Chapter 4

4

T he illusion shattered.

Queen Laina picked up the mirror and slammed it down on the rocks, breaking the spell and splitting the glass into two neat pieces. Then she bolted back into the main room, opening the door with such force the wood slammed into the stone wall.

Several pieces splintered off the edge.

“Captain Hezarwick!” she demanded. “Send your guards to the royal bedchamber immediately. King Tywin needs help. Rally the others!”

I heard rather than saw the captain clear his throat. He sounded skeptical when he replied, “Your Majesty, why do you think the king is in danger? And why would you think he’s in that particular room? I have eyes on His Majesty and he is in the library.”

“The king is in danger so I suggest you take action, Captain, rather than wasting your time questioning me.” Laina glowered at him and magic crackled off of her.

The room stilled, waiting for the tension between them to explode, and Noren released a low warning growl.

“How do you know?” Hezarwick pleaded. “Your Majesty?—”

“I said move .” Her haughty tone was unmistakable, and I shivered, the stupor that had fallen on me at seeing Barbara again broken.

Mike hadn’t moved. He crouched over the now empty table, the pieces of the scrying mirror gone, with his head in his hands and his expression obscured.

I craned my head to peer over Noren’s shoulder to watch. The guards stood where they were, standing off against the queen.

Laina seemed to have grown several inches, her chest puffed out and magic crackling around her.

No one else had anything to say and for a long second the room held its breath.

“We can’t get through on the comm system,” one of the guards murmured to the captain. “The connection appears to be severed.”

“Then I suggest you go yourself . It is your position. I should not have to repeat myself.”

Laina, delicate and pretty, seemed to expand even more and the air in the room contracted in response to her power.

Hezarwick maintained eye contact with the queen longer than propriety would have dictated, and the way she stood, not quite glaring but absolutely regal, had me catching my breath again.

Eventually, as he should have, Captain Hezarwick caved.

Three of his men left to assist the king while Hezarwick remained behind to guard everyone inside the safe room.

I hid my expression behind Noren’s massive frame, focusing on drawing in a breath to the count of six, holding it, and releasing it to the same count.

For a time, the room remained engulfed in silence.

Terror took the place of any sort of thin hope I still harbored at this being a false alarm. There was nothing false about it. Barbara had come.

She’d somehow forced her way not only into Faerie itself but inside the castle, demolishing the wards and spells designed to keep us safe.

Her ace in the hole? The weapon in her hands, which she used with wild abandon. The weapon I’d delivered to her.

Guilt mingled with the terror into a new blend of emotion that turned my stomach. I’d given Barbara her tool of destruction and she’d come to harm King Tywin, which would hurt Mike beyond repair.

What would I do if Barbara ended up finding us down here and using the Imperium on Mike and Laina? I’d fight her to the death. Or else I’d fight only to have my power drained out of me until I was nothing but a husk on the floor, too.

“Your Majesty?” The captain’s voice cut through the heavy quiet and someone sucked in their breath. “It’s safe to head back into the castle. The guards have secured the scene. We have our suspect in custody.”

My heart skipped a beat and without Noren to hold me up, I’d have lost my balance. Mike frowned.

“Thank you, Captain.”

Laina’s voice gave no indication of anything except gratitude at a job well done and I wondered how she hid her real emotions so well. I’d seen her walls come down only a handful of times before, less than that, and she had to be feeling some kind of way at the news of her husband being safe.

At least, I thought he was safe. Otherwise they’d have me back in magical cuffs in an instant.

“Tavi? Come on. Take my hand. We’ll get you settled upstairs in your room.”

I blinked up at Mike, a little surprised to see him holding his palm out for me to take. Baldric was instantly there, and between the two of them and Noren adding his strength, I managed to get upstairs with little fanfare.

It was a testament to how much I’d recovered. I made it without getting winded.

“What happened, exactly?” Queen Laina strode ahead of our group once we rounded the stairs into the throne room. The guards at the door turned at her arrival and one of them stepped ahead, clicking his heels together in acknowledgement of her presence.

“The woman was captured and subdued in the royal bedrooms, Your Majesty. We’re unaware of the rest,” he answered simply. “A witch, Your Majesty.”

Laina’s expression remained unchanged. “Michael? We need to check on your father.”

He agreed without hesitation. “Yes, absolutely. Baldric, would you mind taking Tavi upstairs to her room? She’ll be more comfortable there.”

“Actually, Sir, a better idea would be to transport your friend back to the hospital where we will be able to continue her transfusions. She’s looking a bit…wan.”

Mike waved him away. “Fine, fine. Tavi? Please excuse me. I’ll be there to check on you as soon as I’m able.”

The conversation swirled around me faster than I was able to understand, and Mike’s abrupt departure left me staring after him with my jaw working.

