Dammit! I clamped my teeth together and swallowed every curse I wanted to spew, and there were many. I remained seated but wanted to slam my hands on the table. The only thing stopping me was I’d just make noise. Who could compete with scorch marks?
She might’ve been getting under my skin a tad now. She was quite irritating. I peeked over at Ryker. His glance said, I told you so.
“I had an opportunity and I seized it. Clearly you’re disappointed, but life doesn’t always work out the way you want. I should know. I’m here, after all, and you’re alive.” She sat across the table gloating, stroking the fur of her jacket like it was a beloved pet.
“I knew this was a bad idea.” Ryker turned and sat on the table, giving the queen his back. “Are you done listening to her? I’m finding this quite tedious myself.”
I wasn’t sure if tedious was the right word. I’d rather have pins shoved under my fingernails than talk to her again. I’d learned some things today, but I wasn’t going to plead a case to let her continue.
The queen stood, brushed off her fur where she’d been sitting, as if the place had contaminated her, and crossed her arms, staring at us.
“I was finished anyway.” She pointed at me. “You made this problem, and you’ll have to fix it. I’ll never be able to get close enough to kill it. Neither will he.”
“Thank you for stating the obvious,” I said. I’d already suspected that as well. The demon had disappeared as soon as Ryker had gotten close.
She turned and headed for the door but stopped right before she left.
“By the way, tell that little mute friend of yours to stop using my poison. She’s lucky the idea of being here another minute is repulsive, or I’d find her myself.” She waved her fingers in a girlish goodbye as she left. I could tell by the gloating look in her eyes that she knew she’d finally taken a shot that hit home.
Ryker didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Anger was filling the room. My contribution to the magical mix was panic. There was no way Marra would’ve poisoned people. She might’ve gotten messed up in the head since her sister died, but she hadn’t become a killer.
“That woman’s trying to cause problems. We have bigger issues right now than her lies, like what we let loose with these stones. How much did you know?” I asked, standing and pacing halfway across the room before leveling him with a stare that would’ve burned someone else to the ground.
He followed me halfway over. “Are you asking if I knew about the Black Abyss? Yes. If you hadn’t hidden most of your life, you would’ve probably heard about it too at some point. Did I know it would unleash a monster? Of course I didn’t, just as you probably didn’t realize the girl you were defending was a murderer.”
“How can Marra be behind the deaths? When I wormed that last time, the lines said it was caused by someone you’d heard of. Not someone here or that you knew.”
“Are you sure that’s how you asked the question?” He spoke like someone whose jaw was locked.
“Yes.” I wasn’t defending the Marra who hated me but the woman who’d been in my crew. The one who’d starved with me, fought with me. I was speaking as the family member of a person about to get hung.
“The worm might have thought of the poison as the cause, or the person that created the poison.”
“But what about the queen? She said it was hers, and you know her. That directly conflicts with what it said.” If I didn’t drive enough of a shadow onto the queen’s accusations, someone was going to die.
“The queen doesn’t make her own poisons. And yes, I know of the Wyrd Blood that does it for her.” He turned and walked out.
“Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer. He wouldn’t kill Marra without being one hundred percent sure.
He probably wouldn’t.
I let out a groan before I ran out the door.
Thirty-One
I’d watched Marra eat dinner and then play cards for hours. I’d sat in a tree, got rained on, and now hovered in the shadows across from her room while she was probably toasty in bed. What I was doing made no sense. I should let Ryker kill her if he wanted. If I was drowning, she wouldn’t throw a rope to save me, and yet I was here.
The worst part about all of this was that I hadn’t even seen Ryker. If he was going to kill her, he would’ve done it by now. He wouldn’t have waited until she crawled into bed. He would’ve walked right up to her and killed her in the middle of the food building.
That didn’t mean Marra was off the hook. He was probably waiting to see if there was some proof besides what the Queen Bitch of Cacoy had said. Now we’d have to see if some turned up. She was an emotional mess, but I still couldn’t believe she was a killer.
I hoped she wasn’t a killer. Was it possible to be that wrong about someone? Could the past blind you that much? Yeah, it was possible. If all those deaths were her doing, she deserved whatever she got. I wouldn’t be there throwing her a rope, either.
Someone sneezed in the empty space beside me.
“Magic bless you,” I said.
Sneak sneezed twice more before he appeared.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“I’ve been on her since lunch. You were a little late.”
Ryker had disappeared somewhere. I should’ve guessed it would be to get Sneak on the job.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to see how long you’d sit in the rain for some asshole who shits all over you. It was dumb but somehow admirable.” He chuckled.
Glad he was amusing someone, because I sure wasn’t laughing. I pushed off the wall. “Looks like she’s going to live through the night. You’ll let me know if something goes down?”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll know,” he said, his eyebrows halfway up his forehead as he turned toward me. “You’re lucky Ryker’s in charge. I would’ve gotten rid of her as soon as her cracks revealed her rotten insides.”
