“About what?”
A long pause. “About what’s wrong with him.”
Alarm swept through her. “What do you mean?”
“You saw it, Piper,” he said, his voice roughening. He turned toward the sink and put both hands on the counter, shoulders hunched. “You saw him last night. That total loss of control. That wasn’t the first time. It’s been happening more and more often over the past two months.”
She stared at him without seeing him, the image of Ash’s wild lunge off the bed, like he’d woken not knowing where he was, filling her mind.
“There’s something wrong with him,” Lyre said, eyes closed, “and it’s getting worse.”
Forcing her hands out of fists, she said softly, “I told you a little bit about what he was like when I got him out of the Chrysalis building.”
“Yeah,” he said, straightening from the counter. “That’s why I thought maybe you could get some answers out of him. He won’t admit to me that something’s wrong. But since you were there with him, maybe he’ll have an easier time talking to you.”
“Maybe,” she whispered, though she didn’t have much hope. Ash wasn’t the sharing type. She let out a shaky breath. “I thought he was okay. I thought Vejovis had healed him.”
“Vejovis can only heal so much, and he didn’t have a lot of time.”
“Maybe you should take him to another healer.”
He shook his head before she’d even finished. “Healing the mind is pretty much a forgotten art. Vejovis is the only healer I can think of who would potentially know how to do it.”
She twisted the leather band around her wrist. “So you think Ash is losing control of shading?”
“I’m not sure. It looks like that on the surface, but it’s not ... it doesn’t quite match what I’ve seen of other daemons with shading issues.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just ... I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”
She closed her eyes, eyebrows pinched together. She thought of Ash when she’d first entered his cell in the Chrysalis center. Violence and rage burning in his eyes. Blind hatred. He’d wanted to kill her simply because she existed. She shivered.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“Can you try talking to him?”
“I’ll try.”
“Thanks.” He sighed. “All this shit definitely hasn’t helped matters.”
“What shit?”
“You being dead. He didn’t take it well.”
She went still. “Oh?”
“Well, neither did I. We felt like we’d failed you. Ash blamed himself because he hadn’t insisted on taking you into hiding with us. Then we suddenly found out you weren’t dead, and we had to find out where you were, who had you, whether you might actually be dead after all. It was pretty intense.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess it would have been.”
“You should clean up and get some sleep. I’m going to head out for a few hours and see what I can find out about your dad.”
She nodded. He turned toward the door.
“Is that it?” she asked.
He glanced back, brow furrowed. “Is what it?”
“Aren’t you going to offer to wash my back in the shower? Or warm up my bed for me? Or—you know—something inappropriate?”
His eyes glinted as he grinned wickedly. “Is that an invitation?”
“No.” She raised her eyebrows. “Just wondering if you were feeling all right. It’s not normal for you to be so well-behaved.”
“I like my women feisty, so I’m waiting until you’re properly rested.”
She snorted. “I see. Here I was worrying for nothing.”
His quiet chuckle made her smile as he closed the bathroom door behind him.
After showering and changing into a borrowed shirt and sweats—courtesy of Lyre since Seiya’s clothes were too small for her—she settled on the sofa with a blanket. Ash was in the second bedroom, probably sleeping like the dead after flying around all night.
Heaving a sigh, Piper closed her eyes, listening to the quiet clink of dishes as Seiya cleaned up the kitchen. Worries spun through her head as she silently rehearsed how to bring up Ash’s shading control issues. She was just starting to drift off when a weight landed on her chest. Her eyes flew open and she found a dark nose snuffling her chin. Zwi trilled a greeting, blinking her large golden eyes.
“Hey, girl,” Piper whispered, stroking the dragonet’s mane.
Zwi lay on Piper’s stomach and chittered in a conversational way. The cat-sized dragon had once been too shy and aloof to approach Piper. She smiled, honored that Zwi now considered her a friend. As she petted the creature, her fingers encountered a leather strap over her tiny shoulders. Sitting up a little, Piper frowned at the lightweight harness. A leather triangle covered her chest—some kind of armor?
Seiya approached, stopping near Piper’s feet.
“Do you need anything before I lie down?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Piper said, trying not to frown. She didn’t know Seiya very well—barely at all, in fact—and her dark past made it even harder to measure her expressions and mood. Piper’s overall impression of their first meeting hadn’t been one of warm friendliness, but Seiya was definitely colder now than she had been two months ago.
“How have things been?” she asked hesitantly. “What’s it like to finally be free?”
Surprise flashed across Seiya’s face before her expression hardened. “That would depend on how you define ‘free.’”
Piper blinked. “Um. What do you mean?”
“Being out from beneath Samael’s thumb has been wonderful,” Seiya said, the words at complete odds with her tone. “But I wouldn’t call this freedom. Running, hiding, constantly looking over our shoulders. Every shadow is a potential enemy. We traded Samael’s chains for the chains of fear.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied hesitantly. “But isn’t it better than being a prisoner? Than being tortured?”
“Of course. Our quality of life is a thousand times better. I just wouldn’t call it being free.”
“Oh. I see what you mean.”
“I’m afraid for us every day,” Seiya said, ice creeping into her voice. “And now it’s that much worse.”
