Chapter 26 What Did You Do
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
WHAT DID YOU DO
ADELINE
“Ellin! Are you all right?” Roane has an arm around my waist and he’s shaking me. He’s hauled me out of the river, I realize, and we’re standing on the shore. “Talk to me.”
But I can’t get a word out. The mutilated hydra is slowly sinking back into the river, the water frothing and churning, and delayed reaction is setting in. I’m shaking with cold, fear and horror.
Throwing the burning branch away, he enfolds me in his arms. It’s starting to become my favorite place to be, and he’s so warm, despite the cold water drenching him. He smells of smoke. It overlays the other scents I’ve come to associate with him and that makes me unaccountably sad.
I can’t believe I’m in his arms and that he sounds so worried about me. That he threw himself at the monsters to protect me, both this time and earlier, when he rescued me from the griffin’s nest.
My heart is racing. As the shock starts to wear off, I begin to feel things.
Like how his strong body is pressed to mine, the breadth of his chest, the size of those biceps wrapped around me.
His height. His strength. All the differences between us, all the things that make him a man in contrast to me.
I’m not a tiny girl but I feel small beside him. Soft. Cast in a different mold, but made to fit perfectly against him. Which is… somehow bittersweet and heartwarming and arousing and…
Hadn’t I decided I didn’t want him that way? Or any way?
He seems to recall something similar, probably his general annoyance with me and all those death glares, because he roughly pushes me away.
Like he’d done earlier. Like a child who thought he was picking up a stick only to discover it’s a live snake.
And… he’s staring at me. After a moment, his lashes lower and he draws in a ragged breath. What has him so worked up?
Frowning, I glance down at myself and I’m… still naked.
Holy shit.
With a small hiss, I cast about for my discarded clothes and locate the small heap. “Turn around.”
“Too late for that, human,” he drawls, and Gods, his voice feels like velvet against my bare skin. “I’ve seen you. Held you in my arms. Remember?”
“Just do it.”
With a sigh, folding those powerful arms over his chest, he slowly, very slowly obeys, leaving me to scramble and pull on my underpants, then my petticoat. By the time I reach the dress, I know it’s a lost cause. It’s literally falling apart.
Well. Wrapping the wide fabric belt around my chest like a bodice once more, I grab my dress and pull on my stockings and shoes, feeling marginally better. My clothes stink. I have to wash them. But I feel slightly more protected, all dressed up again.
Protected from Roane’s gaze.
I can picture his expression in my mind, the half-closed eyes, the parted lips, the scar on his cheek, the hard jaw.
The shaky breaths.
The heat in his gaze.
Then a familiar croak jolts me, breaking the spell. “There you are. Been looking for you both,” Talton announces, fluttering down to land between us. “Where have you been?”
“Coming late to the party,” Roane mutters, bending to grab the griffin egg, “bird.”
“Party? What did I miss?”
“A hydra,” I whisper. “It almost got us.”
“Really? Is that the one with all those snake heads? Never liked that creature. Too bitey.” Talton croaks. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen one in years.”
“Just my luck,” I mutter, “again?”
“It’s almost as if the monsters are drawn to her,” Talton says, “don’t you agree, Ro?”
“That’s nonsense,” Roane dismisses the matter. “We shouldn’t have gone into the river so late. It was already getting dark.”
The light from the cave walls and ceiling casts a bluish cast on everything.
“Well, you should find cover. Nights aren’t a joke here.” Talton casts a beady eye on my shivering form, clad in soaked underclothes. The bundle of my destroyed yellow dress is in my arms, Olm’s book wrapped up in it. “And this bird may have found some clothes for you.”
Relief washes through me. “Oh, thank you, Talton!”
“Let’s hope they fit you. No seamstress here to make them fit.”
“I’ll make do.” I shoot the river an uneasy glance. “Let’s go before some other monster decides to snack on us.”
“Were you injured?”
“No, I’m okay.” I avoid looking at Roane who saved my hide—and held me and saw me naked, dear Gods… “Are we going back to the library?”
“There is a refuge closer by. I’ll lead you there.” Talton flies off. “Are you coming?”
We run along the shore. My stamina is a joke, I realize, compared to the library’s guardian. My limbs are heavy. It feels as if the finger of fate is pressing down on me.
Brogan once told me that fate is a path with many forks. Fate isn’t set in stone for those who fight. Which is such a weight to bear, knowing you can form your own path but not knowing if you’re making the right choices.
Am I making the right choices?
“Where is Druna?” I ask as we hurry up an incline, bordered by blossoming bushes I don’t recognize. The river gurgles below.
“She said she’d go hunting,” Talton says, flying ahead. “I’ll go find her, tell her you are all right.”
“Tal, just… go to the library,” Roane says. “Guard it for me.”
“But Druna—”
“She’ll be fine.”
Talton whistles and flies in a circle overhead. “If you’re sure.”
“I am,” Roane says. “And sort the clothes we found for Aline, for our return tomorrow.”
“Sure. Keep ordering me around, you know I love it,” Talton mutters and flies away.
I smother a laugh.
“Let’s rest for a moment here.” Roane slows down. “You’re out of breath.”
I stop, glad for the break. Glancing down, in that faint blue light, I can see the river, a dark snake moving through the plain, its frothing rapids here and there glinting like silver.
My memory sparks and I gasp. “Achlys. The river.”
“What was that?” Roane sounds distracted.
“I know which story it’s from. The War of Wilus!
It’s the river that runs with magic, its nymphs playing with pearl orbs and dancing, and if they feel wronged, they like to drag innocent people to their deaths.
But it is also said that their main power is slowing down time.
When you are with them, a hundred years may pass and to you it will only be the blink of an eye. ”
“Great,” Roane mutters.
“This river has an older name, and that is Xanthus,” I whisper. The word echoes in the air as if we’re inside a great hall, bouncing against the trees and riverbanks.
And the river… changes. Lights spring up in its depths and flow downstream. Glowing orbs, pulsing like hearts, bobbing in the turbid waters as they float toward the city, chasing away the dark.
“What is this?” Roane breathes. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. Did you do something?”
“Me? What could I have done?”
His eyes narrow on me. The glowing river is reflected in them. “I don’t know. You’re the only new thing in this world.”
“A thing. Fantastic.”
“Hells. We should get going.” He slides an arm around my back and herds me upslope. The gesture is unexpected but welcome, as the climb uphill is taking its toll on me. “The cabin isn’t far.”
“Cabin?”
“Hunting cabin. Of sorts.”
Huh. That has to be the refuge Talton mentioned earlier. But my mind is on other matters, even if the warmth and strength radiating from Roane’s hand pressed to the small of my back is distracting.
“The tales…” I say slowly as we walk up the incline.
“They are mashed up. There aren’t clear-cut divisions between them.
The hydra comes from the Lirnean epic and the Achlys river features in the War of Wilus, and who knows what other creatures and landmarks exist here, taken from all sorts of tales. ”
“I never thought of it like that,” he says softly, guiding me up the slope. “Does it change anything?”
“Probably not. It matters to me because understanding plots and patterns speaks to me. Gives me pleasure. Makes me think I’m a step closer to understanding how the world works.”
It’s an illusion that helps me sleep at night.