It’s whatever truth Erik was about to tell me.
His focus is on her. His shoulders are hunched and a mask of resignation has slipped over his features.
The fragile moment is broken and all I can do is quietly vow that we will have it again.
I can’t force truth and trust, but it’s building between us, and all I can do is give it space to grow.
Milena’s eyes open, an inky dark-blue as her lips move with the faintest sound. “Am I… free?”
“You are. But be warned, we are not your friends.” I lift my left hand and hover it next to her face so she can see my medallion.
A faint crease appears in her forehead as her gaze passes across my hair and eyes and then to my palm. She seems to immediately recognize the medallion. “My brother’s metal…”
Her gaze slips to the branches above us, her eyes widening as she focuses on the new boughs and blue leaves.
“So beautiful.” She gives a soft exhale, seeming transfixed by the swaying branches and unworried about the threat of death. “You must be Asha Silverspun. Only you could do this. And with my brother’s medallion, no less.”
Her eyes suddenly glisten, a surprising rush of tears. “I was right about you.” Her face falls. “But the pain I must have caused you, leaving you hammerless?—”
My jaw clenches.Pain and nearly irreparable damage.
It’s Erik who reacts, snarling at her, and once again, she startles, focusing on him and then on his claws, which have remained at her neck.
Strangely, she seems to only notice them now, but again, the threat doesn’t seem so important as the fact that he has claws. “Erik,” she rasps, her eyes filling with tears again. “I heard you had become a wolf. I hoped it wasn’t so.”
Erik stiffens. “How do you know my name?”
Milena’s eyes are more alert with every passing second, but she hasn’t moved a muscle of her body yet, and I’m starting to wonder if she can.
She looks past me, as if she expects to see something. “But where is…?”
Her voice fades off and her lips purse, then her brow furrows. Confusion filters through her expression. “Wait… I don’t remember… How did I…?”
Her gaze flits between us, her expression growing increasingly confused. Then in the next instant, her expression clears.
She asks again, “Am I free?”
My lips purse and my brow furrows at her repetition and the way she seems unaware of the danger we pose to her.
Erik gives a heavy exhale. “Her mind might be damaged.”
I can’t disagree. I can only imagine what nightmares she might have experienced when she was encased in the tree and how her mind tried to cope with them.
On top of that, the loss of her power may well have shattered parts of her logic and reason and her ability to remain lucid.
But it doesn’t erase her past actions.
I can’t allow myself to feel pity for her, knowing what she did to Thaden and the dragon.
“Milena,” I say, my voice hard. “I’m going to chain you now. I will feed you and make sure you’re warm and then you’re going to tell me about the dragon you killed?—”
“Dragon?” Her arms twitch, the first sign of movement in her body, but her face has drained of blood. “Dragon!”
A shudder passes through her. “Oh, no.” She gasps. “Lysander is dead!”
Her hand grabs mine, even though she comes very close to cutting her fingers on Erik’s claws with the movement.
“He did this!” she hisses. “Hekilled Lysander. He betrayed me and caged me and?—”
