The woman stood and faced me with a stern expression. She did not seem to care in the slightest that I was an angel or that I was at least two feet taller than her. The blood coating my clothing didn’t faze her. Neither did the massive sword strapped to my hip.
Her eyes were fierce. Determined. Steady.
“Darkness becomes the chain that binds, love discovers the thread that unwinds.The girl will know what it means.”
My blood froze in my veins as she spoke the same damn words that had been forced into my brain in the Whispering Caves.
Without another word, she snatched her bag from the bed and started for the door.
“Wait! We haven’t paid you!”
With her hand on the knob, she looked back. Her focus slipped to Rummy for half a second, then back to me. “Fight the darkness. I’ll take no payment for what that girl must go through. It’s hardly a healing journey.”
And then she was gone.
The three of us stood in the silence for what felt like a damn hour. We listened to the woman’s footsteps grow fainter, fainter, fainter, until they disappeared completely.
“That was fucking freaky,” Xavier muttered when the room was silent. “Are we supposed to believe that Rummy is possessed with some sort of weird darkness?”
Unease swirled in my gut. “I have no idea.”
The unrest dissipated, though, when I got a good look at Rummy’s mended wound, and I blew out a relieved breathwhen I used my senses to listen for her heartbeat. Her pulse had already grown steadier, her breathing deeper, like her body could finally relax after fighting for so long.
“Is the woman insane?” I asked Matthias. “Does she always spew nonsense like that?”
When he didn’t answer right away, I turned to him. His eyes were locked on Rummy, but they became distant. Dark. His brows were drawn together and his hand was pulled up by his face.
It looked as though he was locked in a memory.
“Matthias?”
He snapped out of the trance, shaking his head. “What?”
“I asked if that woman is always spewing that sort of nonsense. Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”
Head lowered, he focused on the floor. “She’s an old woman. She’s seen a lot of things. I wouldn’t expect to make sense of half the shit she says. But she healed Rummy, didn’t she?”
Shrugging, I surveyed the woman on the bed. It was incredible, how much better she looked. “I guess she did, yeah.”
“Then that’s all that matters. She should be good as new by the morning.” With that, he spun on his heel and stepped out into the hall.
“Where are you going?” Xavier asked.
“I’m going to find food, then I’m taking my ass to sleep. I suggest you do the same.”
The door shut loudly behind him.
With a sigh, I ran my dirty hands down my face. “It’s been a long fucking day. I can’t even begin to decipher what just happened.”
Xavier stepped closer. “He’s right. She’s healed. That’s all that matters for now. If this mystical darkness we know nothing about overtakes her, we’ll deal with it then, okay?”
I nodded. “You’ve never heard her say anything about her magic, right? I mean, she doesn’t wield?”
Xavier shrugged. “If she does, I’ve heard nothing about it. As far as I know, she hates magic just as much as she hates all of us.”
“Right. That’s what I thought.”
Xavier left soon after to find food, but I stayed behind, unable to leave Rummy until I knew for certain she would be okay.
