Page 27 of The Hidden
“You were having a reaction to the rope that you touched when you freed me,” Zeph tells me. “It was Trammel magicked, which keeps whoever is bound by it from shifting. When you broke the magic by cutting it, it must have done something to you,” he adds, and Pigeon comes rearing up inside of me.
I blink, and her eyes snap into place. She stares at Zeph and then Ryn, looking for something, but I don’t understand what. Ryn looks away, and eventually Zeph does too. Despair fills Pigeon, and she slinks back and releases her hold. I gasp at the devastation that fills me and rub at my chest.
“What just happened?”I demand, but I get nothing from her.
“What did you just do?” I accuse, and my eyes prick with unexplainable tears.
Ryn steps toward me, and I step back away from him, confused. He looks pained, and it’s clear there’s something going on here that I’m not understanding. Ryn turns to Zeph, his mouth open like he’s about to say something, but the look on Zeph’s face has Ryn shutting his mouth.
“I told you, after the assignment is complete, we’ll figure everything out,” Zeph tells Ryn cryptically.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask quietly, pulling my wings back inside of me with ease as I try and fail to figure out what is happening.
“You’ve been asleep for a week, Falon. You’re hungry and weak, and you should rest and recover. You shouldn’t experience any more discomfort now that the toxin has been cleared of your system. You should feel like yourself soon,” Zeph reassures me, and then he heads for the door.
Ryn stares at me a beat longer, something I can’t identify in his eyes, before he follows Zeph out of the room. His shoulders sag as he leaves me in his wake, and I feel a tug in my gut that wants me to follow him, before I shut it down.
“They’re assholes, Pigeon, but so are you for leaving me in the dark. I know that you know what’s going on, and I hope this teaches you that they’re not for us.”
I feel like shit, and I have no idea why. My gryphon is silently lamenting something which makes no sense since Ryn and Zeph are treating me just as indifferently as they always have. I know she likes them—fuck, even I was itching to get Zeph between my thighs—but it is what it is. Hopefully, Pigeon will get over her first failed crush and move on.
Through my whole bath, I try to reassure her and myself that everything will be okay. I focus on Zeph’s promise that he would get me home, and I work through everything I need to do as soon as I get back to my world. I hope my bike isn’t under a couple feet of snow by now. I get caught up in my worry about the space time continuum, as I get dressed and brush out my wet hair. What if I go back and like fifty years have passed? I was counting on selling my gran’s house and using it to open up my own shop. Fuck knows my old job at Roy’s isn’t going to be waiting for me after I’ve been gone for at least a couple of months, or worse, maybe longer.
“Falon!” Moro shouts at me from down the hall as I make my way to the kitchens.
“Hey, Moro! How’s Tysa?” I ask as he hugs me, and Tysa’s tree of a man pats me hard on the back.
“She’ll be better now that you’re up and moving around. You gave us quite the worry. She’s been checking in on you when Loa doesn’t chase her away,” he tells me, and I warm at his kindness. “She made you a few extra shirts she thinks will work better for you while you’re training.”
I warm all over at his words. I almost forgot what it was like to talk to people who actually want you around.
“I’m just headed down to fuel up, but when I’m done, I’ll come by the house. I think another day’s worth of work and everything should be up and running. Then I’ll have officially earned all your mate’s hard work on my clothes.”
“I think you’ll have earned a lifetime supply of clothing if you can get warm water out in the surrounding houses and not just here in the stronghold,” he admits on a laugh. “I’ll let Tysa know; she’ll be very excited to see you!” He hugs me again and then proceeds happily down the hall.
I watch him with a smile before my growling stomach reminds me of where I’m supposed to be headed. A child-like giggle pulls my attention away, and I look to find a toddler-sized kid bumbling down the hall to my left. I chuckle and wait for whoever is minding it to come chasing after the child, but no one is in sight. I look around just to double-check, but it’s just me and my angry stomach standing here in the hallway.
I frown and turn down the hall after the wobbly little kid. I’m met by echoes of the kid’s laughter and glee, but I don’t see it in the hall anymore. I hesitate for a second. I don’t really like kids all that much, mostly because I have no idea what to do with them. I’m a think-they’re-adorable-from-afar kind of girl, but clearly no one is watching this kid, and with open balconies all over the place in this cliff castle, I’d hate for it to have an accident I could have done something to stop.
I follow after the squeals and toddler giggles, picking up my pace as I round a corner, expecting to find the little tyke, but it’s once again empty. After a few minutes of repeating mygotchyajust to have the winding hallway be empty, I start running to catch up. I’m almost at a full blown sprint when I spot the kid at the bottom of some dark stairs.
What the fuck? How the hell did it get down there?
I make my way cautiously down the long flight of stairs that, very ominously, dip down into dimly lit darkness. I’m no longer trusting that anything about this situation is what it seems, but I find myself—probably stupidly—curious about what the hell is going on. Just as I step off the last stair to reach the bottom, the dark hallway lights up with an eerie green light. I clear my throat and white knuckle grip my courage.
“Um… I know there’s not really a kid down here, so whoever you are and whatever you want…” I trail off, not sure what the fuck I’m even saying.
A figure, backlit by the green light in the hallway, steps out of nowhere and smiles at me. “Welcome, Daughter of the Shadows. We have been waiting for you,” she tells me, her tone ethereal and her movements graceful as she turns around and motions for me to follow her.
“Right, because that’s not creepy as fuck,” I mumble and then look around, not sure what to do.
If I were in a sketchy movie right now, everyone in the audience would be screaming at me not to follow the creepy glowing chick.I take a step back, intent on fleeing up the stairs and away from The Ghost of Christmas No Fucking Thank You, but I slam up against a wall behind me. I turn around, panicked, and run my hands over the cool stone that now exists where there was just a flight of stairs.You took your eyes off of her! She’s probably right behind you with a fucking axe now!I whirl around, listening to my inner terrified voice, but to my relief the ghost is still floating down the hallway.
I take another minute to feel around the wall behind me for some latch that might trip the trick door, but all I find is the same smooth, cream-colored stone that the rest of the cliff castle is made out of.Well, shit.I scan the rest of the hallway, but there’s no other way out. I take a reluctant step forward and then another, internally screaming about how I’m not ready to die.
“You are safe here, child, do not fear. We have been waiting for you,” the glowing woman repeats, and I balk, worried she can read my mind.
Where’s a tin foil hat when you need one?
