As the pair shift a little closer together, Caz shuffles awkwardly.
Leaving them to their own dynamics, I take the tonic back to mybag, only for my eyes to catch Benny’s en route. A smirk flickers on his lips as he makes the symbol of the triangle with his fingers, and for once, it raises the tiniest of chuckles in me.
Ruben is quick to thump him on the arm.
Benny winces. ‘What was that for?’
‘You know what it was for,’ Ruben replies.
‘Because you can’t keep your hands off me, but aren’t ready to admit this insane attraction between us?’ Benny offers, quirking his lips into his ineffably charming grin.
With a roll of his eyes, Ruben looks at me. ‘How exactly did you end up being friends with him?’ he asks.
‘Slim pickings,’ I reply, although my attention is already back on the women in the group.
I never once saw anything between Thessa and Stide that made me think they were anything other than good friends, but then again, I know how easy it is for that line of friendship to blur, as I suspect it may be beginning to blur between Benny and Ruben. The jovial flirting could be nothing more than harmless teasing, but I’ve spied a few speculative, lingering glances on both their parts.
As the deer meat roasts on the fire, Stide’s temperature holds fast, but I maintain hope that it will start to drop after we’ve eaten.
When it doesn’t, I give her another spoonful of the tonic, but it’s hard to ignore the niggling in my gut. The first spoonful should have donesomethingby now, but she’s still burning up as much as before.
‘Sleep will help, won’t it?’ Thessa asks, fear and hope mingling in her voice.
‘I’ll check on her through the night,’ I answer, not ready to make promises I can’t keep.
As I go to slink away, Stide’s eyes flicker up to Thessa. ‘If I were half the woman you are,’ she says lightly, forcing a smile, ‘I’d be unstoppable.’
‘Oh hush.’ Thessa’s smile does little to mask the worry that fills her eyes. ‘You’ll be fine. You’re always fine. You’re as unstoppable as the sun.’
Stide smiles. ‘You have always been my dawn.’
‘It’s too late,’ Loch mutters. ‘Too late. With magic, without magic. Doesn’t matter. It’s too late.’
‘What’s too late?’ I ask Loch. I swallow hard and drop my voice to a whisper. ‘Is Mortidem close?’
There was a woman in the slums whose magic, people said, was to hear the whisper of Mortidem encroaching. I don’t know if it was true or not, but something tells me that if his footsteps make any sound at all, Loch would hear them.
‘Life and death. We worry about the wrong ones, don’t we? Gods. Gods. Gods. They know. They know which to fear.’ He taps his head knowingly, and goosebumps rise upon my arms, but I try to push them down. It’s the rambling of a madman, nothing more.
Loch’s delusions are growing worse, not better.
Benny clearly feels the same, for he shoots me a worried look and wraps an arm around Loch’s shoulders. ‘Come on, let’s settle you down over here. Nice and near the fire.’
‘It’s warm. It’s warm by the fire.’
‘I know, buddy. I know.’
Stide isn’t the only one we’ll worry about tonight.
The fire crackles low, throwing thin light across the camp, and the darkness beyond it feels thicker than it should. Whether it’s Loch’s words or something else, dread curls slowly in my stomach.
Sleep takes a long time to come.
And when it finally does, it is shallow and uneasy, as though some part of me is still listening for death’s footsteps in the dark.
Through the night,I give Stide spoonful after spoonful of tincture, yet nothing seems to be helping. The quantity I’ve given her is enough to dull the fevers of a dozen people, and my only hope is that perhaps it’s not as potent as I thought. That perhaps the magic waned after all that time stuck in my mother’s cupboard.
Yet I know in my heart that I felt the power within it.
