Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
The moment Marcus ran from the room, Fedra got to her feet. The urgency of his departure worried her, but the minutes passed without his return. She tried to tell herself she was being anxious for nothing. It didn’t work. Eventually, she made her way to the door. To her surprise, it was open.
She kept one hand on the wood and the other on the stone. “Hello?” she called. “Is someone there?”
No one answered, nor did she hear any movement.
“Hello?” she tried again.
When there remained nothing but silence, she decided to assess things and walked out of the room.
No one demanded that she get back inside.
Still, she hesitated. Maybe they were testing her.
She could go back into the room and wait for someone to come—it was the safer thing to do.
But how many chances like this would she get?
The only way to find out how far she could get was to try.
Fedra debated on which direction to go. She decided to head to the left.
Her fingers itched to remove the bandages from her eyes so she could see, but she wasn’t quite ready to give that secret away just yet.
Nor was it a good time to test her eyesight.
The blindness made navigating difficult, and while she couldn’t keep count and listen to what was going on around her, she learned there were other rooms just by letting her fingers trail along the wall beside her.
The stone suddenly ended, letting her know that she’d come to a corner.
She had no idea how wide the hallway was, so she stayed on her side and decided to follow it around.
She counted another three doors on her side—all of them closed.
Several times, she almost stopped to listen for anyone inside, but she opted to keep going.
Her mistake was only paying attention to the wall.
She wasn’t prepared when the floor dropped out from under her, and she tumbled down the stairs.
Her head hit the stones hard enough to daze her.
When she finally came to the bottom, she lay still and took stock of her body.
Besides her head, her shoulder, elbow, and both knees had taken quite the beating.
Fedra kept her right arm against her and used her left to get up. After that, she didn’t walk quite as confidently through the hallways, which was a good thing, because two steps later, she found more stairs to descend.
Her head throbbed. She felt something roll down the side of her face and brushed it aside.
The pain made it even harder to concentrate.
She thought about sitting down and waiting for someone to find her, but she had walked out.
The least she could do was return on her own.
They would see her injuries, and she would have to admit that she’d gone for a walk.
That sounded much better than someone stumbling upon her.
If they did, they would never let her out of the room again.
She turned around, but when she tried to put her right hand on the wall, her shoulder and elbow protested. She had no choice but to press her body against it instead. That made going up the stairs tougher than it needed to be. Still, she made it.
When she came to the corner, she paused.
Had she already gone up both flights? She should go back down and find out, but she was getting nauseated.
All she really wanted to do was sit down.
She put her back to the wall. There had only been one corner.
She needed to follow it around. If she did, she’d find her way back to the open doorway and her room.
She couldn’t take it anymore. She reached up and yanked off the bandage.
The moment she did, blood got in her eye.
Fedra rubbed it, trying to clear her vision, but it only made things worse.
The hallway was so dark that her blurred vision was like being blind.
She turned the corner and shuffled down the corridor.
Fedra put one foot in front of the other, waiting to find the open doorway.
She didn’t focus on anything but remaining upright, but it was getting harder and harder to stay on her feet.
Each of her injuries throbbed, but her head was the worst. She had never felt such pain before.
It robbed her of thought. She couldn’t even stand to let her teeth touch.
Walking only made it worse, but she had no one but herself to depend on. So, she kept going.
She didn’t know how long she had walked until it dawned on her that she should’ve encountered her door by now.
Whatever energy she had left that’d kept her going evaporated in an instant.
She slid down the wall until she was sitting.
When that still didn’t help her stomach, she rolled onto her good side and pressed her cheek to the cool stone.
Sleep called for her. As her lids fell shut, she heard what sounded like someone running toward her. She cracked open her eyes, hoping to see someone, but the footsteps faded. Maybe it had been her imagination. She would’ve been fine if she hadn’t taken the fall down the stairs.
“Fedra?”
She heard Marcus’s voice as if from a great distance.
“Fedra. Wake up,” he said, giving her a little shake.
That sent stabbing pain radiating throughout her body. She moaned in reply.
“Fuck. You’re bleeding.”
He sat her up and grabbed her shoulder in the process. This time, she cried out. His hold instantly loosened.
“It’s going to be all right,” he murmured. “I need to get you back to your room.”
