22. Evanee
Evanee
My steps barely registered.
Luna pranced giddily behind me as if we hadn’t just almost died from a demon monster. That my life hadn’t just blown wide apart. Images of Ryker played on a loop in my mind—etching him permanently like a tattoo.
Movement in the distance met my ears as something large barreled toward me through the trees. It only took seconds to discern I wasn’t in danger; the voices were familiar.
“Where is she?” Aiden barked, the sound of him kicking a rock out of his path echoing painfully. I clamped my hands over my ears.
“We’ll find her. The proximity spell would have flared if she’d gone too far.” Malachai offered, his usual anger threaded through his words. I rolled my eyes.
Twigs snapped beneath my boots. I focused on the sound, tuning out Aiden and Malachai, and leaned against a tree. Air hissed past my teeth as I waited for them to happen upon me.
The only thing holding my mind captive were the questions I planned to hurl at Ryker when I saw him next. The sheer anticipation of seeing him and Aniah had my stomach twisting.
“Evanee?!” Aiden now shouted through the silent trees. I winced, his voice hitting deeper within my eardrums.
I could see him, although he was still a distance away. He’d get close enough eventually—
My brows drew together when his eyes lit up in the dark as Ryker's had, and after a moment of looking around, they froze as they landed on me.
He can see me too.
Then Malachai did the same.
My pulse thundered. The tree anchored me as the truth sank its claws deep.
The fangs.
Their eyes.
Aiden’s talons.
Even their build—not as large as Ryker, but bigger than all of the Fae.
Bigger than Dimitri. And though they pretended they didn’t have superior hearing, I knew they did.
It would also explain why Ryker wanted me to hide his and Aniah’s scent when I returned to the spring.
Aiden refused to tell me what sort of beings he or Malachai were.
But I could see what they were, clear as fucking day.
They’re Gargoyles.
The truth clanged through my head painfully. Bile rose in my throat from the overload of emotions from the monster, to the truth of Ryker, of them. Of myself.
My body folded over, vomiting violently, even though not much came up.
Aiden ran for me, leaping over everything that lay in his path until he stopped at my side, placing a hand on my back until I was done heaving.
I stood, wiping my mouth with the back of my frozen coat sleeve.
“What happened?” he demanded, the tone of the captain booming.
His jacket had been discarded, shirt shredded across the front, similar to Ryker’s. Blood soaked through the fabric—I didn’t care. He’s a Gargoyle.
“What happened?” he asked again, tone softer. “Where are you hurt?” He made quick, efficient work of searching my face, arms, torso—everywhere. I just stared at him, trying but failing to hide my disbelief.
“You’re head.” He ripped a strip from his shirt and held it there. Malachai approached, that ever-assessing gaze narrowing as he looked me over.
“I-I’m fine. Thanks,” I finally stammered, taking the cloth from him.
“I believe frostbite and hypothermia are a bigger concern,” Malachai said, face pensive. Do they know? Do they already know what I am?
Malachai took off his heavy leather jacket and silently offered it to me.
His eyes lingered on my shoulder where the acidic drool had burned through.
I quickly pulled my sopping hair over the spot as I snatched his jacket, biting down on my cheek to swallow the cry of pain threatening to spill past my lips as I slid mine off and put his on.
Malachai only raised a brow, his expression unreadable, but said nothing to Aiden.
“How are your markings?” Aiden grabbed my hands to inspect them, but I pulled them away quickly, shoving them deep in the jacket pockets.
“Yeah… they’re fine. They were burning earlier, but I must have passed out or fallen off Luna, and that’s when I hit my head.
” A deeper instinct bristled inside me, as if that other part of me—the Gargoyle—recognized one of her own.
Yet, she screamed to stay quiet. My skin prickled as my gut twisted harder.
“Luna let you ride her?” His eyebrows shot up. I nodded.
“Are any of you injured? Is that… blood?” I asked, quickly changing the subject.
Aiden studied me a moment, jaw tight.
“We’re fine. It was a nasty pair of useo’s, however, one ran off. It took a bit of work from the three of us to kill the one.”
Can’t believe that there’s a fucking name for that demonic beast. Even harder to believe there was another one out there. The thought that there might be more roaming the lands was enough to make me shudder.
Is that why their hearing didn’t pick up on our own battle? Or had it been good timing with the storm?
“Its claws got me when I tried to free Dimitri’s leg from its jaws.
He nearly lost it. We might still be in trouble if we don’t get him to a healer.
