Panting softly, Eira looked around her room, and then toward the window. There, on the sill outside, was the dark outline of a bird, unmoving. A bird had flown into the glass. That’s all it was. Gripping her shirt over her chest and taking a deep breath to remind herself that she wasn’t under attack, Eira unlatched the lower pane and lifted it.
The bird twitched as she scooped it up, nestling it in the crook of her left arm. A knock on her door was the second startle of the night.
“Eira?” Cullen called softly. “Are you all right? I heard a shout.”
“I’m fine.” She opened the door, the bird almost completely forgotten for a moment as her eyes met Cullen’s. The tournament was getting nearer and they were only growing farther and farther apart by the day. They hadn’t even managed to steal words at night, too exhausted from training or Yemir keeping him too late. He felt like a stranger now, and that made her chest tighten and her breath hitch despite herself. “This little guy, on the other hand…” Eira brushed past Cullen, starting for Alyss’s room. “He flew into my window.”
“Into your—”
“What’s going on?” Noelle opened her door with a yawn. Fortunately for all of them and their various late night discussions and adventures, Levit was an incredibly heavy sleeper.
“A bird flew into Eira’s window,” Cullen answered as Eira knocked softly on Alyss’s door.
“All this fuss over a bird?” Noelle ran her fingers through her hair.
“Alyss?” Eira opened the door. If there was one person who was a heavier sleeper than Levit, it was her friend. Eira gently set the bird down on Alyss’s writing desk and jostled the sleeping woman. “Alyss, I need you.”
“What is it?” Alyss grumbled without opening her eyes.
“A bird flew into my window. I think it’s injured.” Eira noticed the specks of blood on her arm and side. “I need you to heal it or it might die.”
That got Alyss up. She scrambled from bed, pushing Eira aside and rushing over to the desk Eira pointed to. Alyss sat, holding the bird with both hands.
“You poor dear,” she murmured. Alyss had always possessed a soft spot for animals. “Who beat you up like this?”
“Will it be all right?” Noelle asked from the doorway. She and Cullen hovered, apparently too invested in the fate of the bird now to go back to bed.
“I think so. Eira, can you get me my box, please?” Alyss said as her magic washed over the small animal.
Eira did as she was asked. Taking the vials from the box, handing salves and herbs to Alyss so she could perform her work, Eira was transported back to the clinic. She’d always finished her duties before Alyss, as she’d never had as much to do thanks to Uncle Fritz. Sometimes, if Alyss was close to being done, Eira would lend a hand as her assistant.
How simple life was then. All Alyss had worried about was if she had enough clay on hand and when her next favorite romance novel would come out. And Eira, all she worried about was…was…
She hadn’t worried about anything. Eira stared at the frail bird in Alyss’s fingers. Her friend’s desperate attempts fell on deaf ears as the world around her was muffled. Eira hadn’t worried about much. Certainly, she’d had her interests, her trivial concerns—and how trivial they did seem now.
Trying to surpass her brother, longing to see the world, she’d wished for all of those things, and now that she had them…what she wouldn’t give to go back to that simpler time. But she couldn’t, no more than this little bird could’ve avoided her window in its swan dive from the heavens. Eira had gained direction and things to fight for and she could never be the girl she once was.
“There.” Alyss leaned away. “I think that’ll do it, for now at least.”
“It’s going to be all right?” Eira asked. The bird twitched, its head beginning to move.
“It should rest here tonight, and then we can check on it in the morning. I’m sure it’ll be flying by—” Alyss didn’t finish before she jumped out of her chair, nearly landing on the bed.
A pulse of magic surrounded the bird. Then, another, as the black creature flapped, righting itself. A third pulse and the creature leapt from the desk and landed as a woman with glowing dots in place of eyebrows.
Her hair had fallen in chunks of curls from the bun it had once been pulled back into. Blood was smeared across her face. Her clothes were torn in the same places that the bird’s feathers had been rumpled. She looked around her, tried to lunge forward, and fell to the ground.
“Ar—” Eira wasn’t fast enough recalling her name.
“Lady Arwin?” Cullen rushed over. “What happened?”
“I’m no lady,” she snarled, pushing Cullen aside, using him as a prop to get herself upright. But she tipped perilously and fell into a chair that rose from the floorboards with a lift of Alyss’s hands. Arwin let out a string of curses. “I have to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere in this state.” Alyss crossed to Arwin’s side. “I healed you like I would a bird, not a person. Let me look at you.”
“They’re in danger,” Arwin said, trying to push Alyss away, but Arwin’s strength had left her.
“Who?” Eira asked, heart already racing. “Who’s in danger?”
