AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She wrapped her arms around me, tightening her hands behind my shoulder blades. I leaned my nose into the crook of her neck and breathed her in. Yes, if I died here at her side, it would be all right. She pulled with a swift jerk. I screamed through my teeth and spots took over my vision as I fell limp against the ground.
The world grew dark.
It was a comfort in a way. Dark was familiar. How easy it would be to drift into the shadows and let them take me.
“You won’t feel any more pain,” Lira’s voice sang somewhere that seemed a great distance from me. I drifted back towards her.
Lira.
The misery of my body had faded as I settled back into it.
The shadows still called to me, though. How gently I could drift away with them. No more pain, no more fear.
“And I want you to know”—Lira stumbled over a sob and placed shaking hands against my chest—“that I have regrets too. I want you to know that I love you, Sai.”
I took a full breath in, and the world felt fully present again. I wondered if I’d heard that correctly. I thought Lira loathed me and would never forgive me. But she loved me? That was something I would fight for.
The shadows whispered, and I pushed them to the back of my mind to disappear. They could not call me anymore. Not with Lira here, beckoning me to stay.
“Please heal,” Lira sang, her voice a wobble of humming tones that echoed around the cavern. I made sure I had no lingering wards and dropped my defenses like I unleashed a flood, shadows rushing from me. Lira whimpered slightly but continued singing. “Knit back together, body. Muscles and flesh and blood return to where you belong. Heal. Please.”
Her magic poured through me, a typhoon of powers shaping and directing muscles to re-knit and bones to realign. She’d already taken the pain, but I clenched my teeth against the tingling invasion of her powers that pushed so deep into me it felt like it reached my soul.
“Sai?” She gave me a shake. “Sai, tell me you can hear me.”
It took me a moment to feel steady enough to respond. “I hear you,” I said, my voice gravelly.
“Oh my god. Did it work?”
I called my shadows back. It had grown so dark I couldn’t see Lira anymore or the sparkle of lights that still radiated around her like she wore a halo of stars. Her eyebrows bunched together, and a stack of lines marred her forehead. I grabbed her hand, paused a moment to linger over the silkiness of her skin, then directed her fingers under my shirt, placing them over the unbroken expanse of my stomach.
“Holy shit,” she said.
“It worked,” I croaked. Words and thoughts and coordination hadn’t all fallen back in line yet, but I was past the point of imminent danger.
I pulled my hand back, but Lira let hers linger against my skin. “Why do you still sound like you’re dying, then?”
I sat up and swayed, the arced forms of the rocks blurring together. Pain shot through me. Lira had released me from her song, and I felt exactly like I’d fallen off a cliff. Damn the world. I clutched my hand against my stomach. “I think you mostly healed it but missed a few spots.”
Lira burst into tears and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, tucking her nose against my neck. The sweet smell of her hair—that still lingered with the scent of some soap from home—and the warmth of her body became everything to me. Perhaps I was delusional, but I could have sworn she’d said she loved me. I ran my hand up her back and pulled her closer. For a moment, that was enough.
“Oh God,” she gasped so that her lips traced the skin of my collarbone.
“It’s all right. Help me to my feet. I think we can follow the water flowing out of here and make our way to the sirens’ territory. It’s not far.”
I struggled up, and she wrapped her arms around my chest—carefully avoiding my stomach, and thank the Goddess for that because it was so tender tears stung my eyes. We began plodding past the rocks and into a small river that trailed down a sloped hall. Lira sang and the surrounding lights brightened, illuminating the silvery, slick surface of the walls.
We walked in a slow trudge, and every step hurt. Once we’d made it some distance Lira looked up at me. “These sirens are healers?”
I paused and felt grateful to have an excuse to stop moving. I reached up and tucked a damp strand of her hair behind her ear and self-indulgently let my fingers linger against her cheek. She didn’t move or flinch at the touch but pressed closer and hope filled me like it would fly us out of this room. “Highly revered ones, in fact.”
Water whispered around our ankles as we stared at each other. It was like I could see the thoughts passing through her mind. She’d spent her entire life believing sirens were cruel murderers, bent on selfishness and destruction. Now she was getting a different story about who she was.
She finally gave a bob of her head, and her expression lightened.
“Come on,” I said, my mouth close enough to her temple that the warmth of my breath rushed back over my lips. “Let’s see if we can make it out of here.”
I’d told Lira that she may have missed a few spots. But I was starting to think thosespotswere a bit more crucial than I’d initially thought. The ache in my side grew like muscles struggled to stay together.
