Page 66 of Avaritia

This was not the peaceful, pearlescent afterlife I’d been told about.

“Verity!”

I winced at the sound of my name so close to my ear. Strange that it sounded like Tallulah’s voice, though. Was she dead too? I hoped not.

Instead of the solid, jostling beneath me, there was a soft bed. And then a cold, wet cloth swiping over my face, making me squirm to try get away from the horrid sensation.

And with dawning realization, and a mixture of relief and a little bit of dread, I understood that I wasn’t dead.

I wasn’t dead.

My body felt fucking awful, and I couldn’t imagine ever not feeling awful again, but I was alive.

“You’re awake,” Meera whispered, sniffling. “Here, have some water. You look parched.”

I groaned as someone raised me into a sitting position and the cool edge of a cup was pressed to my lips. At the first taste of water, I tried to gulp down the whole lot, not realizing how thirsty I’d actually been until I started.

“Slowly,” Meera said softly, pulling the cup away. “You’ll make yourself sick. What hurts? What do you need? God, we’ve been so worried about you—”

“Theon,” I rasped, squinting against the light in the room as I forced my eyes open. “Where’s Theon?”

Meera and Tallulah exchanged a loaded look that had the cobwebs clearing from my brain faster than anything else could have.

“Where’s Theon?” I asked harshly, struggling to get out of bed even though my legs felt like they were made of water. Had he not made it back from the human realm? What if a Hunter had gotten him after I’d passed out? No, I’d know, right? The bond felt so weak and threadbare in my chest that it was practically nonexistent, but it wasn’t gone.

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Tallulah fussed, gently trying to push me back into bed. “He’s… well, he’s on trial.”

“What?!”

“Evrin has already sent a guard ahead to tell them you’re back, in case they want to delay—”

I didn’t wait for Tallulah to finish, I was already up, stumbling for the door in my bare feet. I wasn’t even entirely sure where I was, it wasn’t somewhere I recognized.

“We’ll ask them to delay the trial until you’re better,” Tallulah said worriedly, wrapping an arm around my waist. “It’s been going for hours already. Verity, you’re not up to this. You can barely stand.”

“I don’t care about that! I need to get to Theon!”

What kind of trial? Was he frightened? He didn’t have a large support system. I didn’t even know if Rainy had made it back, and Xanthia would be beside herself if she hadn’t, and in no state to be there for her son. He needed me.

“She’s not going to be talked out of this,” Meera said smoothly. “Verner, are still you there?” she called through the door.

Verner—the guard that was always following Meera around with a longing look on his face—appeared instantly, as though he’d been waiting for her summons.

“Can you carry Verity?”

I was already making grabby hands for him because I felt about two seconds away from collapsing.

“Wait,” Tallulah said, letting Verner steady me and pulling off her cherry red coat. “Put this on, you’re shivering. What are you even going to do?” she asked, guiding my arms into the sleeves.

Meera watched me with assessing eyes. “I think we’re going to go make a scene.”

“Fuck yes, we are,” I rasped, my head spinning slightly at the effort of standing on my own two feet.

Surprisingly, Meera seemed to be more enthusiastic about this plan than Tallulah was, but I got the impression that Tallulah really liked rules.

That wasn’t something we had in common. Rules were meant to be broken, and my mate wasn’t meant to be on trial.

Theon thought of himself as the villain in Allerick’s story, but he was the hero in mine. And sometimes, heroes needed to be rescued too.