Chapter Twenty-One Rab
Once a week, when the pub was closed, I met Liam and Knox at the Rune & Rose to play darts and bullshit about life in general.
They’d been particularly excited to meet this week and hear about how filming was going, while I’d almost canceled on them because I was still annoyed Knox had made me do the damn show.
And depriving those two busybodies of their favorite dessert—gossip—was well worth it to me to just be a little petty.
But in the end, after a quick hot shower and scrubbing all the residual food from my hair, I’d made my way over to the pub.
“Och, there he is. The baker himself,” Liam said, reaching for a pint glass.
“Hopefully a champion baker.” Knox grinned. His phone rang, and I rolled my eyes as he reached for it automatically. The man was always on call.
“Why don’t you both piss off?” I asked.
“A pint, mate?” Liam held up a glass.
“Guinness, please.” I took a deep breath and rolled my shoulders, hoping some of the tension would ease from them. Today had been… a day. A day that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with.
Lyra had been… everything.
With her blindfolded, I’d been able to watch Lyra without her knowing.
Hell, the task had required it. And I’d loved it.
She was just so damn beautiful, even with a blindfold covering half her face, and it had taken everything in my power to keep my mind on the task and not how good it had been to taste her kiss the night before.
After I’d delivered the hedgehogs to their foster home, I’d spent the night obsessing over every moment of our kiss, wondering what the hell that meant.
What had I been thinking? I was setting myself up for heartbreak all over again. I’d—
“She’s hurt? How bad?”
I jolted from my thoughts at Knox’s sharp words.
Who? I mouthed, trying to get his attention. Sloane?
Knox was already reaching for his car keys.
“How bad? Sloane? How bad? You need to stay calm. Get Lyra in the car.”
My heart stopped.
For the third time in my life.
It felt like my heart just completely stopped beating as I dragged in a breath. I sprang up from my stool.
“Where?” I shouted, and Knox waved me away, putting a hand to his other ear to focus on the call.
“Take her to the castle. Henry will be able to help. We’re on the way. Yes, we’ll get Nova and Broca.” Knox threw a look over his shoulder to Liam, who nodded and made his way around the bar. “And Raven. Just get her there safely. Do you hear me? We’re on our way. Should we come to you?”
“Are they close? Where?” I demanded, moving toward the door.
“Just let him get the details, mate.” Liam held me by my arm, and I forced myself to breathe.
“Okay, you’re in the car. Stay safe, Sloane. Get off the phone. Focus on driving. I’ll take care of everyone else. Promise me. No phone. Just drive.” Knox hung up and swore. “Liam?”
“I’m on Raven and the MacGregors.”
“Grand. Rab. With me.” Knox snapped his fingers, and normally, where I’d be annoyed at that, I just followed. It was clear I wasn’t getting information until we were in Knox’s car and sweat broke out down my back.
“Knox, tell me. How bad?”
“We don’t know,” Knox said, and we raced to his car, a gust of wind seeming to push us faster. An owl swooped past, landing in a tree near the car, and I stared at it as Knox peeled away from the curb.
“Tell me,” I bit out, furious that I didn’t have all the information.
“I don’t know much, and I don’t want to scare you.”
“Just tell me,” I repeated.
“She’s been stabbed. That’s all I know—”
“What the fuck?” I jerked forward, the seat belt slamming tight, my hands in fists.
“It was apparently an accident. Unclear on how it happened.”
“She’s—”
“She’s breathing, talking, but bleeding and in pain. That’s all I know. There was a lot going on, Sloane said. Something about the owls. I don’t know. I just needed her to get Lyra somewhere safe.”
“And Henry? You’re sure he can help?”
“Henry has stitched up and set every broken bone and wound among myself, my brothers, his entire family of forest ogres, and a few injured dragons on top of it. The man is a bloody miracle. And he’s also comfortable enough to say when he needs help.
If he can’t fix it, he’ll get her patched up enough for the hospital. ”
“Why wouldn’t they have just gone directly to the hospital?” I asked, worry a steel band around my chest.
“Hospitals need reports. Stab wounds require investigation.”
I stilled.
“Are you saying you think this was intentional?”
“I have very little to go on, mate. But I know it was Felicity, she has her kids to think about, and things could get messy. Best all around to just take care of it, if we can, with the best healers we have.”
“And if she needs more? More than magick can provide?” I asked. Though, if I was being fair, I’d seen magick outperform science many times over through the years.
