Chapter 47
Huntyr
She’s here.
She’s actually here, standing in front of me, alive and as well as can be expected.
I hold her at arm's length, examining every part of her. Her eyes are still sunken in, circled by shadows, and the darkness in her veins extends up her forearms, but she’s standing tall, walking easily enough on her own.
“I could hardly believe it when Kristona told me you’d been taken to the Fae kingdom,” Tyla exclaims, tears glistening in her dark eyes. “Then these men showed up telling me you’d sent for me.”
I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. “I have so much to tell you, but let’s get you inside first.”
She shouldn’t be on her feet. I can’t imagine how difficult the journey has been for her. She’ll need to lie down. Maybe Derian can arrange for a warm meal and hot tea. Oh, and a pain tonic. She’ll need a pain tonic too.
Derian and Cal linger on the porch, both watching the two of us with matching brooding expressions. I turn to them, feeling Derian’s attention on me like a weight.
“Is there a room where she can rest?”
He nods, inclining his head in a silent instruction to follow him.
He leads us through the entryway and towards the grand staircase, but stops when I reach out and grasp his arm, concern flooding through me. Derian looks between Tyla and me, before nodding his understanding.
“I can carry you up the stairs,” he offers her. “If that would be alright with you.”
She looks to me first, a question in her eyes, but after a reassuring nod she thanks Derian and he easily lifts her into his arms. Silently, he carries her to a bedroom upstairs, all while she sends curious glances over his shoulder at me.
I swallow down my laughter.
The relief of having her here is nearly indescribable, an undeniable force that has seemingly erased the stress and trauma of the past few weeks.
Derian lays her down on an oversized bed with a floral blue quilt. The room is twice as spacious as the tiny apartment we shared back in Velia, and I watch Tyla’s eyes widen as she takes in the polished floors, oversized windows, and massive carved fireplace.
The second he sits her down, Derian stiffens, glancing back at me over his shoulder.
“I need to get the tonic.”
I frown. I’m in as much of a rush as anyone to get Tyla healed, but he hasn’t even said hello to her. Before I can point out as much, he brushes past me. I’m so busy staring after him that I don’t even notice Kaia has entered the room until Tyla screams.
“She seems different from other Mortals I have met.”
The panther has launched onto the bed and abandoned any sense of respect for others' personal space by pressing her nose straight into Tyla’s face and breathing in deeply.
“She won’t hurt you.” I sit next to them and push away Kaia’s head. “This is Kaia, she’s my friend.”
I’m not quite sure how to explain the whole bonded thing to Tyla.
“She’s sick.”
Kaia looks at me. “I know several Mortal sicknesses; this is not one I have encountered before.”
“What do you mean?” I demand, a jolt of fear pounding through me.
Kaia simply curls into a ball and rests her head on Tyla’s lap. “I do not know.”
Tyla stares down at the Eshari, frozen with her hands hanging in the air, terrified of touching the beast.
“I have so many questions,” she muses to herself as she stares down at Kaia. “Who was that man? Whose house is this? What’s happened to you in all this time?”
The questions pour out of her, each one asked in a more desperate tone than the last.
I want to tell her. I want to tell her everything, but I simply can’t stop staring at those dark veins stretching up her arms. I can’t stop wondering how much time she has left if this tonic doesn’t work.
It has to. It just has to.
Derian’s back nearly immediately, holding a tiny vial of green liquid in his hand. Cal follows closely behind him, nodding at me in greeting as he steps into the room to join us.
“I had the healers prepare this ahead of our arrival,” Derian explains, walking forward.
He gives the tonic to me, not to Tyla, a small gesture but one that leaves a suspicious burst of warmth in my lower stomach.
He knows I would want to examine it first. He gives me a small smile as he brushes his fingers against mine before stepping back. “It’s the best healing tonic we have.”
I sniff it slowly, taking in the notes of basil, jasmine, and chamomile, along with other notes I can’t quite identify. Cal steps forward as I take a small swig of it myself, swirling it across my tongue.
“I have to ask,” he pauses, clearing his throat and looking at my sister expectantly.
“Tyla,” she tells him.
“Tyla.” Cal nods. “Have you shown any signs of Fae magic?”
