Page 104 of Horn of Winter

If there was, it had failed to counter the loud, somewhat guttural racket coming from my right. It was a sound that had haunted my nights back in the days when we were kids and shared the same room. I smiled and opened my eyes. Lugh was asleep in a chair, his big feet propped on the end of the bed, his arms crossed, and his head tilted back. A vague sense of déjà vu rolled through me, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d maintained his bedside vigil this time.

“And she wakes,” a soft voice to my left said.

Mathi, sitting in the other chair, looked relaxed even if his features were rather drawn.

“She does,” I replied with a smile. “How long was I out?”

“Three days.”

“Three?” I said, surprised. “The bullet wound wasn’t that bad.”

“Oh, it was, but specialists were able to knit it together without too many complications. It was Dearil that caused the problems—they had to keep you under while the healers chased it through your system and repaired its effects. Apparently, hadyou spent a few more hours in that place without treatment, they would not have succeeded.”

Meaning I reallyhadbeen lucky. Or was it not so much luck as the gods being unwilling to let their major player leave the game so soon?

“How did you find me?”

“I didn’t. Cynwrig did.”

“But... how?”

He shrugged, a small but elegant motion. “Something to do with being in tune to your unique resonance on earth and stone.”

“I had no idea something like that was even possible.”

“Nor I,” he said dryly. “And I’ve known dark elves, and Cynwrig, for more years than you’ve been alive. I suspect there is more to the skill than what he mentioned, but he stonewalled any further questions.”

“I take it he’s back at the compound now?”

“Once it was certain you would survive, yes.”

That he’d stayed here even that long was surprising, given the edict of no fraternization with non-elf lovers. “And my aunt? What happened to her?”

“I might have squeezed a little too hard when I wrapped her in tree limbs.”

“She’s dead?”

He nodded. “And currently on ice in a morgue, waiting for your recovery so that she can be taken to Borrhás.”

“Thank you,” I said softly.

He raised a pale eyebrow in query. “For what?”

“For saving me from the task.”

“Ah.”

He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. We both knew thatthatwas exactly why she’d died in the arms of those trees, though not because he feared I wouldn’t do it. He knew that guilt would have haunted my dreams for years to come.

He pushed upright. “I should go ring Cynwrig. He asked to be informed the minute you woke.”

My silly heart did its usual dance, and I did my best to ignore it. After all, while he’d literally moved earth, if not heaven or hell, to find me, nothing had really changed. Not his restrictions, not the danger to my heart.

“And Eljin?”

“Lugh rang him yesterday. I daresay he’d appreciate a more personal update.”

I smiled. “I would, except I’m not seeing my bags or even my phone in the vicinity.”

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