The descent down the narrow stairs on my broken ankle was the most excruciating thing I had ever done, and Ididvomit. It was too narrow for Elena to even help me at all, so I had to do it on my own. And I was slow. Painfully slow. But we had to get down the Medusa Steps and into the tunnels where the city’s wards would protect us before we could stop. We stumbled, not daring to rest, until we got to the bottom.
“Where the hell have you two been?” A familiar deep and extremely annoyed voice sounded from the tunnel. Standing there, illuminated faintly in the flickering sconce light, was Ciaran, his face set in a grim expression.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Seraphina?” Elena whirled on me before Ciaran could ask another question. “You gave her your name? Are you a complete idiot?”
“I needed answers. That was her price! I wasn’t going to leave with nothing,” I spat back at her, gingerly trying to stand on my ruined ankle and failing, stumbling to the side. Ciaran slid beside me, twining his muscled arm around my back before I could fall over completely.
“That was who’s price?” Ciaran’s eyes slid back and forth between us. “Elena? Where did you take her?”
There was a very long pause. I felt Elena’s reluctance to say anything else. She had said that Ciaran would be very upset if he found out. I didn’t say anything either, dreading his reaction.
“Strega Maria,” Elena whispered, as if speaking her name wasn’t safe. With all the shadows around us, I wondered if it wasn’t. The crone had been utterly terrifying.
“Strega Maria? What wereyouthinking?” Ciaran said, propping me up against him. His black eyes seemed even darker than usual. There it was. The authority of a king. He was so even-tempered most of the time. A thrill went through me—I could feel the strength of him as I leaned into his side. I could feel him everywhere.
“Seraphina needed answers about the chandelier. Strega Maria was the only person I could think of who might be able to get them.” Elena’s voice was strong, her back straight as she stared right back at Ciaran. Even though he was her leader, she wouldn’t bow to him. “I was there to protect her. We were fine. Until she decided to give the old crone her name and she sold us out to Scion.”
Ciaran muttered something under his breath. It sounded like, “Should have known when you weren’t at the feckin’ meeting.”
“I had no choice,” I hissed, “my entire life has been ruined. I needed to knowwhy.I need to knowwhodid it.” I was seething. Tears flowed freely, as they always did when I was angry. I was still gasping for breath from the run across the bridge and the agonizing descent down those horrible stairs.
Something passed over Ciaran’s face. It looked like… hurt. But it was gone in the blink of an eye, the face of the King Beneath back in an instant. “It sounds like poor decisions were made all around,” Ciaran offered as he helped me hobble overcloser to the light. He guided me to the wall. I slid down to the floor. “Can you please let me in on your ludicrous schemes next time so that I can at least help you?” He looked straight into my tear-swollen eyes, Elena forgotten behind us.
I nodded, gazing into the black depths of his eyes, his face so close to mine I could feel his breath. He didn’t look angry anymore… no… he looked… worried.
“Let me see your ankle.” Ciaran spoke softly. I winced and stretched my right leg out toward him.
Elena and Ciaran both hissed as Ciaran gently removed my boot. My ankle was in twisted ruin and had already swollen to nearly three times its normal size.Fuck, fuck, fuck.Tears leaked down my cheeks as I saw it. I wasn’t going to be able to walk. It would be months before I could even attempt to dance. I was so stupid for getting us into this mess.
“Merde,”Elena swore as she finally got a good look at it.
“Seraphina, hold onto Elena’s hand please, love.” Ciaran spoke gently now, his lilting accent more singsong than usual, as if he were trying to put me at ease. I gripped her hand. “I’m going to heal your ankle, but it’s broken, and it’s going to hurt more at first when I set the bone back into place, alright?”
Heal it? I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. But I nodded, gritting my teeth, squeezing Elena’s hand tightly in my own. “Do it.”
Ciaran placed his warm, broad hands around the injury, a faint glow coming from beneath them. He braced his hands on either side of my ankle, and without warning, jolted them, setting the bones back into place. Agony, sudden and fiery, flared in my ankle. I thought I was going to either throw up again or pass out from the pain. But as quickly as it had come, the pain subsided, Ciaran’s hands glowing golden, his healing magic flowing into me.
He held on for another few seconds, as he watched the swelling subside. “There. That’s it.” Ciaran’s hands gripped tighter for a moment. He let go. “Good girl.” Something low in my stomach fluttered as he looked right into my eyes. “The bone is healed now. Though I might give it a few days before you try to do… what was it? Thirty-seven fouettés five times in a row?” Mischief shone in his dark eyes. I turned back to my ankle—it was completely healed.
“How did you do that?” I let go of Elena’s hand finally, wiping more tears from my eyes. I flexed my foot a few times—it was fine. I couldn’t believe it.
“I inherited a bit of my mother’s healing magic,” Ciaran explained as he helped me get to my feet. “I’m nothing compared to how good she was. And there are certainly healers more skilled than me Beneath Lutesse. But, I do what I can.” He ran a hand through his hair, as if it had been nothing, healing a broken bone completely.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Ciaran nodded. “Shall we go home? Perhaps you could explain to me exactly what happened up there?” He gestured to the tunnel. Elena and I eyed each other, neither wanting to tell the harrowing tale of Strega Maria’s tent.
After a silent battle of wills with Elena, I gave in and told Ciaran of the misadventure as we walked back through the silent, dripping tunnels, toward the safety of his apartment.
“She said the power that brought down the chandelier… she said it was mine.” I couldn’t avoid the inevitability of the statement. Elena had heard it; we were going to have to discuss it.
“She was lying,” Elena interrupted, “she was just trying to keep us there until the gendarmes came so she could get the reward for turning you in. I should have known better than to trust her. She’s a snake. I’m sorry.” She sounded horrified.I would never have held it against her, though. She had been trying to help me.
But I couldn’t shake the darkness gathering in my thoughts. “What if… what if she wasn’t lying?” I gave voice to my fears in a choked whisper.
“She was. Seraphina, we know it couldn’t have been you. We’ll find another way to figure out who it really was, if you need to know.” And that reassurance from Elena meant the world to me. Ciaran, beside us, was quiet and contemplative as we walked the rest of the way.
We bidElena farewell at the juncture where the main tunnel met the Room of Cubes. Elena lived further down that corridor. We walked in silence through the Crossroads of the Dead and back toward Ciaran’s apartment. I couldn’t believe my ankle. It was perfectly fine. No hint whatsoever that it had been broken just a few minutes ago.
