Chapter Seventy-Three
Evelyn
Familiarity wrapped Evelyn in a warm embrace, but deep inside, she remained cold. A wretchedness clawed its way up her throat and wrapped its fiery tendrils around her heart.
She, along with others, stood in the middle of the Runaway Radish Inn.
The band atop the dais stopped playing their harp and flute.
Dancers stilled. Conversation lulled to a whisper as the inn’s guests stared, open mouthed.
Whiskey bottles lined the shelves, and the scent of hearty rabbit stew perfumed the air.
“Well, I swear them faeries be playin’ tricks on my agin’ eyesight. Evelyn Carson and Kade Drengr are standing in my inn!”
Miss Patricia, the sweet and kind owner of the inn, rounded the bar. Exactly as Evelyn remembered her, with flour coating her from to head to foot.
Evelyn had no words, her mind reeling as recent events caught up to her. Kade’s presence itched up her neck. She stiffened as he joined her side, brushing his arm against hers. She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t stomach the blood crusting her cuticles and staining her leathers.
Circe’s blood.
Evelyn had killed before. But not for vengeance. Not with any other intent but to protect or fight darkness. She’d never . . . liked it.
She deserved it, a hissing voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Evelyn winced. Yes, Circe had been a cruel witch, but she didn’t wish to feel that way about anyone. It felt so far away from who she was at her core. She pulled Maxie closer to her chest, her familiar’s heartbeat growing faint.
“Let me take a look.” Linx brushed her small hands over Maxie’s belly covered in blood.
The mage’s magic shimmered an array of colors, and when she finished, Maxie fidgeted in Evelyn’s arms. The thread between their souls thumbed with life again.
Evelyn couldn’t think, couldn’t move but she managed to whisper, “Thank you.”
The mage healer smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Of course, Evelyn.”
Whispers peppered the inn. Magic. Werewolves. Blood. Evelyn had almost forgotten they had an audience, but with Maxie safe in her arms and healed, she didn’t care.
Kade cleared his throat. “If it isn’t any trouble, we need a place to stay.”
Miss Patricia inspected Evelyn up and down. “No trouble at all.”
“Aye, aye. Nothing to see here! Carry on, carry on!” Commissioner Charles Doyle, uncharacteristically standing behind the bar, waved a cleaning rag at the band.
The harp player wiggled their fingers, and a bright melody filtered through the inn. The barmaids busied themselves with handing out overflowing pints to the tables. Soon, the crowd grew disinterested of the newcomers soaked in blood and brine, lost to the band’s majestic song and malty beers.
“Follow me.” Miss Patricia wrung her hands in her apron.
Solemness leaked into the air as Evelyn and their traveling party followed the innkeeper through the kitchens and out the back door.
Her mind wavered between the present and a red haze.
Keys rattled. She caught the tail end of Miss Patricia mentioning the inn’s expansion and Charles, her new husband.
Bétar and Yen disappeared. Linx too. Lorkan muttered something about taking care of Blair.
She killed Mirella, those nasty voices whispered in the back of Evelyn’s mind.
Before Evelyn had time to register their meaning or fight the nastiness of them, she was shoved into a chair.
She blinked, the red haze disappearing from her vision.
Inside a small room with a queen size bed to the left, Tovi, Eldrick, and Kade stood ahead of her.
Her fated placed Maxie onto the bed, making sure her familiar was comfortable near the pillows.
“What—“
Tovi grasped hold of her chin, trying to pry Evelyn’s mouth open.
“Fucking flames,” she muttered, swatting her best friend’s hand out of the way. “What are you doing?”
“Checking for fangs,” she whispered with a frown.
Evelyn had never witnessed her friend so . . . rattled before. It caught her off guard, and the tension in the room rose.
“I didn’t see any,” Kade said.
With arms crossed, his body remained taut while indecision warred in his golden eyes as if he couldn’t decide to touch her or remain an arm’s length away.
His stare prickled up Evelyn’s skin, and she squirmed under his assessment.
It was as if they were back in Callum, but she was the beast he investigated.
“But she had talons.” Tovi glared at him.
“I’m right here,“ Evelyn hissed.
From the small hearth in the corner, the fire crackled in the wake of her cutting words. Wind howled outside the window. Kade’s jaw tightened, and Tovi clamped her eyes shut.
“We should all take a breath,” Eldrick said. “A lot happened.”
An understatement, Evelyn almost said.
Mirella, her loyal and steadfast older sister, was dead. Evelyn had transformed and killed Circe. By some luck, Uzoma had saved them, yet she barely recalled her tutor’s parting words or if they’d spoken before she left Nūa.
