by Karen Lynch
“Hi,” I replied hesitantly.
“Sara.” He said my name so softly it was like a caress. Warmth curled in my stomach. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”
“Chris?”
“The gulak demon.”
“He didn’t touch me.”
I could hear his exhale. “You didn’t call last night. I didn’t know what to think.”
I closed my eyes, wanting to kick myself. Last night had been crazy, and we were all so excited about getting the contract for Greg that I hadn’t thought Nikolas might be expecting me to call him like I’d been doing every night. God, I’m an awful person.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay and that you’re talking to me.”
The ache that had lingered in my chest for days began to ease. I tugged the blanket closer around me and curled up on my side, facing the laptop. “Me too.”
He sighed and I imagined him running his hand through his black hair, his gray eyes dark and intense. “I know you’re angry with me, but this isn’t solving anything. Tell me where you are, and we’ll talk this through.”
“I’m not angry about that anymore.”
“Then tell me where you are.”
“If I do, will you try to stop me from looking for Madeline?”
He didn’t reply.
“This is important to me, Nikolas. I’ve gotten closer than anyone else to finding her, and I can’t stop now.”
“We’ll look for her together,” he said, and I closed my eyes, wishing I could believe that.
“Does that mean you won’t have any problem with me going to see warlocks and demons and anyone else who might lead us to Madeline?” Working together meant he’d have to stop trying to protect me from anyone who looked at me funny. It meant us being equals. I didn’t have his fighting abilities, but I’d proven that I had my own strengths.
“We’ll work something out.”
I heard clicking in the background, and it took me a few seconds to realize he was using a computer. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was doing. I should have been angry he was trying to trace the call, but I would have expected nothing less from him.
“You can’t trace me. I made sure of it.”
The clicking stopped. “So I see. You picked up a few tricks.”
“Yes, and some new friends.” It was strange thinking of a demon as a friend, but that was what Kelvan was becoming to me. “Listen, I have to go.” I wanted nothing more than to lie there all night talking to him, but I didn’t know how good Mohiri technology was or how long it would take them to trace my call. It was foolish to risk them finding me just because it made me feel better to hear Nikolas’s voice.
Nikolas surprised me when he didn’t try to keep me on the phone. “Call me tomorrow.”
“I will,” I promised. My heart felt lighter now that we’d actually talked. “Good night.”
“Good night,” he said huskily. “And, Sara, happy birthday.”
* * *
“Are you going to stay in bed all day?”
“Mmm.”
“Sara, wake up.” Jordan pulled the covers off me, and I shivered as cold air touched my arms and legs. I opened my eyes to glare at her, and my head began to pound with a fierce headache.
I reached for the blankets and pulled them back up to my chin, burrowing beneath them until only my eyes were visible. “Go away,” I moaned. “I don’t feel well.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a splitting headache, and I feel achy and tired.”
Her brows drew together. “You didn’t drink last night. Why are you sick?”
“I don’t know,” I retorted miserably. “Can I go back to sleep now?”
Roland entered the room. “What’s wrong with you?”
“She’s sick.” Jordan rooted around in her backpack and carried the can of gunna paste over to me. “Here, this will make you feel better.” She stood over me as I dutifully took some of the bitter paste. Anything to get rid of this headache.
“Sick?” Roland repeated. “Sara never gets sick.”
“Maybe it’s the flu,” Peter suggested from the doorway.
I didn’t remember ever having the flu so I couldn’t say if he was right or not. I closed my eyes and hoped the gunna paste would kick in soon.
“Go back to sleep,” Jordan said, shooing Roland and Peter out of the room. “I bet you’ll feel one hundred percent better when you wake up again.”
When I opened my eyes again, it was three in the afternoon. My headache had eased a bit, but the rest of me felt like I’d just done a few rounds with my old trainer, Callum. My body was stiff and sore, and getting dressed made me so tired I wanted to lie down again. I was also freezing. I dressed in layers and wrapped the comforter around me before I left the bedroom.
“Hey, look who’s up,” Roland said when I joined him on the couch. “Feeling better?”
I tucked my legs underneath me and leaned my head against the cushioned armrest. “A little better,” I said when I saw his look of concern. “It’s freezing here.”
Greg came over to stand beside the couch. “You must have the flu because it’s not cold here. It’s seventy degrees outside today.”
“Oh.”
He left the room and came back carrying the thick comforter from his bed. “Here. Maybe this will help.”
“Thanks,” I said as he laid it over me.
“Are you hungry?” Jordan asked. “You haven’t eaten all day.”
I wasn’t hungry, but I said I could eat a little. She went into the kitchen, and I heard the microwave. A few minutes later she came back with a mug of hearty chicken soup. I sat up and took the mug between my cold hands, blowing on the soup to cool it.
“We went to that diner to get some of their soup,” she explained. “It’s homemade, and these guys said that when someone is sick, you’re supposed to feed them soup.”
I took a sip of the rich broth. “It’s delicious, thanks.”