“Tavi? If you don’t mind…”

Baldric took my arm to help me out toward the door, muttering the entire way about what we’d expect once we returned to the hospital. There was no question about Noren coming with us.

The surreal and foggy edges of the situation struck me.

The emergency alarm, the attack on the king, Barbara being here…it was straight out of a damn nightmare. Worse than anything my own fucked-up mind might have conjured.

What else was new?

Trouble followed me no matter where I went. If I’d thought the latest drama with Claribel defecting from the Bureau to target me meant the end of my issues, once again life proved me wrong.

I stumbled too many times to count on the way back. Baldric ended up having to lift me into his arms, making sure not to jostle my IV too much, and with Noren protesting with low whining the entire trip.

Baldric used magic to speed our progress but Noren’s whines became full-fledged growls the moment we crossed the threshold. If anyone tried to approach besides Baldric, he showed his teeth, his hackles rising to scare them away.

He was my perfect protector.

Nurse Baldric got me settled into the same private room where I’d woken, and Noren clambered onto the edge of the bed. He kept his eyes open and unblinking, and the moment a female fae attempted to enter the room to speak to Baldric, Noren began to growl again.

“Guess he’s staying,” Baldric said offhandedly.

“You couldn’t get him out of here if you tried. Hopefully the hospital doesn’t have a policy against companions.” I hesitated to call Noren a pet because the direwolf was so much more than that, and having him around soothed my inner wolf too.

I settled back against the pillows as exhaustion swamped me.

“I guess we’re going to have to work around any policies, aren’t we?” Baldric winked at me. “Make yourself comfortable, Tavi. The transfusion shouldn't take too long but I want to make sure you’re lying down before we begin.”

He adjusted the IV line attached to the crook of my arm.

“What exactly are you doing?” I asked, a chill settling into my skin.

I’d barely felt the needle through our trip to the safe room but now, with Baldric fiddling, it became an overly large splinter lodged somewhere it didn’t belong, prodding me uncomfortably.

“The bite you received triggered an immune reaction in your blood,” he explained. “The only way to temper the effects, which don’t appear to be going away on their own, is to do a minor transfusion every few hours.”

Baldric held up a finger, striding out of the room on those long legs and returning a moment later wearing a glowing pair of green gloves. He pushed a cart ahead of him and gestured toward the assortment of liquids in clear vials in front of him.

“This combination is the best we’ve found to combat the immune reaction and get your system to relax its defenses, in so many words.”

“It sounds confusing and complicated. What kind of transfusion is it?”

“A blood transfusion with the addition of minerals to help replenish your damaged cells.”

I started, my jaw dropping. “I can’t have blood transfusions every day, multiple times a day. That’s ridiculous and insane!”

“It might be just those things, and until we find a way to combat the way your immune system is reacting and heal the bite, then I’m going to have to keep inconveniencing you. Keep in mind, this is a scientific explanation for something that may be magical. We’re simply doing the best we can.” He attempted a smile. “Prince Michael tells me you’re an excellent student at the Elite Academy.”

It was Baldric’s attempt at distraction and although I appreciated it, I couldn’t stop staring at the way he expertly mixed the blood with the rest of the vials. Within moments, he’d tapped the mixture into the IV line until it mingled with the fluid already in the bag.

“Mike’s absolutely lying to you,” I admitted. “I’m not the worst student there but I’m certainly not the best.”

And it felt like a million years since I’d focused on my classes. Too many other things had happened since the last time I’d walked those halls, or spoken to Juno Ians, my old mentor. Not since she’d been attacked.

“Well, if nothing else, trust me when I tell you I’m going to do the best I can to make sure you’re back up to peak performance.”

“I’ll never be at my peak performance,” I muttered.

“Maybe this conversation, if it won’t convince you, will distract you from the transfusion. At least the big guy here knows I’m trying to help.” Baldric gestured toward where Noren dozed with one eye half opened to watch.

I didn’t feel any different once the transfusion started. But the adrenaline rush from the alarm at last began to recede the longer I lay there propped against the pillows.

I offered up a meager grin for Baldric.

It wasn’t the easiest thing for me to trust, but he seemed like the kind of guy you could depend on. I wanted to depend on him and believe it when he said he could help me.

Anything was better than the sickening dizziness.

I must have passed out because the next thing I knew, the mattress beneath me sagged and Mike sat there beside Noren, dwarfed by the direwolf’s frame.

“Mike?” Oh god, please let me be sleeping pretty and not drooling or anything like that. “What are you doing here?” I swept a hand across my mouth to check and pushed the hair away from my face.

He looked haggard, his hair sticking up at all angles and the dark circles beneath his eyes making him appear more human than I’d ever seen him.

“Tavi. I needed to see you.” His low tone gave me the shakes.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s not good. It’s not good at all.”

Mike watched the wall and I watched him, neither of us daring to breathe. “You’re scaring me.”

“It’s my father. He’s in a coma.”