Chapter 31

31

SYLAS

At that point, I interrupted her. "And you didn't think it might've been important for me to know literally any of that earlier?" I was staring at Mina in the small space of her car, underneath the pine tree's dappled shade.

"I told plenty of people! It's just that no one's ever believed me before." She rocked her head back and shook it. "I thought they were doing dumb frat shit—not real magic. Not with their dicks hanging out. Oh, and, please try to imagine me , explaining that to the cops."

I would grant that that had probably been futile. Plus, the magic I'd sensed inside the girl's sick room had been powerful—the kind of magic possessed by people who held sway.

"But she walked out of there, with you? Up several flights of stairs?" I pressed, because the girl in the bed had not seemed capable of that. "And could talk?"

"About that..." Mina began, a shadow crossing her face. "I got us to her car—her keys were still in her pocket—and I drove us back. But the rain picked up again. Something ran in front of us on the road, and when I swerved to miss it, we spun out, bad. "

I had the sense this time to wait patiently for more.

"I didn't make her put her seatbelt on," she said quietly. "I was yanked to hell and back, but Ella flew up and hit her head on the glass. They thought she had a traumatic brain injury, and she had a major goose-egg up there for a month." She patted the same spot on her own head. "The doctors said she should be getting better by now, at least a little, but she never did and..."

"You blamed yourself."

She shrugged. "How could I not? She wouldn't have been at that party if I hadn't invited her. And then afterwards, when no one listened to anything, and they made me out to be the crazy girl?—"

"You hired me."

"Yeah. Eventually." Her hands found the steering wheel and wrung it. "If you do break the spell or curse, or whatever's holding her in that bed—will she be better?"

"There is no guarantee." I could not truly see inside people's minds unless they were near death. "But at least without the spell, she will have a chance."

Mina looked over at me and nodded. "It's better than nothing." She took a determined breath and then gave me a tight smile. "Sylas, thank you."

"Whatever for?"

"For believing me when I told you about a circle-jerk."

I laughed. "If you'd seen as much of humanity as I have, nothing would surprise you anymore."

"No, really. I mean it." The look she gave me then was somehow strong and fragile at the same time, it urged me to both destroy and protect. "And for letting me see Ella, of course. Plus killing Logan and Brad."

"Don't." The word came out of my mouth before I could stop it—and it was the exact opposite of what I should've said. I should've preened beneath her attention, letting her think it was what I longed for, luring her closer while I tightened the noose around her neck. "We're not friends, Mina."

One half of her lips cocked up into a sad smile. "That's right, we're murder-buddies, it's different."

"You may call it what you like, my queen. Let us go to this cabin, and see this cellar," I said, turning to stare resolutely forward. Then when the car didn't start a second later, I heard the thud-thud-thudding of her heart as it started to race, impossibly fast. "Mina?"

I turned to look at her and saw her panting in short quick bursts. Her hands were trembling, and I could tell that her wide pupils weren't actually seeing me.

"Mina—you're not in liminal space anymore. You're here in the present. This is reality," I told her, wondering if what was happening to her now was an after effect from having been shown too much of the universe. I'd never let anyone else see any of it before—how could I have been so foolish?

What if I had broken her accidentally, instead of on purpose, like I longed to?

"Mina," I said again, more sharply, but that didn't stop what was happening to her, inside her mind.

So I reached out for her hand again, slipping it off the steering wheel and into mine, where it was sweaty.

"Mina," I repeated, softer this time, trying to get through. "It's all right, Mina. You are here. This is real. I've got you. "

Tears rose up inside her eyes. This time I reached for one as it fell, I wasn't strong enough to stop myself, but her face turned sorrowfully into my hand, and her tear dropped, wasted again, as she started to shudder—like she was going to cry, or trying very hard not to.

"You're safe, Mina," I said, abandoning all decorum, flowing over into her seat, to wrap myself around her in all dimensions. I couldn't stand to lose another precious tear of hers, but I was also afraid I was watching her shattering.

And then she started crying in earnest, bucking into me, her breath hot, her chest rising and falling with each raw sob.

"Shhhh, Mina," I crooned. It was torture to be surrounded by so much of her pain and not feed. But I wasn't entirely sure if I took anything from her now that there'd be any of her left.

It felt like I was the only thing holding her together.

I firmed myself all around her, until she was engulfed in my essence, pressed from all sides, supported and held.

"Mina, Mina, Mina," I whispered, with my lips against her ear, waiting for her to answer me, and not entirely sure she ever would.

Then she reached the end of whatever well she'd fallen into and resurfaced with a shuddering gasp.

"Mina," I whispered again.

Whatever spell had been on her was finally broken— had she been injured by the same magic that afflicted her friend? I released her a little, but held her head in my hands.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, still mostly wound around her like a snake.

She shook her head against me. "No, not really." She fought to move her arm and I let her—she wiped the back of her hand against her face. "I can't go back there, Sylas. I'm sorry. I want to be brave, for Ella's sake. But—I—I can't." She stuttered as she spoke the words, trying to get them out the same time as she swallowed her emotions down.

"It is all right, my queen. We may do it later, or not at all. You have been brave enough already."

She sank back in her seat and wriggled, so I unbound her. "No, not really."

And then a uniformed stranger appeared from beneath the tree's shade and tapped on the window at her side with a clipboard. She jumped up half a foot in her seat, then rolled her window down like he was gesturing for her to do.

"Miss, you can't be here, you know that," he said, pointing at her with the handheld talking device in his free hand.

"I know," she said, and quickly started her car.