The poison in those things’ mouths is a nasty sort, but it’s slow-moving.
It’s the poison in the tail you need to worry about. That’ll kill you instantly.”
I blanched. Not at the lesson, or even Dimitri’s leg. Rather, because I thought of Ryker and the bloody wound on his shoulder where the useo had sunk its teeth.
Surely Aniah could heal him, right? Worry settled in my bones. I couldn’t stand the thought of him being in pain. Especially when it was to save me.
“We were headed this way to hunt it down when we realized you and Luna were gone.” Silence stretched a moment before Aiden linked his hands behind his back and said, “I feared the worst, thinking the useo could’ve gotten you.
” He briefly glanced behind me. “Or that you were making another run for it.”
“Where would I even go?” I smiled tightly, the laugh that slipped out sharp and hollow.
“I have a so-called family that abandoned me. I was always a freak to the other humans at Castle Aurelia. And other beings despise me for being what I am. So you can cross friends off that list, too.” I kicked a rock, sending it flying into a tree.
Aiden didn’t even flinch, his stare unwavering.
“Maybe this isn’t my realm at all. Maybe that’s why I’m so different.
” A cold sweat spread as I threw my bait out, silently begging that he take it.
Or maybe I was just feverish at this point.
“If this isn’t your realm, then where do you think you came from?
” The way his mouth curved up unnerved me.
It was the same smile he'd given me many times since meeting him.
The same that sent butterflies flitting through my stomach.
Only this time I saw it for what it was—fake. Deliberate. A mask he'd perfected.
Rising anger fueled my boldness.
“The Western Realm.” My voice rang out in the silence as if I'd yelled it. Blood pounded in my ears as he stiffened, becoming preternaturally still—all amusement gone. Just a cold, calculating look in those dark blue eyes. Even Malachai seemed to stiffen.
“And why would you think that?” he ground out. He knew. He’d known what I was the entire time. Yet he kept it from me—playing power games like the Fae, letting me believe I was nothing more than a weak human.
“I—”
Malachai stepped forward, his large frame casting a shadow over us, once again interrupting a moment between Aiden and me. Only this time, I was grateful. I wasn’t ready to have it out with him. How could I tell him what I knew, without endangering Aniah? And Ryker…
“We need to go. Now,” Malachai growled.
Aiden didn’t take his simmering glare off me as he said, “What is it?”
“We aren’t alone.”
“The other useo?” Aiden’s eyes flashed as he scanned the forest.
“Could be.”
That had Aiden’s attention off of me in an instant, allowing me to release my breath as he sharply commanded us to move.
Without my superior eyesight, I would've fallen a hundred times from the rough terrain through the trees since Aiden offered no help and made his anger more apparent by stalking off ahead.
As we broke through the dense forest, Luna trotted around happily.
I shook my head at the Empyrean, wishing I could have her ignorance of the tension surrounding us.
Dimitri was mounted on his horse, blood soaking his right pant leg, dripping on the snow-covered ground beneath him.
His skin was pale, sweat making his brow slick despite the cold.
Is that what Ryker looks like right now? Is he suffering too?
“Evanee.”
I jolted at Aiden’s harsh tone and stared at his outstretched hand. He was already mounted and didn’t meet my eye as I reluctantly let him pull me up on Shadow’s back. We said nothing to one another as he set the group at a furious pace.
Every inch of my body screamed the entire ride to the next town.
Everything hurt. My head continued to throb from my wound with each pounding of Shadow’s hooves, and from my mind envisioning the worst with Ryker’s injuries.
The burn on my shoulder had eased—but I’d still have to peel the melted clothing from the wound when I wasn’t being watched so closely.
Even my teeth hurt from the incessant chattering in the woods, but it went deeper than that—my gums ached as things felt like they were shifting.
Exhaustion weighed on me like a second skin, and now Aiden sat stiffly behind me, his silence louder than the hoof beats.
Not that I wanted to talk to him either.
I glanced at Dimitri, who was surprisingly still upright, albeit barely. His skin was leeched of color to the point he had a glowing effect beside us.
As we drew closer, a familiar, boyish voice rang out.
“Sirs!”
“Brax. Good to see you all made it,” Aiden called out with that serious captain’s tone fully in place as he slowed.
He hauled himself off and helped me down, letting me go as soon as my feet hit the ground. I nearly fell flat on my ass, fighting the urge to curse him as my legs buckled.