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I kneel beside him, and see that his eyes are squeezed shut, and he’s most definitely breathing unevenly. There’s no blood, except for the black troll blood that covers him. Nothing immediately off. But I don’t believe for a second he’d be lying here if something isn’t terribly wrong.
Just the thought of his internal injuries from that log has my stomach turning.Try to heal him. You did it once, you can do it again.I bit my lip, and hope that when I hold my hands out, they glow.
For a second, I’m just a fool holding out her hands while a man dies in front of me. But then, they surprise me by slowly glowing until they’re as bright as they were last time.
Swallowing hard, I lay my hands on Onyx...and hope.
NINE
Phantom
There issomething to be said for a woman who can shoot lights out of her hands like some kind of goddess. But this is different.Baddifferent. Goddesses probably know how to turn their powers off and go to their safe little castles. This woman clearly doesn’t. And she chatters.
A lot.
Since she and Onyx returned to us, her half carrying him, that’s all she’s done. Even when we were still outside, guarding the cave and waiting for morning, she’d been asking questions. Usually, I’d enjoy the break from the silence that often descends between my brother and our best friend. Usually, the perfect cadence of her voice would be just the sound I’d want to fall asleep listening to all night.
But after she tried to run from us, escape from us like we’re monsters, and then nearly faced down two grave trolls on her own, I’m too wound up to just enjoy her talking. I mean, technically she hadn’t confessed to trying to escape from us, but there was no other reason for her to be that far in the woods on her own.
“I mean, the troll was…” She spreads her arms out like she’s planning to take flight. “And then, he picked up a log--half a tree really--and swung it like he’s Mark freaking McGuire trying to break a record.” I don’t know the reference, but she hasn’t wound down enough for me to ask and I don’t really care anyway.
Yeah, Onyx was good. Really good. But even he can’t take down two grave trolls, especially if he tried to lure them to him and away from Ann.
Most of us wouldn’t have walked away from that fight alive. But most of us don’t have a tiny, talkative woman who has our backs in a battle.
“Then Onyx went down and I mean, hereallywent down. And then I knew I had to get him back to the cave, so I started screaming, trying to get your attention.”
“Yelling for help in the woods with trolls running around wasn’t the best idea.” Dusk stares dubiously, like he honestly can’t believe anyone would just sit in the woods and scream, without realizing they were just as likely to attract their enemies as they would to attract allies.
He’s almost as shocked and amused as I am as he tends to Onyx, pressing a cold cloth to his head. When our eyes lock, he shakes his head with a slight smile and makes a bomb explosion motion at the side of his head behind her back.
I would laugh, but I have too many questions. “What were you doing running around in the woods?” It doesn’t matter but I have a point to make.
Her enthusiasm over the fight drains from her face, and she gives me a clearly defiant look. “You’re the ones who stole me. Who decided we’re,” she air quotes, “mates. I didn’t get a choice, or a say, or even a pick.”
Even glaring at me like I kicked her pet, she’s lovely. And I’ve never seen eyes so like the sky.
Focus. Your questions. The problem.
I glance at Dusk. “If the trolls got away, then the Shadow King knows about her. Not just that one of us found a mate in this world, but that she’s here, with us.” The words taste bitter as I speak them.
Maybe even that she’s the mate of the three of us...
Honestly, that’s the only reason I can come up with why the trolls left when they did. They saw her. Felt that she was our mate. And they raced off to tell the king, so that he can make our lives even more miserable.
Yes, it was going to happen eventually, but I would have felt better if things were more established with our connection before he learned of her. Still, she’s our mate, and if the king comes for her, we will each die to protect her.
Unfortunately, he knows this too.
“Yes.” Dusk nods. He glances at her and holds her gaze for a second.
I know what he wants to say. That we’ve discussed letting her go. That Onyx wants us to do so. But that because of our connection to her, the shadow world is aware of her now, and she’ll never be safe again. It’s something she needs to know. But, somehow, I fear it’ll make her hate us, make her afraid, and lead to her trying to escape even more.
So, it’s smarter not to tell her, even if it feels a little wrong.
“What does that mean?” she asks with a frown.
Onyx lifts his hands and signs, and my little brother interprets for him. “That things are going to get a lot more dangerous.”
