Chapter Forty-One
Evelyn
Evelyn wretched for the second time, last night’s dinner splattering against the sandy street below. She wiped the back of her hand against her mouth and slumped against the roof’s wall.
The sun rose over Cirrillo’s major port city while to the right, gulls cried the morning hour, and the Sel was nowhere to be found on the horizon, long gone after dropping them off in the lands desert mages called home.
After Kade’s valor during the demon attack, Flynn had more than begged to help in any way he could, and when they revealed their next destination, the vampyr witch had taken them around witch territory.
Flynn had saved them from being discovered, but Evelyn’s days still dwindled.
Dying really hurt.
She wretched again, barely making it over the balcony. A sharp pain lanced through her stomach. There was nothing left in it but bile and—
Blood.
Evelyn patted her lips. Crimson smeared across her fingers, and the taste of iron coated her teeth.
Fucking flames.
She clamped her eyes shut, grasping the wall for support. The hole in her chest was widening. The frays had unraveled while she’d fought on the ship with Kade’s sword in hand, but she hadn’t the courage to tell him her body was failing.
She’d not considered it or discussed it with Mirella. Evelyn thought she had a severed soul and a ticking time clock, not a deteriorating body. They still had three days before they reached the Sun Goddess’s temple. Could she even make it?
She had to.
On shaky legs, Evelyn rose. She couldn’t let anyone see her like this, not when they needed her to keep the group together. It was she they risked everything for. Her sisters, Kade, his pack and friends. She’d not let some sore soul stop her progress in getting her magic back.
Her body screamed in retaliation as she wobbled down the steps. Sore was an understatement. Pain radiated deep in her bones. Evelyn bit her lip to muster through it, tasting more blood.
“Fuck—”
“Evelyn.” Belle appeared at the bottom of the stairs, concern pinching her brow.
“I’m alright,” Evelyn whispered, stumbling down the last step.
“You’re a terrible liar.” Belle held her steady. “Has anyone told you that?”
“Don’t tell Kade,” Evelyn breathed. “That’s all I ask.”
“Why?” Belle studied her with too-beautiful eyes.
Because . . . Kade had conjured his power with control on the Sel, wielded it.
Evelyn’s skin crawled, and she tried to blame it on the desert air, but she was too familiar with shame to ignore it.
It whispered in the same tune as doubt. If Kade learned she faced this pain, that her body ailed her, would it jeopardize the progress he’d made with his power?
Evelyn didn’t have the stomach to admit that to Belle, so she lied.
“He’s already worried enough, and more won’t aid in our journey to the temple.”
Belle frowned. “I suppose you’re right. Here.”
She passed Evelyn a waterskin, and she rinsed out her mouth, cleaning her face and hands.
“Thank you,” she said. “Should we head back to the inn before anyone notices I’m gone?”
Belle nodded, and they fell into step with one another.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
The witch shrugged. “Dandy. Happy to be off the ship. Well, Todd is, I mean. He won’t admit it, but I think he hates boats as much as Kade.”
Evelyn smiled and grabbed her friend’s hand. “I meant about your sister. You both said some harsh words.”
Evelyn left out the part where Belle had caused a whirlpool to suck Ingrid and Riven to their demise, an angry side of her she’d never seen before.
Belle stared off at the market square and scoffed. “Ingrid will always be my sister, but we are on different paths now.”
Evelyn thought of her own sisters. She and Blair had disagreed of late, but they’d not reached that fork in the road where they went in different directions. The possibility ate at Evelyn’s nerves.
“There’s a chance Ingrid’s not herself, you know?” Evelyn said. “Using dark magic is a risky power, and perhaps it’s changing her.”
Belle stopped on the main street. Cirrillo buzzed around them.
“We’re both witches with magic. It’s what we do with it that divides us.
Ingrid’s choices led her down that path, and she may believe she did it to protect me, but I think she did it for herself, and now she no longer has an excuse for who she is. ”
They walked into the main dining area of the inn, and Evelyn let Belle’s words settle over her. In the corner, their team sat at a long table, hunched over breakfast. The smell of sizzling oil and coffee floated in the heady air.
