“Why is she still there and you’re here? And if you started a new life with her, how did you end up with Ruby?”
My father laughed. “Don’t you think you’re getting a bit personal, now? Do I need to explain the birds and the bees?”
“I know how that works.” I ground my teeth together.
My father shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t quite sure. You and I never had ‘the talk,’ you know.”
I ignored him. He was stalling. “One more chance to answer my question, or I’m leaving and trust me, I’ll never be back.” I set my jaw.
“She left me for a mortal sometime after you were born. She took off. Leaving me with a baby to raise.”
My stomach twisted. “You’re lying.”
He held up his hands, palms facing me. “It’s one hundred percent the truth.”
She wouldn’t leave me. My mother was the good person in my background. Leaving her baby? Not a good-person move. “Where exactly is she now? Where in the other realm?”
“Hell if I know,” my father said. “Still in the other realm, I imagine, because if she figured out how to create enough magic to open a portal to return to this realm, the magic council would have sensed that power and they’d have hunted her down. That’s how they finally caught me and brought me back to this world.”
I rubbed my jaw and tension sizzled through my muscles.
“Greyson?”
I snapped my head to the door where Ruby stood.
“Oh, was I interrupting something?” she asked.
“No. I was done.” I followed her out into the room right outside the dungeon.
“I have a few things to talk to you about, and when I saw Luna outside, I figured you were here. The guards said you were in the dungeon?” She arched an eyebrow.
“I’m trying to find Luciana’s sister…who may or may not be my mother.” I had been convinced hours ago that she was, but now, knowing she would leave me with my father, I couldn’t accept it.
“Oh, Greyson. Your mother? Really?”
I couldn’t confirm or deny the statement. Instead, I ran my hand down my beard and stared ahead, wondering why she would leave me.
“Well, I have good news,” Ruby said. “Well, it’s actually not good news overall, but it’s good for us. I just got back from visiting Sonja and look at the headline of the paper.”
She pulled a newspaper out of a tote bag she was carrying. The headline read, A New Mystery Disease. Is it contagious?
I cocked my head at her. “What does that mean?”
“Read the symptoms.”
I scanned the article. Lower extremity paralysis. Coughing fits. Excruciating pain. Eventual kidney failure. I looked up into Ruby’s eyes. “The same symptoms Izzy’s having.”
Ruby nodded. “They all showed up at River Medical Center a week ago. The doctors can’t figure it out.”
I folded the paper in my hand. “I need to take this to Izzy. Maybe she’ll know the connection. Can you take me back there?” As soon as Ruby nodded, I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Luna’s going to have to sit this one out. There’s no room in Izzy’s house for her, anyway.”
“You sure?” Ruby eyed me, waiting for my confirmation.
“Aye. Did you have any other news for me?”
Ruby opened her mouth to say something, but when her eyes darted through the dungeon door, she tightened her lips, instead. “Yeah, but it can wait.”
I had been certain her news had to do with the looming marriage proposal from Ty, but when I glanced at her fingers to see them still bare, it must not have happened yet. “Let’s go before Luna notices we’re gone.”
As soon as I gave her an, ‘it’s okay,’ nod, she transported us back to the mortal realm.
Chapter 6
The metal contraption that Izzy called her home was eerily silent despite the rusted-out vehicles in the gravel parking area right outside the front door. Ruby stood beside me as I knocked on the hollow piece of rotting metal.
Nobody answered, and I thumped my fist against the door again.
“Maybe they’re not home,” Ruby said, but she knew better just like I did. She stared at the same cars in the driveway.
That’s when I heard muted coughing from inside.
Izzy.
I thumped my fist again, and when nobody answered and the coughing continued, I didn’t care if I was invited or not. I gripped the handle, but it didn’t turn. I tried again, throwing my shoulder into the door with one thought on my mind.
Help Izzy.