“What’s worse?”
“The danger.”
“What do you mean?”
“Being here,” Seiya snapped. “Everything here—flying across the city, breaking into buildings, making scenes. In other words, you.”
“Me?”
“There’s a good chance that reaper spy saw Ash. If he did, it will be the first time since we’ve escaped that a Hades spy has come close to locating us.”
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
Seiya folded her arms, towering over Piper. “That’s just it. You don’t know.”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t know how dangerous you are. How much danger you create.”
“I—”
“I’m really grateful for everything you did for us,” Seiya interrupted. “You saved my brother’s life, and mine. But this needs to stop.”
She stared, baffled. “What needs to stop?”
Seiya gave her a long look. “You need to leave my brother alone.”
A moment of silence.
“I need to what?”
“Leave him alone. Break it off. In other words, get over him.”
Piper spluttered.
Her eyes like blue ice chips, Seiya leaned a little closer. “Do you think I don’t know how you feel? You’re obviously in love with him.”
Piper sat up sharply, forcing Zwi onto her lap. “I—You—”
“You have no right to feel that way. In what world would your feelings be reciprocated? You just moon after him in your own naïve little world and make everything more complicated—and more dangerous—for him.”
Piper’s mouth opened a
nd closed in soundless outrage.
“You and him,” she went on, waving a finger in Piper’s face, “can’t be together. It won’t work. My brother has dealt with enough shit as it is; he doesn’t need to get tangled up with you, feeling responsible for your safety. How many times will you make him risk his life for you? Until he’s killed?”
“You—” Piper began furiously.
“He already feels responsible for you and that’s just as your friend. Look what your friendship has gotten him—a reaper spy on our tails.”
“I didn’t—”
“What’s the point, anyway? You can’t even look at him without glamour. You’re going to move on and do whatever you haemons do. Be a Consul or whatever. Where does he fit in that future? We’re going to spend the rest of our lives hiding from Samael.”
Piper stared at the girl, speechless and barely able to believe what she was hearing. Zwi mewled, pawing at Piper’s leg.
“There’s no future for you and Ash,” Seiya went on relentlessly. “But here he is, putting us at risk to save your ass. You need to deal with your own problems and leave him out of it.”
Piper sprang off the sofa, unintentionally dumping Zwi on the floor. She’d heard enough. Teeth bared, she pointed a finger aggressively at Seiya.
“I didn’t ask Ash to save me! I didn’t even know he was out of the Underworld. And if he risks his life for me, it’s because he decided to, not because I asked him!”
Seiya opened her mouth again but Piper turned and yanked the blanket off the sofa.
“Save your breath. I don’t give a damn what you have to say.”
She stalked across the room to the spare bedroom and slammed the door behind her. Glaring around the barren room with nothing but gear and weapons along the wall, she crossed to the opposite corner and curled up on the floor with her blanket. Pillowing her head on her arm, she ground her teeth and breathed hard through her nose.
What did Seiya know? So Piper cared about Ash. She was attracted to him. That was it. Besides, it didn’t matter either way. She knew it was impossible. There was no future where the two of them fit together. And she wasn’t even sure he wanted that kind of relationship with her anyway. Considering Piper had risked her life to save Seiya from imprisonment and torture, the girl seriously lacked gratitude.
She clenched and unclenched her jaw. It was a long time before she calmed down enough to fall into a fitful, uncomfortable sleep.
. . .
Lunch was a tense affair.
Seiya stood on one side of the counter, nibbling on a sandwich. Piper sat on a barstool, glaring at her untouched food. Ash and Lyre stood just outside the kitchen, exchanging confused, wary looks in some sort of male Morse code as they puzzled over the problem.
Piper angrily picked up her sandwich and took a bite. No point in starving just because Seiya had made it. Her head throbbed in time with her chewing. It had been aching since she’d woken up in a stiff ball on the floor.
Lyre had returned an hour ago, unable to procure any information on the Head Consul’s whereabouts. Her father and the Board of Directors had gone to ground in case unknown terrorists were targeting them. Piper figured the simplest solution was to find the nearest intact Consulate and announce her non-death to the local Consuls. Surely one of them could track down the Head Consul. Ash and Lyre both thought that was too dangerous; not only were the Gaians probably still looking for her, but Samael’s spies would be everywhere in the city by now.
That meant she was stuck here until Lyre and Ash could unearth the information they needed. And that meant days stuck in the tiny apartment with Seiya. Seiya was in an even worse temper thanks to the continued interaction between Piper and her brother, and because Ash was taking risks for Piper again, exposing his location to the same Hades spies he wanted to keep her away from.
“Soooo,” Lyre said, “will you two be okay this evening while Ash and I do some digging?”
“I should go with Ash,” Seiya said. “You can stay here with Piper.”
“Lyre has contacts he can tap,” Ash said, frowning at his sister. “And you’re better suited to getting Piper out of here if the apartment is attacked.”
Piper snorted, not because Seiya wasn’t capable, but because the girl was more likely to leave Piper to her fate and skip off to join her brother.
Ash and Lyre stared at her then looked at each other.
