28. Leah
Leah
The rift seals shut behind us, the view into my aunt’s cellar wiped away like someone’s scrubbed it out of the air.
The stale, smoky atmosphere of Strata hits me as I scan the back street we find ourselves in, making sure no one witnessed our arrival.
My attention is pulled away, however, when Viz startles awake in my arms.
“…not the good parchment!” he blurts out as his eyes shoot open. He starts to wriggle, agitated, and Syrus quickly takes him from me so I don’t drop him.
“Viz,” he says, using his forearm to jiggle his chamberlain a little, as if trying to shake some clarity into him. “Talk to us.”
Viz blinks up at Syrus, then twists his head over to look at me. “Syrus. Leah. What…?” He fixes a dazed stare at the sky, which is growing dark as the sun finishes setting over Pax. “We’re in the Mire?”
Syrus’s shoulders sag with relief. “Yes, Viz. We’re in Pax. You’ve been hurt, but we’re going to get you help.” Syrus looks at me. “At least he’s awake and making sense.”
Viz promptly twists in Syrus’s arms and vomits onto the street.
I grimace. “That’s a sign of concussion,” I say. “Or maybe he’s just messed up from coming through the rift. It’s no picnic even if you don’t have a massive slash across your head.”
Viz settles back into Syrus’s arms, still awake, but eyes drooping a little now.
“Come on,” I say. “We shouldn’t try to take him through another rift right now. And now we’re in Pax, the ephilium can’t touch you guys, so we can get him treated here.”
“They can’t touch Viz or me,” Syrus agrees. “I don’t know what the provisions are for nephilim,” he says grimly. “Better we go somewhere safe. The seraphim probably already have spies here looking for us.”
I nod. I can’t take Hodges another wounded winger—he might just kill me—but I know somewhere else.
“We’ll go to my sister’s house. She’ll understand,” I say, sounding more confident than I feel.
Evie would take me in no matter what, I’m sure of that, but Jeremy’s reaction is an unknown.
Still, if I’d trust my sister with my life, I guess I also have to trust that she’s made the right choice with Jeremy.
It takes me a moment to orient myself, but soon I realize we’re at least on the right side of the river for our destination. And with evening drawing in, there’s little reason for people to question our human disguises as we slip past them.
I glance sideways at Syrus, softening when I see the way he’s studying every building we pass, every corner on every street, drinking it in like a man denied water for weeks.
Except in his case, it’s been more than three hundred years since he was in Strata.
This must all be so strange and overwhelming for him.
The last time he set foot in this city, it had a different name altogether and was part of a kingdom he ruled over.
“Um…Evie’s husband is a butcher,” I say, Syrus’s past suddenly hitting me a little harder than usual. “So their home isn’t very…I mean, it’s nice but obviously it’s not, erm…”
He stares at me for a moment, then understanding crosses his face, and his lips twitch.
“Leah, do you actually think you need to warn me that your sister doesn’t live in a palace?”
I blow air out through my teeth. “I mean, yeah. You were a king, you live in a castle. Even in Aradis you were staying at the Seraph Seat. I’m just trying to manage expectations.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I think we should be worrying more about managing your sister’s expectations. What does she know?”
He makes a good point. “I sent her a letter explaining about being nephilim and living in Aradis, so at least she won’t be completely blindsided.” I bite my lip. “Obviously, I didn’t say anything about you. It’s not exactly the kind of thing I could safely write in a message.”
He gives me an appraising look. “And do you want her to know anything about me?”
“I think that chicken is about to fly the coop, Syrus.”
He shrugs one shoulder, trying to avoid jostling Viz too much.
“I could be human. Keep my wings hidden. Stay out of bright lights so she doesn’t notice my eyes. We have enough Morphos water for Viz and me to keep our disguises for at least a few more days. Maybe we could just be some scavenger friends of yours.”
I look over Syrus’s clothes. Like mine, they’re grimy and dusty from the fight at the Seraph Seat, but I can see the quality of his shirt and doublet, even if they’re a little old-fashioned. Plus, all three of us are sporting pretty impressive swords.
“Let’s just see how many questions they ask,” I say. “We’ll take it from there.”
The glow from the windows of Evie and Jeremy’s house feels comforting as we approach, soothing my nerves a little, giving me room to feel excited about seeing my sister again after all these months.
I practically sprint to the door and maybe rap on it a little too enthusiastically, because when it opens, Jeremy peers cautiously out, crowding the frame like a sentinel determined to protect this house.
