Chapter Eleven
Zahra bolted upright in her bed, chest heaving with each frightened, labored breath. She glanced around wildly, expecting to find herself back at the Perch, with seemingly miles between her and the ground below.
Her father’s face flashed through her mind. His sneer. His scowl. The hatred and disappointment on his face every time he looked at her. And then a look so cold that it burned her like ice to warm skin.
A sob escaped her throat, followed by another. For a moment, she thought she’d dreamt it all. Getting rescued from the Perch. Finding a new home. People to call friends.
But the dream had felt so real...
A frantic knock sounded on the door.
Heart in her throat, she climbed to shaky legs in the midnight darkness, grabbed a wooden spoon from the kitchen and held it in trembling hands, and slowly approached the door.
Someone knocked again.
“Zahra,” a voice quietly said, muffled through the door. “Zahra, it’s me.”
A shuddering exhale filled with relief whooshed out of her lungs. The wooden spoon dropped to the ground. She picked up her pace and crossed the room in only a few strides before pulling open the door.
Weiyu stood on the other side wearing rumpled clothing as if he’d slept in the same outfit for several days in a row. Strands of hair had escaped his usual ponytail, giving him an exhausted, frazzled look.
She hadn’t seen him in days. Not since the incident with the semi-conscious guard on patrol. But seeing him now... It appeared as if he hadn’t found any spare time for anyone, especially not himself, for that matter.
“Weiyu,” she murmured, her voice shaking. She glanced over his shoulder, only to find him alone. However, she knew from experience that he was never alone. Yinyu likely hovered somewhere nearby. “Has something happened? Why are you here?”
The chattering teeth in her speech gave away her lingering terror. She only hoped the phoenix king didn’t pick up on it.
“I almost expected to find you injured or in distress. Was it a nightmare?”
She blinked slowly as her mind tried to shape around his words. “How did you know...” She took in a large gulp of air and placed a hand over her pounding heart. “How did you know I was having a nightmare?”
Weiyu’s eyes widened. “I...” But then his expression softened. Almost too easily. “I was on a walk. Err, umm, flight. I heard you scream.”
Something about the situation seemed too convenient, as if he had been nearby, but her mind struggled to wrap around the discrepancies when she could barely hear her own thoughts over her frantic pulse. “I haven’t seen you transform since that first time. When you were younger.”
A huff of laughter sounded against her hair. “I’m still the same age I always was.”
“Still.” She didn’t dare turn her head to look at him. Not when he was so close, leaning against the doorway into her personal space. Not when his body seeped such wonderful, comforting heat into her own. “I thought you might be unable to transform when you are still recovering.”
“I still can. Transform, I mean. I can stay in either form just fine. It’s the transformation that takes a lot of energy. I can do it. Just not often.”
“Mmm,” she hummed in response.
Her heart began to slow in Weiyu’s calming presence. She felt safe with him near. Each blink became heavy as if laden with an added weight.
As if noticing her drifting off on her feet, Weiyu stepped forward and gripped her elbow in one hand while wrapping an arm around her waist. He helped maneuver her back toward her room and onto her bed.
Her body felt heavy. Exhausted. The terror of her nightmares waited beyond the corner, ready to grab her the moment Weiyu left and took his safe, calming presence with him.
He started to push himself away, but she hurried to clutch onto his arm. “Stay with me,” she whispered, terrified the nightmares might return in his absence. Asking him to remain with her at this hour was entirely inappropriate.
She couldn’t bring herself to care. Not when her fear outweighed propriety.
Silence filled the space between them as he glanced between either of her eyes. Searching for something. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice. Instead, she tugged on the bottom hem of his vest, a silent question in her eyes.
He looked ready to drop at any moment. If he didn’t stay, she worried he would not make it back to his home safely. Staying was the much safer option. For both of them. It was mutually beneficial.
“Then I’ll stay.” He hesitantly rested a knee on the edge of her bed. When she didn’t dissuade him, he seemed to take it as permission to settle beside her until her head rested lightly on his shoulder.
The scent of him filled her with calming relief, and she knew without a doubt that she was safe. From the Perch. From her father.
From her past.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
She wrestled with the idea of opening up about her past, about her time at the Perch. But when he gazed at her with such tender kindness in his eyes... She found she wanted to tell him. If only so he might understand her better, for them to grow closer in their friendship.
“I...” She bit her lip and ran a tassel of the blanket repeatedly between her fingers. “I dreamt I was falling. I...have this nightmare often.”
Weiyu nodded as if he understood. “I had wondered if something had happened to inspire such fear.” He stroked the back of her hand with the tip of his finger. “May I ask...why are you so afraid of heights?”
Zahra frowned, and her fingers worked faster over the tassel. A long few moments passed, and she imagined that perhaps Weiyu thought she wouldn’t answer.
But finally, she did so reluctantly. “My father was livid that I was not born a shifter. After a long night of drinking, he came to find me. Grabbed me by the neck. And pushed me out of the window of the phoenix landing.”
Weiyu inhaled sharply, shock in his eyes. He wrapped all of his fingers around her hand, and her movements stilled, her eyes faraway.
“What happened?” he rasped.
She released a shaky breath, feeling both terrified and free now that she was finally speaking to someone about the incident.
“He meant to kill me. Obviously. But I grasped onto a wooden beam and managed to pull myself up.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“I was stuck there for three days. I don’t know how I didn’t fall to my death or die from thirst. By some miracle, I survived long enough for someone to find me.
” Another shaky exhale. “My father didn’t try it again, but he pretended I didn’t exist after that.
I’ve never been able to get over my fear of heights. ”
Weiyu squeezed her fingers, offering quiet companionship as he listened to the terrible woes of her childhood. Zahra as a young girl shivering with fear when threatened with a deadly drop to the ground.
“How could someone possibly do something like that?” he whispered, a flash of anger in his eyes. “To their own daughter, no less?”
“It’s a different culture at the Perch,” she answered somberly. “If one is not a shifter...”
“You’re safe here,” he promised earnestly. “I won’t let anything like that happen to you ever again.”
He sounded so sincere, and she found that she believed it. Believed him. He would not break his promise to her.
“Zahra...” Weiyu circled his finger over her thumb, her knuckles, her wrist. “I also wanted to tell you myself rather than have you hear it from someone else. I am going to be meeting with the griffon king. To form an alliance. To gain better protection for our people. And...” He blew out a long breath. “I may be gone for a while.”
“How long?”
“Possibly a couple weeks. Maybe longer.”
“Oh...” Disappointment echoed through her soul, and as if he’d heard the faint whisper of it, his hold tightened around her hand.
“It will feel like no time at all.”
She nodded, knowing that he was the phoenix king. His people and his land came first. “Just promise to stay safe.”
“I will.”
All too quickly, she fell asleep wrapped in the safety of his embrace. This time, only happy, peaceful dreams kept her company while the storm clouds of her nightmares kept their distance.
When she awoke the next morning, Weiyu was gone.