Chapter 8
EIGHT
Dirge
The lights were bright against my screwed-shut eyelids, and an incessant beeping made me want to peel my ears off my body. But more than that? My whole body felt like it had been put through a pulpwood grinder.
“Dirge?” Gentle, cool fingertips on my forehead brought me back to the present, and my mate’s familiar, lilting voice was all the encouragement I needed to brave the lights and open my eyes.
I blinked a few times as her beautiful face came into focus. “Shay.” Her name was a prayer on my lips, a benediction to whatever god or goddess had seen fit to allow me to see her one more time.
“You’re awake, thank the Goddess.” She hugged me fiercely, and I ignored my body’s many protests as I lifted my leaden arms to hug her back with what little strength I possessed.
“How?” I tried to ask, but my throat was dry, and I coughed, sending more spasms of pain through my side.
“Take it easy, don’t move, don’t talk. I’ll fill you in while you drink this.” She held up a simple white cup with a neon-green bendy straw, and I drank gratefully as she spoke.
She told me about how she’d tricked the two wyverns into attacking the first one, how I’d been poisoned, and how as soon as she’d hefted me up from the ground, her mother had used her immense power to freeze the wyverns in place and rescue us both from the bottom of the ravine.
“Apparently, there was foul play. She and Brand don’t know who, but there was only meant to be one wyvern we had to fight. Technically, since it did die, we won the challenge. The other two weren’t meant for us, and so they don’t count.”
I whistled, both at the magical muscle it must have taken to tame two enormous beasts like that, and at the fact that plots against Shay’s life were still underway. “Now what?”
She sighed tiredly, leaning against the side of the hospital bed I lay on with a worried frown. “Now… I do the third challenge as quickly as possible and get us the hell out of here with that stone before they have a chance to take another swipe at us. You got poisoned. You nearly died.”
I nodded gingerly, still sore even with such a small movement. “But I didn’t, and here we are.”
Tears filled her eyes as she trailed her fingertips over my cheek, as soft as the beat of butterfly wings. “Here we are.”
A knock nearby drew my attention away from Shay and over to our visitor.
Her mother.
I can send her away if you don’t want to talk to her, Shay offered through the bond, nibbling her bottom lip as if she wasn’t sure of her own feelings. I had the sneaking suspicion my feelings were merely the cover for her own, but I was in no shape to push her.
I deeply wished her parents would just tell her about the attempts on her life, though, and I intended to push them on that issue the next time I had one of them alone.
“May I come in?” Queen Lyrica waited to be acknowledged in the doorway, and I raised one eyebrow as I glanced back at Shay in question.
Your call, love, I prodded when she didn’t answer right away. She steeled her expression before turning to her mother.
“Are you here about the trials?” she asked, with none of her inner turmoil showing.
“No, of course not. I came to check on Dirge and offer my assistance with his recovery.”
“Then you may come in.”
The queen walked so smoothly in her shimmering gown, it seemed like she floated into the room and to the other side of my bed.
She hesitated, as if fighting some mental battle.
Eventually, she cleared her throat and lifted her chin.
“I wanted to apologize to you in person for the injuries you sustained during the sabotaged trial. I have an investigation underway, but I don’t expect much to come of it.
My people are few but powerful. They could easily cover their tracks, and so far, our search has turned up nothing. ”
“That’s disappointing,” Shay said, crossing her arms in the world’s oldest self-defense gesture. “But not too surprising.”
Her mother inclined her head in agreement.
“That being said, due to the extraordinary circumstances brought on by my own people, you have a choice most are not afforded. You may leave the trials early, with no penalty, and return to your home world. Or, should you choose to continue with the trials, I will personally heal you and ensure you’re ready to face the third trial at full strength.
Would you like me to give you two a minute alone to discuss it? ”
Shay bit her lip, and I could see her wavering in favor of my safety elsewhere. But neither of us could live with what that would mean for the pack, not in the long run. “We’ll stay. I’d be grateful for any healing you can offer.”
Lyrica turned toward Shay, waiting for her nod of agreement before she extended a slim, bejeweled hand in my direction.
“Very well. My power may feel unpleasant, at first.” She hesitated.
“You are bonded to a fae, so it won’t harm you, but Shay’s bond with you would make a power influx by any other fae uncomfortable.
The bonds between mated fae are protective of their own. ”
“Wait— Are you implying that I might be able to heal Dirge with my own power?” Shay’s hand held mine in a death grip.
“It’s possible one day, if you achieve your true form. Until then, your mastery will be limited.”
“Oh.”
Shay sounded disappointed, and I gave her hand a return squeeze. “What you can do is already amazing.”
Her lips lifted in a half smile, but she stayed quiet as her mother once again offered me her hand.
“Don’t let go,” she warned, and then closed her eyes.
Curious, I left mine open. And the thick ropes of shimmering power that flowed from her fingertips around my forearm and up over me were beautiful, right up until I felt that discomfort she’d mentioned.
Holy shit, did it sting.
I tensed, I couldn’t help it, but even as it stung, I felt the energy flooding back into my limbs, and I held on. The ache in my ribs vanished, my exhaustion left soon after, and within minutes, my entire body felt like a walking live wire.
“I think that’s as much as I can give you,” she murmured, gently patting me on the knuckles before pulling away. “At risk of giving preferential treatment… I may have given you a little extra juice to help you both make it through the final trial in one piece.”
Lyrica started to walk away, but only made it two steps before Shay stopped her in her tracks. “Thank you.” Shay’s voice was thick with emotion. “You didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate it. He’s my everything. And if anything had happened to him, I wouldn’t have survived it.”
Her mother smiled softly at that. “I understand. I feel the same way about your— Brand. I feel the same way about Brand. There is one more thing you should know. If you are able to assume your true form and take on the full extent of your power, your mate will gain his immortality as well. You may share it with him without losing your own. There would be no more worries of him being accidentally killed, even with foul play.”
Shay and I exchanged a weighty glance. That was news to us.
“Thank you again, for everything.” I echoed Shay’s sentiments, and then Lyrica showed herself out.
“Immortality. That would be wild.” I shook my head as I swung both legs over the edge of the hospital-style bed, searching for my clothes.
“I have to do it.” Shay’s fervent tone stopped me with only one leg in my pants.
“What? We don’t know if you’ll be able to shift into a fae form.”
The grim determination on her face as she passed me a clean shirt told me all I needed to know.
Shay wouldn’t stop until she figured it out and I was as immortal as she was.