Kailorien reached down and shattered the sigil with one swipe of his hand, cracking the clumsy spellwork with a flare of blue light. The moment the loop released, the Attendant slumped forward and pressed her face to the ground in a trembling bow. Her fingers moved wildly, signs scrawled in air:Her Radiance—please help! Her Radiance fell!
“Where?” he demanded, dropping to her side. “Where is she?”
She looked up at him with eyes full of fire and fury, pushed to her feet,and ran.Kailorien followed, stunned for half a heartbeat that she wasn’t afraid of him, that she hadn’t cowered or bolted or vanished behind a veil of silence like other Attendants he’d met.
They sprinted through the darkened corridor, and as they neared the Vesper Stair, the air changed. Crisper. Colder. Thinner.
Starlight, answer me! Tell me you’re still with me…
At last, he saw her.
Sprawled at the base of the staircase, her body small and still. She sat up against the wall, the thick flowing skirts of her dress draped over the stairs like a gossamer veil. Long hair spread across the stone in a curtain. Her ankle was swollen and twisted. Silver blood smeared across her temple and trailed from the corner of her mouth.
He jumped.
Down.
All the way down.
Landing with a quake on the steps below her, heedless that the impact shattered stone.She didn't flinch at the impact or the deafening sound. He knelt, his hands hovering above her.Afraid to touch her.
“Auryn,” he choked, gathering her tiny hand in his. “I’m here…look at me.”
Her eyes fluttered open. Only one of her grey pupils contracted at the light. Her gaze was unfocused. Bleary.
“Kail…I slipped…”
“How?”
She reached for him, and he bent down so she could touch his face. “Will heal…soon. Don’t be angry.”
It’s not the first time…
…was just careless…
He didn’t remember breathing—only the sound of his own heart, roaring in his ears like a tide gone mad. Kailorien slipped one arm beneath her shoulders, the other beneath her knees. Her hair spilled over his arm, her breath a feather-soft tickle against the hollow of his throat.
“Tell me,” he whispered, the words cracking on their way out. “Tell me how this happened.”
She blinked slowly, her eyes swimming, the blood at her temple starting to dry. Her mouth opened, but the words didn’t come. Instead, her thoughts bled into his through the Bond—faint, unguarded, aching.
Don’t be afraid…
I walked in my sleep…slipped…
It happens sometimes…
I’m sorry I frightened you…
His throat tightened.
Sometimes?
You’ve donethis before? Walked in your sleep?” he asked aloud, more to himself than to her. “Void, Auryn—how long?”
She didn’t answer. Not with words. But her gaze lowered, and the ghost of a memory slid into his mind—a vision of her drawing runes on her chamber door. A ward. A barrier. A prison of her own making. To protect herself.
They liked to push. The Companions.Liked to hex, and cut, and burn when she walked without awareness. She could shield herself, but not when sleepwalking. Not when her mind was lost.
