My champion. You must fight.
I wokeup panting and covered in sweat, clutching my chest as if my heart was trying to burst through the cage of my flesh. Hayle stood beside me, his knife in his hand, looking for threats, but all I had were bad dreams.
“It’s okay,” I muttered groggily. “Just a nightmare.”
He hovered for a little longer, but then climbed back in beside me. The other two hadn’t even woken; Vox was still pressed tightly to my back, though his hand had migrated upfrom my stomach to my chest, as if he could calm its beating like you’d calm a spooked horse.
Hayle pressed close to my front, brushing his lips across mine. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head lightly. It felt… wrong. Everything had been exaggerated. When I’d held my heart in my hand, it had been shaped like the kind you found carved into trees, and not the kind that existed inside a body. Even I could tell it wasn’t a memory of the past, not like my old ones. The ones that hadn’t really been nightmares, but me remembering the death of my mother in every reset.
This wasn’t the same.
It made it more unnerving, though.
“Just a dream.” However, the defiant look on Zier’s face as he sat on the chopping block wouldn’t leave my mind. Tomorrow, I’d ask Kian to send a message. Check how he was or something.
Hayle wrapped himself around me, his head tilted back so I could tuck my face into his throat. I breathed him in, the scent so familiar, so comforting, I fell back into a thankfully dreamless sleep.
A loud clangingnoise woke me, and I started up in bed. The guys around me all stumbled to their feet, but Alucius still lay on the rug, looking more annoyed than anything. So clearly, not a threat.
Hayle groaned. “It’s just Meela. Braxus said it’s the breakfast bell.” He rolled his eyes. “He’d like me to tell you that there’s breakfast sausage.”
I grinned, because Braxus had my back. I loved breakfast sausage.
I loved that hound.
“Tell Braxus I think she’s got quite enough sausage in her life,” Vox grumbled, leaning over to kiss my head as he pulled on his shirt. “Good morning, love.”
I smiled up at him. This soft, early morning version of Vox was one of my favorites. It was like his skin hadn’t been cured into the impenetrable shell he lived behind just yet. He brushed his lips across mine, and I chased them. I wanted longer kisses. I wanted longer, lazy mornings, where I could just lie on his chest without fear of anyone finding out, or being attacked by assassins.
Lierick squeezed past me toward the door, kissing the back of my nape. “Morning, Avie. Fuck, you’re beautiful.” Then he sandwiched me between Vox’s body and his own, and kissed Vox’s cheek. “You too, handsome.”
Being between them like that might be my new favorite position. I made a happy humming noise, but Hayle interrupted. “Normally, I would say we should take this back to bed, but Meela and Reeba scare the shit out of me, and I’m terrified they’ll appear when I’m balls deep in my Soul Tie.”
Lierick laughed. “And Kian Halhed might actually neuter you like a horny dog.” He grabbed my hand, and we all left the bedroom.
Up in the main living area, Kian, Celis, Powell, and Iker were already sitting around the long table. We would definitely be putting a dent in the old women’s food supplies, and I wondered if I could ask Kian to get them more before he headed back to Rewill.
“Good morning, good morning,” Meela sing-songed. “Sit down. You have a big day in the archives, and you’ll need your fuel.”
I didn’t even know what we were looking for. Would there be something on Recreationists? I knew Lierick and Iker wanted to go through their own family archives, but I was pretty surethat was more for nostalgia than anything else. Reeba seemed convinced that the Goddess had directed us here for a purpose, though, and we’d just have to trust that we’d know it when we saw it.
“Where’s Epsy?” I asked Braxus, but it was Hayle who answered.
“Apparently, Reeba asked him to catch a little mouse that’s been avoiding traps in the archive rooms.”
I winced, remembering my little mouse friend back at Boellium. “Can’t you just ask the mouse to, I don’t know, evacuate?”
Hayle laughed. “I did ask, but it gave me the mouse equivalent of the finger. My companions are merely that; they have minds of their own, and the one running around in there has an attitude and a real love for the wooden crates that hold the artifacts.”
Meela humphed. “Sneaky little mouse. I swear, it’s Reeba’s archnemesis. If your stolt is successful, she might try to keep him.”
I grinned, but shook my head. “He’s pretty devoted. He even had an eagle deliver him to a boat in the middle of the Alutian Sea.”
Kian looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and I shrugged. It was the least insane thing that had happened.
The conversation around the table was easy, with even Celis and Powell seemingly relaxed, like they knew they were finally safe. Kian had to leave today to head back to Rewill, but he’d return in a few weeks to bring supplies for Meela and Reeba.
