71. Elhyor
71
Elhyor
D id I just destroy a historic monument? Yes.
Should I care? Also yes. This building is a thousand years old, and it had survived until now, so yes, I should care.
But do I really care? No.
No, because we’re out and even if they shift, birds can’t outfly bats and even less a dragon.
Do I want to go back and burn the castle to the ground? Yes. Definitely.
But am I going to do it? No. If Brice and my men are somewhere in this castle, I don’t want to take the risk of burning everything and them at the same time.
We need to regroup and plan.
We need to find a way to get my friends back, but we can’t do it the way we are now. It would be suicide.
I know Brice and the others are resilient. If they’re still alive, they’ll survive whatever Micha?l and his goons throw at them.
It’s going to be hard, I know it, but we’ll get them out.
I just have to hope Luc escaped before Micha?l trapped us inside.
The kid knows to go back to Notre Dame if anything happens, and we’re going to need him and his brain to study all the documents on Angélique’s media key if we want to find where all my men are.
I beat my wings faster to avoid the bullets from the firearms Micha?l’s men have started to use as soon as I took flight; It’s not for myself—they feel like mosquito bites in that form—but I don’t want Sam, Eric, Gaspard and Angélique getting hit by any of those while I’m carrying them.
I heard Eric grunt when Angélique threw him over her shoulders so I know he’s awake–-or somewhat awake—and his reflexes would kick in, but Sam and Eric were on the ground, not moving for quite a while and if I hadn’t heard them breathe from where I stood in the corridor, I wouldn’t have had much hope about them. Sam’s head wound is still bleeding now, and I’m almost sure that Gaspard passed out from the pain of his broken leg. I can see the bones poking out of his skin from between my claws, and it’s not a pretty sight.
He’s going to need a healer because if he shifts in this state, he’s going to heal all wrong, and his bones might stay bent.
The bullets have stopped flying around, and I can finally see Notre Dame from where I am, so I slow down a bit so I don’t shake my passengers too much. After another minute, I slowly lower myself to land on le parvis instead of the rooftop because it’s not going to be easy to move Gaspard without damaging his legs some more.
I softly put all my passengers down as Angélique jumps from my leg and Luc runs from the double doors of Notre Dame.
At least, the kid is safe and sound.
My first reaction to seeing him is to yell at him to get Brice, because he’s the one usually handling wounds and calling the healer, but I stop myself before doing so, remembering that my best friend is nowhere to be found and that I should already be looking for him or at least that I need to start doing so as soon as possible.
“The healer is on his way,” Cassiopé says as she crosses the threshold of Notre Dame. “When Luc came back in panic I called, because I thought maybe someone would need him, and that I was like ‘better safe than sorry’ because time could be of the essence and I’m glad I did, because oh my hell, there’s so much blood…”
She finally breathes, and I shift back to my human form.
“You did good,” I tell her. I need to tell her about her dad, too, but she doesn’t give me time to say anything anymore.
“Where is my dad?” She looks around us as one by one the men who were in the second wave entering Versailles drop to the ground naked. They probably could have avoided public exposure by doing that inside, but they also probably think that they could get rinsed of all the blood they’re covered in outside first.
We don’t have a cleaning team inside of Notre Dame and everyone participates the way they can, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to get anything dirty, but that makes it much more obvious that we’re coming back with fewer people than we left with.
I shake my head in answer, and I can see Cassiopé’s eyes starting to shine.
I don’t want to give her too much hope, though, because we don’t know for sure what happened to Brice.
“Where is his body, then?” she asks, and her voice sounds almost accusing.
“We don’t know what happened to him and his team,” I start as I circle her shoulder, and she drops her head to my chest. I can feel the tears she was holding in a few seconds ago sliding against my skin. For humans it could look weird, because I’m naked, hugging someone in the street, but for shifters who spend half their time shifting—and by consequence naked—it’s not surprising. “He might still be alive, but we don’t know what Micha?l has planned with any of them.”
I should tell her that if there’s someone Micha?l is going to keep alive, it’s her dad since he’s my right hand, and Micha?l definitely knows that but I won’t be inconsiderate of everyone else on the team and their family or friends so I can’t say those words in public.
I can’t crush everyone’s hope just to alleviate a bit more Cassiopé’s hope, so instead I redirect the conversation. As I start walking to the doors, I hold my hand in Angélique’s direction so she doesn’t feel left out, and she comes with us inside.