33. Runa
Runa
“You have no business being here,” Blade says at the guard stop. The Fireborn guards doubled their numbers at the entrances into the tower, and they won’t let me pass. Neither will Blade. I don’t blame them.
“How is Ash?” I ask.
“Barely alive. Have you come to gloat?”
“No.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to see him.”
“No way.”
“Please, Blade. I just want to see if he’s been poisoned.”
“He has.”
“I can help,” I whisper. “I can sneak in meds for him, but I can’t do anything if you don’t let me see him.”
“You Stomcrests have done enough. I won’t let you give him anything.”
I stomp my foot. “But he’ll die if we do nothing!”
Blade narrows his eyes. “He better not, because I’ll suffocate the lot of you if he does.”
“Then you should grant me my last wish and let me see him.”
A male, who I believe is Ash’s cousin, calls Blade over. They whisper, and at first, Blade puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head. The cousin says something that makes Blade’s eyes widen and shift toward me. With a nod, he returns. “You can see him.”
When the guards move aside, the two who are wolves growl in a way that spikes my heart rate. They could tear me to pieces at any time.
Ash lies on the rug beside the fireplace.
His fur is matted with blood, and chunks of flesh are missing from his foreleg, exposing bone.
Metallic green drool spills from his open mouth, a combination of silver and alchemy.
His tongue hangs slack between his jaws, and with his eyes closed, he appears dead.
I crouch beside him and cry while I pet him. His coarse, thick fur feels dull and lifeless. “I’m sorry, Ash. I’m so sorry.”
“I assume the healer isn’t coming,” Blade says behind me.
I turn toward him as I stand and wipe my cheeks. “She’s not. Why don’t you have one with you?”
“Our healers are omega wolves. Ash wouldn’t risk them by bringing them into unsafe territories.”
After hearing about Ash’s sister, I can’t argue with his reasoning. “Do you have a plan?” I ask him. “Besides the one where you suffocate us all?” Can he do that selectively without hurting his best friend and Ash’s pack mates? I doubt it, but I have no way of knowing for sure.
“I’m working on one.”
“I have an idea if you want to hear me out.”
Ash whines.
I gently run my hand over his flank. My fingers come away bloody. “It’s my fault you’re like this. I’ll help you. I’m very sorry about what happened.”
He tries to lift his head, but his eyes roll back, and he slumps into unconsciousness again.
Probably a concussion. If I could get my hands on Sven right now, it wouldn’t end well for that man.
To think the Peacebroker is arriving with a whole regiment that carries those rifles Sven used, or worse, more lethal ones.
It makes me even more determined to pitch my plan to Blade.
“In the kitchen,” I tell Blade, and he follows me there.
At the sink, I wash Ash’s blood from my hands while Blade sits across from me at the bar in the same spot Ash sat and ate breakfast the other day.
I don’t think I’ll be able to see anything in this tower the same way after the Fireborns are gone.
“I want to start by saying that my brother was wrong for attacking Ash.” I dry my hands and sit beside Blade.
“Why did he attack him?”
“Because Soren smelled me on Ash’s face during breakfast.”
Blade blinks, leans back, mouth slightly agape. “That was yours?”
Heat crawls up my cheeks. “Yeah.”
“Damn, girl, you really did your sister in.”
“Maren couldn’t care less. She canceled the treaty before you all arrived.”
“With a lover, I presume.”
I nod.
“Damn.” Blade interlocks his fingers behind his head and stretches out his legs.
“I fucking told Ash not to come here. I fucking told him it was a trap. I said we should meet in neutral territory like the wastelands, but he told me it had to be Stormcrest territory.” He drops his hands.
“He told me this place called to him. Maybe death whispered to him, and we should let nature take its course.”
“No!” I shout.
Blade rears back at my tone.
“No, we get him out of here and give him a chance to heal.” I flip the water faucet on so the background noise masks our conversation.
A horn sounds in the distance.
“Wonder what that is,” Blade says casually, but he’s anything but casual.
“The storm is clearing. The Peacebroker is due to arrive with a regiment. I don’t know what they plan to do but… I know enough to want to get Ash out of here.”
The air becomes thick, almost liquid. I struggle as I inhale.
“Leave us,” Blade says, his voice like a sword cutting the thick air. “Hide where nobody can find you until the worst is over.”
“Ash can’t fight,” I say as I exhale. I gasp, inhaling more air, but there’s very little useful oxygen. This elemental terrifies me.
“I’m not chopped liver, you know.”
I hold my neck. “You’re choking me.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“If I die, you die,” I say, gasping for air. “I know a way out.”
“I don’t want a way out. I’ll wait for the humans to arrive. Attacking Ash Fireborn won’t go unpunished.”
I fall off the chair, stars playing over my eyes. “You’re outnumbered. And my brother might recover enough to help the humans. Your body is made of water. You will be the one suffocating.” I’m losing consciousness.
“Why do you want to help us?”
“Because…” I lick my lips.
“I can’t hear you.”
“That’s because you’re not letting me breathe, asshole.”
“I heard that.”
“I love him,” I whisper.
Air gushes into my lungs, and I inhale so deeply, I cough. As soon as I can sit up, I curse him out.
He offers me a hand, but I slap it away as I get to my feet. “Fuck you, Blade Skyrender. I came here to help. I’m risking everything. If you try to kill me again, you’d better kill me dead, because if you don’t, I’ll pay some omega to fuck you and neuter you in your sleep.”
Blade smiles. “Okay. You want to help Ash? Let’s hear it.”
“I can show you a way out.”
Blade’s eyes brighten. “Let me guess. The royal family has an escape route?”
I nod. “How long do you need to get ready?”
“I was born ready.” He whistles, and Ash’s cousin enters the kitchen, along with another male.
“The Peacebroker is arriving with Wardens. We can assume they’re not here to renegotiate the treaty that the Stormcrest pack broke.
They’ll find a way to blame Ash for the broken treaty and justify the kill orders that the Wardens will execute.
They’ve had it in for Ash for a while, and the window of opportunity to take him out once and for all has arrived.
If Ash died under the claw of a Stormcrest wolf, that would be acceptable.
But this?” Blade points toward the living room.
“This isn’t how Ash will go out. I can’t allow them to end him in this disgraceful manner.
He would hate to die like a lazy bitch bleeding out on the floor while we all sit around crying about it. True?”
“True!”
“I’ve decided on a tactical retreat. We have a way out. Who’s with me?”
“We are,” they say in unison.
Blade turns to me. “Lead the way.”