The door bent under my weight, swinging in to give us a full view of her parents sprawled out in the living room. Her mother laying on the sofa wearing only a robe. Her eyes were glazed over and she was slow to react to Ruby’s and my entrances. Her father wasn’t in any better condition, wearing only a pair of shorts.
His words were slow, “Hi, Izzy’s friends.” And then he laughed.
“Where is she?” I gritted my teeth.
But I didn’t need them to answer. I followed the coughing down a long, skinny hallway to a filthy bedroom where I found the shell of the woman I had left here a day ago.
What had they done to her?
I sat on the bed and cradled her to my chest, looking up at my sister. “Ruby, I need to find her medicine. It’s the only thing that stops her coughing.”
Ruby headed out to the living room while I began sacrificing my woodpile, using my magic to throw dirty clothing, blankets, and towels around. When I didn’t see a little amber bottle and Izzy’s body convulsed against mine, I returned her to her bed and marched out of the room, kicking empty cardboard boxes from my way. This was no way to live.
And I left her here.
With her parents.
Weren’t they supposed to care for her?
My heart burned in my chest. What a fool I was. If anyone should have known that parents don’t always want what’s best for their children, it was me.
My jaw clenched as I took long strides back to the living room, taking Izzy’s father by the shoulders and tried to shake some sense into him. “Where are her medications?”
He laughed through his rotten teeth. “Gone.”
“Gone?”
From behind me, I heard Izzy’s mom’s voice, barely audible. “We may have gotten carried away with them.” She laughed.
I took my hands off her father, but not before shooting a bit of magic into his system, pulling away the effects of whatever medications and drugs he had taken, sending him doubling over with pain. I was halfway back to Izzy when he vomited.
Served him right.
“Did you find the meds?” Ruby asked, meeting me in the hallway from a different room.
“They’re gone. We need to get her to the hospital.”
“No!” Izzy coughed out. “No.” Cough, cough. “No hospital.” Her voice was raspy. “Please.”
She tried to hold her coughing in, but it did nothing to help. A long, deep wet string of coughs escaped from her mouth. I rolled her onto her side, holding her there and patting her back, gentle not to break her fragile ribs. I was helpless against her magical illness.
All I could do was rub my hands down her sweat-soaked back. “You’ll get through this.” I pulled her out-of-control brown hair off her face and let it cascade against the dirty sheets of her bed.
“I’m so sorry,” Ruby said.
“Sorry for what? There’s nothing you can do. Nothing either of us can do.”
Ruby tucked a clump of her amber hair behind her ear. “I shouldn’t have let you leave her here. I had a bad feeling.”
“We both did, but what were we going to do? I couldn’t bring someone from the non-magical realm back to our world.”
Izzy’s coughing slowly subsided, and she twisted onto her back, but she wasn’t the happy girl I had left yesterday. Her eyebrows were scrunched together and wrinkles creased her forehead. Her skin was exceptionally pale and her eyes glossy. My fingers brushed her temple. “You’re in pain.” I had
seen pain enough in the village to clearly recognize the signs.
Izzy nodded. “My folks tell me I’m out of pain pills, but I know what happened. They did this the last time to me, too.”
The creases on her forehead seemed to resolve the more I stroked her skin and soon, my thumb traced all the way from her temple to her chin, then back up.
“Last year, I learned something about magic when I had to counteract a spell the Royal Guild Witch had put on Ty and me,” Ruby said. “Magic can’t undo magic, but sometimes, you can go around a spell.”
“Of course,” I said, laying my open hand against Izzy’s cheek. I closed my eyes and sifted through the magical sand inside her, but with a different purpose. Sure, I couldn’t cure her magical sickness, but perhaps I could alleviate the symptoms.
That’s when I found the sand that was stuck together. Not boulders or rocks like a typical disease, but the pieces almost clung together like magnets. I separated the grains and dispersed them throughout her body so they couldn’t find each other. When I opened my eyes, Izzy smiled at me.
“What did you just do?” she asked.
