Chapter 40
Forty
Ella
Dirk landed on the balcony of the citadel and carried me to the side of his bed, where he placed me down as if I were made of cracked porcelain. Then he hovered over me, his wings still out and eyes glowing while he yelled for Milly, his voice filling the room.
I stared past him at the ceiling, aware of everything going on but unable to move, unable to act. The cage was still around me. I was back in the market.
The hunters had threatened to put another collar on me. They’d laughed and dangled it, saying that once “he” arrived, I would be happy. Because the collar would tell me to be. The looks in their eyes was all I could see.
“Dirk?” A familiar voice. Milly. My friend. I tried to turn my head to look at her, but my muscles didn’t respond. “Ella! Oh, no, what happened to her. She’s so pale.”
I was? I didn’t feel cold. If anything, with Dirk hovering so close to me, I was warm.
“I’m not sure. I think she’s in shock,” Dirk growled, only moving slightly when Milly bodied him out of the way, demanding he let her look.
Something about Dirk wasn’t right. In my state, I couldn’t place it. He hovered too closely, his wings half spread over my body and Milly. His muscles twitched. His eyes were bright silver-blue.
“How did she end up in shock?” Milly demanded, looking into my eyes. “Ella. Can you hear me? Are you there?”
I was. I tried to tell her that I was fine. Just shook up, that was all. But no words came out.
“Help her,” Dirk growled darkly.
“I wish Anna was here. She knows Ella better,” Milly said.
“No.” Dirk shook his head. “She’s in heat. Caz would not be in his right mind if anyone tried to interrupt.”
Milly glanced up at Dirk. “She needs help.”
“That’s why I called you,” Dirk replied, his eyes locked on me, never moving, not even blinking.
“Well, I don’t know what’s wrong with her!” Milly shouted. “What did you let happen to her?”
Dirk’s snarl sent Milly scrambling backward as his wings spread wide, blocking out the orblight in the room. His eyes were all silver now, his teeth bared as he half-crouched over me.
I had to do something. Dirk was facing off with my best friend, but he didn’t seem to realize what was going on or what he was doing. He was covered in blood. Was that his? Was he delusional from blood loss? I had to stop it. Stop him before he did something terrible.
This was the darkness I’d seen in him once or twice, most recently when he spied the hunter outside the market. It was stronger now. Taking control, replacing my Dirk with something else.
I couldn’t let that happen. He was mine. He did not belong to the shadows.
Focusing every bit of energy I could muster, I forced it into my right hand, commanding the muscles there to obey me. They twitched, but nobody seemed to notice. Dirk wasn’t looking at me anymore, he was looming high over Milly, who was leaning away but not cowering.
Move! I yelled at my fingers. The pinky twitched. Then my thumb. Move now!
The hand jumped, and my fingers landed on Dirk’s arm. Skin to skin.
I gasped. Dirk went still.
The light faded from his eyes, his wings relaxing and even shrinking back into his shoulders. He turned to me, awe in his eyes now, not anger.
“Ella,” he whispered, falling to his knees at my side and holding my hand tightly between both of his. “You’re okay.”
I managed a nod. Energy was flowing through the bond now, breaking the holds fear had taken with me and banishing it. Reminding me that with Dirk around, I need not know such terror ever again. Because I had him.
“Stop,” I whispered. “Please. Both of you.”
Milly, who was still standing at the foot of the bed, arched an eyebrow and began to respond.
“Enough,” I said, squeezing Dirk’s hand before he could speak out. “I’m serious. It’s not his fault. And you, Dirk, she’s just my friend, trying to help me.”
I paused to take a breath. Dirk slid a hand under my shirt, holding his palm flat to my stomach.
The added contact there brought a smile to my face and a rush of energy that didn’t all go to my head.
I tried to ignore the reminder of what his hands could do if they dropped just a little lower, though the other presence in my head was very much pushing to let him give a fresh lesson.
At my urging, Dirk explained what happened up until he left me. He left out the part about our little attic sex session, much to my relief.
“I’m not sure what happened after that,” he said, looking at me to see if I was up to continue.
“Dirk put me in a good hiding spot. I was safe. But then whoever it was came back out, carrying what I knew had to be a heart scale under one arm, and Dirk wasn’t following him. I knew we couldn’t lose him. The heart scale was the proof we needed, but it was a trap.”
Dirk hissed in surprise, and I nodded to confirm it.
“They were waiting for me, ambushed me in the alley.”
“They knew,” Dirk growled. “Mirko must have more paid off associates around his place than we knew of.”
I carefully didn’t voice the other thought that had occurred to me while I was locked in the cage. There was one more way Mirko could have known what we were doing. Just as he knew we were at the chalet. I would have to wait until Dirk was calmer to broach that subject.
“That still doesn’t explain your state when you arrived,” Milly said, picking at her nails nervously. “You weren’t here, El. Where were you?”
Both of them were staring at me now, waiting, expecting.
“I was in a cage,” I started but then stopped. I couldn’t do this. Not with both of them there. Not yet. “Mil, could you give us the room? It’s terribly unfair to you but …”
Milly just smiled and gave my leg a friendly squeeze. “Ella, if you’re going to talk to him, to anyone, about what happened to you, I will run out of here as fast as I can if I have to. You know that. I’m your friend. Whatever I can do to help you out, you got it. Even if that’s leaving.”
I nodded, relieved. “Maybe when Anna is back, the three of us could talk?”
“That would be good,” she said with a little smile that faded when she looked at Dirk. “If you don’t treat her exactly perfectly, I will be back in here faster than you can blink.”
Dirk stared back at her and then nodded slowly in respect. “She is my mate. Whatever I can give her, I will. I am honored she trusts me enough to talk to me.”
“Good answer.” Milly nodded once, and then left the room.
I watched her go, the ghost of a smile on my lips. That was my protective bestie. There had been no malice to her words, just a recognition of how big it was that I was willing to talk at long last.
Willing might not be the best word to describe it, but everything seemed to say this was the moment, the time to tell him.
Stomach roiling at the prospect, I sought out his eyes. What I found was not at all what I expected.
“What?” I asked at the distinctly unhappy look on his face, twisting his handsome features out of place. “Do you not want to hear this?”
“No.”