Chapter 56
Jane
“Give me that shirt,” someone said, tearing through the sweet darkness.
“Who?” another one asked hoarsely, the words carrying an acrid tang.
“No fucking clue,” the first man replied, the voice sounding slightly irritated. “But someone’s going to pay for it. He wants her alive.”
I felt hands dragged me across a cold surface. A whine left my mouth before I realised it.
“Why a half-breed?”
Moments passed before Cahir spoke. “Because she can divine,” he said, his voice edged with something. “We’re running out of supplies, and he needs something to bargain with the heads.”
The other man started to argue, but Cahir cut him off. “Out. Not here.”
My head felt too heavy, clouded and aching. I reached for the eagle, but the familiar wasn’t there.
“I’ll ask around,” the stranger said more quietly. “But everyone knows she’s supposed to be Lady. Keeping her alive is a risk. They won’t back off.” A pause. “She won’t last long, Cahir.”
Some thread of awareness latched onto their words. I remembered where I was and the memory of the human who tried to stab me.
And Reagan hadn’t come.
Marble lodged in the back of my throat.
Fabric brushed over my hair, my arms, my chest, still cold and slick.
“No one touches her,” Cahir said, his tone unbending. “Keep your dogs on a leash and bring me whoever compelled the human.”
My pulse kicked as I blinked into harsh light. Two shapes lurched into focus. One man loomed over me, his hand pressed to the side of my neck, pale light seeping from the veins beneath his skin.
Cahir’s dark eyes met mine.
A broken sound escaped my throat as I tried to speak, as if I couldn’t form words. His hand snapped up, fingers closing around my chin.
“Welcome back, milady,” Cahir said, shaping the words into a sneer as he turned my face. “Drink.”
He forced my mouth open.
“Hold her.”
The second man moved in, pinning my hands on my sides.
“What?” I managed barely a word.
“Something to help you mend,” Cahir said calmly, tipping a bitter liquid past my lips. “And to keep you quiet.”
He was healing me.
When he pinched my nose shut, I was forced to swallow. “Yes,” he murmured. “All of it.”
The world tilted almost instantly, my head swimming, limbs turning heavy.
Hands seized me, rolling my body in a sickening sweep.
“Put her in the bed,” Cahir said distantly as my gaze fixed on a single droplet of blood staining the white padding. “She’d better be conscious when—”
A lock clicked, and sleep claimed me again.