Page 163 of A Game of Monsters

“Come on, you heard her,” Duncan commanded. “Help me, Erix.”

Both men hoisted me from the tub, standing me bare in the centre of the room. I wrapped the towel around myself just a second before the poppy-red-haired fey came barrelling into the room.

Wide eyed, pale taut lips, Althea scanned the condensation-heavy room before settling on me. Her brow creased as a small chirp left her mouth. Disbelief melted to relief, then her mask quickly crumbled as we crashed into one another, tangling arms and holding firm.

“You are awake,” Althea said, wide eyes fixed on me, holding me out at arm’s length as she took me in from head to foot.

“Do you mean alive?” I asked, words muffled as she dragged me back into her strong embrace.

“Well, yes,” Althea sobbed, laying her chin atop the damp strands of my hair. “Actually, that is exactly what I mean. Gods, Robin. I really thought we were going to lose you for a second.”

“Surprise,” I replied, voice muffled in her embrace.

Althea smelled faintly of char and burning. The scent clung to her skin, her armour and hair.

She took turns holding me close, then pushing me at a distance so she could get a better look at me. Althea shot the men behind me a look of pure annoyance, accusation rushing out of her mouth. “Why did not you send word for me? I thought I made myself clear that the moment you saw any improvement in Robin’s fate, you would call for me. And yet here he stands, bathed and fed, and not even so much as a fucking word.”

Fire sparked on her tongue, shifting the room to an uncomfortable heat.

“Robin deserved a moment of peace after what he has been through,” Duncan said, bristling his white wings. “We made the call that he could have a few hours of normalcy, before we ruin it.”

“Ruin it?” I barked, looking between my three closest friends. There was one person missing. Gyah. But there was no time to contemplate where she was.

I had no peace to ruin, not since I woke still harbouring a part of the problem in me. A part of Duwar.

“You have not told him, have you?” Althea raged, eyes widening a fraction until I noticed the whites of them were bloodshot. “Of course you have not!”

Their joint silence was answer enough.

“What did you possibly think would happen by keeping this from him,” Althea continued, her skin growing uncomfortably warm as magic seeped from her pores.

“To protect him,” Erix said, silver eyes narrowing. “That is all we have wanted to do.”

“From what!” It was my turn to shout, and as I did, a rush of winter ice flashed through the room. Glass cracked; the water in the tub froze solid. It was an uncontrollable power, a level which I shouldn’t have been able to do.

If anyone noticed, no one said it with words.

Except Erix had noticed, of course he had. His eyes barely left me for a second, playing into his never-ending duty to protect me. I expected him to voice his worries, but he forged his lips together.

“From. What?”

“Yourself,” Duncan sighed. “We are protecting you from making the decision we know you are going to make.”

Duwar unfurled within me like a serpent in a fragile box. I closed my eyes, wincing against the sensation. And then, whispering into my ear, Duwar told me the truth. In truth, I think I knew it from the moment I came around from the Gardineum. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

I saw flashes of the moments before Cassial was killed. How we warred for Duwar, only for him to unleash the power in a storm at his back.

Cassial’s final act. The reveal of his plan if I attempted to go against him.

“It is Duwar, isn’t it?” I asked, eyes opening to see a room locked in tension. “Cassial is dead, but the seed of chaos he released in the realms is still a problem.”

“Yes, Robin. Cassial has left his mark on the world, a mark that we are struggling to scrub clean,” Althea said, and for the first time I noticed just how exhausted she really was. Slumped posture, the dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes. This was the appearance of a woman who had not stopped fighting an enemy, whilst I had luxuriated in a bath, giving into this pretend illusion of a tomorrow with the men I loved.

My hands balled to fists at my sides.

Althea released me, moving back toward the door, which she gripped for support. “Cassial may be gone, but his final act has truly put the realms under threat. And it is growing. Nothing we have done so far has been able to stop it, no power held by any of the fey can dispel it. If anything it feeds this shadow of Duwar, giving it more power, encouraging it to spread faster.”

“Tell meeverything,” I demanded, still dripping water onto the panelled floor, body simmering with distant aches. And yet I stood tall. “I need to know it all.”

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