I heard the front door to the cabin slam open, as if in further confirmation of their irritation. The exasperated squeak of Mylene responded to them. It seemed that no one was in a good mood.
“I have to talk to Adam,” Luka said as their voices became louder, Nikolas’s groan of exhaustion was particularly audible. “I want him to know what it was, it might help.” His eyes fell on me as he folded his book, scanning over me, “can I trust you to stay here alone?”
“Can’t I come with?”
“Side effects,” he repeated, as if aside from the nausea and dizziness there was anything else. “Do you still have them?”
I did, but I didn’t think it was that important. The forest was seeming quieter by the moment, almost silent when I had my head upon Luka’s lap. Soon, if I was lucky, the breathing and the strange call it formed would fade away.
“You’re tired,” Luka said to aid in his argument, “I can tell.” I had been sleeping for hours, inexplicably exhausted.
“I could just sit,” I rationalized, desperate to be in the know. “Maybe have some coffee.”
“You could just wait here.” He took in my expression. “I will be back in just a moment,” Luka said, “I’m just going to tell Adam what we’re dealing with, then I’ll come back to you, and you can spend the night in my room.”
“You mean I will spend the night in your room,” I said shortly. “Because you’ve already made the decision for me.”
“I’d prefer that you stayed the night,” he admitted, his fingers working through the strands of my hair. “But if you would not like to…” I shot him a look. “I will be back soon,” he reassured. “You’ll be fine.”
I would be. I scoffed at the notion that I wouldn’t, lifting my head up from his lap. A part of me was tempted to inform him that, believe it or not, I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself… even if it was nice to have him around.
I would be fine, I repeated to myself as he neared the door.
“No trouble,” Luka said as he placed his hand on the knob, “stay in bed.”
He knew me too well.
Which is why, of course, the moment that he shut the door I was pressed against it, closing the few feet of distance and straining to hear through the wood. Because I was definitely not, in any way, prone to trouble or listening in to conversations when I was meant to be doing something else.
Nope, not at all.
Chapter Fifteen
“How is she?” Adam asked immediately upon Luka’s entrance, his voice strained.
“Combative, evasive, and stubborn,” Luka responded flippantly, “the same as she usually is. Too much trouble, but not enough that I would tell her.” I scowled. “She’s tired, I asked her to go back to sleep.”
“In your room?” Asked Mylene, and I felt my frown deepen. I had a desperate need to see what was going on, and the wide gap at the bottom of the door taunted me. “Will she be spending the night?”
“She needs to be with someone,” Luka said evenly, as if it were some minor inconvenience. I kept my eyes on the gap in the door, debating. “Something could go wrong,” he said.
“Her room is right beside mine,” Nikolas started, his voice startlingly close. I made a choice then, a stupid one, letting myself fall to the side so I could angle my head.
With my nose pressed halfway to the ground and my hand braced on the door, I could see. Not comfortably, and certainly not enough, but I could still make things out. Heavy boots stood by Luka’s door, Nikolas if I had to guess. Across from him, was a torso dressed in brown linen pants, a white dress shirt tucked loosely in; his hands gave it away, that was Adam. By him was Luka, slightly taller but also narrower than most in the cabin. The dainty shoes visible underneath the couch likely belonged to Mylene, and Lindy…
I squinted, looking for Lindy.
“She stays with me,” Luka dismissed. “You don’t even know what you’re up against.”
“And you do?” Nikolas growled.
“Considering the fact that I actually got her to talk to me, I would say that I do,” Luka replied. “Believe it or not, Wren and I know each other fairly well. It was easier for me to get information from her alone.”
Where on earth was Lindy?
“And what is this information that you obtained?” Adam asked, always eager to shut down a fight. Even then, however, I could hear a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Gancanagh,” Luka said. “A love talker, higher Unseelie. They’re known for luring young women into the woods by shifting into objects of desire or imitations of loved ones. They’re rare.”
