Chapter 34 #2
Kimber wrings out her fingers, then drops them at her sides.
She boldly takes a step in front of Pax.
“I did insist,” she tells me, “and Pa agreed to let me go. I could have written down all I know about the Hound, but it would have taken longer, and…” She looks around the group of us, a wonder-filled gaze traveling upwards as she soaks in her surroundings.
“I’d forgotten what the world looked like outside of Pirn. I wanted to see it again.”
Pax is watching her fondly—the poor idiot so down bad that he let her convince him to bring her out here. I can’t even say I’m surprised. Pax has been wrapped around Kimber’s finger since they were kids.
Scrubbing a hand over my face, I blow out a heavy breath. It settles my anger enough to finally address him. “If she gets hurt out here—”
Pax shakes his head. “She won’t.” I recognize the determination in his stare, the surety in his response. It’s the same way I’m sure I look and sound when Lucina’s safety is on the line.
Chiaros, this day just keeps spiraling out of my control.
Kimber gives Pax a grateful smile, stepping closer to his side, and I don’t remember the last time I saw Pax look so proud of a task.
Pulling my gaze away, I gesture to the open seats around the fire. “Alright, Kimber, tell us what you know.” And hurry. Every second Kimber is out here is a second she’s in danger, and too many people have risked their lives for this mission already.
Devon forces a bowl of stew into my hands, and we all take a seat around the fire. I dim the flames, mostly to keep them contained but also to refuel the magic I’d lost today.
Heat buzzes beneath my skin, finding its place in my slowly replenishing reserves. I stockpile enough to steady my breathing, then reluctantly take a bite of my dinner.
“I’m assuming you all know the basics?” Kimber asks, accepting the blanket Pax offers her. “Why he was created and what he does for Pyra?”
“He was created to be her pet,” Nix replies, flicking a playing card into the dirt hard enough that the corner of it pierces the ground. I can see the satisfaction in his eyes from here, and he promptly slings another beside it.
“Sort of...” Kimber shrugs. “The Hound was made to be a hunter and an enforcer. When it comes to repenting souls and punishing the damned, the Hound is Pyra’s…lackey. He does her dirty work.”
“So, then why is he here?” I ask, unable to stay silent.
It isn’t that I don’t believe he exists—it’s that I don’t believe he wants anything to do with us or our planet. His only concern should be the rotten souls sent to Pyra.
Kimber’s brows furrow as if the answer to my question is something I should already know. “He was summoned, remember? Etis needed help in finding a cure to their curse, and she believed the Hound was the answer. She summoned him, then bargained her soul for his help.”
“But she came back to Streatham with nothing,” I remind her.
“We don’t know what happened between Etis and the Hound,” Kimber replies. “And while yes, she came back without a way to break the curse,” she twists her lips to the side, “Etis didn’t come back with…nothing.”
We all perk up at that.
At our attention, Kimber starts fidgeting with the edge of the blanket in her lap, and when Pax rests a hand over hers, it calms the tension in her shoulders.
Exhaling a deep breath, she explains, “My great-grandfather was the Solian Nyrith at the time, and Pa was his father’s apprentice.
The night before Etis and the original Disciples were locked away, Pa and his father were called to Etis’s chambers.
He told me she was… mad with the curse—twisting and writhing in her bed.
Barely restrained by the ties on her wrists and ankles.
Pa said her eyes had gone dark, black veins running like rivers down her face and neck, but when she saw the Nyrith, she went still.
Pa said it was like her sanity had snapped back into place, just for a moment, and she used that moment to…
” Kimber glances around the fire and sighs, “...to sing.”
My spoon stops halfway to my mouth. “Like a song?”
I’m not the only one who’s skeptical. Easton and Hunter both exchange confused glances. Even Nix cocks his head to the side. Devon is too focused on his dinner, and Pax is too focused on her.
Kimber nods. “My great-grandfather wrote down the lyrics, but Etis had sung the words wrong. She scrambled them all up. It was only recently that Pa found his father’s notes and realized that there might have been some sense in the song she sang.
He and I have been working with the lyrics for a few months now, and I think we’ve figured it out.
” She pauses. “And I think us figuring it out… is why he had his vision.”
Easton leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Let’s hear it then.”
Nix and Hunter nod, and Devon lifts his head from his dinner.
Kimber’s eyes widen, a twinge of color kissing her cheeks. When she opens her mouth to speak, I think surely she’ll protest it—singing to the group of us.
But she doesn’t.
Her voice is soft, hardly more than a whisper when she opens her mouth to sing:
Pull me into waves and chase me through trees
Mother, won’t you sing to me?
I’m there in the moonlight, beneath the brightest star
Dancing with sunrays, born in the dark
Here he is, here I am, willing and ready to follow
He knows the way to the things I’ve lost
He knows the way to the hollow
I whispered it into his ear one night
The key to curing the madness
He smiled as the words fell out
He must have a bit of the madness
When she finishes, the last word settles around us, ringing out in a phantom echo. The crack of the fire fills the silence, and Devon seems to have lost his appetite too as we both set our bowls aside, just as puzzled by the song as the rest of our coven is.
“I don’t get it,” Pax tells her, auburn brows furrowed. “What does it mean? That the Hound is—”
A star above us flickers. It’s bright enough that everyone snaps their attention skyward.
Lucina flashes one short word, and I’m flooded with instant relief.
Safe.
Exhaling, I quickly signal back: Safe.
“Is that…” Kimber’s voice trails off, and I see her break her gaze from the sky to look at Pax for confirmation.