Heir of the Dog Black Dog - Hailey Edwards Page 0,77
little warning voice screaming in my head.
I broke the kiss, twisting out of his grasp and crushing my eyes shut against the implications.
Diode’s roar peeled them wide open in time to see him lunge at me. I dove aside, rolling over the mossy ground, shoving to my feet and bolting toward Mom. With her tucked behind me, I sought out Diode, who wrestled with a thorny snake. Made of vines, it hung from the arbor. It was thicker around than my waist and striking faster than my eyes could track. A second snake—or its second head?—hissed at Rook.
“Stay inside the arbor,” he shouted at me.
“Not hardly.” I didn’t know how to work a tether. If that snake swallowed Diode or Rook, I was stuck here with Mom, and she wouldn’t stay in her trance forever. I grasped her shoulders. “Stay put.”
She blinked but offered no resistance. Please let one thing go right.
Shoving fear for her aside, I murmured my Word and peeled the glove from my hand. The snake raised a thick hood around its head. Venom dripped from its fangs. Its strikes came faster and faster.
No time to worry about them either. While Diode and Rook distracted the sharp end, I had to find its body. If I put my hand on it, I could kill it. Probably. I had never tried killing a plant, let alone a sentient one.
I shuddered. That was one skin I wouldn’t be taking home with me.
Darting behind Rook, I ran into the forest and circled back through the trees until I stood in front of Diode and behind the snake. Its body was thick and scaly, its flesh the bright color of new growth. As I crept sideways, I tracked its movements until the vine wrapping the trunk in front of me flexed.
“Got you,” I whispered.
Lunging for the base of the tree, I closed my hand around the vine and force-fed magic down its length. Mottled flesh turned black. Brittle roots pushed from the ground and hardened under my feet. The great snake coiled in on itself and died. Once it stopped moving, I jogged around the tree trunk.
I examined Mom, then Diode and then Rook. “Is everyone okay?”
Mom continued gazing at whatever image her mind’s eye conjured for her. Diode shook out his fur then limped back to her side. Rook scooped pale blue gel off his face, revealing pocked scarring.
He caught me staring. “The venom burns, but I will heal.”
“Thierry,” Diode called. “Where there is one, there will be another. Thorn vipers nest in pairs.”
“He’s right.” Rook wiped his hands on his pants. “Get inside and I’ll send you home.”
Home. I hungered for it so much the word made my mouth water. “What about you?”
His swollen lips twitched. “I’m surprised you care.”
“Don’t be.” I huffed. “You helped sweet-talk the consuls into a twelve-month reprieve, which I won’t thank you for—not because you’re fae—but because this was your fault in the first place.” I pointed a stern finger at him. “Be useful and do something about the other thousand-plus months left in the bargain.”
As I stepped under the arbor and linked my arm through Mom’s, Rook activated the tether.
The last I saw of Faerie was my fae husband’s melancholy smile.
I couldn’t sleep. After five hours of cross-examination by the magistrates, I ought to be exhausted, but I was wired. I still had a job. That was the good news. Whether they let me back into the field with my new status was up for debate.
They offered me an office job, but paper pushing wasn’t my thing. I wouldn’t last a week behind a desk, even with Mable for company. Plus, no bonuses.
I yawned long and loud, trying to fool myself into being tired. No dice. I was wide awake.
The night had ticked past in silence until I couldn’t stand the quiet. I had to escape my apartment. As glad as I was to see Mai, my heart felt scoured. I was too raw inside, and not even her stash of Sweet Dreams wine quieted the chaos revolving through my thoughts. Rook, the Hunt, Mom, the High Court, Shaw, Rook, Macsen, the dead princes, Shaw. Rook, Rook, Rook. The mantra had pushed me into the elevator and up to the apartment over mine.
If the door had been locked, I might have gone back to my room. But it wasn’t, and I didn’t.
That’s how I found myself taking comfort from the worn brocade couch Rook had abandoned in the same spot as where he