“Hopefully, I made you feel better.” I held my breath as I waited for her confirmation.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She shifted on the bed and finally looked at me again. “You cured me.”
I shook my head with a heavy frown. “Not cured. Just took away the pain.”
“No, you cured me,” Izzy said, throwing the sheet off her and wiggling her toes. “I can feel my feet again. My legs.” The biggest, joyful smile fell on her face as she twisted in bed, allowing her legs to dangle over the side right next to me. “I’m no longer paralyzed.” She pushed herself to her feet, but her legs gave out beneath her, causing her to fall into my arms.
“Whoa, there. Steady.” What was I doing? Talking to her as if she was Luna. “Anything I did is only temporary, and you have to be extremely weak. How long has it been since you walked?”
“Over a year.”
“Then, let’s take it slow.” I sat her back down in bed.
“Izzy?” Called her father from the living room. “What’s going on in there?” Then, the appetizing sound of vomiting filled the house again.
“I don’t mean to be pushy,” Izzy said, “but it appears this isn’t the best place for me…and I’m not going back to the hospital. That only leaves your place.” She batted her dark eyelashes. The Izzy I remembered was back. “And before you argue and say ‘no,’ think about it. Your place is clearly the best spot for me. I mean, if I get sick again, all you have to do is touch me,” a light pink ran across her cheeks and she looked down at her hands, finishing her thought, “and I’ll be as good as new.”
I opened my mouth, but she stopped me.
“You can’t say no.”
I laughed. “I wasn’t going to say no.”
When that meaning fell upon her, she clapped—like a child.
And it made my heart flutter.
And Ruby may have squealed a little. I glared at her, and she schooled her smile. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that my big, grumpy brother finally has a girlfriend.”
I just glared at Ruby, not wanting to deny it and hurt Izzy’s feelings, but she denied it first.
“Oh, I’m not his girlfriend. I can’t date. Gonna die in a few months and all.”
And how was that for a dose of the cold, hard truth?
The thought turned my stomach, but I wasn’t going to dwell on that. We still had time to cure her.
“So, why’d you come for me? Did you figure out my curse?” Izzy asked.
I pulled the newspaper article out of my black tundra deerskin pants’ pocket and handed it to her. “There are more people sick like you. Do you know any of them?” I pointed to where their names were printed.
“I don’t know…maybe if I saw their faces, but I don’t recognize the names.” She yawned, then smoothed her magnificently thick hair away from her face. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a crumpled bed sheet.
I might have taken her pain away, but she was way far away from being better.
“What’s our next step?” Izzy asked.
The magical healer part of me took over…or maybe a buried instinct to nurture and protect someone I had grown to care about.
I cared about her wellbeing, that was true. She needed someone to take care of her since she couldn’t care for herself. And it was obvious she had nobody else capable, at least not capable in the way I was.
I gave Ruby a nod, signaling it was time to leave. I wrapped one arm beneath Izzy’s, and placed my other one below her knees, picking her up and cradling her to my chest. “Our first step is getting your strength back. A bath, a meal, and a good night’s sleep will hopefully do wonders.”
“Ahh…a bath. Sounds wonderful. This place only has a tiny shower that I can’t use. The hospital had a bench for me to sit on, but that wouldn’t fit here.”
“I have just the place for you,” I smiled, thinking of how Izzy’s long hair would hang over the edge of my elfstone tub, her deep brown contrasting with the white stone. No, no. I couldn’t think of her bathing there. I was taking advantage of her condition.
But she was welcome. In fact, I wouldn’t allow her to go anywhere else.
After what happened here, she wasn’t leaving my sight.
Except, maybe while she cleaned herself up…unless she needed help.
Oh, my mind wandered to places that it shouldn’t, and I shook those thoughts away.
“Ruby, could you take me to my house? Then you can send Luna back to her family. I’ll call her when I need her again.”
