Apartfrom the one in my arms.
“How…?” I couldn’t quite get my head around it.
“Who the hells knows? Nelle’s something that’s never been born in our world before. She can’t handle being trapped in here because the beast inside her is a wyrm. And that’s what it would naturally do without either source of natural light to fuel it…go into hibernation.”
Oh my gods…
I was frozen to the spot trying to process it all when Ferne stamped a foot, shouting, “Do something! Open the godsdamned windows! The doors!”
I jerked into motion, carrying Nelle to the nearest wall, and spread a hand against the ancient stone veined with adamere, glittering like sunlight on snow. The tower’s magic had been willed to my own. All I had to do was close my eyes and think of how I wanted to change the space. As I narrowed my thoughts and visualized the changes, the harsh grate of shifting stone scraped at my ears.
Brisk air swirled inside, grazing my skin with a bite of winter.
Opening my eyes, I withdrew my hand to cradle Nelle better. Evenly spaced arches ringed the tower. As I stepped onto the balcony, dread seized my lungs as I stared upward at the thick banks of clouds obscuring the moon.
The night sky was as dark as my soul. No moonlight.
Yet, part of me was still confused. “This didn’t happen to her when she was locked in the Tithe Prison.” Nelle hadn’t mentioned it to me when she’d shared her secret.
My sister sucked in a horrified breath. “What did you say?”
I blinked, realizing this was a part of Nelle’s history Ferne didn’t know. “Marissa locked Nelle in their family’s tithe prison. Guilt, I expect, at betraying Mom.” Even at that young age, Nelle’s strange powers would have been growing stronger, and I’d say fear of her daughter would have been another reason why Marissa would have done such a desperate and cruel act.
“She would have…been…” the words drifted apart as she calculated how old Nelle would have been. “Seven years old.”
I nodded. “Seven years old and trapped in suffocating darkness, alone.”
“Gods, that’s—”
“Monstrous? Horrendous? Despicable? Is it any worse than what we’re doing? What’s going to happen to Nelle if she survives this sickness?”
Ferne winced. And I sensed her conflict deepening as she chewed on her bottom lip, glancing away. A moment later, she leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, her brows nudged together above the lace strapped around her forehead, as she gave what I’d said earlier further thought. “The wyrm’s growing, maturing with her. It would have been a youngling back then. Only when it reaches adolescence is it allowed out of the burrow to bask in moon rays or sunbeams.”
And right now, we didn’t have either.
“She needs a friend.”
Ferne pushed abruptly off the doorframe. She pulled an anxious,are-you-sure?expression instantly knowing who I was referring to. “I’ve worked with him for the past week. He can’t bite your face off, but he’s going to let you know how he feels.”
I was about to beg her to bring him up here when she answered. “I’ll go get him.”
As Ferne fled down the stairwell, I laid Nelle gently on the leather couch, carefully dragging it outside so as not to jostle her too much.
As I brushed the sticky locks from her forehead, her lashes fluttered shut on a long, whistling breath…and she didn’t take another.
Bleak panic surged in fear that she’d never wake again. I shook her. “Come on, Nelle, stay with me.”I kept shaking her until she took a breath, parting her lashes to stare at me through slitted, glassy eyes. She was cold and feverish, and though my instinct was to tuck the blankets around her, I couldn’t. She needed warmth, but more importantly, she needed every part of her body to be exposed to allow moonlight to bathe her skin and fuel the trapped wyrm.
And yet I couldn’t let her shiver out here in the chilly autumnal night either.
Nelle was going to hate me for this, even more than she usually did, but fucked if that was important right now.
Quickly unzipping my boots, I shucked them off along with my armor, tossing them aside. I was still dusty and grimy and stunk of smoke, but none of that mattered. I gently rolled Nelle to her side and slid onto the couch behind her, stretching out.
Slipping an arm beneath her chest, I pulled her closer so her back was pressed to my front, and nudged a leg under hers, flinching at the feel of her near-freezing limbs, so I could share my body heat with her. Gently tugged up her nightie so more of her legs were exposed to the moonlight that I prayed to Mother Skalki to let shine down on her.
Please, please, please…
The door to my residence briefly opened, and I heard the approach, quiet on the carpet, then clipped claws on stone.The wraith-wolf gave me one low warning growl as he rounded the couch, and those strange silver-misty eyes fixed on me, glowering. He didn’t try to bite or bare his fangs at me. His attention swung straight to Nelle. He bounded up, wagging his tail, nudging her hand with his moist nose and licking her fingers, but it drew no response, and with a long, mournful whine, he settled down on the balcony floor, curling into a ball to keep her company.
