Page 99 of Caretaker

Chapter Thirty-Three

As Angus knelt and lifted me into his arms, Clayton strode forward and took me from him. Angus didn’t argue, but as Clayton held me against his chest he took my hand.

With Silverlight’s absence, my arm once again throbbed with pain, swelling and pulsing like a living thing had crawled inside and I could feel its heartbeat.

Shane and Rhys sat on the ground beside us, and Leo stood at our backs, keeping watch.

“I’m yours,” Clayton murmured. “You’ve saved me from something you cannot imagine. I’m yours.”

I wished for the strength to touch his face, but my strength was gone. I was just a dying woman bleeding out in the dead of night. “You belong to no one,” I said, fiercely. “Not anymore.”

“Still.” He smiled, and I caught a glimpse of the man he’d been before. “I am yours, Trinity. You have my heart, my devotion, my protection.”

“She’s dying,” Shane growled, full of pain and anger. “Your devotion isn’t what she needs.”

Maybe he’d blame Clayton for a while, but if I lived, his anger would melt away. If I died, there would be a war between those two.

“She won’t die.” Clayton’s voice held no doubt, but his eyes, no longer blank and empty, held a world of agony. He looked at Shane. “But if you say that again, you will.”

Shane stiffened, but before he could say anything I stopped him. “Don’t fight each other. Don’t do that.”

The world was fading. Weakness held every part of my body, and I wasn’t sure I was even breathing. I floated, and dreamed, and dimmed. I began to drift away, but I wasn’t afraid.

Then suddenly, I popped my eyes open and gasped, because in my drifting dreams I saw the way station. I saw, and I saw Himself, and I knew he waited. I’d brought the bull back from the island. I’d proven myself.

Now I had to claim the way station.

“I can’t die,” I spat, contemptuously. “I’m the Gatekeeper.” Still, I could not move. I had to believe in Amias, and in fate, because they were what would save me. And I believed.

“Damn right,” Rhys murmured, but his voice was strained.

No one looked at him. He’d shared a part of himself they’d never seen, and his secret was no longer his own. But he had to know the only one of us he couldn’t trust was gone. Miriam was gone.

And Clayton was free.

“Clayton,” I said. “Tell us your side while we wait.” I needed the distraction. We all did.

Immediate resistance lit his face and he blanked his eyes, but that was only habit. I could see the second it dawned on him, the instant he really understood that her hold was gone forever.

“I’m a man,” he said, slowly.

I would have nodded, but despite my momentary determined surge of belief, I felt myself slipping toward the darkness once again. Something swam in that darkness, something like darting silver fishes, and I widened my eyes. “What is that?”

“What, Trin?” Angus squeezed my hand. “We’re here, sweetheart.”

“Silver in the air,” I whispered. “See it?”

“I can’t.” Rhys jumped to his feet, then flung himself into the night.

I was sad to see him go. But then Clayton began to speak, his voice warm and comforting and distracting as I lay against his chest. His arm pressed against one of the switchblade handles that protruded from my back, but I said nothing. In the sea of pain, the pressure of his arm was merely a tingle.

“The man who saved Miriam from the cages was a pedophile,” he told us. “He saved her, then he betrayed her. He hurt her in ways no one but Miriam can truly understand. He broke her mind. But she was never able to admit what he did to her. To all those other little girls.”

No one spoke, or moved, or even breathed as Clayton spoke. His voice held something I did not recognize and could not name. Perhaps it had no name.

“I also broke her mind,” he continued. “I took him from her. I didn’t know she was there that night.” He stared down at me. “I would have killed him anyway, but I would never have done the things I did with her watching.”

“She wasn’t really trying to hurt you,” Shane realized. “She was trying to hurt him.”