I flipped through the book for another hour as I munched on some biscuits. It only covered people whose paternal line started with “RO,” but it was a good sampling. Not one other family had itchy feet, as Dez called it. There had to be hundreds of other families listed. If they moved to a neighboring country every other generation, that seemed to be a lot. Not my people. We were globetrotting all over this world.
I put down the book, patted my pocket to make sure the stone hadn’t fallen out, and headed to lunch. I’d ask Dez to think about it some more. There had to be other families like mine.
I walked into the food building, and Marra’s gaze snapped to mine. Was she finally concerned? She didn’t seem overly worried. She stared, and for the first time ever, I looked away first. I didn’t care what she was thinking anymore.
I found a seat at the usual table, where Burn and Sneak were already eating.
“You look like shit,” Burn said.
“You do,” Sneak added.
I hadn’t slept well, and it had been worth it, but that wasn’t a discussion I was looking to have.
“Where’s Dez? She said she’d be here.” I scoured the food line, but she wasn’t there either.
“Haven’t seen her,” Sneak said, then took a bite of his sandwich. “You’re not eating?” He pointed to the lack of food in front of me.
“Too many biscuits.”
They both nodded, more interested in getting back to their conversation than whether Dez was here and how many biscuits I’d eaten.
I waited another five minutes, listening to them talk about the shape of some woman’s ass, before I got up.
“I’ll see you guys in a bit,” I said, leaving the food building and heading to Dez’s.
It was only a few doors down from Knife’s, and the itchy feet of my family were weighing heavily. Once she’d pointed it out, it stuck in my brain like a gnat in a web. Was there something funny about my family?
Knife was walking out of his place as I was walking toward Dez’s. Although he’d seen me when I was passed out, it was the first time I’d seen him since the night Ryker had carried me out of his room.
“Hey,” I said, raising my chin.
“Hey,” he replied.
A couple more awkward moments passed.
“You see Dez?” I asked, rocking on my heels.
“Yeah, she went into her place not long ago.” He nodded his head a couple times.
“Okay, I’ll see you later,” I said.
“Yeah, see ya,” he said, walking off.
Well, that was awkward. I stood on the stoop of Dez’s place as I watched Knife disappear around the corner.
I knocked on her door and waited. When she didn’t answer, I took a fist to it. Dez always answered.
Nothing. I put my ear to the wood, listening. There weren’t any sounds inside.
“Dez!” I yelled through the door, and then moved to the window. Knife didn’t know what he was talking about. The room was empty.
I was about to walk away when I caught sight of her foot hanging out from behind the bed. Oh no. Acid boiled in my stomach, about to burn a hole right through me.
I pounded on the door again. Then I took a step back and landed a kick right beside the doorknob. The door swung open and crashed into the wall. I was grateful I’d kicked down plenty of doors in my thieving days.
I ran inside and stopped short. Dez was lying on her back, eyes open, chest still. She was dead. I didn’t need to check her pulse to be sure. I’d seen enough of the deceased in my life to know. Logic wasn’t needed either. My gut screamed it. I ran over, pressing my hand to her skin that had already lost some of the heat of life.
I turned, and fell to my knees. My palm hit the ground and I did something I thought I was too strong for. I threw up a few feet away from her body.
Ryker was by my side before I was done heaving, angling the door shut so no one could see inside. He walked farther in, stopping in front of Dez’s body.
I sat back on my heels and wiped an arm across my mouth.
“I was walking past and heard the banging,” he said before I asked.
I got to my feet, giving my face a last wipe just to be sure. “I saw her an hour ago. She’d been fine. Maybe the healer…”
He looked at me, and the answer was the sadness in his eyes. It was too late. I’d known it when I touched her. I just hoped I was wrong.
“How did this happen?” I asked. No one had died in so long that I’d begun to think those deaths were behind us for good.
“I don’t know.”
My legs felt weak and my skin chilled as I stared at her body. She’d been bouncing around happy an hour ago, and now she was dead. We didn’t know why, and there was nothing to do to fix it.
Ryker brushed my back. Instead of pulling away, I leaned into him.
“Do me a favor; go tell the Burtie we’re going to need a ceremony tonight. I want to get her buried quickly,” Ryker said.
Tonight. He was afraid of contagion. If this was the Boom, it hadn’t acted like any outbreak I’d seen before. Coming and then disappearing for months on end. No, this was something different.
I turned to leave, and he reached out again before I did. He patted the pocket I used to carry the stone.
I nodded and walked out. I’d only gone a few paces before I broke into a jog, then a run. I bumped into people here and there but didn’t slow down once.
* * *
I walked down the path to the grove and then wandered. I’d made it as far as the line of trees when I stopped, sitting on a mossy mound.
I’d survived slavers, nearly died more times than I could recall. I’d raided chuggers to keep my crew from near starvation, and yet I couldn’t remember ever feeling this defeated, not since when Sinsy died. I’d just seen Dez. She’d been fine. How could she be dead? It made no sense. If she’d been back at Dorley, would she still be alive? If I’d stayed at Dorley, if I’d never come to that party, she never would’ve been here.