“Do you remember what happened?” Tovi whispered, tone gentler.
“Some things,” Evelyn said.
The moments after her sister’s death were a blur, and the more Evelyn thought and thought, glimpses of the red haze returned.
Tovi placed her hands on her hips and paced. “Did you see or hear anything when you killed Circe?”
“Tovi,” Kade said, an edge to his tone.
“It’s what happened,” Tovi hissed. “You were different, Evelyn. As your friend, I’m just afraid.”
“I know,” she breathed, not feeling she deserved Tovi’s concern. “I don’t remember what or how, but only why. I was angry. There were voices. And then there was a red haze.”
“Fuck.” Tovi stared up at the ceiling.
“What is it?” Kade asked.
Tovi frowned, shared an apprehensive look with Eldrick, and sighed. “It’s what happens to vampyrs during bloodthirst or intense hunger because of the curse.”
Panic washed over Evelyn like icy rain. “I’m not a vampyr. I don’t crave blood. I swear it.”
A tense beat passed in the small inn’s room.
“Alright,” Eldrick said. “How do we explain the talons, red haze, and your eyes, then?”
“My eyes?” Evelyn reared back, looking to Kade.
“They turned crimson,” he whispered.
Evelyn’s insides twisted. She didn’t know what she wanted more—to melt into the chair and disappear or bolt from the room.
Kade met her in two long strides, got down on one knee and knelt to Evelyn’s level. He caged her in his arms, and she exhaled at his nearness. The day’s events barreled into her, and she stared into his golden eyes, the kindness shining in them grounding her.
“Whatever this is, whatever you face, we face it together, remember?” he asked.
Tears welled in Evelyn’s eyes, and all she could manage was a nod.
“Talk to me.”
He’d asked her the same thing back in Nūa, and Evelyn hadn’t been truly ready to share what she fear. Yet, she’d stopped running from fear and doubt a long time ago, and despite the grief festering in her heart and the hovering unknowns, she’d face them.
“It’s the power I stole from the Sun Goddess,” she said. “It make me feel as though something’s wrong with me.”
Kade’s eyes softened, and he rubbed reassuring circles on her hips.
There’s nothing wrong with you, Ev, he said down the bond.
Evelyn fought tears, grasping hold of the reassurance Kade gave her while uncertainty wormed in her gut.
Tovi shook her head. “Why would the Sun Goddess’s power invoke similarities reminiscent of the Blood Curse?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” Evelyn said, suddenly feeling weightless and spent, as if they had taken the journey across the Sapphire Sea.
Kade stood, turning to Eldrick and Tovi with crossed arms. “We aren’t going to figure this out tonight. Instead, we should focus on rest.”
Evelyn rose, too, and headed towards the north-facing window. Night shrouded the green hills in darkness, but future rain sat in the air, soaking into the inn’s wooden bones.
“Kade’s right,” she said, turning to the others.
Tovi sighed, crossing her arms. “You should go and find Blair.”
“No,” Evelyn said too quickly, snapping her attention back to the night.
Perhaps a choice she’d made was a mistake.
She never should’ve stolen from the Goddess or brought Aster back to life.
Those were her faults, and she’d own them, but she didn’t have the capacity to face her sister; not so soon after Mirella’s death.
Evelyn didn’t hold anger towards Blair, but she couldn’t sort out the feelings coursing through her.
Frustration, grief, betrayal. They ran hot and cold and all at once, and that wretched kernel that didn’t belong in her heart heightened them, too.
Evelyn feared she couldn’t control her emotions or what she’d say to Blair. That’s why she couldn’t speak with her. Not yet.
“Tomorrow, we head to the Gray Wood,” she said.
Tovi tsked her tongue. “Bloody hel, Evelyn. Mirella is gone—“
“I’m well aware, but our task in Callum remains the same. Uzoma gave us a three-week head start. Let’s not waste it. If we’re lucky, you’ll beat Riven and Ingrid to Lake Glenn.”
Tovi’s lips fell into a thin line, and apprehension bled into her jade stare.
Finally, she said, “Alright. We’ll see you in the morning before you head off. I’m so sorry about your sister.”
Evelyn’s eyes stung, but she didn’t reach for her friend. Instead, she gave her a curt nodded and didn’t relax until the door clicked shut.
Once alone with Kade, she let the tears fall. He tugged her into his strong embrace, and her sobs didn’t stop, they worsened. She cried for so many things.
Mirella. Blair. Belle. Aster. Sorin. Herself.
For the first time in months, doubt crept over Evelyn like a shadowy cloak, draping her in fears.
Later, the rain started and pelted against the inn. It seemed Callum was just as saddened as Evelyn.