Chapter 36
The Blood Queen did not return to say goodbye. She left only a note telling me to leave the remaining gorgon blood as the price of saving Veyyr.
I did not hesitate, leaving both vials on the table—for me it was not even a question of whether I would or wouldn’t.
We moved quickly, in part for fear the door would disappear.
Stepping through, Veyyr’s hand brushed mine and he opened his mouth as if to say one last thing, but nothing came. A look only shared between us, that one touch and I felt him pulling away, felt him try to put this moment behind.
Ours.
But no more.
I did not like the way my throat and chest tightened, or the slight burn in my eyes. Too tangled, this was too tangled and maybe he was right.
Shake it off, shake it off and keep moving.
So that’s what I did.
The doorway took us to Laz. Even there, I kept my distance, kept my body away from Veyyr, in a vain attempt to soothe the edges that were stung by his obvious choice to pretend that he’d never had his head buried between my legs, that I’d never screamed his name, or that he’d never kissed his way across my face, a gently as I’d ever been touched.
I leaned back, gripping a ridge of Laz’s back as Veyyr told him of the healer—what little there was to tell.
I remained quiet.
Laz flew us to Harrison, Lucky, and Rana—all who were happy to see us. If not a more than a little freaked out by seeing a massive dragon landing only feet from the cabin, his wingtips brushing the scrubby trees.
“Thank you, Laz.” I patted his side and stepped away from him.
He grunted. “I will find you both another time, but for now, I must seek out my mother. She has been gone too long.”
Before Veyyr or I could ask what happened to her, he pushed off and was back in the air flying south.
“Shit, a dragon! You rode a dragon across the straight for real?” Harrison’s mouth flapped several times. “Maybe next time…I could…”
Veyyr pulled him into a quick hug, a move that seemed to surprise Harrison more than anyone else. They hung onto each other as Lucky pulled me into a quick embrace.
“We all thought he wouldn’t make it back and I know that you are the reason he survived.” His words were low, and for him barely whispered. I gave him a squeeze. “Remind him of that when he thinks himself invincible.”
Laughing, Lucky kissed the top of my head and then pulled back, holding me at arm’s length.
He crinkled his nose, sniffing rather deeper than I liked. Letting me go he took a half step back toward the brothers and took another deep sniff over his shoulder.
Good gods. Could he…he could fucking smell me on Veyyr and vice versa.
His eyes widened flicking from me to Veyyr to me and back again. Fucking ogres and their propensity for…fucking. I held up a finger and drew it across my neck, even as he grinned and slapped me on the back like I was one of the guys. He mouthed, “bout fucking time.”
Rana stood back, waiting before she held a hand to Veyyr. “Good job, sir.”
Harrison laughed, whatever reluctance he’d had around Rana seemingly easing while we’d been gone. “Sir. That’s rich.”
Veyyr took her hand though, his fingers wrapping around her wrist. “Well met then, young witch.”
She lowered her head, and I thought I saw a glimmer of tears. That was the power of a mentor seeing you, believing in you. A simple acknowledgment was all it took.
Rana came to me next and I slung an arm around her shoulders. “You survived the stink wars of a teenage boy and an ogre?”
Her laugh was immediate. Her thoughts rippling into mine. I may have sat outside the hut more than in when the rains let up.
“Tracker,” Veyyr’s voice cut through the reunion. “We have everything we need except for…”
“Except for the body.” I nodded, focusing on the job.
Bound to Veyyr as I was, I would be stuck with him for three more years and that would be enough time to discuss…
whatever this was between us. “I need something to go on. I can’t just pull a thread to Track someone that I’ve never met.
I don’t know if even a full description would work. ”
He motioned for Harrison to step forward. “I have this, will it be enough?”
From under his coat, he pulled a crinkled old photo and handed it to me.
I don’t know who I expected, but not this man in the picture. I let the surprise fade and focussed on what I saw instead.
The image had been in color, but was faded a little, the edges of it crinkled white paper.
The man was an older version of Harrison, perhaps in his thirties by the looks of the picture but I wasn’t sure.
He might have been one of those that aged well.
He had the same lopsided smile, messy black hair—darker than Harrison, but the way it fell to the side was the same.
His eyes were a deep amber, and they were the only difference between father and son.
Slim, I could see that Harrison would fill out more, but he would never have the thicker muscled build of his older brother.
The pieces clicked into place. Harrison’s father, not Veyyr’s—brothers from the same mother then.