I looked at the ground beside me, and for the first time, I was afraid to worm because it might answer. If it said yes, I was somehow to blame for this, what would I do? Could I handle that kind of truth? Was I a poison that spread to all around me?
I dug a hand into the soil until I found a worm. I cupped my hands together and asked my question. “Am I the reason she’s dead?”
I placed it down. Before the thing could move, a flying spark swooped down and grabbed it.
What the fuck? If fairies ate worms, that was fine, but they could dig for their own.
I dug for another worm. Before my hands were cupped around it, another fairy grabbed it.
“Why are you stealing my worms? Dig up your own. I’m trying to do something.”
I knew they were close by. All I’d have to do is dig up a worm to prove it. I put my hand into the soil. “I’ll do it!”
A fluttering light flew right up to my face and squeaked again. I had to squint to make it out, but it definitely had a little head, and I thought the mouth was moving. I heard a squeak.
“What?”
It flew closer to my ear, and another joined it. “No.”
“Why can’t I worm?”
It didn’t say anything this time. Awfully convenient.
I saw Burtie walking through the trees toward me. Some more fairies flying about him, spreading a dusting of gold as they did.
He tilted his head back. “I know, we’ve got a problem. I see her,” he said as he made his way to me. He put a hand on the ground and then eased himself down beside me, joints creaking. “What happened? They say your energy is off.”
“We’re going to need a tree. Dez is dead.”
His mouth turned down. “She was a lovely soul. I don’t have her in my records, but we’ll pick her out a lovely tree.”
“Yeah.” I leaned my arms on my knees, leaning forward.
Burtie patted my back. “People make their own footprints where they see fit. Denying them that is akin to
denying them their free will. Wherever those steps led them, it was their path, their freedom to own.”
My vision began to blur, and I knew I had to get out of there before I ended up watering all the trees in the grove with the sorrow that was tearing at my insides. I got back to my feet and locked weak knees in place.
“I’ll have the tree ready,” he said.
“Thanks, Burtie.”
The closer I got to the heart of the Valley, the slower I walked. Ryker would’ve told Knife already. If there was one person in this world that Knife loved, it had been Dez.
As much as I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, I had to find Ruck.
I could tell word had already spread by the sporadic clusters of people talking softly and glancing at me as I made my way back.
I was halfway to Ruck’s place when I spotted him. He met me halfway, and his downcast eyes and frown told me he’d already heard.
He shoved his hands in his pockets.
“I can’t hug you. I’ll break if I do. I’m barely holding on,” he said, his eyes liquid and shining like the stars.
“I know.” I swallowed so loud it echoed in my ears. I dragged in a breath, trying to hold back the shudder in my chest.
I took a step away from him and then tilted my head in the same direction. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
“What?”
“Can’t describe it. You have to see it,” I said.
His steps were slow, but he followed. I walked him back down to the grove, where Burtie had already prepared the burial for Dez.
I’d watched her being carried down here a couple of hours ago. I’d watched Burtie carry a Blessed Tree, twice his size, to her grave. In the spring, it would be covered with golden blooms that would glow when the sun hit them, as if it were being blessed by the sun. Burtie had chosen well.
He’d placed it above her and uttered words I didn’t understand. As he spoke, the tree’s roots wrapped around and cradled her. Then the fairies had come.
They were still there now as Ruck and I approached. They circled the tree, dusting the entire area with their magic as a sweet melody filled the air.
“What are they doing?” Ruck asked.
“Helping her and her magic move on to the next life because they loved her.” I motioned to a mound not far away, where we could watch them without getting in the way.
We sat shoulder to shoulder, and I continued to repeat what Burtie had explained. “Burtie said they’re using their magic to help release her from this world so she can move on easier. It’s a great honor. They only do it for those they believe had pure hearts.”
“Move on where?”
“To a place where your spirit roams free. Burtie told me that the fairies can go there, that they aren’t bound to this world. That they’ll help her find her way. He said she’s not really gone.”
The sun began to set. The sparkling of the fairies seemed to rise higher above the tree and then glide across the sky, bringing their tinkling chorus overhead.
When they were right above us, just before they disappeared, I heard the echo of Dez’s laughter.
Ruck wrapped his hand around mine, and I knew he’d heard it too. A single tear tracked a path down his cheek, but the corners of his mouth rose a little. I squeezed his hand. Our friend would be okay.
Twenty-Nine
I woke up in Ruck’s room the next morning, remembering the night before. We’d watched everyone say their goodbyes to Dez. It had taken hours for everyone to come.
The crowd had been dwindling when Knife finally appeared. I’d started to fear he wasn’t going to come at all. He’d been a shadow of himself. He hadn’t spoken to anyone, and it seemed as if he didn’t see anyone either.
He’d knelt beside her tree and hadn’t gotten up. I’d walked forward, laying a hand on his shoulder. He hadn’t budged.
Ryker had walked over to me. When I glanced at him, he’d given me the slightest shake of his head, as if to say there was nothing I could do.
It wouldn’t help. He needed time.