“But you knew what it was?” Nikolas spat as I began to scan the room, wondering if they’d perhaps lost Lindy or sent her up to the palace.
“I thought to study, given our location and the prevalence of the Unseelie.” His voice dropped an octave, betraying his annoyance as he said to Nikolas, “I may have also thought to look up what it might be based on the little that I knew, seeing as how I am more than fond of Wren. As I’m sure you’re aware.”
I jerked back as a pair of wide, owlish brown eyes caught mine, very obviously seeing me. Lindy. I could feel my heart stop, waiting for her to mention seeing me.
“I’m surprised you even had to study,” Nikolas said flatly, once again presuming Luka to be an expert. “So what? She saw some handsome young man out in the woods, and then she left?”
Oh, Nikolas. If only I could tell him. I laid on my back, still waiting for Lindy to say something, but she didn’t.
Maybe she didn’t see me? I peered back under the door.
No, she definitely saw me.
“Whatever it was, it was far more appealing company than you were,” Luka mused as Lindy stared back at me from her seat on the floor, very obviously knowing that I was there. Her head tilted, her mouth curved upwards in amusement.
“Why would it want her?” Nikolas ignored him.
“Why wouldn’t it want her?” Adam groaned. “I knew she should have ridden in the auto, but when I tried to convince her, it was a steadfast no. It probably saw her— maybe even felt her power. Every creature in these woods probably saw her.”
“She’s stubborn,” Luka said.
“Yes,” Mylene agreed, “she is.”
Annoying, Lindy mouthed as Mylene spoke, maintaining eye contact with me.
Adam walked away from Luka, moving to lean his back against the edge of the couch, his voice loud as he complained, “we didn’t find anything today, in case that’s what you’re wondering, Luka. Nothing. The woods were practically empty, as if they knew what was coming. So, if this love talker of yours really is at fault, he’s got to be pretty important to make the others scatter. Just yesterday these woods were active.”
“It was disappointing, I very much wanted to hurt something,” Lindy said to no one in particular, probably earning her a collective scowl from the others.
“If it’s old,” Luka said. “Unseelie grow more powerful with age, as opposed to Seelie whose powers eventually begin to wane.”
“They do not wane!” Nikolas snapped.
“Enough interruptions,” Adam said, his foot stomping against the ground in a single, loud motion. “We don’t have time for this, not if we’re to set out at daylight. Luka, you’re coming with us. Winry wrote to me just yesterday that she will be coming tomorrow, she can keep Wren occupied until the healer arrives.”
“I’m not leaving,” Luka said sharply.
“You are,” Adam ordered. “Because this will not get resolved unless you do, and I would like to go back to my life.”
“Wren needs me.”
“Wren will be fine,” Adam said. “She looks fine, she acts fine. She just needs the final push, and then she will be better. Keeping her in bed until we can do that will not be a problem. She would tell you the same.”
I suppose I would.
“There is nothing to worry about,” Adam said, “and if you think there is, we can leave someone else here. We can fin
d a substitute. But now that you got what you can out of her, we need to begin acting rationally.”
“I am nothing but rational,” Luka hissed. No one challenged him.
I would have.
“What if something happens to Luka?” Mylene asked, and I felt my fist clench at my side.
Lindy, who I decided then that I liked very much, replied, “The smart fae man belongs to her, doesn’t he? I am asking because I think I might be mistaken, but I am not sure.” Her face was cold, her eyes perceptive as they broke from mine, looking at the woman on the couch, “You would let everyone else go, would you not?”
“A mess of personal drama,” I thought I heard Adam murmur as he stepped away from the couch. I desperately wished I could see Mylene’s face. “He’s going, we’re not having this argument,” Adam said in a way that was far too irritated and exhausted to truly feel like him. I think we had aged him.