I drank the whole cup of soup to make her happy, and then I lay back and took a nap, buried beneath a mountain of comforters. It was dark out when I woke again, and the others were sitting around quietly watching TV. Jordan got me more soup and added in some crackers. When I finished, she tried to tempt me with my favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, but my stomach couldn’t handle anything else. I watched part of a movie before I dozed off for another hour.
“This makes no sense,” Jordan said the next time I woke. “You’re Mohiri... and Fae. You shouldn’t get sick. And the gunna paste should have made you better by now.”
“Maybe she picked up something from one of the demons at that party,” Roland suggested. “Is that possible?”
Jordan chewed her lip. “I don’t know.” She looked at me. “Did you get bitten by one of those demons you fought?”
“No. The ranc demon’s horn scratched my palm, but it didn’t draw blood.” I held up my hand. “There isn’t even a mark.”
“Still, we should look them up to make sure their horns don’t have poisonous tips or something,” she said.
“Can you bring me the cell phone I’ve been using to call David?” She went to get it for me. I called him and asked him to ask Kelvan about ranc demons. It didn’t take long for him to come back and tell me ranc demons were not poisonous. So much for that theory.
It was hard to hide my illness from Nikolas when I called him that night. He asked me twice if I was okay and I lied and said I was only tired. He tried again to get me to tell him where I was, and for a moment I was tempted. I was miserable and I wanted nothing more than for him to come and take me home. I said goodbye soon after that because I knew I’d regret my moment of weakness once I felt better.
I slept fitfully and woke the next morning feeling worse than the day before. The headache was back and my stomach hurt now, too. And I couldn’t get warm no matter how many blankets my friends piled on top of me. I didn’t say anything, but my il
lness was starting to scare me. I found my vial of troll bile and took a small drop. If anything could make me better it was troll bile. It was even nastier than gunna paste, but I knew from experience how potent it was. After that, I took a nap on the couch, hoping the bile would work its magic.
By the time evening rolled around, I knew the bile wasn’t helping. If anything, I was worse. I felt like someone had syphoned all the energy and heat from my body, and I could barely stomach the smell of food. The only thing my stomach could handle was water and a few dry crackers. I could barely keep my eyes open for five minutes at a time, and when I slept it was fitful and full of strange dreams I couldn’t remember.
My Mori was upset, too. I could sense its distress and I tried to assure it that we were going to be fine, but it’s not easy to be convincing when you aren’t sure if what you’re saying is true.
When I began to shiver uncontrollably despite all the blankets covering me, Greg stood up and said he was taking me to a hospital. Jordan told him he couldn’t do that, but I could hear the uncertainty in her voice. If I could have spoken, I would have told them that human medicine would not cure whatever was wrong with me.
I passed out a few minutes later. The last thing I remembered thinking was that I’d broken my promise to call Nikolas and he was going to worry again.
Chapter 9
Voices threatened to drag me away from the wonderful dream I was having, and I fought consciousness to stay in the dream world. I knew I wasn’t really back in my old living room in New Hastings, sitting by the fire with Nikolas and listening to the storm rage outside. I had no idea why my mind brought me back to that time and place, but I was warm and content and reluctant to leave.
The voices tugged at me again, and I felt the coldness of the real world pressing down on me. My eyes opened and Greg’s uncle’s living room slowly swam into focus. I saw Roland and Greg talking in low voices across the room and Peter dozing in a chair. The clock on the TV said it was 4:00 a.m., and I wondered groggily why everyone was still up. Jordan’s voice came from the direction of the kitchen, and it took me a few seconds to realize she was talking to someone. Who was she on the phone with at this hour?
When I heard a low male voice answer Jordan, alarm filled my muddled brain. I tried to move beneath the pile of blankets, but my tired body refused to cooperate. Panic filled me, and I let out a small cry.
“Shhh,” someone murmured in my ear.
I stilled as several realizations hit me at once. The first was that I was warm for the first time in days. The second was the absence of the hollow ache in my chest. The third was that I was lying on my side with my back pressed against a warm hard body.
“Nikolas?” I whispered.
“I’m here.”
My breath hitched and a lump formed in my throat. I had no idea if I was crying because I was upset that he’d finally caught me, or because I was so happy he was here. My illness had made me weak and emotional, and I shook as the tears came.
“Don’t cry.” His arms tightened around me, pulling me closer. It took me a few minutes to get my emotions under control.
“How do you feel?”
“Rotten,” I rasped. “What’s wrong with me?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.” Beneath his reassuring tone, there was an edge of worry that frightened me.
I shifted in his arms, needing to see him. He lifted me easily, turning me toward him.
Eyes the color of dark smoke met mine, and I fell into their depths. I had missed him so much, and the need to touch him, to make sure he was real, overwhelmed me. I reached up to caress his jaw, which was covered in a day’s growth of beard. My fingers grazed his full lips, and they parted slightly, sending warm breath across my skin. I touched his brow, smoothing out the furrows, hating that I had put them there.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call.”
His eyes softened, and he leaned down to press a tender kiss to my forehead. My stomach fluttered and warmth coursed through me. I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest as his arms circled me protectively.
“It’s okay,” he said against my hair. “Go back to sleep.”
