Awri didn’t speak a word to me on the way back to the palace, and she hadn’t said a word when we’d gone to bed. Not that she needs to. Even if she wouldn’t look at me, her anger was clear in the set of her shoulders and her rigid spine.
Luckily, she’s in the shower when I wake in a tremoring sweat, heaving off the side of the bed. I’d gone to sleep on an empty stomach, but that does nothing to alleviate the sickening feel of the bile that sears my throat.
It’s the worst my dreams have been since the day I recall having my first, the day I met Bagya in the woods. I can still taste the droplets of blood in my mouth, still feel the heat of the woman’s last breath on my cheek, the press of the demon as it coiled around me. I bunch the silk sheets in my fists and will them to stop shaking.
Safe. You’re safe.
Taking a deep steadying breath, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, collapsing onto the floor the moment I try to stand. I grasp my head asthe world spins. My ears ring loudly, the sound swelling and ebbing like a pulse, and I swipe at a tickle beneath my nose only to find my fingers coated in a thin sheen of blood.
Tig rushes to my side, her green eyes full of worry.
“I’m all right,” I assure her, “Just a little lightheaded.”
As usual I hadn’t seen the sprite come into the room. For the first time I begin to wonder just how often she watches me completely unseen. The water shuts off in the washroom and Tig glances at the doors, then back at me.
“Really, I’m all right,” I say.
My eyes flick to the tiny black blooms with the purple hue growing in her hair. Her hand reaching up to touch one when she shakes her head. I nod. They aren’t ready.
“Go.” I tip my head toward the window, and she vanishes with a great amount of hesitation.
I fail to regain my feet before Awri glides into the room. Her eyes begin to slide over my face dismissively, her head turning away, and I start to think she’s decided not to speak to me for another day, maybe more. Until her head whips back toward me when she registers that I’m on the floor.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
I take another pass at the blood drying beneath my nose and nod. “I’m fine. Just a little lightheaded.”
She bolts to the door and yells to someone across the hall, “Have Caden brought here immediately.”
“That is unnecessary,” I argue weakly, “It’s just a bloody nose. Why would you call a healer for a bloody nose?”
I don’t mention that my ears are ringing or that the spin of the room has been replaced by a considerable pounding in my head. I pull myself off the floor, making a show of appearing better than I feel. Awri follows close behind when I make my way into the washroom, and it takes everything I have to steady my legs as I walk.
“You really think I’d prefer the pain of his healing to a bloody nose that will be gone by the time he arrives?” I quirk a brow at her.
She shrugs. “Xey made me promise to call for Caden if you everdescribed yourself as being ‘fine’.”
Controlling ass.
I’ve barely dressed when Caden bursts into the room, a shade paler than he was the last time I saw him. Heaving a deep breath, he looks me over expectantly, as if he thought I might have lost a leg. Awri marches me into the main room, sitting me down on a large settee close to the windows. The look on his face when Awri describes my condition may be worth the pain of having him brought here. I can’t help the chuckle that slips past my lips when he frowns.
“A bloody nose?” he asks.
Awri rolls her eyes. “Just try and heal her. Xeyvian—”
“Say no more.” Caden halts her with a wave of his hand, before rubbing his palms together to warm them and laying them against my temples. I brace, preparing for the pain of his gift. Then, nothing. Not so much as a pinching sting of power. He eyes me quizzically and I shrug.
“Shouldn’t it hurt to heal a bloody nose?” Awri questions the male.
“It should. Yes,” he says.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you.” I narrow my eyes at my friend.
And I’m sure she isn’t joking when she says, “A little.”
“If she isn’t injured, why is she bleeding?” she asks the healer.
“Maybe it’s Xeyvian’s gift?” I suggest.