Ryker had protected her? Why would he do that? Sneak was confused. That might happen to him more than I realized. Perhaps it was why he didn’t talk that much.
I kept quiet, waiting to see if he’d say more.
“After the shit she pulled, getting people worked up against you, he was dying to kick her ass out,” Sneak said. Then he stared forward, not offering anything else.
“He said that to you?” I asked, hoping to get the information flowing again
“Of course he didn’t, but I know him.” He turned back to Marra’s place. “Fuck. She’s on the move again. I probably gotta go wait for her to take a dump or something.”
Sneak grunted and disappeared again. The only sign of him was the crunch of gravel under his feet.
Ryker had left Marra alone for me? It didn’t make sense, unless he’d thought he could use her to control me somehow? Or maybe Sneak had no idea what he was talking about. Ryker hadn’t said that. Sneak had assumed it. Not exactly reliable info.
I turned to head away from Marra’s. Sneak would cover the rest of the night, and Marra would be alive in the morning. A redheaded young girl caught up to me as I was walking out of the alley. The shadows were a busy place these days.
She handed me a piece of paper with a smile. “Ryker wants you at his place. He’s called a meeting.”
“Are you supposed to read the messages?” I pocketed the note. No need to read it, since she already had.
“I don’t recall anyone saying not to.” Her slender hands went up in the air.
I ruffled her hair. “Good girl. That might keep you alive one day.”
* * *
I was in my corner of the couch. Ruck was on the other side, which I’d now come to think of as his corner. Switch was sitting between us. I didn’t think it had much to do with being close to Ruck. It was more about having a safe zone around him so Knife couldn’t get too close.
I’d been trying to not stare at Knife since I’d gotten to
Ryker’s, but it had taken all my self-control. This was the first time I’d seen Knife since the burial. He hadn’t even ventured out yesterday, when the queen had shown.
His sorrow was a magnet to my own. Part of me wanted to get him alone so we could fall into the oblivion of depression together. The other part of me wanted to stay put to protect Switch. Free or not, Knife was glowering at Switch from across the room, misdirected anger looking for a home.
Burn was leaning on the table, one leg swinging, a little closer to Knife than normal. Burn seemed to be keeping one eye on Knife’s movements, as if he were afraid of the swelling anger around Knife finding the wrong home as well.
Sneak was still off trailing Marra around.
Ryker strode in from the bedroom. “Good. Everyone is here.”
“Why are we here?” Knife asked. He might be in the room, but he had one foot out the door. The foot left behind looked like it was ready to kick someone.
Ryker walked over and stood by my corner of the couch. “We know what’s coming for Bugs. The queen called it Asterol. It’s connected to the Black Abyss.”
“The Black Abyss?” Switch said.
“I thought that shit was made up,” Knife said, his attention fully inside the room for the moment.
“According to the Queen of Cacoy, it’s not,” Ryker said.
“Well, if anyone would know, that old crone would,” Burn said.
Ryker filled them in on the other pertinent details shared by the queen. I didn’t stop holding my breath until he’d finished and not brought up Marra. As of right now, she was still innocent, and Knife didn’t need to hear any speculation about her guilt until proven.
Knife’s head dropped back as he let out a long groan. “I knew I should’ve left yesterday.”
Ruck turned to Ryker. “How’s Bugs supposed to kill this thing? She can’t even see it without catching a beating.”
Ruck was right. I couldn’t. But I’d had hours to think this over and had the beginnings of a plan.
“We have to set a trap,” I said. “The only way to lure it out is to get it more stones. It always comes for the stones.”
“Isn’t that dangerous, considering what we know?” Switch asked.
I glanced at Ryker to find I already had his full attention. His jaw was locked down and the vein in his neck was a little bigger than it should’ve been. But he said nothing. He agreed. It was our only shot.
“We know we can lure it with that. We get one more stone to lure Asterol. I keep one on me, to buy time. This way, maybe I’ll be able to keep it around long enough for Ryker to come in and kill him.”
Ryker didn’t say anything as he sat on the arm of the couch beside me.
Knife took a couple of steps, cracking his neck. “It’s a risk. If it gets more, it might become too strong to kill.”
Burn stood, his gaze bouncing between Ryker and me. “They can do it. It’s a good plan. Bugs will lure it. Ryker will kill it. They’ve got this.”
“Now we need one more stone,” I said.
“We’ve got some feelers out up north still. We might hear something soon hopefully,” Burn said.
“I can help with the search,” Switch added.
Ruck was offering to go with him, but I only heard every other word. Knife’s head dipped an inch, his lips pressed together as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
I got off the couch and took a step toward him. “Knife? Do you know about one?”
He sighed so loudly that the whole room’s attention shifted to him.
“Knife? Do you know of another one?” Ryker asked.
Knife shook his head. “Durroker, that old Wyrd Blood that lives out on his own over in the Glades, supposedly has one stashed. He told me when he was deep into his cups one night. Word is, he’s off his rocker these days, so don’t approach him alone.” He walked to the door and stopped. “I won’t be going with you. I’m done. I’ve lost enough blood for a lifetime.”