“Hello, Jeremy,” I say. His eyes widen when they fall on me. “Sorry about turning up uninvited, but I’m afraid I need help.”
I glance over my shoulder, and he follows my gaze.
In the dim lamplight, my friends look human enough, but that doesn’t actually stop Syrus from looking dangerous.
Though Jeremy is tall and broad-shouldered himself, I see him sizing Syrus up, acknowledging the strength clearly written in his muscles and the sword at his side.
Then his eyes fall on Viz, still blinking dazedly around, and the bandage wrapped around his head.
The sight of it shifts something in Jeremy, and he nods, opening the door.
“Please, come in,” he says.
He turns and calls up the stairs as we follow him in. “Evie, you have a visitor.” He glances at Syrus and Viz again. “Visitors,” he corrects uncertainly.
When Evie sees me, it’s obvious she wants to run to me, but her progress is hampered by the sizable bump she’s now carrying around, and she’s forced to shuffle awkwardly down the stairs, gripping the banister tightly.
“Leah!” she calls, her joy overwhelming her confusion.
“There’s a lot to explain, I know,” I say as she comes in to hug me. “But right now we need a medicine woman for my friend Viz. There’s a specific woman I know we can trust—”
“I’ll go get her,” Jeremy says, moving over to grab a coat off a hook by the door. I blink, impressed by how quickly he springs into action—not asking questions, just doing what needs to be done.
“Right. Thank you,” I say and give him instructions for how to find Martha. He stops beside me before walking out the door, glancing at Evie.
“You’ll watch out for her while I’m gone?” he asks me, so sincerely it would make me smile if I didn’t feel the same protective urge.
“Yes, of course,” I say. Jeremy darts back to kiss Evie on the temple, and then he’s heading out into the night.
“Why don’t you lay him on the couch,” Evie says to Syrus, who’s still holding Viz in his arms. “Let me get him some water, and then maybe you can give me some of that explanation you promised me.”
I follow her to the kitchen, where she pours water from a jug into a glass. She has to bend a little awkwardly to get close enough to the counter.
“Eves, you’re so big!” I say, both delighted and astonished. Has it really been so long since she stood in the kitchen at my father’s house and told me about the pregnancy?
“I was further along than I thought. The medicine woman reckons I’m due in just over a month,” she says, pausing with the glass in hand.
“Whereas you don’t look different at all.
Except maybe you have a bit more muscle,” she says, squeezing up and down my arm curiously.
“Your letter made it sound like…well, like you’d changed so much that coming back to Strata might be difficult for you now. ”
I grimace. This is complicated. I glance over at Syrus, who’s crouched down by Viz, offering low, reassuring words to his chamberlain who’s mumbling a little incoherently.
“Yeah, well, I’m more different than it seems at first glance,” I say. Concentrating, I pull my wings out of the pocket of invisibility I vanished them to, letting them unfurl slightly from my back.
Evie gasps, and out the corner of my eye, I see Syrus look up sharply.
“Sweet goddess, Leah,” my sister says. The hand holding the glass droops so much she almost spills the water before catching herself. “That’s…incredible. Do they work? I mean, can you—”
“Fly?” I ask, unable to stop myself smiling a little. “Yeah. And there’s this too.”
I didn’t go into too much detail in my letter.
Just said that I was nephilim and that I’d gone through some changes.
Now I lift my hand and let a little spark of lightning crackle across it.
I’m worried for a moment Evie might flinch away, but she just stares at my fingers, even once the magic’s gone, bewildered but not frightened, so far as I can tell.
“I…Is this the job you were working when you came here last? You said something about the money setting you up for good. Are the ephilium paying you to do something in Strata?” She glances at Viz and Syrus with their swords, and I wonder if she assumes they are colleagues of mine.
With their fancy clothes, they could pass as humans working with the wingers.
“Ah. No. The job was one I was working for Syrus here.”
She doesn’t make the connection between the name and the Lord of Malice. Why would she? But she does furrow her brow a little. “I’m confused.”
“That’s understandable, Evie,” Syrus says, rising and coming over to us. “Is it all right if I call you that?”
He reaches for the water glass and gently pries it from her hand. She lets it go, obviously having forgotten what she was doing with it.
“Oh, sorry! Of course, Evie is fine,” she says, smiling weakly at Syrus. This close, it’s possible to see there’s something not quite right about his eyes, but I don’t know if she’s noticed.