He attempted to be gentle when he lifted her, but he still jostled her. Her head fell onto his shoulder as he cradled her in his arms.
“I need you to stay awake,” he said. “Did you hear me? Stay awake. Tell me what happened?”
She grunted in response.
“You might have a concussion. You could die if you sleep.”
But sleep was all she wanted. There, she could escape the throbbing.
“What happened? Tell me.”
Why did he sound so winded? She pushed aside her pain and listened to him. His breathing grew harsher as he walked. Was he limping now? She peeled her eyes open and managed to get a glimpse of his profile before her lids closed again. “Marcus.”
“I’m here. We’re almost to your room. Hang on. Everything will be okay.”
There was no denying that his limp was becoming more pronounced. His heart was pounding too fast, and his fingers dug into her, as if he were struggling to keep hold of her.
“We’re almost there,” he wheezed.
Then she was tumbling out of his arms to the floor. She heard a thump behind her. Slowly, she turned her head toward Marcus and looked over to see him sprawled on his stomach. The hall was too dark to make out anything, but she smelled blood. Lots of it.
“Marcus,” she called, though her voice was nothing but a whisper.
She turned her head the other way and spotted the candlelight from the open doorway. Her room was steps away. She could crawl there and make her way onto the soft bed while waiting for the pain to stop.
Fedra rolled to prop herself up on her left elbow. She then pulled herself toward Marcus using her good arm. It was slow-going, and she only managed an inch or so at a time. But she would much rather concentrate on getting to him instead of her headache or the nausea.
Twice, she had to stop when her stomach roiled.
She gagged but refused to let herself get sick.
Her arm shook from her efforts. Giving up, however, wasn’t an option.
She didn’t know what had happened to him, but he had suffered to help her.
She owed him the same. So, she kept pulling herself across the floor.
“Marcus,” she said as she got closer.
His head was turned away from her, both of his arms up by his face. The smell of blood was stronger now, and she feared it had nothing to do with her getting closer.
“Marcus, please.”
Her arm slipped, and she just barely saved her head from hitting the stone a second time.
She rested her brow on the ground when her neck could no longer hold her head.
Fury knotted in her stomach at the weakness that claimed her.
She had promised Sten she’d get retribution, and she couldn’t even walk down the hall without getting hurt.
“Found him!” someone shouted.
Fedra was overcome with emotion when several sets of feet beat against the stones as they rushed to Marcus’s side.
“What the fuck?” another asked.
Con said, “Get him away from her so he can heal.”
Fedra’s heart skipped a beat. The only reason to get someone clear of her was if they had magic. She turned her head enough to see several pairs of hands grabbing hold of Marcus and carrying him away.
Someone rolled her onto her back. Even if she had wanted to see who picked her up, she couldn’t manage it. Whoever it was was gentle, though. They laid her on the bed and began to wipe away the blood on her face. A moan escaped her when they got too close to the wound.
“Easy,” Con said. “Sian will be here soon.”
Fedra blinked open her eyes and managed to hold them that way for a second.
“I’m going to sit you up so you can stay awake.”
She pushed him away and covered her mouth with her hand. Thankfully, she stopped short of vomiting. Con didn’t attempt to force her up again, and after a while, her stomach settled.
“Marcus?” she managed.
Con sighed. “He’s healing.”
Fedra didn’t need him to tell her that she was responsible for Marcus’s collapse. She might not have delivered the injuries, but if magic had been used to heal them, she had reopened them. To many, that was the same as inflicting the wounds herself.
“What happened?” Con asked.
Fedra swallowed. “I fell down the stairs. He found me.”
“That’s what I figured.” There was a beat of silence. Then, “He’ll be fine.”
Everyone was always fine as long as she wasn’t around. To think that she had actually believed no one in Iron Hall had magic. They had deceived her, though she couldn’t be mad. She had misled them, too.
Con sighed again, the sound filled with weariness. “A lot is going on around here, and you woke up at a bad time. The safest place for you right now is in your room. I doona want to lock you in here, but I will if I have to. We can no’ defend ourselves or those we care about if you interfere.”
“You were attacked?”
“Aye. Many are injured, including a pet that was critical. I saw to those dire. Sian is tending to those without the ability to heal. I’ll take over for her again so she can come to you.”
She listened to the sound of his retreating footsteps, his words ringing in her ears.