“And what of the girl? You’ll trust her that much for a few hours?” Mylene spoke, suddenly desperate to keep him at my side if it meant keeping him out of the woods. “You saw her eyes and how glassy they were. You’re really so willing to trust someone who was just charmed by an Unseelie?”
“We’ll give her to Lindy, then!” Adam declared. “Problem solved, she wanted to be with her to begin with.”
“I am to babysit?” Lindy said, sitting up straighter, her eyes sparkling with interest.
“I’m sure that you’ll do a stellar job,” Adam assured.
“Considering the fact that Wren can hardly stand,” Luka said.
“And what if it comes back to get her?” Nikolas asked.
“Lindy,” Adam replied, like that was the solution to everything. Actually, if you looked at her, she seemed rather happy about the proposition. So long as a large Unseelie came to murder me, I think Lindy would be rather pleased.
“She’s not completely here,” Mylene said. “You’d leave someone who is currently under the effects of fae magic in the company of a child? She’s likely violent.”
“You don’t know that,” Luka fired back aggressively. “You haven’t seen her.” Lindy’s upper lip lifted in what I believed to be an approximation of a grin at Mylene’s response to that.
“What if it’s still calling to her? What if she can still hear it?” Mylene asked. “What if one of those monsters is still inside her head?”
Could I still hear it? Actually, I realized, if I did not concentrate on something else, the answer was yes, faintly. I’d thought it was fading away, but it was still there, constant. But it was low, just a hum. Maybe it would go away.
“I’ve made up my mind,” Adam said with a sort of finality, “we are going back in tomorrow early, and so I suggest the lot of you sleep. I’ll take Wren’s room.”
Nikolas huffed, and I was sure that Lindy rolled her eyes, but the sight was blocked by Nikolas walking by. Adam sighed, finally putting an end to things as he saw fit. I was sure that they were getting ready to go to bed, Lindy’s fingers twitching ever so slightly as she passed by my door. I heard Mylene speak before Luka could begin to move.
“Luka,” she said. “Can we talk?”
A moment, and I knew that I should move, shuffling back to the bed before Luka came to the door. I didn’t want to be caught there; he would be back soon—
“Okay,” he said, and I froze completely, sinking back into the ground the few inches that I’d managed to get up. “That’s fine, Mylene.”
Not a hint of exasperation or irritation, just fine. Nothing else.
“Is she asleep?” Mylene asked.
“I hope so,” he said, not knowing that I was there eavesdropping at that very moment, my body shoved awkwardly against his door. I remained miraculously undetected. Perhaps tall people did not have so many advantages in life, not if Lindy could see me but he could not.
“I don’t want you to go,” she said, rising from the couch. “I don’t think you should.”
“That’s not something for you to decide.”
“Not many things are,” she said, her voice soft and delicate in a million ways that mine would never be. I felt my breathing slow. “It’s dangerous.”
“I’m aware,” he said as she moved closer to him, her legs far nearer to his than they should have been.
I wished that I could see more, because then it would have made sense. I would have looked up and seen his face, the disgust roll across it. Maybe if I was bold, maybe if I was stupid—I eyed the doorknob, telling myself not to be.
“You could get hurt.”
“I know,” he said. His voice was lower, softer, almost a whisper—I eyed the doorknob with more intensity, wondering if it was worth it. “But I’ve weighed the risks.”
“And I’m supposed to be okay with that?” She asked. “Luka, what is she to you?” I was going to open the door.
Oh my god, I was going to open the door.
It was stupid and insecure, but I was going to open the door.
I strained to hear Luka, but I couldn’t make out his words. My hand reached for the doorknob. I had never been so careful in my life, my hand steady as I moved for it, somehow managing not to shake as I slowly turned the knob. I only opened the door a crack, creating just the smallest gap. It was enough, I could see them out of it while crouching on the ground.
“And so, I am expected to say goodbye to you in front of everyone?” She said, and she was standing close, far too close to him.
“Mylene.”
