CHAPTER NINETEEN
The piano only lasted six months. As it turned out, thirty-six feet was as good as a thousand when grief and rage grew too volatile to contain.
The tap, tap, tap of a boot against stone pierces the darkness.
Scents flood in behind it. Blood. Something similar, but tainted. Dirt. Metal. The bitterness of pain and fear.
Agony rushes in and consumes it all.
“Griffon. Her shoulders are a mess.”
The voice is clipped. Irritated. I latch onto it.
“Both scapulae had a few spurs shoved through them, and broke one of her clavicles on the way out. The ligaments and muscles supporting it all are shredded. On top of all that, I’m guessing she shifted with her back pinned because there are fractures everywhere.
And since she failed to shift back to Flesh before she lost consciousness, it all started to heal wrong while we were dealing with the critically wounded.
” Finality. “She will never lift her arms again if I don’t rebreak this disaster. Don’t you get that?”
“Then break it now, while she’s unconscious.” This voice is deep. Afraid. And tight with pain that bites deep into my tongue. The incessant tapping comes from his direction.
“You know that won’t work, Griffon.” Different. Softer. “It’ll just start healing wrong again if she doesn’t shift soon after. This kind of damage was never meant to heal in Stone.”
“She’s suffered enough.” Defeated.
“I can give her herbs to dull the pain. But it must be done.”
“Do it the moment she shifts.” Regal. Commanding.
The pain intensifies in a wave. A broken sob tumbles off my lips, and my eyes pop open. They lock on a male beside the bed. He’s tired. Injured. Staring at me. I’m on my stomach, my head twisted to face him.
“Get her to shift, Griffon.”
My gaze darts to the one in charge. Her full armor is streaked with gore like the rest. Deep lines are carved around her eyes and mouth, her scent drowning in bitter emotions.
“Leave them.”
Everyone except the male shuffles out of the room. The miasma fades with them. I try to rise, but my arms refuse to comply, and another pathetic mewl fills the room. The male leaps out of his chair but settles when I do. My eyes slide back to him.
“You have to shift.” Pleading. “I know you are completely lost in your instincts and senses right now. I can see it in your eyes. But you have to dig, Lydia, and come back.”
His hand dips into his pocket. I track it. He pulls out a silver chain and dangles it in front of me. My attention snags on a bird as it swings. White-feathered, with bright-blue eyes.
A snort. “I don’t know why the fuck I did it but I had this made after we visited the phoenixes. It’s a bracelet. I thought it would help you anchor.”
I try to reach for it, but a wave of pain shoots down my arm.
“Don’t move.” He lays his hand at the edge of the bed, the bird resting in his palm. I stare at it. “It was the first time I’d ever seen you smile. Your face lit up like the sun when you saw them.”
Phoenix.
A slumbering part of my mind stirs.
Us.
I look at him. A soft smile plays on his lips.
Griffon.
He shakes his head, his smile growing. “I couldn’t believe it when you started tossing your fire for them, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. You’d always seemed too clever for anyone’s good.”
White wings and orange fire flutter though my mind and I can see it—the two of us surrounded by snow that glitters like diamonds under a soft sun; a flock of birds, their heads carefully tracking every movement of my hands; my full-bellied laugh as they gobble up my fire.
I’m Lydia.
My body relaxes into the bed and my eyes drift shut.
“It’s going to hurt,” he warns. “I’m so sorry.”
But it already—
My scream tore through the room. I twisted my neck and buried the ragged sound in the pillow as white-hot pain lanced by back, my chest—everything a mind-destroying swath of agony. This must be what it felt like to burn.
The door slammed into the wall and drew my gaze for long enough to focus on a female with soft auburn hair and amber-colored eyes as she settled beside the bed. I buried my face back in the pillow.
“My name is Charlise. I’m a healer. But my power works in concert with your natural ability to heal. I cannot rearrange things that have already begun to fuse incorrectly. And pretty much ev—”
“Heard…it,” I ground out, my voice muffled.
“Turn your head and open your mouth.”
My jaw was clenched tight and I slammed my eyes shut with it, the pain consuming me.
“Lydia!” Charlise barked. “Look at me and open your mouth.”
I forced my body to comply and she tucked two earthy-tasting blobs on either side of my mouth. “Chew. Don’t swallow.”
I shifted the herbs between my teeth and mashed them into oblivion with the next wave of pain. It dulled, but not by much. Not enough.
“I’m so sorry, Lydia.”
She shattered me.
“Let me come with you.” Griffon’s voice floated through the open door, and I stirred as the deep tones burrowed into my dreams.
“No. She is my responsibility.”
“Laney. They know someone has been stealing from them. If they net you, you’re dead.” His voice was laced with fear and I perked up.
“What do you want me to do, Griffon? She dies without it.”
“You let me come with you!”
“No. Lou and Terri were my friends. Brie is my ward. I won’t risk anyone else.”
“There are no clouds.” His voice grew softer and I opened my eyes.
Moonlight flooded a small room. The uncomfortable bed I was in, a couple chairs, and a small table were all that occupied the space.
“I’ll be fine,” Laney snapped, her tone harsher than I’d ever heard it. Her voice dropped so low I could barely hear it. “Just make sure she is, too.” There was a moment of silence, and I strained my ears harder. “She saved our asses.”
“Yeah,” he whispered. “She did.”
