If he wanted to play with metaphors, I could use some softening like that in my life.
Lidi stood in the doorway, and she turned back to me. “Cara…”
There was a note of fear in her voice that stirred me into action. I peeked out over her shoulder.
The square was chaos.
People ran in every direction, shoving each other aside in their desperation. At the center, near the well, a shape tore through the crowd, all claws and teeth, moving too fast to track.
I ducked back and pulled Lidi after me.
She looked at me, her face white. “Monsters again.”
I thought of Tay, in the healer’s back room, helpless. “We have to help Tay. Protect him until the shifters come.”
My heart pounded, but Fieran would stride through this chaos like a god. We just had to last until the shifters arrived.
Orx shut the door and dropped a bar across it. The shop was suddenly dim and close, the outside noise muffled but constant. Orx started moving around, pulling shutters tight, setting traps at the windows. “Burrowers. I read about ’em, hoped I’d never see one.”
“Do you have a weapon I can use?”
He gave me a worried look. “Worried they’ll break through? They won’t get inside here.”
“Call me crazy. I want a world without monsters, but if there must be monsters, I want to fight.”
He reached for something under his desk and pulled up two crossbows. He thrust one at me, already turning back to pull out a small case full of darts. “You know how to use one?”
I nodded, even though I’d only fired one in archery class in the schoolyard. Once. “Point, pull, pray.”
“Good enough.” He knelt and checked Lidi’s face. “You all right, starling?”
She nodded, but she was shaking.
I should have comforted her, but I had to get to Tay. I reached past them and scooped up a handful of bolts for my pocket, then another. “I have to go.”
“No.” Orx shot to his feet. “Cara, it’s deadly out there.”
“The shifters are here.” I pointed out the window. “I just need to keep Tay safe until they can get rid of the monsters.”
His face said that my faith was misplaced. “I’ve read that burrowers steal magic. Even shifters fear them because if they lose their magic, they can’t shift?—”
“Orx. Thank you for the lesson, but I’m going.”
He stared at me, looking horrified. “Keep to the alleys. Leave your sister with me. We’ll be locked up tight.”
It would be far easier for me and far safer for Lidi to leave her here, but Orx had never struck me as the paternal type. “Thank you.”
He shrugged at the obvious relief in my tone. “Don’t bother coming back until the shifters have put those monsters to bed. If they can. I’ll be locking every door and using all my wards. You understand?”
“Yes.” I wanted to hug him, but I never would. I still had the candy in my cheek, and now it was leaking sweetness onto my tongue. “Thank you.”
I knelt in front of Lidi. “Listen, you stay with Orx. You don’t go anywhere unless he says. Understand?”
She nodded, but tears were starting to leak down her face.
“I have to go get Tay,” I said. “He’s alone.”
She hugged me so hard I could barely breathe. “Take care of him.”
