CHAPTER 26
TEN MINUTES AGO
Wasthat a new crack in her ceiling? Skye thought so. There was a spider in the corner, busily spinning a web. She watched it from where she lay on her bed, the covers flattened and crumpled around her.
Stupid little spider.It’s a waste of time. The maid will come in later today with a duster and brush away yer home.
Although perhaps she would ask the maid to leave the cobweb. She’d get an odd look from the woman, but it would be worth it. The spider might catch a few of the flies that had been buzzing around the room over the past few days, annoying it.
It was her fault that the flies were here. She kept leaving her food trays untouched, and of course, the flies were attracted to them.
I ought to be hungry. I’ve been eating sparingly over the past few days. But nothing tastes good! It makes me feel sick. It sticks in me throat.
Her mother, of course, rarely let her go past a mealtime without at least eating a few bites. That was kind of her, but really, Skye would have preferred to be left alone. It was easier.
How long does this last?
No answer was forthcoming. The feeling, a heaviness deep in her chest, had plagued her since she left Keep Bryden. And as the days dragged by with no word from Evander, the heaviness grew… well, heavier. As if she’d swallowed a stone, a large one. She could feel it when she moved, when she tried to eat. Food and water fell on the stone, shifting in her stomach. When she tried to sleep, the stone dug into her side, making it impossible to drift off.
“Ye can talk to me, lass,” her mother had said, over and over again.
But how could she possibly talk when she couldn’t find the words?Werethere words for this?
Heartbreak, perhaps.
Oh, how Skye hated that word. It was something she might read in a fairytale, a story about two ill-fated lovers separated forever. Heartbreak sounded like something intangible, a kind of malaise, perhaps.
It’s nae like a sickness.It’s like a real break. A limb broken, a bone snapping. It hurts more than ye think it will, and it affectseverything. Ye cannae move with a broken leg or a broken back. The pain spreads everywhere. Small things are harder.
She’d broken her arm once, as a child. Her right arm, the one she used most. The healers set the bone and wrapped her arm in a sling, and then all she had to do was wait for the clean break to heal.
Living without using that arm was strange. She’d reach for a glass of water, only to have a stab of pain remind her that it was the wrong arm. It hung across her body like a dead thing, useless but for causing pain.
It healed, of course. But would this break heal?
It feels deeper than that.
She closed her eyes, feeling a single tear leak out from underneath her lids. Surprising that she had any left, really. After her arrival home, she had done little else but cry, draining herself of water and salt. But no, apparently there was at least one droplet left.
Wonderful.
The door creaked open without warning, and she flinched. Pushing herself up on her elbows, she squinted at the door.
Helena slipped inside, bringing a gust of cold air with her, along with the smell of rain and the outdoors.
“I thought ye were going for a walk with Hunter,” Skye said. “Back so soon?”
Helena drew in a breath, smoothing down her skirt with shaking hands.
Frowning, Skye sat up properly, dangling her bare feet over the side of the bed. “Maither? What is it?”
“Ye had better come quickly and see for yerself,” Helena said. She sounded exhausted.
A tendril of worry uncoiled itself in Skye’s gut.
“Tell me what’s wrong, Maither. Please.”
“Just hurry. And put on yer boots; it’s raining outside. That thunderstorm is here at last.”
