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I’m already down the hall and halfway up the stairs when Finch shouts from somewhere below, “Master Fox?”
“She fell into the moat,” I croak, my feet still climbing the stairs. I don’t know why. I don’t know if I should turn back and take her somewhere else.
“The bath!” Cricket shouts. “Warm her up.”
Yes. The bath. The eternal Wellspring fills the tub. I am jogging with her now, navigating the hallways in a panic. It’s after midnight. The castle has changed. Rooms are not where they were. Bodin appears like an apparition from the shadows, sleepy-eyed and dressed in loose night pants.
“I need?—”
“There.” He points across the hall. “You’re in there.”
I barge through the door, enter the bathroom, and climb into the always-filled tub. Warm water overflows as we sit, her in my lap, my arms around her cold, unmoving body. Her fingers are pale claws gripping the little star. She feels like a corpse.
“What now?” My gaze darts to Bodin as he hurries in.
Legion and Varen are behind, similarly dressed, shirtless, and in loose pants.
“Massage her heart,” Legion orders. “With your wraith’s hands.”
The sluggish sound of it beating is the nightmare on my shoulder, the thing in the corner whispering in my ear.She’s going to die.
“I can’t,” I choke out, frowning. “My magic won’t work around her. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Excuse me, coming through.” Cricket pushes past the others, eyes wild and hair a mess from sleep. She looks at Willow’s limp form, drops to her knees, and presses her fingers beneath her jaw. Cricket stares into the distance and counts quietly.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Shh.” She scowls, then returns to staring into space. Her hands drop. “Her pulse is weak, but she’s alive.”
“I could have told you that,” I snap. “I hear her heart as if it’s my own.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Master Fox.” She waggles her finger in my face. “I’ll be damned if this nonsense wasn’t something you cooked up with the way you’ve behaved lately. And is that blood in your nails?”
Guilt slams into me.
This is my fault. Everything tonight is my fault.
My eyes widen. From the first time we met Cricket and Finch squatting in our castle, she saw straight through me. Both flawless in appearance, they were Nevers herded up as part of Titania’s new regime. She conquered this newly awoken realm like a Lion conquers mice. So much magic had been drained from the land to build this empire. Cricket and Finch were ordered to work in the Ivory Palace, separated after a decade of marriage. We should have turned them in, but I saw the first wrinkles of age dawning at the edges of their mortal eyes. It was only a matter of time before Titania changed their status from Never to Nothing and banished them to the subterranean.
So I changed their appearances, hiding their fate, and lied to the hive about what I’d done. They would never have understood without memories of what we learned in Elphyne. That was when Cricket figured out I was not like the others.
But she’s kept my secret. She’s swept my lies under the rug and never asks questions. She cleans up after my messes.
I lost control of myself in Burn After Reading. It is like Willow said. I’m ruining her.
She stirs, and my heart soars.
“Tinger,” she slurs.
I cover her hand with mine, remind her it’s there. “You have him.”
She blinks. “Where am I?”
“In my tub.”
Her body turns to stone in my arms. Her lips try to form words, her eyes dart. “No,” she whispers. “Water.”
“I’ve got you.” I tighten my arms around her. “Feel that? It’s real. My arms are real.”
