Chapter 37 #4
Lidia, however, understood immediately. Her eyes narrowed at me just as the healer reappeared.
She crouched in front of Raiden and began checking the mobility of his shoulder again.
He winced when she rotated it. “Nothing dislocated,” she said.
“You’ve strained it badly enough that I don’t want Fire through that arm until tomorrow. ”
Raiden stared at her. “Tomorrow?”
“You nearly lost the arm ten minutes ago.”
“That feels a little dramatic.”
“It was hanging over a live foundation channel.”
Dax pointed at him. “See? I said nearly dying changes a person.”
Raiden turned his head slowly. “You are the reason I was hanging there.”
“I caught you.”
“You knocked into me.”
“The court collapsed, I didn’t exactly choose where I wanted to go.”
“You still knocked into me.”
The healer pinched the bridge of her nose.
I understood the impulse. Lyra glanced at me, and there was something dangerously close to amusement in her eyes.
It disappeared the moment Lidia caught her looking.
For a second neither woman said anything.
The hurt between them was still there. It hadn’t been erased because Lidia had kept Lyra’s secret or because Lyra had saved two people they both cared about.
I respected that more than I would have respected some convenient reconciliation in a corridor.
Lidia turned back to Raiden. “Do what she says.” The healer looked almost grateful.
Raiden frowned. “Since when are you concerned about instructions?”
“Since you became incapable of keeping yourself out of holes.” Dax laughed.
Raiden threatened to throw the nearest object at him.
The corridor filled with familiar noise again, almost enough to make the last few minutes feel ordinary.
A moment later, the ward-master appeared at the far end with two instructors behind him. Lyra saw them too.
“Go,” I said quietly. She looked at me. “You’ve already been standing near the damaged court too long. Halos hears everything eventually.”
Her mouth tightened.
Emrin stepped closer to her. “He’s right.”
Lyra gave her an offended look. “Traitor.” Lidia moved with them.
Vareena stayed beside Raiden.
It was subtle enough that no one commented on it, though I noticed the way she shifted closer when he flexed his injured shoulder and immediately tried to hide the wince.
Dax pushed off the wall, then stopped and looked at Lyra. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you, Dax.” Lyra turned before the ward-master reached us. As she passed me, her fingers brushed mine. An accident to anyone watching.
It wasn’t.
Then she was gone with Emrin and Lidia, disappearing around the bend before anyone could ask why she had been close enough to the fracture to know what happened inside my barrier. The ward-master arrived irritated. I was beginning to suspect that was his natural state. “I need a report.”
“You’ll get one.”
“Now.”
“No.” His eyebrows lifted. Behind him, one of the instructors coughed into his hand. The ward-master stared at me. I stared back.
Eventually he said, “Within the hour.”
“When I have time.” He looked as if he wanted to argue.
Then his attention shifted toward Raiden and Dax. “Were either of you struck by the channel?”
“No,” Raiden said.
“How were you extracted?” Silence lasted one beat too long.
I answered. “With Shadow.”
The ward-master looked at me. “Yours?”
“Yes.” Dax did not react. Raiden did not react. Vareena didn’t so much as blink. The ward-master nodded once and began asking Raiden about the exact point where the court had given way. I left before he could decide I was still part of the conversation.
By the time I reached the western terrace, the sun had dropped low enough to turn the upper windows gold. Lyra was there. Alone this time. She leaned against the balustrade with both forearms resting on the stone, watching the ward crews move below Court Six.
I stopped beside her. She smiled faintly, then looked back toward the court. “I didn’t want them to find out like that.”
“No one ever gets the version they plan.”
“That sounded almost wise.”
“Don’t repeat it.”
Her smile lasted a little longer. Then she went quiet. “Raiden scared me for a second.”
“I know.”
“But he stayed.”
“So did Dax.”
“And Lidia.” That one came softer. I watched her thumb drag slowly across the edge of the stone. “She’s still angry.”
“She can be angry and still care about you.”
Lyra turned toward me, and I realized too late what I had just admitted. “Is that what you’re doing?”
I knew what she meant. I also knew I could not answer her without lying or telling her things she was nowhere near ready to hear.
So I reached for her hand. Her eyes dropped to our fingers.
She should have pulled away. She didn’t.
Her fingers turned beneath mine and threaded through them.
I looked down at Lyra’s hand in mine. I had been taught my entire life how to hold Shadow without letting it consume me.
No one had ever taught me what to do when I was holding everything I loved in one hand and the truth that would ruin it in the other.