“Then we’ll get it for her. Lyra has a lot of people who care about her.” Knox slid me a glance as we turned up the road to where his castle glowed, a beacon in the dark night. “Including you.”
“I mean, of course I care.” I rolled my eyes, affecting nonchalance. “Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt.”
“Bloody hell, Rab. Cut the shite. If you can’t be honest with me, at least be honest with yourself.” Knox’s words sliced through me, and I pressed my lips together, worry hammering in my chest.
“I care.” It came out in a rasp, a sentiment I was pulling out of the shadows and dusting the cobwebs off. “I don’t want to care. I didn’t want to keep caring. You know that, Knox. But I still do.”
“Duh,” Knox said, and I turned to glare at him. He laughed. “Och, please, mate. You’re fooling nobody. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have spent every day of the last year deliberately avoiding her. People who don’t have feelings for someone else can be in the same room together.”
“I’ve been in the same room as her,” I protested.
“All while bloody well ignoring her. It’s obvious you both still have feelings for each other.”
“You think she has feelings for me?” I asked, caught on his words.
“Bloody hell, mate.” Knox shook his head. “You’re worse than I was.”
“Och, not even close—”
“We’re here,” Knox said, turning through the wide gates of the castle, and I cut off what I had been saying, my focus narrowing to where I caught a glimpse of Henry hustling through the front door, Lyra’s body draped in his arms.
Icy fear washed through me.
Her body had looked completely limp, her head lolling on Henry’s arm.
“Stop the car,” I shouted, my hand already going to the door.
When Knox’s arm came out, slamming back against the seat, I whirled on him, needing an outlet for my anger.
“What the—”
“Stop it. Whatever this is, stop it. She doesn’t need—”
“What she needs is—”
Knox slammed me back into my seat again.
“What she needs is a trained healer who can focus on helping her.”
I froze.
He was right. Of course he was right. I couldn’t help her, not in the way she needed, and if I distracted Henry, I could only make it worse.
I dragged a breath in, and then another, forcing myself to calm down. When I had myself under control, I gave Knox a curt nod. He’d always had my back—from helping me heal from Lyra leaving to opening my own business—so I knew I could trust him.
“I’m okay. Thanks, mate.”
“No problem. Let’s go.”
Our car doors slammed, a sharp sound in the quiet night, and gravel crunched beneath our heels as we raced up the front path to the doors that had been left open.
The castle had a grand entrance with a high ceiling painted with a dramatic mural of dragons twisting through clouds, and several hallways branching off from the main foyer. I had no idea where to turn.
“He’ll have taken her to the closest guest suite.” Knox gestured to the right, and I veered that way, following him as he strode down the hallway. “I just want to see Sloane, let her know we’re here, and then I’ll come back out to run interference with Liam and the others.”
We came to the door, and I had to press my nails into my palm to keep from running to the bed and trying to do anything at all to help.
Lyra was lying on the bed, her skin pale, her cheeks devoid of color. Her dark eyelashes were fanned across her cheeks, a smear of dried blood marring the creamy skin at her neck. I swallowed against the lump in my throat as I drew closer, staying out of Henry’s way, and rounded the bed.
An alarming volume of blood stained the side of the dress that Henry was now cutting off. Sloane stood, a towel in hand, tears streaming silently down her face. Knox went to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, whispering into her ear.
“I’m here if you need anything, Henry,” I said, keeping my voice low, but wanting him to know I was there.
Henry nodded, focused on his task. I winced as the dress revealed the wound. It wasn’t long, but blood still seeped from it, which meant it was deep.
“Rab?” Lyra shifted, her eyes still closed, my name just a whisper at her lips.
“Aye, lass. I’m here,” I said, reaching out to take her hand. A fine tremble worked through her body, and my eyes flew to Henry. “I think she’s cold.”
“Could be shock too. I’ve got the lasses on heating water bottles.” Henry made a small sound of distress as he examined the wound. “Such a shame.”
Turning, I pulled a soft blanket thrown over a reading chair at the side of the bed and leaned over Lyra, tucking it so it draped around her shoulders and over part of her body, trying to give her some warmth.
“You’re going to be all right, Lyra. Henry’s going to sort you out just fine.”
Lyra’s lashes fluttered, but she didn’t open her eyes.
“Hurts,” Lyra whispered.
“Aye, it looks it. But you’ll be back to exploding eggs in the kitchen in no time.”
Lyra’s lips quirked, and I took that as a win. I started to ease back, not wanting to get in the way, but Lyra’s hand patted around the bed until she found mine.
“Stay.”