I stiffen just at the same time Tyla gasps, the small motion startling Kaia, who looks up at the girl before turning back to me.
“She is not Fae.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m aware of that, but you also didn’t know I was Fae, so how good is your judgement, really?”
Kaia sits her head back down, always the lazy beast. “I knew you were more than you realized.”
“Tyla and I aren’t related by blood,” I clarify. “We found each other as children and have grown up as sisters ever since.
Cal quirks his head at me, brows raised. “My apologies. I just assumed based on the resemblance.”
He glances at Derian, and the two share a look that tells me they’re communicating silently about something they know that I don’t. I make a mental note to interrogate them both about it once Tyla inevitably falls asleep.
I shrug, passing the tonic to Tyla. “We get that a lot.”
She looks to me, suspicion in her furrowed brow, and I know she’s piecing together the implications of Cal’s question and my answer. Reaching forward, I grasp her hand in mine and give a gentle squeeze, silently promising to tell her everything the second I get the chance.
“Drink up.”
“Are you sure?” Tyla holds it in her hands, looking down at it with suspicion before leaning towards me and whispering, “They’re Fae.”
At the doorway, Cal stiffens before clearing his throat awkwardly, and Derian gives me his characteristic smirk, the smallest of smiles playing on his lips as he crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the doorframe.
I’ve only been gone a few short weeks, hardly anytime at all, and yet everything has changed.
I’ve changed.
The last time Tyla saw me, I was the vicious assassin who hated the Fae as deeply as I loved her, but now? Now, I am one of them. I’ve started considering them my friends.
And at some point, I’d stopped calling Derian a Fae bastard.
“It’s okay,” I tell Tyla softly. “They won’t hurt you.”
I meet Derian’s gaze, finding an emotion on his face that I can’t quite place.
“I was wrong about them.”
Unlike the other healing tonics Tyla has taken over the years, this one doesn’t seem to have any immediate effect on her. Derian examines the veins in her arms before declaring that it might be a good sign and that maybe the tonic just needs some time to work through her system.
He gives me a lingering look before he and Cal leave, announcing that they’re going to look into getting us both some food after our journeys.
The second they’re gone and the door is closed behind them, I launch myself towards Tyla.
Kaia snarls as I half land atop her and Tyla both, my arms thrown haphazardly around my sister as we both erupt into a fit of giggles.
“You seem different,” she notices as I settle in next to her and rest my head on her shoulder. “Lighter.”
I shrug. “I’m just so happy to see you. How’s Velia?”
“Much quieter without its Huntress on the prowl,” she teases. “Kristona dropped by every so often with coins, and Joneson delivered tonics as needed. They miss you.”
“But business has gone on as usual without me?”
“Would you expect any different?”
No, I wouldn’t. Kristona might have love for me in that black heart of his, but he is a businessman to his core.
A father would have set sail to come rescue me no matter the cost. Maybe with all these realizations about the Fae also came the realization that Kristona hadn’t protected me as much as I’d thought.
Tyla glances out the window at the fields of wheat growing behind the manor. “It's beautiful here.”
It truly is. After weeks in that dreary fortress fighting for my life, a house like this, complete with stunning furnishings and plush mattresses, feels too good to be true. I’d almost expected something different, something as dark and stern as Derian.
Somehow, though, this fits the other version of him. That private version that I don’t think he’s allowed many other people to glimpse.
“So that man,” Tyla starts, giving me one of those looks that suggests she’s done waiting for answers. “Care to explain why he looks at you like he wants to eat you alive?”
I snort aloud.
“Probably because he does,” Kaia groans in my head, and I swipe at her playfully. “Or because he already has.”
“You are far too invested in my sex life.”
“In all the years I remained unbonded, I somehow forgot the burden of having to deal with the emotions and desires of your kind. You have taken great joy in reminding me.”
"I think you secretly like it."
"I do not."
I grin, reaching over to scratch under her chin. "Oh you totally do. My emotions are your favorite form of entertainment."
“Huntyr.”
Tyla pulls my attention back to her.
For the first time in what feels like eternity, I relax next to the one person I love unconditionally, and I feel a bit of the weight on my shoulders release.
Then I begin to tell her everything that has happened since the moment I saw Derian masked at the ball.