When I woke again, his warmth was gone, and fear that it had all been a dream twisted my gut. A hand stroked my hair, and I realized I lay with my head on Nikolas’s lap. He spoke and his voice was a balm for my fear.
“Tristan is sending two healers with the jet. I don’t want to wait until we get her home.”
“Good idea,” Chris replied, his voice devoid of his usual good humor. “Do they have any ideas what it could be?”
“There are several species of demon with venom that can cause some of these symptoms, but according to Jordan, they didn’t come into contact with any of them.”
“Tell us again what happened at the party,” Chris said, and I listened as Jordan related the events of that night exactly as they had happened.
“She didn’t eat or drink anything except the Glaen, and the only demons I remember her touching were the ranc and the gulak. The only other demon that got close to us was an incubus.”
Nikolas tensed. “An incubus?”
Jordan snorted. “Sara would have fried his man parts if he’d touched one of us, trust me. My girl doesn’t mess around.”
“How was she after she drank the Glaen?” Chris asked. “It’s a powerful drink from what I hear.”
“She was kind of silly like she was drunk, but not staggering. She even hugged me.”
“Sara hugged you?” Roland said. “That must have been some good stuff.”
“Could her Mori be sick from the Fae drink?” Chris suggested. “She’s only half Fae after all.”
I felt for my Mori, and I could sense no pain from it. It seemed to be content now that Nikolas was here.
“My Mori is fine,” I rasped.
Nikolas’s hand stilled. “How are you feeling?”
I took stock of my symptoms. I was freezing again, and every joint in my body ached. My stomach rolled, my head hurt, and my skin felt dry and itchy and stretched across my muscles. I shifted and everything hurt. “Same. Thirsty.”
Jordan appeared at my side, holding a glass of water with a straw in it. “Here.” She put the straw to my lips and I drank slowly, afraid to disturb my already unsettled stomach.
“Better?” she asked, and I noticed how pale and tired she looked.
“Yes.”
She stayed by my side. “Are you mad at me?”
“No, why?” It took a moment for me to understand. “You called him?”
She nodded. “You were so sick. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did the right thing,” I said, and she smiled wanly. I poked my hand out from under the blankets to touch hers. “Thanks, Jordan.”
Her smile fell away, and she set the glass down to take my hand in both of hers. “Sara, your hand is like ice!”
A fit of shivering overtook me and my teeth began to chatter. “C-can’t get w-warm.”
She jumped to her feet. “Nikolas, look at her. I think she’s turning blue from cold.”
Seconds later, I was sitting on his lap with his arms around me. Jordan arranged the blankets over us and I curled into him. But no matter how close I got to him, I couldn’t get warm. It felt like I was cold from the inside out, and my body shivered so violently it hurt.
Nikolas said something to Jordan, and she ran out of the room. I clung to him desperately, afraid that I was dying. I’d never feared death, but that was before I found him. I’d spent so much time running from him, but I didn’t want to run anymore. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him now.
He stood and let the blankets fall to the couch. I cried against the cold as he strode into the bathroom where Jordan had filled the large claw-foot tub with hot water. Carefully, he set me down in the tub. I tried to stay upright, but my body was so weak I slid down into the water.
Nikolas grabbed my shoulders and lifted me forward so he could sit behind
me, positioning me between his legs so I was chest deep in the water with my back against his chest. Water sloshed out onto the floor, but I was too cold to care, and I was only vaguely aware of Jordan throwing down towels to soak up the mess.
Steam rose up around us as Nikolas tried to rub warmth back into my arms, which were quickly growing numb. I could feel the heat of the water, but it did nothing to warm me. I sobbed from pain and frustration and the fear that this really was the end.
“Stay with me, Sara,” Nikolas said hoarsely, and the helplessness in his voice broke my heart. I wanted to turn and hold him, but I was too weak to move.
“I’m scared.”
He spoke gruffly in my ear. “I did not chase you halfway across the country to let you leave me again. You are one of the strongest, most stubborn people I’ve ever met, and you are going to beat this. Do you hear me?” I didn’t reply and he asked more forcefully, “Do you hear me, Sara?”
“Yes,” I said through chattering teeth. I summoned the last of my strength, determined to never leave him again.
“Look!” Jordan cried.
The others crowded into the bathroom behind her. “What is that?” Roland asked.
I opened my eyes and stared down at the glittering particles appearing around us in the water. The specks of light multiplied and moved toward me, clinging to every part of me that was under water. I watched in weary fascination while it covered me in a warm golden glow. A sigh escaped my lips as the familiar heat sank into my skin, my muscles, my bones, and every frozen part of me.
“It’s her magic – or the water magic,” Jordan said. “I’m not sure which.”
“Whatever it is, it’s helping.” Chris moved closer. “Her color is improving.”
I let my head fall back against Nikolas’s chest as exhaustion weighed down my body. He wrapped his arms around me. “That’s it. Hold on, Sara. The healers will be here soon.”
I must have passed out because the next time I opened my eyes, I was warm and dry and wrapped up in blankets on the couch again. A face swam before my eyes, and it took a few seconds to focus on the woman who looked vaguely familiar.
