8
Oran
My arm is swollen, and purple tendrils spread beneath my skin. I’ve kept the poison at bay, but I need more than honey to shed the toxin of the brathu’s bite. I need to get to the café and have one of Lindsay’s healing teas.
Shay is in no better shape.
We cross the state line and he stops at the T intersection and indicates the wrong way for the café.
“The cafe is only an hour away. You need help,” I say. I’m sure Lindsay won’t turn him away while he’s wounded.
Shay shakes his head. “I can’t turn up there. The poison won’t kill me, but she will.”
No, but venom is painful as it spreads. Like hot wires being threaded beneath the skin. At least the brathu are gone. But the hunt hadn’t been fun like it had been with Danni. It had been hard and dangerous work. I’d shattered her bat in the process, and I need to buy her a new one. It’s an excuse to see her, and I’m happy to admit it. At least to myself.
I shake out my arm, my fingers verging on numb. “Park over the road, you don’t have to come in.”
“Nah, I’ll head home, rest up and I’ll be fine in a few days. Thanks for helping.”
I’ve been gnawing on what to say for the last couple of days. I can’t sit on it any longer. “Danni needs training. How long until something that does hunt the fae catches her scent.”
Shay scowls at me. “I watch her. I might have been a shit partner to Lindsay, but I tried to be a good dad. I don’t want Danni getting hurt.”
“Then teach her to fight.”Or I will.
He shakes his head. “And don’t you be getting any ideas. You keep away.”
I can’t do that. There’s a pull in my gut that I can’t ignore, and I know it will lead me straight back to Danni. Did he not feel it with Lindsay? Has he ever felt it? “Have you told Danni how to access her magic?”
“She lives in the human world; she doesn’t need that either.” He revs the bike, this conversation is done.
“You’re stopping her from knowing herself and her power,” I shout over the sound of his bike.
“It’s safer if she doesn’t use magic. Less chance of a creature finding her.” He roars down the road, heading home.
That was partly true, but also a bullshit excuse. Ignorance doesn’t keep people safe. I’m going to take this up with Lindsay.
* * *
Ipull into the café, shrug out of my jacket, and hang it over my swollen arm, then I stroll in like I own the place. I nod to another rider then stop like I’ve been punched in the gut. Danni is behind the counter.
Her eyes narrow before she pastes on a fake smile. “What can I get you?”
You.
My grin isn’t fake. “I need to see your mother…why are you here?”
“I don’t answer to you.”
The more she snips and glares, the more I want her. I love her fight. I want her at my side, swinging a sword as we hunt together. I’m sure it’s been done before. Why rush back to faery when I can have everything I want here?
Her voice softens. “Why do you need Mom?”
I lift my jacket just enough for her to see the bite and the spread of venom. Like Shay, I could’ve gone home, but there’s no point in carrying an injury for days when it can be treated fast. Weakness gets a rider killed.
Her gaze flicks from the wound to my face, concern fills her eyes and for a moment I think she might care about me. But that might be my own wishful thinking.
“Come out to the garden.” She leads me through to the yard where I’ve spent many a happy night drinking under the fairy lights with other riders. We don’t see each other very often, never more than a handful at a time, so when it happens it’s always a big night.