“Uh,” Lyre tried again. “Can we talk about the problem here?”
“No,” Piper and Seiya snapped in unison.
He stepped back. “Okay then.” He looked at Ash for help but Ash just shrugged.
Her head throbbed. She pressed a hand to her forehead and stared at her sandwich, fighting nausea. Ugh. She closed her eyes as the pain intensified and expanded inside her head, an unbearable pressure that felt as though her skull was about to burst.
“Piper?”
Lyre touched her elbow, concern in his voice. She realized she was squeezing her head between her hands.
“It’s just a headache,” she said, a little breathless. An agonizing headache.
“Are you injured?” he asked, tugging gently at her wrist. “Let me see.”
“I’m fine.” The pain felt as if it were crushing her. “I just need to lie down.”
“Piper—”
“I’m fine.”
She tried to lower her arms but the agony swelled. She clutched her head and groaned. Ash stepped closer until they were both in front of her, filling her view. Too close. She couldn’t quite catch her breath.
“I—I need space. I need to lie down.”
Lyre took her wrist again, trying to pry her hand off her head. “Piper, something’s wrong, let us help you—”
She couldn’t breathe. She needed air. She needed space. The pain was like a steel band around her skull, around her chest, suffocating her. They were too close. Why wouldn’t they give her space?
“Piper, let me see—”
“No, get back!” she yelled, letting go of her head to shove them away.
A crack like the sound of thunder.
Lyre and Ash flew back as if they’d been hit by a truck. Ash barely managed to catch himself, skidding gracelessly, but Lyre crashed into the kitchen table. One of the chairs broke under him as he fell.
Piper froze in place, staring at them. They stared back at her, two sets of pitch black eyes. After a moment, she slowly lifted her hands to look at them.
“What happened?” she whispered.
“Magic,” Ash replied, his dark voice shivering through her.
Panic simmered in her gut. “But ... but it didn’t work. Helaine didn’t break the seal.”
“It looks like she did,” Ash said.
Piper shook her head stubbornly. “No. That wasn’t me. I don’t have magic.”
The forced calm in his voice wasn’t enough to hide his dread. “You do now.”
CHAPTER 9
PIPER sat on the sofa with Zwi in her lap, staring at nothing. The irony was painful. The one thing she’d always wanted she now had—and wished more than anything that she didn’t.
The headache was starting again, the pain of the conflicting magic inside her. She knew what to expect. She’d been through it as a child. The headaches would gradually begin, coming and going like an ever-increasing tide, growing worse and worse. Migraines would intensify to the point of nausea and seizures. That’s when her parents had found the daemon healer who had sealed her magic, though she couldn’t remember it; the daemon had blurred her memories at her father’s request.
The rest she knew from stories about haemon children who’d died from the same affliction. The seizures would become more frequent and more violent. Eventually, the most terrible seizure would grip the child, and once it ended, she would be brain-dead. Death followed shortly after.
Piper cuddled Zwi closer, shivering. She had three options. One, she could do nothing, wait, and see what happened. Maybe she would be fine like the three hybrid women her m
other had discovered. The headaches, however, suggested otherwise.
Two, she could return to Mona and search her records on those women in the hope of finding a clue as to how they’d survived their magic. But that involved putting herself at the mercy of the Gaians. She could deal with that, but the chances of finding any useful information were slim. The chances of finding useful information in time were even slimmer.
Or three, she could find a daemon healer to reseal her magic. She didn’t know who had sealed it the first time or how to find a daemon with that kind of specialized skill; it wasn’t the sort of thing any old daemon could do. She didn’t even know if it was possible to reseal her magic now that it was free. Ash and Lyre were currently out in the city, searching for information on her father’s whereabouts. If they could find Quinn, they could get the name of the daemon healer who’d saved her life the first time.
She lifted a hand and stared at it. Magic. There was magic inside her. She’d craved it for so long. Her first urge was to experiment with it while she had it but Ash and Lyre had warned her not to. Using magic was like working out a muscle, and the last thing she wanted was to make her magic stronger.
Sighing, she dropped her hand and watched Seiya cross the room with an armful of clothes. She listened as the draconian girl rustled in the bedroom. She reappeared, heading back to the first room. Piper briefly considered asking Seiya about Ash’s control issue. She must have noticed it too, and Piper had no idea how to raise the topic with Ash.
But no, she didn’t want to give Seiya another reason to be an overprotective jerk. As she watched the girl, resentment surged inside her.
“Why did you do it?” she burst out before she could stop herself.
Seiya paused on her way by. “Do what?”
Piper instantly regretted the question. “Why did you save me from Samael? You were almost killed.”
Seiya assessed Piper coolly. “There’s only one person I’m willing to risk my life for.”
Piper narrowed her eyes. Ah, of course. Seiya had done it for Ash. If she hadn’t charged in to save Piper, Ash would have done it instead, and he’d been in no condition for that.
“I’m not self-sacrificing like my brother,” Seiya continued, coming over to the sofa. “I’m not noble or brave. I want to survive, and I want my brother to survive.” She lifted the lock of her hair with a red silk ribbon woven into it. “Do you know why I wear this?”