every single one of the cunts, I decide, human and fae, and I’m going to string them up by their thumbs. Watch them wriggle and writhe and beg. Bryn can decide what happens to them.
'Enough of this,' I snarl, striding toward my human.
She looks up at me and I’m gratified when she doesn't tense or quail before me. She’s not afraid of me. In fact, she melts into me as I pick her up and hold her against me. She's still breathing heavily, though.
I sit on the cot with her, and Gwen gives me a nod. 'The healing will be finished soon with the amount I gave her. She needs rest. Let me know if you need anything,' she says as she walks from the room and closes the door, leaving us alone.
'I didn't think it would be you,' Bryn murmurs, her eyes closed. ‘How did you know where to find me?’'
'Bryn,' I murmur, my forehead resting on hers and deciding to admit the truth. 'I've been…keeping my eye on you since the training began, following at a distance during the runs, making sure you were safe in the practice circles. When the other fae returned this evening and you didn’t, I went in the direction I did to search because I know that’s not far from where the evening run ends.’
‘You’ve been watching me.’
‘Yes,’ I admit. ‘To keep you safe. You were much further out than I thought you’d be though. I almost didn’t find you.’
‘What happened tonight then?’ she asks, her lip quirking upward a little. ‘If you watch me all the time?’
‘I was called away into a meeting with the Council,' I say, my jaw stiffening. 'And that was when the cunts struck. As if they knew… Who were they, Bryn?’
‘A couple of the fae from training first,’ she mutters and I swear, but she isn’t finished.
‘But they only pushed me down the hill. I think…I think they left after that. It was Tavish’s men who did the rest. Four of them.
They wore cloths tied over their faces. They changed their voices when they spoke, but sometimes they’d forget.
At least one of them was familiar… I’ve heard him in the Trading Post. I don’t know his name.
They…had vials of healing potions so they could keep hurting me even after Fate punished them for it. ’
'Fuck,' I hiss, my fists clenching so hard my knuckles crack loudly.
They hurt my human. They planned it. Was I called away because they knew I was watching? No, it was Dane. He can’t be a part of this. Never. But why would the fae be involved at all? Perhaps Tavish’s men bribed them with something to get Bryn out to the river. Maybe Tavish himself did.
'Tavish holds too much power,’ I mutter. ‘We'll never prove it was his men. It'll be a Dark Realmer’s word against theirs. Did you hear his voice?'
She shakes her head. ‘I didn’t hear the true voices of two of them. He may have been there, but I don’t know.’
‘Was anyone else there?’ I ask with a sinking feeling.
‘I don’t know. I can’t remember.’
In my arms, Bryn shifts and lets out a long sigh, relaxing against me. The bruises and cuts I can see are fading even as I look. The multiple vials are doing their work very quickly, thank the Gods. Thank Gwen, actually.
‘I’m sorry, Bryn,’ I say quietly. ‘I thought…I thought the Light would be safe for you. I thought…that I could keep you safe.’
She cracks an eye open and, to my astonishment, her hand caresses my cheek. ‘This the best place I’ve ever known,’ she whispers and I hate that my human has experienced so little goodness in her life that she’s content with this.
‘Thank you for helping me to make a life here,’ she breathes.
I begin to tell her that I’ve done nothing, but she puts a finger to my lips to silence me.
‘I know it was your idea that I spend time with Jak in the healing rooms. It was a good idea, Locke. Thank you.’
I open my mouth, but I’m not sure what to say.
But Bryn has other plans than just to talk when she slowly maneuvers herself to straddle my unclothed body.
My eyes fly to hers and widen at the heat I see in them. My cock begins to harden though I will it not to.
‘I don’t think?—’
She impales herself on me in one swift move before I can finish and the words die in my throat as she begins to move.