Page 124 of Blood & Magic Eternal

Rowland takes my hand then and my heart beats like the wings of a hummingbird.

Mira pipes up next. "She also healed a man downstairs, just with a few drops of blood."

"So, I don’t know much,” I conclude. “Nothing concrete anyway. But I’m guessing I have some special healing blood or something?"

I turn my gaze to Fox, hope bright in my eyes but doubt shrouding my heart.

"Something like that." Her smirk twitches up a notch. "Tell me, have you heard of the tales of sirens?"

It's about as far from what I expected her to say as she could get.

"S-sirens?" I say, dumbly blinking. "Like...the evil fish people?"

Rowland inches closer. "I remember people talking about them. When we lived in Hulbeck, right before...right before the town fell. There had been talk about someone who had committed murder and what the town should do with him. I remember my mother saying that before the Capital fell, the Magistrate had a deal with the sirens and that he would send all the prisoners who had committed atrocious crimes to the underwater colonies. She said our people were debating on doing the same, but they weren't sure how. Even living on the coastline, no one had seen or heard from the sirens since the War of Blood and Night."

Fox’s eyes bulge. "I'm impressed someone so young, and who has lived through such a chaotic time,knows somuch of the United Realm's history."

"We had teachers before everything fell apart," he tells her, and gives my hand another squeeze.

Our proximity, this intimacy, it makes me want to run. This time I fight it though. This time, I try to be different. To be better. To be someone worthy of his time and attention.

I squeeze his fingers in return, and address Fox. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Over her eldest son's head, she glances out the open window to the moonlit night. It's nothing but darkness out there, and a moaning wind that is starting to pick up.

Returning her attention inside, she nods to Harland’s dead body.

“I will answer your questions," she says at last. "I promise, I’ll tell you everything I know, and everything that’s happening. But not while we're here, waiting around like sitting ducks for the noctis to come for us."

Rowland nods. "I agree.”

“Where do you suggest we go then?" I ask, frustration rippling off me like a heat wave. “We can try to make our way back through the Shadowthorn, but we’ll have to fight our way through a noctis army. And according to King Tor, the rest of the Shadowthorn doesn’t seem to be much safer.”

"That’s why we’re leaving the Shadowthorn,” Fox says, giving her youngest son a gentle squeeze. “To the same place we were headed before your friend found us. Somewhere where the noctis won't be able to follow."

"And where's that?" I ask, my patience growing thin.

"The Shadow Crusade.”

The room collectively gasps.

“The Shadow Crusade?” Rowland says. “I thought they all died.”

“Not all of them,” Fox tells us. “There’s a faction residing nearby. They were only expecting the three of us, but I'm sure they would take the rest of you in, especially given your bloodline." She nods at me pointedly.

"Mybloodline? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Later,” Rowland reminds me.

As stern as his voice is, there’s a gentleness in his eyes that makes me decide not to bristle. He’s right anyway. We need to find a safe place to rest, and if she knows where one is, then there’s no point wasting time here.

“Okay, fine,” I say at last. Rotating the stake in my hand, I step over Harland’s unmoving body. Before that menacing eye can open again, before another single breath of air can fill his lungs and pump the vile blood in his veins, I drive the stake down through his heart. When I stand, wiping the blood on the thigh of my already filthy trousers, I fix my attention on Fox. “We follow you to the Shadow Crusade. Then, once we’re safe and rested, you tell us everything.”

A relieved smile curls one side of her mouth as she says, “Okay. Let’s go introduce you to the Crusaders and the sirens.”