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She ignored my disregard. “When he wakes and you both are ready, I expect to see you in the dining hall.”
The conversation was closed before I could refuse her anymore. Myrinn’s presence retreated into the belly of Haxton whilst I was left to carry the body of Arlo back towards his room.
He had begun to shiver so I held him closer. Only when I was certain I was out of Myrinn’s earshot did I dare speak.
“I am sorry,” I said softly, knowing it would be the only time I would say the words aloud to him, or anyone. “You are safe with me.”
Arlo stirred against me. I slowed my pace just steps away from the entrance to the room he had run from. For the first time since I had reached for his hand in the depths of the Styx, I looked at him. He winced as though dreaming something horrific. I wished to draw my thumb across the lines of worry that scrunched across his forehead until his skin was smooth once again.
I resisted.
10
Ibolted upright, a scream clawing up my throat. My hands reached up for my neck as though I expected to choke on water. My legs kicked out to rid them of the phantoms’ fingers that pulled me down into dark depths.
But there were no dead here…
Only the tangling of sheets around my frantic legs and the darkened sky which gave a view beyond the opened balcony of the bedroom.
It took a moment to calm my laboured breathing and thunderous heart. Every time I blinked, I believed I would see them again, faint whispers of silver bodies who longed for me to join them in death. They did not come for me, yet I still recognised their presence in the haunting glint of the lake that taunted me beyond the balcony.
“Are you so desperate to leave my home you would throw yourself into shades and think you would simply swim free?”
Faenir stepped into the room with hands full of folded clothing. He paced straight towards the bed with a pinched expression and fury filled eyes. The pile of clothing thudded upon the bed as he discarded them, then he stood back and folded his arms across his chest.
“If I had known…” I began but swallowed the rest of my excuse and swapped it with something harder. “They were going to kill me.”
“Indeed, shades are bitter spirits who dwell within the Styx and harbour the hate and anger that prevents them from moving to another realm of peace. Even I do not dare bother them… often.”
Shades. “You expect me to believe that the lake is filled with ghosts?”
“Ghosts, spirits, phantoms. All different words for the same truth. And I do not care if you wish to believe me or not. Thanks for saving your life would have sufficed.”
“My captor and saviour,” I sneered. “Anything else you wish to add to your ever-growing list of titles?”
Faenir’s frown deepened as I pushed myself from the bed. My body ached with every slight move. It felt as though I had been pulled and tugged from all angles and my limbs hated me for it.
Where I had laid within the bed, the sheets were no longer white and pristine but muddied and all shades of brown. The evening breeze drifted across the room and revealed the stench of stale, dirty water that clung to me and the mess I had left behind.
Then I noticed a similar patch across Faenir’s chest. He caught me looking but said nothing to confirm what had caused it.
“Your face looks better than it had been when I last saw you,” I said through a sly grin.
Faenir ignored my jibe. “I suggest you wash and change before you come down for dinner. Those clothes will have to do until more supplies reach us in the coming days. A bath has been drawn in the chamber beyond those doors, filled with water that is not infested with shades might I add. Clean yourself up and we will be waiting for you downstairs.”
“We?” He had said so much but I had only cared for that comment.
“Myrinn is persistent; she wants us both to join and I truly would not ignore that request. She can be rather persuasive if required.”
Myrinn, the beautiful elf who had seemed so innately protective over Faenir during the Claiming. Her name and splendour were so unique I would have remembered them until my final day.
“She is here?”
“Arrived with the ferryman, the same one you threw yourself into Styx in hopes to board.” Faenir peered at me down the length of his sharp nose. I felt the silent judging in his golden eyes and could not gleam why, someone who so clearly detested me, stole me from my home.
If he hated you, you would be dead.
“You cannot keep me here,” I said, fists clenching at my sides once again. “I will not stop looking for a way home.”