Interesting that Veyyr was so invested in bringing this man who was not his father back to life. A good man then, to have raised a son who was not his own and have him love him so fiercely. I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat.
A single name was written across the bottom.
Alex.
I smoothed a finger across his name. Alex. Why the fuck did that tug at me? Maybe if I’d known Veyyr before, I’d known Alex too?
“This will do.”
Tracking Alex was not hard; I found a connection only it was not like when I went after Dakota. Dakota’s connection to me had pulsed and danced, and I’d gone toward it knowing without understanding fully that he was alive.
This connection to Alex was…cold. Empty. I could find his body, but he was no longer a soul that walked on this side of the Veil. With my eyes still closed I pointed. “That way.”
“North.” Lucky grumbled. “Really didn’t want it to be further north.”
Rana tucked against my side and hugged me around the waist. I held her with my free arm as she shivered. “You okay?”
The little girl shrugged, nodded, shook her head. “I don’t know. I just feel like this…is not going to go the way they want it to.”
They.
She tipped her head at Veyyr and Harrison.
They were leading the way, on foot. We’d left the vehicles behind on the other side of the ravine and we weren’t going back that way. Besides, with no one to create the fuel, it wouldn’t have mattered.
As it was the next week was a quiet journey without so much as a whisper of trouble.
No elementals.
No witches.
No fights to the death.
Each day that passed, that quiet added tension that I was not sure any felt but me and perhaps Rana. Lucky was jovial, making meals and telling jokes.
Harrison seemed lighter on his feet. Excited. Younger if that was possible.
Veyyr was…Veyyr. He seemed unchanged by this new direction, unfazed. Ignoring me completely, of course, acting for all the world like we hadn’t marked the other’s body, claiming unbroken skin as now ceded territory.
Four nights in, I sat on a ridge overlooking our camp, unable to sleep. Sorrow sat in a tree a few yards away, dozing though I’d asked him to help me keep watch.
My thoughts tumbled faster and faster in all directions the longer I sat there.
My lost memories. Veyyr. Alex. Zane. My veilrunner. I spun the ring on my finger. Would it come off at some point, and if it did, would I be different again? The numbers on it still meant nothing. Then again, I hadn’t had much time to research.
That was where Thren found me. Her deep huff would have been the only alert I had, if not for the fact that I’d felt her approach. I held out a hand and she slunk forward, settling it on her rough scaled head. A soft sigh slid from her, and she laid at my side, flopping her head across my leg.
Pack. Safe.
I smiled. “I’m glad you found me.”
Another sigh, she stretched and groaned, body slumping into instant sleep.
For me though, sleep didn’t come.
Survival was my first thought when I’d woke from whatever spell had cast me into the depths.
The memory of Thorn standing over me, brandishing her knife was all too easy to pull to the front of my mind. Why did she want me dead? But then…if she’d wanted me dead, why steal my memories? Why not just kill me?
I put a hand to my head as if I could physically draw the truth from my past.
From the camp, the smallest figure rose, and turned her head around, looking for me. I gave a low whistle, and she moved in my direction. A few moments later, she joined me on the ridge, pausing to stare at Thren.
“This is your riftwolf you told us about?”
Thren lifted her head and sniffed in Rana’s direction, gave a huff of approval and lowered her head.
I smiled. “Yes.”
Rana slid to sit beside me, tucking her legs up so she could rest her chin on them. “I wish I had a friend like that.”
“Maybe one day a familiar will choose you. That’s how it works, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “I guess. I don’t think…I don’t think any would want me. Though I would love a cat.”
“Maybe an orange one?” I offered. “Like a little tiger.”
Her smile was immediate, but sad. “I would love that but…”
Thren grumped in her sleep as if she disagreed.
I took Rana’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You are too young to worry about that. And you are too amazing to not find your familiar at some point.”
Her smile wobbled and she changed the subject. “Why are you still awake?”
I hesitated, wondering just how much to say to the girl who had met Thorn—even if she had been unconscious. Veyyr seemed certain that Rana was not a spy for the powerful witch.
“I cannot make heads or tails of Thorn. She is the reason that I fell into the Rift. She stood over me with a knife. And yet…this ring stole my memories. If she did both, they don’t mesh. What does she want from me? My death, or something that is inside my head?”
Rana was quiet a moment. “Maybe both?”
“Both.” I looked at her. “What do you mean?”