“Luka,” she said, her hands were on his collar. Why were they on his collar? “Let me do it properly, just this once.” No.
His hands rose, I heard his voice, but I could not place it, “Mylene.”
No, no, no.
I fell backwards, my foot jerking up and kicking the door shut as my back hit the ground, surprise filling me. I didn’t see it; I couldn’t see it.
But I definitely saw it. Well, almost saw it.
“Wren!” I heard Luka’s worried voice from out in the common area the moment I hit the ground, and I immediately jerked backwards to be more by the bed’s side, practically hitting my head on the desk as a result.
The door opened quickly. I sat on the ground in front of it, stunned.
“Wren?” Luka’s voice was hurried as he dropped to the ground, immediately reaching for me. Every part of my body wanted to writhe away to avoid his hands. “Did you fall?” He asked, looking from the bed to me, reaching his own conclusion.
I could only gape at him.
“Wren?” A voice called from behind him, “is she alright?” I made a soft sound of distress.
There she was—Her, the one. She—Luka—While I was here? Supposedly sleeping?
“Wren?” Luka repeated my name, his hand reaching behind my head. “Did you hurt yourself? Are you okay?”
I saw it. I saw them. He—with her? He’d kissed her? Or let her kiss him? Or—
His arms reached for me and I felt the immediate urge to kick him, to fight him, to punch him. Those would have been the rational, reasonable things to do, but I was supposed to be asleep, he had told me to sleep—but he must have known that I wouldn’t. His arm wrapped around me, pulling me up and letting me stumble against him.
I stared at him, at her, at the room that spun around me. His arms caught me as I almost fell again, the world coming back to me in a storm. Everything seemed to throb into existence around me; his hands on my arms, her face in the background, the hum of the forest—
The hum of the forest.
It was so loud.
“Wren,” he said my name again, no pet names or taunts because she was there, because I was right, because there was so much going on that I couldn’t even begin to explain. “Let’s get you into bed.”
“Get her out,” I said coldly as she moved to help him, pulling up the edge of the covers.
Her eyes flickered up to mine.
“Get her out,” I said again, this time in more of a growl.
She knew what I had seen then, I cou
ld see it in her eyes and the way that she stood up straighter, her skin blanching. I thought she was going to tell him, but then she looked down to see my fists tightening, the urge to lash out intensifying.
“Calm down,” Luka began, and then he took me in, and he grew pale too. “Wren…”
“You can go too,” I said. “I don’t care, Kinsley.” His face broke at that.
“Luka,” her hands were on him again, familiar in the action. He shoved her away.
“Go.”
She looked at him with confusion and concern, halfway ready to argue. Oh, how I would have loved to see her argue. But she saw something there, I don’t know what, that made her tuck in her tail and run.
Maybe it was the large, violent sparks dancing across my fingertips.
I would have relished if it was. But then Luka’s forearm was across my sternum, my back pinned against the wall. His eyes held mine, his chest moving in and out with mine as he tried and failed to make me calm down, slowing my heartrate and stopping the sparks through contact alone.
I could hear the woods; I could hear them roar.
“Wren.”
“Don’t,” I commanded.
“Calm down,” he said, obviously unaware of what I’d seen, but realizing the growing danger of my powers. “Breathe.”
Breathe. It was always breathe. I could have screamed when his chest pressed against mine, trying and failing to force me to breathe with him. The trees were screaming, begging me to enter them; I would have run into them right that second, if only to shut them up.
I trusted him. I so stupidly trusted him. If lying burnt his throat, then his throat must have been on fire with all of the lies he’d had to tell me.
I wanted to cry. What an awful thing to admit, a final victory for him, Luka Kinsley had made me want to cry. This was it; this was his ultimate revenge. He’d hated me just as much as I had him.
“I’m right here,” he said. “Focus on me, we need to clear your head. Its coercion is still in there, and your powers are intensifying it.”
Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2) Page 13