Then stops. And scoffs, as if I’m not even worth his repulsion, as if seeing me suffer was torture enough to satisfy his sick bloodlust. He tucks a strand of hair behind his ear and purposefully, casually, turns and walks away. Flicking his fingers to hurl an unprepared Myles once again at the wall.
I lunge after him but there’s a rustle and a swirling of thick black fog wisps that fill the air and block my vision, and by the time I’ve weaved my way through them, Draewulf is gone.
Abruptly I’m bending over and coughing from that chasm in my chest that has absorbed too much energy and yet not enough. Never enough. My bones are rattling so hard it feels like I’m having a seizure and my head won’t stop pounding.
Myles’s face swims bizarrely in front of me when I walk over to him, and he grabs my arm to pull himself up. For a moment, my skin prickles beneath his fingers.
“Looks like you’ll be needing to hurry the training, my dear.”
CHAPTER 28
WHEN WE REACH THE HALLWAY TO OUR quarters, five wraiths swarm us with their sunken-in, death-masked faces spouting hisses and glaring at us with their chilling yellow gazes. Their bony hands reach for our arms. “Ussss. Ussss,” it almost sounds like they’re saying amid the bustling Bron boots and shouted questions as to how we got out and where we’ve been.
I recoil from the wraiths and lurch for the Bron soldiers. “I need to speak with Rasha,” I tell the largest guard, the one who tried to take my knives after the banquet two nights ago.
“You’re in no position to ask anything.” He grabs my shoulder and hustles me through the wraiths and toward my room, but as we’re passing Rasha’s, I reach a foot out and kick her door.
There’s an immediate click and the giant guard stalls—perhaps to see if she’ll allow me entrance or simply because I go limp in his arms and he doesn’t feel like dragging me. Either way, the door creaks open and through the partial space I see Rasha slumped on the bed, her brown face pale. She frowns.
“My apologies,” the Bron guard says, and drags me toward my room. I could count to five before she calls after us to let me enter.
“But only Nym.” She peers coolly past me to Myles, who’s being jostled by his own angry set of guards. Behind us, the Dark Army soldiers hiss louder, a low, nerve-clenching sound.
The Bron guard shoves me in and the Cashlin men slam the door behind me, then proceed to make a quick weapons search of me, confiscating my knives before situating themselves, two near the windows and three by the door.
“Well?”
I take a deep breath. “I need your help.”
Rasha lifts a brow.
“To speak with Sir Gowon. As much as I hate to admit it, I believe he can help us. And Eogan,” I add softly.
She nods as if she already knew this.
I move closer to her bed. “Look, I’m sorry I was a bolcrane and I’m sorry about what I said earlier.” I look over at her guards. “For insulting your people regarding the war.”
“Me too.”
I wait. Because I’m hoping that’s not all she has to say.
She sighs. “However . . .” She takes a deep breath. “There may be some accuracy to it.” Her intense gaze eases, almost to the point it glimmers with a fleck of shame. “It’s true we didn’t help your Elemental people,” she whispers. “We did more than you know, but not enough. I’ll not make excuses because we have our reasons for staying uninvolved, but still, some of the decisions our matriarchs have made have not always been right. Nor favored by everyone.”
I nod.
She flutters her hand as if it’s no big deal and her voice takes on its airy tone. “Apologies exchanged and accepted then. However, that doesn’t let you off from explaining to me what in hulls you were thinking in taking on . . . whatever it is you took on.”
I peer at her guards again who are watching us in silence. Then turn and stride to the open window overlooking the airship pad. “How much can you see?”
“Enough to know that you went with Myles and took on an ability that’s not your own.” The bed creaks beneath her weight. “I can’t see it clearly, but it looks dark. Oh Nym, what were you thinking? Why didn’t you come to me first? I warned you and everything!”
I flip around. “And what would you have told me? That it wasn’t a good idea? I knew that but I had to do something. And so far it’s been fine.” I curl my nearly perfect hands to show her. “Better than fine actually.” I look up with a grin. “I almost freed him tonight. Another day and I should be—”
“I would’ve told you it was more dangerous than you imagine.” Her face has grown serious. She slips her feet onto the floor and stands to stare at me with both hands on her hips.
Did she not hear me? I almost freed him. “You think I didn’t weigh the cost? My Elemental power was dangerous too—the most dangerous Eogan once said—and I learned to control it. I can do so with this one too.”
“A nice sentiment, but—”