“Oh, did you find out who Archon Davina sent to track the da’kai after they fled?”
“No,” Griffon said, his voice growing somber. “But I have a feeling they aren’t coming back, whoever it was.”
Laney sighed. “See you tomorrow,” she promised.
“You’d better.”
Her footsteps retreated, and Griffon ducked back into the room. “You’re awake,” he said.
“Begrudgingly,” I mumbled. “You wouldn’t shut up.”
His soft chuckle was a caress after so much screaming. I nestled into the blankets and drowned myself in the sound.
“How do you feel?”
I wet my cracked lips and tracked his silhouette in the moonlight. “Like a butcher mistook me for a slab of meat.”
He flopped into the chair closest to the bed. “That isn’t too far off the truth.”
“Which is…what?” I jammed my eyes shut and tried to sort through memories that were little more than impressions of scents and sounds.
“I just remember blood and pain. And noise. So much noise.” I swallowed hard.
“And Laney. Before I shifted, I thought… A female with blond hair was thrown off the wall. A da’kai just…
it crushed her. Her face was unrecognizable.
I didn’t know if it was her. Everything after that is a blur. ”
“You saved Falcos.”
The longer my eyes adjusted to the dim light, the more obvious it became that he was utterly disheveled.
He had changed into clean clothes, but his hair was a frazzled mess that hung over his forehead and curled ever so slightly at the base of his neck.
And he smelled terrible, that stench of ichor clinging to him like a cloud of his smoke.
“I thought you were dead when I got to you.” The words were barely a whisper. He dipped and retrieved a long belt from the ground. “Does this help? Or mentioning the gate room?”
I flinched away from the belt. It slipped out of his fingers and coiled on the floor like a snake poised to strike. I ripped my eyes off it. The maelstrom floating through my head coalesced into a series of images that pieced things together well enough to understand why everything hurt.
“Yup.” I cringed. “That did it.”
He rose from the chair and poured a glass of water from a pitcher on the table. His fingers brushed mine as he handed it to me and a jolt went up my arm.
I cleared my throat. “You stink,” I managed. A wave of it hit me and I almost choked on the water. “Like, really stink. Even my human nose can smell you. Didn’t you shower?”
He snorted. “Been a little busy. And trust me, I’m not the only one who smells.”
“Busy doing what?”
He glanced out the window, but didn’t answer.
My heart did something funny. “Why do I keep waking up to you beside my bed?”
He fidgeted with something shiny that dangled off his fingers. “Archon Davina ordered me to the first time.” The dark circles beneath his eyes were a testament to how long it had been since he slept. “Punishment for being a dick, and all.”
“And this one?”
I wasn’t sure he breathed he was standing so preternaturally still.
“I don’t know.”
I startled as he pivoted and stormed to the door.
“Griffon.”
He paused, his hand on the doorhandle.
I swallowed hard. “Stay.” For all of Privalt’s coin, I didn’t know why I said it.
His hand fell back to his side and he turned. His face was lost in shadow, but I could feel his stare boring into me. “You couldn’t kick me out fast enough the first time.”
“Yes, well, despite your best attempts to liquefy my mind, I didn’t sustain actual brain damage the first time.” I fidgeted with the blankets and adjusted my position. A deep ache shot through my back and I hissed. “This time, I clearly hit my head at some point.”
Measured steps brought him back to the chair beside me. He settled into it and laced his fingers behind his head. “Odd. Charlise mentioned your head was remarkably unharmed. Not surprising, given how hard it is.”
I smiled a little at that. “Where did Laney go?”
“Ask her when she gets back.”
“I’m told I saved your stupid fortress. The least you can do is answer the question.”
He cocked a brow. “Is this really what you want to call in that debt for?”
I pursed my lips, then tossed him a sweet smile. “Fine. Consider it repayment for the necklace of bruises, then.” I’d already brought it up multiple times now. Might as well get something out of it.
“It’s like the fact that you repeatedly attacked me in the damned cave never happened,” he mumbled. But he rolled his eyes and sighed. “She went to the fable fields.”
“What?” I shot upright and immediately cringed. “Why?”
His silence sent a shiver down my spine.
“Griffon.” My tone was sharp enough to cut glass. “Why? The wealthy don’t fuck around with their drugs. The fields are one of the most heavily guarded areas in Privalt.”
“Trust me. We know. But fable isn’t just a drug.”
“What then?” I remembered the other part of their conversation. “Brie? Is she sick?”
A shallow nod was his only response.
My brow knitted together. “And a hallucinogenic helps…how?”
He sighed. “It’s only a hallucinogen when stupid humans shove it in a pipe. When steeped, it absorbs toxins. Brie’s body can’t do that on its own. Fable is the only thing keeping her alive.”
“I had no idea it did anything else,” I said as my stomach dropped. “Those leaves only last a week once they’re picked.”
A wave of pain passed over his face. “I know.”
“She goes every week?” I hissed.
He nodded. “And won’t let anyone go with her.”
I fell back into the pillows. “Gods.”
He sighed again and sank deeper into the chair.
“So,” I said, changing the subject with the grace of a toddler, “what the hell happened out there? Why didn’t the fancy blood locks keep the da’kai out?”
Griffon’s jaw went rigid. “Because someone betrayed us.” His eyes met mine and I found nothing but icy determination brewing there. “The day I find out who will be their last.”