Slip Song (Devany Miller Series) (33 page)

I wanted to shake sense into her. She was always so cautious and sometimes caution would leave you in a rut. “Maybe I’ll tell Zech. He would believe me.” I totally had no idea if he would believe me but figured if that didn’t spur her courage, nothing would.

“Fine. Maybe I’ll call and talk to him.”

“
Okay.” I tried to gauge her expression as she thought about talking with him. They’d been an item once, before Arsinua had gone against tradition and Midian witch laws to make a deal with a Skriven to make the heart.

Maybe with both of them working on it, something would get done. People would figure out that hook sickness wasn’t fatal and treat the humans that wandered or were dragged through hooks. “It would put the Theleoni out of business if it’s true.”

Tytan reached over and touched my knee as I was about to say something else. “Let her think it through,” he whispered.

Through all this, Jasper had been quietly working on Tytan. He leaned back, looking as worn out as if he’d just gotten done with a marathon. “I believe that is as far as the magic will take you.”

“Thank you. You’re not too bad for a pansy-assed Wing.”

I refrained—just—from thumping him on the head. “Tytan. Really?”

He shrugged, winced, and then struggled to sit upright. He was too weak to sit on his own, so I helped him over to the couch and he eased himself onto it.

“
Now that you know what will happen in the next few days, how can you work to improve the outcomes?” Ty asked, once his breath came back to him.

“
I don’t know. I mean, you were grabbed tomorrow, so if we get you somewhere she can’t grab you, does that mean you don’t get hurt? But you are hurt so would you miraculously heal? Oh geez. I hate this shit.” I joined Arsinua in pacing, giving her a faint smile as we passed each other.

“
Let’s not worry about that. What do you know about the pact in the swamp? That’s the most pressing problem, correct?”

“
I guess.” I let out a huff of breath. “She said that putting up the barrier just advertised they were there, that Ravana had worked a Fade spell to keep the swamp obscured in people’s minds.” I thought I might be able to figure out how to work a spell like that but what if I fucked it up again? Would I get another do over? Somehow I didn’t think I would. I hoped not, anyway. I hated the movie Groundhog Day. The whole idea of being stuck going back in time over and over until I got things right made me want to throw up. Yeah, I made mistakes but damn it, that was life. I didn’t want to compound my troubles by going back and fucking things up more than once.

“
A Fade spell is complicated,” Arsinua said. “But not impossible. Now that I know what you need, I might be able to help you compose one. It would take longer than a day to learn it.”

“
I might have found a way around the whole, ‘burning pathways in my brain,’ thing,” I told her.

She looked surprised then worried. What the hell, she was always worried. “I’ll work on getting the essence of it ready for you then. You’re leaving after the funeral?”

“Yes.” Oh god. That meant I had to sit through it again. How unfair. It was hard enough the first time.

“
Why don’t you go talk with your children?” Jasper suggested. “Take a break from this and be with them.”

I wanted to protest, to say that I needed to work through everything that had gone wrong and see what I could do to fix it but he was right. I hadn’t seen the kids for almost two weeks, even if they didn’t know I’d been gone. And I would have to tell them I was leaving again. Damn. “You’re right. I’m going to take them for ice cream. I’ll be back later.”

They nodded and I went upstairs to collect my children.

-TWENTY-THREE-

Queen Anyang didn’t know what to make of my gills. She studied me for a long time, perplexed and not a little worried―at least that’s what I hoped.

“
Who gave you the Gift?”

I’d talked this part over with Tytan before we’d hooked to the swamp. He’d been all for telling the queen to ‘stick it up your ass, I’m not telling you,’ but I thought that a little circumspection was in order. When I met with Nex, he told me that it wasn’t something he could’ve imparted after being separated from his body but, “My queen, though fierce, is old. You can tell her that the healing drink of her blood brought on the changes within you. She will not believe that she provided you with something so precious on accident, but there really would be no other explanation, unless you tell her the truth.”

So I lied and Nex was right, she didn’t buy it, but how else could it have happened? I gladly would’ve gotten rid of the damn things if I could have but Nex said the Gift, once given, could never be taken away. Thanks Nex.

“
You have to help me hide them,” I’d told Tytan.

“
I don’t know, they’re kind of sexy.”

I shook off the conversation and followed Queen Anyang into the swamp, leaving Ty, Jasper, and Nex behind as I had before. This time, though, Tytan had a protection circle around them as did Jasper and all three were on alert. Tytan had protested that she hadn’t grabbed him until he’d gotten to Casttown but I said, “We don’t know if that will be the case this time. Do you really want her to get her hands on you again? You aren’t fully healed as it is.”

The queen pulled me down into the swamp water. It was just as unpleasant this time and I fought not to panic as my air ran out and I had to take gulps of the milky water.

The queen yanked at my arm and pain shot through my shoulder. “What?”

I heard nothing in my head. She pulled me down and down, past the black maw we’d swum through before. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t right. I turned my body, fighting with her strength to keep her from descending further with me in tow. “What are you doing?”

“
We are resealing the pact.”

“
But this isn’t the right way,” I said. I knew it was the wrong thing to say when she whipped around and got in my face so fast my heart almost jumped out of my chest.

“
How do you know that?” Her teeth flashed even in the milky gloom. I pulled again but couldn’t free my hand. She’d sunk her claws into my wrist and tendrils of blood strung up and out of the wounds.

“
Let me go.”