Ruby placed her hand against my arm, and this world shimmered away as I cradled Izzy’s broken body to my chest.
Don’t get attached.
I’d never survive the heartbreak again.
Chapter 7
After shooing Ruby out of my house, I set Izzy down on my davenport and started the woodstove to get the chill out. Sure, it was summer, but it was always cold up here in the mountains in ice dragon territory. I wouldn’t live too far away from Luna, or maybe it was she wouldn’t stay too far away from me, but our magic bond ensured that we were always close. So close that I even forgave her for breaking Izzy out of the hospital, even if it led to over twenty-four hours of torture for the poor lass.
“So, this is your place?” Izzy’s eyes were wide as she took in the shambles of my home. It wasn’t much, just a simple cabin in the mountains. One great big room with an eating area on one side with way more shelves than I had dishes and a living room on the other with a wood-burning stove in the center which both heated the place and served as my cooking stove. Then there were two tiny bedrooms off to one side with a bathroom in between.
“This is it.”
“It? It’s twice as big as where I grew up…and nice.” She rubbed her arms. “Cozy. Homey. Rustic. I love it.”
I pulled a quilt off a chair and dropped to one knee in front of Izzy while I draped the blanket around her. “It’ll warm up soon.” I rubbed my hands up and down her arms to help get some heat into her. She was so thin; I was sure she was freezing.
She stared into my eyes, and I hesitated being so close to her. An odd sensation filled me of having Izzy in my home. Right now, she wasn’t much more than a stranger…and the last stranger I had here turned out to be my half-sister.
What would Izzy become to me?
What would our future hold?
I backed away.
That was only if I could break her curse. Only if she didn’t die.
“Thank you,” she said meekly, cuddling up inside the blanket.
“For leaving you with your parents? You could have died there. If I had known—”
She shook her head. “No. For not taking me back to the hospital. I want my last days to be an adventure.” A slow smile grew on her lips. “And I know we have an adventure in store, but first, you mentioned a bath. I haven’t soaked in a tub…wel
l…in my entire life!” Her eyes lit up and the naughty thoughts I had of her while back at her home re-surfaced. Of her bare back with her hair wet against her bronze skin.
“Aye. Of course. In this world, showers aren’t something we utilize. There’s something about soaking in a bath. Let me get the tub filled for you.”
I disappeared into my bathroom where I opened a valve from the rain and snow collector on the roof, filling the tub with cold water. I then reached for my magic, using my woodpile as a sacrifice to heat it. Honestly, warming the water wasn’t much of a sacrifice as I’d have to use wood to heat it on my woodstove, anyway. Soon, the water was warm, edging on hot. I laid a few twigs of soap plant beside the tub and pulled the best of my old, ratty towels from a shelf and laid it on the floor near the tub, a bit embarrassed I hadn’t purchased new ones in the market since Nieva left.
My heart galloped at the sight of Izzy curled up on my davenport. In my home. Why did she excite me like she did?
“Your bath’s all ready,” I said.
She smiled, reaching out for me, and I didn’t even remember crossing the room. As I leaned down to scoop her up, she stopped me with a hand on my chest.
Could she feel my heart pounding?
“I want to walk.”
I nodded, backing up some as she set her feet on the tattered rug on my wooden floor and pushed herself up…but only halfway before she fell back down. She tried again, but did even worse this time. Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout.
“You’re just a little weak.” I leaned beside her and wrapped my arm around her back, lifting her to her feet beside me. “It’ll get better the more you use your legs.”
We shuffled slowly into the bathroom where, when she looked at me, my cheeks heated beneath my beard.
“How much help are you going to need?” I swallowed a lump.
“If you get me a chair beside the tub, my arms are quite strong and I can transfer myself.”
“Of course.” I set her on the elfstone ledge and was back in moments, setting a kitchen chair beside the water-filled tub. Izzy leaned over the edge and grazed the surface with her fingertips, a look of wonder that rivaled a child’s on her face.
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