Page 64 of Heart of Night
“I thought you couldn’t help me.” My voice is dry and every word hurts like the Guardians scraped my vocal cords from my throat.
“I’m not helping you.” His brows knit together as he helps me step off the table while I clasp the blanket around my shivering form. “I’m helping Myron.”
My mouth opens, but no words come out.
“Did you send the note?” I manage after a few moments of speechlessness. “Because I’m sure telling me not to eat the poisoned piece of food counts as help…”
“I’d be dead if I’d helped you,” he reminds me, his scars stark on his tan face as we reach the sofa where he sits me down before opening the armoire, rummaging through its contents. “Only finery in here,” he grumbles. “You need practical clothes. Kaira will bring something…”
“Kaira, or me.” The door closes, and Clio walks in with a stack of linen in her hands that could be beddings or a set of peasant clothes. I pray it’s the latter.
“We have about five minutes to get out of here.” She kicks the door shut with her boot and drops the stack on the sofa next to me. “And before you ask, yes, I stole them, and no, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it.” Her gaze wanders to Herinor, who has stopped his digging to stare at her instead. “No, I don’t have my magic back. I’m just that awesome without it.” She flashes a brief grin that doesn’t touch her eyes. “Now get the fuck out of here before the bargain kills you, Crow. I won’t forget what you did for me.”
I have no clue what’s going on, wild shivers still raking through my body as I try to pick up a piece of linen—a shirt—while also not exposing myself.
Clio sighs, shoving at Herinor’s back as she directs him toward the door, ignoring the reluctance in his steps.
“What did you do, Herinor?” I think it’s the first time I called him by his name, but it doesn’t taste bitter despite our history.
He shakes his head. “I can’t help you, Ayna, and I’ll forever regret that I can’t. But I can help everyone else. So I do.” My heart clenches at the look he gives me, full of devastation and fear. Who would have thought a big, ruthless male like him could fear anything? “Ephegos ordered me to take you to your room, but he never said anything about making sure you stay here. Disappearing for now is the best I can do. You don’t need my help. You have Clio and Kaira. Trust Kaira.” His voice wraps around her name, and I know he has more to lose in this palace than I could have ever imagined. “And never forget you have the gods on your side. Vala gave you a mate to fight for. Shaelak gave you wings to match his. Now go and fly, little bird.”
I only notice my heart is breaking for him as he’s crossing the threshold, closing the door behind him to disappear to the Guardians know where.
“Enigmatic like the rest of them, isn’t he?” Ever pragmatic, Clio picks the shirt from my hands and pulls it over my head, moving down the blanket. My breasts bob as she gently pushes me back to tug the shirt in place, and I instinctively reach for my chest.
“I’m sorry I didn’t bring you fancy underthings to keep everything in place, but this is a rescue mission, and I couldn’t care less what your breasts do while you run.”
I’m inclined to laugh. Instead, a tear shoots to my eye, lingering on my lashes as I try to shake the shock of the past hours.
“I don’t know what happened, but it can’t be anything good, judging by your looks.” Skimming me head to toe, she hands me a pair of brown linen pants that remind me of Tavrasian peasant attire. “And I don’t know what Herinor has been up to, but you don’t think I’ve been sitting around, twiddling thumbs while they have both our mates in the dungeons.”
There, she said it. mates. Both our mates.
“He really is my mate,” I admit in a whisper, a numbness spreading where pain was dictating minutes ago. The panic hasn’t ebbed, though, my heart still pounding mercilessly.
“Can we push the epiphany back until we’re out of here?” She picks a pair of sturdy slippers from the armoire while I fill her in about what happened in the dungeon, monitoring her every move with my new spectrum of senses.
“He gave me that serum before to wake up my fairy senses, and he gave me the drug that nullifies my powers. I still have none of them at my disposal, thanks to said serum.” Grimacing, she helps me into my slippers. “Not what I’d call combat gear, but we’re not going into battle.” The yet is a silent addition we both know she doesn’t need to speak. Soon enough, we’ll face a war Ephegos has been helping Erina prepare. Humans attacking Askarea with magic-binding weapons… My stomach turns, and I retch on my shoes, barely missing Clio’s hands as she hops aside at the last moment.
“Whatever of the drug is left in your system will purge fast since you ingested it through food, and he gave you the serum to wake your senses, so you should be fine within a day or two.” Her eyes snag on the bruise on my face, which I’ve mercifully been able to ignore—or have I been.
“What’s wrong?” I wipe my mouth on a corner of the blanket, realizing my face isn’t throbbing the way it was in the dungeons.
“The bruise is almost gone. You are healing yourself.” She brushes back my hair and ties it with a strip of fabric she rips off the hem of my shirt. “Ephegos is a fool to experiment on you with his potions. Whatever he gave you triggered your powers to wake up. He probably wasn’t expecting that you’d turn into a Crow yourself.”
I try not to think about the implications of her assessment. A Crow. The first female Crow in millennia.
“He certainly made a mistake he’ll regret once we’re all out of here and have our powers at our disposal.” The conviction in her tone is almost convincing.
“You’re coming with me? We’re all getting out?” It’s a vain hope, and I try not to cling to the thought of seeing Myron again, free of shackles or anguish. The real Myron with all his vast fae powers and his ocean-blue eyes.
“You and I are getting out.” Clio tucks my hair in place, hiding the lengths in the collar of my shirt to make me less recognizable. “We need to leave the males behind for now until we are both at our full strength and we can rescue them.”
I try not to let the panic take me over again at the thought of Myron in chains, Myron in pain, Myron unconscious and bruised and bleeding. Apparently, my mind is dead-set on showing me exactly those images I fear so much because all I can see now is his gorgeous body strung up on the metal table, his blood pooling beneath his head as pain sears both our shoulders.
I make a mental note to ask Clio exactly how mating bonds work and force myself to stand. “I thought you wouldn’t leave without Astorian.” I understand now why she said it back then. I feel the same about Myron. The thought of abandoning him is almost unbearable.
“If we stay, none of us gets out. Plus, you’ll be married to Erina within a week. It’s not like we have a lot of options to work with or excessive time to make better plans.” She guides me to stand, and I let her. “Herinor found a way around his bargain. Help Myron because Ephegos hasn’t explicitly forbidden that. Too full of himself to believe he could be outmatched by a drugged and shackled male. Now it’s time for us to act before Ephegos binds Herinor with another order.”