But damn. What now?
Something cold moves against my lower spine, and I squeeze my eyes closed at the possibility that it’s the snake. I expect to feel its bite any moment now…
I’m surprised when I don’t.
For a long minute, we remain sitting like that, the backs of our heads pressed painfully against each other’s, neither one of us loosening our grip.
Her rasped question breaks the strained silence between us. “Why didn’t you… use your wings just now?”
I rasp back. “How do you know… I have wings?”
She makes a sound that could be a snort. “I’m a fury.”
I consider my response. My muscles are straining. Sweat drips down my brow. But if I let go of the lash around her neck, I have no guarantee she won’t break my neck immediately.
“My wings are useless.”
She’s quiet for another moment, her breaths rasping audibly, and then she says, “I think you’ve become so good at getting back up after you fall that you’ve learned to survive without the ability to fly.”
My eyes widen.
I’ve fallen many times. Failed many times. Been beaten so many times.
She whispers, “My name is… Rebella.”
One who rebels.
I struggle to reply, partly because I’m still processing what she said and partly because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to speak and breathe at the same time. “That’s quite… a name.”
“I was one of three furies, but not any longer,” she says.
“Oh?” It hasn’t escaped me that the other two furies I expected to encounter haven’t made an appearance.
I fully anticipated that they might emerge from the cabin because I have a sense that it’s well lived in. Maybe it’s the various scents in the air around it or the homey appearance of the place, despite its rugged aspects.
“I lost my sisters long ago,” she gasps. “In the fight against the primordial deity, Typhon. That fight left me in a cage. I believe you understand what that feels like.”
I shudder despite myself. If her story is true, then she is yet another powerful woman put in a cage.
Still, I’m surprised at how candid she’s being. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t like being indebted to a dark creature, and I would much rather kill you, but…Damn it…”
The lash around my neck loosens.
I’m shocked to realize she must have let go of her end of it. Which means I’m free. Butsheisn’t.
I could use her choice against her, but I didn’t come here to kill her.
Letting go of the lash I was holding, I roll away from her, coming up in a crouch, now facing her.
I drag air into my chest as fast as I can while I wait for my lacerated vocal cords to heal. “Indebted to me? How, exactly?”
Her chest is heaving. The golden snake slithers up and around her neck, slowly gliding in a loose circle that appears protective of the bruises I left on her.
Bruises that are rapidly fading.
“You protected my son and ensured he was escorted to safety.”