Knife didn’t say goodbye or look at anyone as he left. The room went quiet. My sorrow urged me to follow Knife out the door, but I didn’t have that luxury.
“Anybody else want out?” Ryker asked.
“We’re in,” Ruck said as Switch nodded next to him.
“You know I’ve always got your back,” Burn said.
“Day after tomorrow, we go to Durroker,” Ryker said.
“If you guys don’t need anything else, we’re going to get out of here,” Ruck said, looking at Switch.
I smiled and tilted my head toward the door.
Switch grabbed Ruck’s hand, and they were gone without getting up.
Burn stirred on the other side of the room. “I’ll go check on Knife. See you guys later.”
I was sitting on the couch, scratching my head. As all the things the queen said repeated in my head, there was something that kept mentally tripping me.
Ryker’s eyes narrowed on me. “What is it?”
“I’ve got to check something. I’ll be right back.”
Thirty-Two
I lugged the heavy book marked “RO” back with me to Ryker’s a few minutes later. He was reclined on the couch, waiting.
I sat beside him. “I’ve got to show you something.” I flipped open the pages until I was at the first entry of my family tree. “Look at this. They were miners.” I flipped another page. “More miners.” I pointed over and over again. “I’ve got a miner at the beginning of every branch of my tree. Some of them might’ve been there when they first broke into the Black Abyss.”
“Let me see.” He reached for the book, skimming over the many branches of my tree.
I reached over, pointing. “See the way they all moved around, from country to country, over such a short span? Dez said that wasn’t normal. Do you think it’s possible that some of my ancestors were there, they absorbed magic, but it didn’t show until the lines commingled in just the right way?”
“As if the magic were trying to find a way to come together again in the right combination until it created a Wyrd Blood that could get to the stones,” Ryker said.
I leaned back, too sick at the thoughts running through my mind to keep looking. I wrapped my arms around myself. Generation after generation of manipulation until it birthed me?
Ryker shut the book and tossed it on the table, turning his full attention to me. “It doesn’t change who you are. The majority of the magic in this world originated there.”
“Yes. But my magic might’ve been strategically created by this thing. What if I can’t worm because it?”
“It’s blocking you, at best. It can’t control you, or it would’ve broken you.”
I pulled a knee up to my chest. “Maybe it’s time to try and undo the link we have before we go any further with this plan?”
“No.” He stood, giving me his back.
“You know the consequences if I fail. I’m in a fifty-foot hole and you’re standing beside me. But one of us has a rope to climb out. It’s time to climb out.”
“That’s not on the table.”
“If I go down, so will you.”
He turned slowly, moonlight streaming in the window and catching his profile, casting the rest of his face in shadows. I could feel the heat of his eyes and the churning of his magic, so much deeper since the merge.
In this second, with the idea of him dying with me, there was no denying that I loved him. It ran through me to the very depths of who I was, as if it were part of my identity now.
He might never feel the same, but he’d never have this connection with another woman. This part of him would always be mine. This, at least, would be sacred.
“Stop talking as if you’re going to fail. Like you think you might die. You’re not,” he said, as if his force of will would make it so.
He’d saved me before, but this time was different, and we both knew it. This fight was mine, and I had to figure out how to not take him down with me if I failed. “I’m exploring all the possibilities, is all.”
/> “Undoing the merge isn’t one of them.”
I didn’t have the burning rage needed to fight. I didn’t feel like I had much of anything left inside me right now but desperation. I leaned forward, my palm the only thing keeping my head up.
“You look drained. Are you sleeping?”
I shoved the hair out of my face. “Are you? Is anyone?”
“Stay here tonight,” he said.
His eyes were soft on my face, my lips, but with a burning hunger that called to me. He was my refuge. And every time I curled up into him, I wanted to leave less and less.
There was a knock at the door.
“Ryker?” It was Tommy from the watch.
“What is it?” Ryker asked, without opening the door.
“The tower scheduler is brawling with Leroy from construction,” Tommy yelled. “I can’t find Sneak, and Burn is more likely to punch Leroy than stop the fight.”
Ryker cursed under his breath.
He walked to me, bent down, gripping the back of my head, and closed his mouth over mine. His tongue dipped between my lips before he broke off the kiss. He hovered right above me. “I’ll be back soon. Be here.”
He walked to the door and yanked it open.
Five minutes after he walked out, I left.
Burn’s door was closing as I walked out of Ryker’s. I ran over to it, managing to get a palm on it before it clicked shut.
“Ah, shit,” Burn said, shaking his head as I followed him into his place. “I gotta bad feeling I know what you want.”
“Is there any way you can separate me and Ryker without him knowing? I need you to undo the merge.”
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t. He’d kill me if I did,” he said as he walked around the place, grabbing up scattered laundry.
Did that mean there was a way? If there was, I’d torture him until he did it. “So—”
“I didn’t say I could. It can’t be done without his knowledge. Anything I tried, I’d need him there for.”
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 19