A fist pounded on Ruck’s door, jolting me back to the present. I got up, stepping around where Ruck had crashed on the floor with Switch, both of them sleeping off all the booze we’d consumed here last night.
I opened the door, and Bobby, one of the messengers, handed me a note with a smile.
My place, now.
It didn’t have a signature, but it didn’t need one.
* * *
I pushed open Ryker’s door a few minutes later. He was standing beside a fresh pot of coffee. By the smell, it had been brewed recently.
“You needed me?” It hadn’t escaped me that he’d summoned me here by messenger instead of finding me himself. I knew he’d probably come looking for me afterward. As I walked from the grove, I’d seen the look in his eyes.
Crashing at Ruck’s hadn’t been a complete accident. I would’ve ended up in Ryker’s bed again, and that was something I needed to avoid.
Ryker poured himself more coffee as he said, “I want you to try and worm.”
“I can’t worm. I try every morning.” I walked around to the side of the table where he kept his mugs and helped myself to the coffee. I knew when Ryker was about to dig in. Seemed he had stamina in every aspect of his life. I pulled out a chair, slumped into it, and kicked my feet up onto another.
He perched his hip on the table in front of me. “Humor me. We’ve got a demon on the loose, Dez is dead, and I have no answers.”
I looked over the rim of the cup, meeting his eyes, the ones that were locked on my lips. This morning was going to go in one of two directions: outside, where there were witnesses, or toward his bedroom, where there weren’t.
I wasn’t in the mood to worm and fail, but it was too risky to do anything else. I couldn’t sleep with him again. Once was a fluke. Twice was an accident. Three would be a habit, and a bad one at that.
“Fine. Let’s go.” I put my cup down before his lips followed his eyes. I jumped out of the chair, flung open the door, and made it to the witnesses before I could breathe. There was a nice place under a tree not far away that had plenty of traffic passing it. Perfect.
He was close behind me. “Practice field,” he said, and then took a step in the opposite direction.
“What about that nice, shady spot?” I pointed, in case he missed it.
“You don’t like worming with an audience.”
Somehow, in between sleeping with everyone in creation, he’d taken a few minutes to notice that little quirk of mine.
“I was trying to make this quick for you.” I spun on my heel, heading toward the field, swearing I’d keep a five-foot buffer between us. If he didn’t get close, we couldn’t have sex.
I hurried my steps. Being alone with him was becoming dangerous. I knelt on the ground as soon as I got there, drawing a circle with my finger and marking it with the requisite yes and no.
The second I plucked the worm from the ground, it wiggled like a lunatic.
“It’s not going to work.”
He didn’t need to speak. His glare said, Do it anyway, loud and clear.
I cupped the worm and brought it to my mouth for one reason only: when it failed, I could nonverbally reply, I told you so.
He squatted down so he could look me square in the eye. “Wait, why aren’t you giving me a hard time?”
I sat back on my heels. “Easiest way to prove I’m right.”
He laughed. Between the laughing, smiling, and generally nicer behavior, he was laying a real head trip on me. I stopped giving him my attention. It was better to ignore him in his good moods.
I whispered a real easy question. “Did I sleep at Ruck’s last night?”
I laid it in the circle, and it went straight down. Ryker’s amusement disappeared with the worm.
I went to stand, and he was already shaking his head. “Try again. This time do it where you put your hands in the ground.”
“I’ve tried it. D
o I need to prove I’m right again?” I wiped the dirt from my knees as he watched.
He didn’t press me to continue, as I’d expected. When I looked to see what was up with him, his eyes were on my lips, before they slowly moved to my eyes. My breath hitched and my center warmed. I also itched to run, all at the same time. I turned and headed toward the path, looking for a subject that would kill the mood that seemed to be never-ending.
“Did you see Knife this morning?” I asked. That should cut the warm and fuzzies into chopped meat.
“He’s going back to Dorley soon,” he said, his tone cooler than his eyes had been a second ago.
Knife was leaving? Without me? Dez was gone; Ruck was shacked up with Switch most of the time. I was running out of buffers. All Burn wanted to do was shove me at Ryker. Sneak didn’t talk.
“I should go with him for a little bit. He’s mourning. He might need me.”
Ryker stopped walking and grabbed my arm so that I’d do the same. “And what about the demon?”
“I’ve got a stone. I’ll be okay as long as I keep it on me.” I hoped, anyway. Either way, I’d take the chance. I’d get out of here for a few days at least and let whatever was brewing between me and Ryker calm down. It was a phase that would pass. A new skirt would catch his eye and he’d move on.
“Why are you so set on getting back to Dorley? Why are you constantly running away?”
“Helping a friend isn’t running away.”
“Bull. You’re using Knife as an excuse to leave.”
“Why are you so set on making me stay when I don’t want to be here? Let me go home.”
“Stop. Calling. Dorley. Home.”
“Why? It is. Let me live my life.”
“Don’t you think I would leave you alone if I could? I can’t.”
“I don’t want to be the only one who can get these stones. I don’t want a monster trying to kill me. I don’t want to be special. Special sucks.”
“You think if you got rid of all the magic in your blood you wouldn’t be special? Is that why you think I can’t leave you alone?”
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 17