“How do you feel about the spell?” Evelyn asked.
Belle had been studying it since they left the Drengr Village, collecting items and tweaking Blair’s theory here and there.
“Good, but actually, there’s something I want to talk to you about—”
“There you are,” Kade called from the bottom of the stairs. He reached her in two long strides, grasping her face. “You gave me a fright. I’m usually the morning person.”
Evelyn rested her hands over his. “You looked like you needed the extra rest.” But tiredness clung to him, and she noted it for later. “Can you give me a second with Belle?”
“Sure.” Kade kissed her forehead and walked off to join the others at the table.
Belle paused, deliberation warring in her gaze.
Once Kade was out of earshot, she sighed.
“Look, I won’t tell Kade or any of the others how I found you, but”—Belle emphasized the word with a bashful roll of her eyes—“take it from someone who . . . maybe . . . I don’t know . . . there might be a chance, I guess—”
Evelyn laughed. “Goddess, Belle, tell me.”
Belle bit her lip and fought a smile. “As someone who might have a werewolf fated sensing everything and anything, you can’t hide what you’re going through, broken mating bond or not.”
She stilled. Open and closed her mouth. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Belle nodded furiously, and as if it were possible, her bright smile made her even more beautiful. She practically beamed like the sun inside the inn.
She held up her hands. “Nothing is official-official. Todd thinks I’m rather young for something so binding, but we agreed to take it slow .
. . Though, fate has a mind of its own, I suppose.
The whole feeling of one’s emotions comes in handy for exploratory activities.
” Belle winked, and a faint blush spread across her cheeks.
“Belle.” Evelyn gasped, grasping her friend’s arm, unable to fight the giggles working their way up her throat.
By the time they joined the others at the table, Evelyn’s aches and pains had vanished from her thoughts, and her stomach had settled to a manageable churn, and she sipped her coffee, finding solace in the small moments with friends.
“It has more legs than I do in my shifted form!” Todd held up a piece of squid, battered and fried to a golden crisp. A heaping plate of them sat at the center table, tossed with sweet peppers and over-easy eggs on top, the runny yolks adding a rich sauce.
Linx shoveled them into her mouth two at a time. “I think they’re delightful.”
“Delightful?” Todd grimaced. “It’s unnatural. May I remind you that many legs is reminiscent of the demon we fought a two nights ago?”
The mage shrugged, popping another fried squid into her mouth. “Much like that beast, we’re making quick work of these.
The table laughed, and Todd turned to Kade. “So, what’s the plan?”
“A day in the city would do us good.” Linx sipped her coffee. “A day to rest.”
“There isn’t time,” Evelyn blurted out, not thinking before she spoke.
Kade rested a hand on her knee under the table. “Evelyn’s right. We don’t know what we’ll encounter on our way to the temple. It’s better to start our journey sooner rather than later and get ahead of any delays.”
“We just stepped back on land.” Linx, wide-eyed, looked to other members of their team for support. “One day can’t hurt us, not when a full day’s rest and meals better than vampyr pirate stew will give us the strength we need to journey in a place new to all of us.”
“Not all.” Evelyn planted her hands firmly on the table. “I traveled through Cirrillo to visit the very temple we’re headed to when I lost my magic. I know the journey. It isn’t easy. Sandstorms, bandits, and sand-dwelling demons.”
She stressed each one, but withheld the real reason—a day in the city might allow the others to rest, but she might wake up unfit for travel. Evelyn couldn’t afford to delay. The sooner they reached the Sun Temple the better.
“Besides, we may have avoided Nūa, but that doesn’t mean we won’t cross paths with witches this far south. The port city is teeming with witches and mages. It’s best to get on the road and keep moving so Circe doesn’t learn our plan. I know the route to a village near the temple,” Evelyn added.
The table nodded as she spoke, even Linx relaxed, her frown turning into an expression of understanding.
Kade nodded. “Then it’s decided—today, we start our travels through the Cirrillo Desert.”