She hissed at me and plunged downward. I fought her or tried to. She was too damn strong and despite my flailing we continued our descent. My ears popped and the pressure on them grew until I worried they would burst. The Gift didn’t extend to bearing the pressure of the deep waters.

A hook. I had to get away from her before she killed me. I didn’t even get the thought out before she slammed me against a rock that jutted from the murk below. Her sinewy body was cold against me and strong. I wouldn’t get away. Not even through a hook.

“
I do not suffer fools like you to live. Steal my Gift. Lie. Take advantage of my hospitality. I think a few hundred years buried in the depths might teach you manners.”

I struggled against her but she only pressed up against me until the rock scraped my back and my head buzzed from the pressure and the pain.

“Amara sent me back. In time. Ow. I didn’t have a choice.”

“
Lies.” Her mouth opened and she yanked my shirt away from my neck, exposing my shoulder and collarbone. Oh shit this was going to hurt.

“
I fucked it up the first time. The pact. I came back to fix things.”

She clamped down on my neck, her teeth sinking into my flesh. I couldn’t scream, I didn’t have air but my mind exploded into terror. All this power and I would die here in this monster’s arms.

The button. The control room. I slammed my thumb down and the heart’s magic blew her back from me, ripping the flesh at my neck. For a moment, she floated, stunned. I pushed off from the rock, trying to flee but I was too slow, too out of my element. She caught my ankle and dragged me down, past the rock, farther into the depths. The pressure increased until something in my ears gave way with a sharp pop of pain, muffling even the sound of the water rushing past. I was going to die. God, I didn’t want to die.

I kicked her hand with my free leg knowing I wouldn’t hurt her but unwilling to give up without any fight.

Blood pumped from my neck, bright streamers of red that curled upward and away. Then something pale streaked past and my leg was free. I swam as best I could, trying for the surface and failing miserably. I bumped into the rock and found a handhold, as the water below became a blur of violence. Something was attacking Queen Anyang, another fleshcrawler. The dark water became darker with spilled blood. I tried to convince myself to swim away, to hook, but I couldn’t move. My body was on fire and the neck wound throbbed in time with my ears. A high pitched whine made it hard to hear.

A body flew past me, slowing rapidly in the water. Queen Anyang. Her blood smeared mouth hung open and her sightless eyes seemed to glare at me. Then someone had my upper arm―in a much gentler grip than the queen’s―and swam me upward.

Nephele.

“
Thank you.”

“
I should thank you. We have been watching our queen’s madness helplessly. It wasn’t until you returned that I knew I would have an opportunity to kill her.”

“
Return? Wait. What?”

She lifted something from her neck and held it close. The key. Amara’s key.

I squinted, my vision blurring. “I haven’t given that to you yet.”

“
I know. And yet I have it.” She took me through the dark tunnel, not to the surface as I’d hoped. I was feeling lightheaded and sleepy and found I didn’t really give a shit one way or the other where she took me as long as I could close my eyes

“
Blood loss,” she said and passed me to another fleshcrawler. “Queen Anyang pumped her full of poison.”

Poison? Was that why my head was ringing? Why my heart was pumping so sluggishly in my body?

I felt a sharp pain at my elbow then another was tugging my pants down. I tried to fight but if I hadn’t had a chance against one crazy monster, I certainly didn’t have a chance against a roomful.

Another sharp pain flared at my groin, then the uncomfortable feeling of something being forcibly pushed through my veins overtook all else.

I didn’t pass out either, damn it. Being aware through the whole thing was not fun. Especially since I had no fricking clue what they were doing to me. One of them had my head pressed to the side while they worked on my neck.

My ears rang nonstop until I thought I would scream. I thrashed but it didn’t dislodge any of them from their incessant tugging at my flesh. It wasn’t until they let go of my head that warmth filled my ears and the pain and ringing went away.

I righted myself, waving my arms in the water as I assessed my body for damage. Eased my neck back and forth. Looked down at my thigh and got all embarrassed because I hadn’t shaved since god knew when and you could tell. There was a puckered scar there where they’d opened me up for whatever reason and then sealed it shut.

“
Can I have my pants?” Devany, your manners. I grunted to myself. “And thank you.”

Nephele handed them to me but of course I couldn’t get them on in the water.

“We did what we could to clear out your system.”

Did what they could? Shit. “Which means what?”

Nephele’s eyes, while still black and seemingly depthless, looked kind. “Most of your kind dies from a fleshcrawler’s bite. But the queen gave you the Gift. Since you haven’t died, I’m not sure what may happen.”

“
I won’t turn into one of you, will I?” My lip curled, I couldn’t help it.

She hissed her laughter. “Would it be so bad?”

“Yes.”

More hissing.

Besides Nephele, I could see at least four other creatures swimming around me. The council members? “What happens now?”

“
We elect another queen,” one of the four said.

“
Or we rule as a council,” Nephele shot back.

Screeching ensued and I almost wished I still couldn’t hear. I waited the argument out, wincing, then said, “What about the pact?”

Nephele looked at the other members of the council. “We should uphold the bargain. We can’t keep our home from invasion without help.”

The four conferred amongst themselves. Nephele didn’t seem worried about not being included nor did she try to swim closer to hear. When the conference was over, one of the four asked, “Would you renew the pact with us?”

Considering it benefited me too, I agreed. Swimming through the murk in my underwear and shirt with my pants tied around my waist so I wouldn’t lose them, I followed Nephele and the council to the place I first stunned them all on accident.