Page 107 of Wraithwound

This was ridiculous, but also, Henry had told her to “look to the eleuth” so here she was, lying on the ground and following its commands.

Then, the eleuth bared its teeth. Lena’s eyes went round, and she sat up. In response, it leapt backward and chittered again. She stared at it, but it maintained its distance. Slowly, it began to bare its teeth again in what looked like a reluctant smile, albeit a scary looking one, and then stepped a little closer to her. Lena’s heart was pounding in her chest, but she sensed she was in no danger, the skin of her wraithwound unresponsive to the situation. She looked down to her exposed forearm and held it up. Not to try and touch the animal but in offering. The eleuth took another step closer and showed its teeth again, inching closer to her forearm but maintaining eye contact. It stopped just before reaching her arm and then looked up at her again.

“Are you saying you’re going to bite me?” Lena asked.

The question sounded ridiculous when she said it out loud. The eleuth pulled away a little and chittered. This was insane. Was she really going to let it bite her? She thought of all that could result from an animal bite: infections, tissue damage, and disease were just a few of things that came to mind, and yet . . .

“Is it going to hurt?” she asked.

The eleuth chittered again.

“Okay,” she said slowly, “so it’s going to hurt. Am I going to be okay afterwards?”

The eleuth blinked once.

“You’re going to bite me, and it’s going to hurt, but I’m going to be okay after?” she confirmed.

The eleuth chittered once more.

Taking a deep breath, Lena lay back on the hard ground and extended her arm. It approached slowly, baring its teeth, and then made eye contact, as if asking: Are you ready?

“Do it,” she said quickly, choosing to focus on the dancing auroras above her instead.

The eleuth didn’t hesitate. It bent down and opened its mouth wide. Lena shut her eyes just before she felt its teeth break through the skin.

Chapter

Fifty-Seven

Lena was falling. At first, there was only darkness, but then, there was peace. Warm sunlight shone beyond the darkness of her eyelids, and when she opened them, she was in a familiar cabin. The ache that exploded in her heart was almost too much to bear.

She was standing in her grandfather’s cabin. A small, cozy house he’d shared with her grandmother. Her childhood artwork adorned the walls, filling the spaces that weren’t already covered by framed pictures of her mother and grandmother. Herbs, ferns, large-leafed plants and tiny succulents lined almost all the other surfaces, even the windowsills. The worn sofa in the living room called to her, promising a level of safety and comfort she hadn’t known since she’d woken up with a wraithwound.

She peered outside, letting the sun warm her face, when she caught a glimpse of her grandfather headed towards the trees. Lena’s heart seized.

No, it couldn’t be.

Lena flung the door open and raced outside, skipping more than half of the entryway steps as she called to him. When he didn’t answer, she ran over to grab him, to turn him towards her, to embrace him, but her hands only grasped air as his image rippled in the soft morning light.

Her heart sunk. An illusion.

Lena stared at him as walked, taking in the lines of his face, the grey in his hair, and the brightness in his eyes, even though he wore a severe expression. She’d followed him a short distance into the woods when he’d stopped and crouched in front of a small log. She recognized the green tint under his fingernails from his work with herbs, which brought a smile to Lena’s face, but when he lifted the log, her smile fell. Behind it was a small creature. The eleuth. It was gravely injured, and beside it, babies. Lena counted six of them. The eleuth nudged them with its nose. None moved. Tears welled up in her eyes as she felt the creature’s pain and devastation.

The illusion shifted, and once again, she was standing in her grandfather’s cabin, but in the kitchen this time. He tended to the eleuth, nursing it back to health. It didn’t so much as look at him as it lay atop a soft blanket. The image changed again, making it evident that some time had gone by. Once more, they stood in the kitchen, and the eleuth seemed to have recuperated some. It chittered at him softly before nuzzling back into the blanket.

The next scene showed her grandfather standing outside, seeming to converse with the creature, who appeared to be in much better shape. He stood there for a moment before lying on the ground and extending his arm toward the creature. It bit into his exposed skin. When he sat up, he gasped and stared at the creature.

“Your name is—” he said.

But he didn’t have to say it out loud. The name Wyn appeared in her mind. The eleuth, she, chittered at her grandfather, bending down to lick his wound.

The illusion changed again, and this time, she began to sob in earnest as she watched the eleuth approach her grandfather’s lifeless body and begin to whine. The picture disappeared quickly, as if wanting to spare her what happened next, but her tears didn’t ease.

When the illusion shifted again, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see any more. The landscape settled, and she realized she was just outside Virdeen. Wyn carried a purple flower in her mouth and placed it on a windowsill. Her windowsill, and the flower—the God’s Eye.

She felt her surroundings melt away, and when they resettled once more, the eleuth looked down on her in the forest. Then again in the manor at the forsaken city, she watched over Lena from rooftops in Enora and as she wandered through the Drowning Woods. Lena crumpled to the floor and cried as Wyn’s story became clear. As the realization hit her that she’d never truly been alone.

She was barely able to process all that she had seen when the image before her was ripped away. Lena gasped as she sat up, tears still running down her face, and witnessed the chaos before her.