Page 36 of Hellfire to Come
“I know,” I said, quickly standing. Dust clung to my clothes, but I didn’t care. “I’m not trying to. I just…I need to speak with someone.” Swallowing thickly, I prayed he wouldn’t walk away. “I need to speak with your shaman. With Laughing Crow.”
At the mention of her name, his brows drew together slightly. Not a scowl, but more like the tightening of threads woven too many times before.
“Laughing Crow does not accept visitors like you.”
“I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t life or death.” My voice trembled. I hated that. I was used to fire, to fury. But this wasn’t a battlefield I could win by force. “My friend…Alice. She’s…she’s dying. We tried everything. She’s under a spell. Something unnatural, binding and burning her from the inside out. She won’t make it through the night without help.”
The man’s expression didn’t change. He simply watched me with eyes the color of scorched pine bark. Measuring. Weighing.
I stepped closer to the invisible line, just short of the ward’s shimmer. Yet he still stood firm without any fear I could notice. “Please,” I whispered. “I don’t care if I have to wait out here all night. I don’t care if she spits in my face when she sees what Iam. Just let her know I’m here. Tell her Brooklyn asks for her mercy. That I’ll owe her anything she asks.”
Behind me, Dominic shifted his weight, silent but present. The muscles in his arms were taut, ready to spring if this turned, but still following my lead.
Still, the man said nothing.
“I’ve never been here before,” I added quietly, desperation pressing at the back of my throat. “I’ve sent many that take sanctuary at your reservation but never asked for anything in return. I’ve never asked for help from your people. And I swear to you, I’m not lying. And if you don’t believe me, look at me.”
I lifted my hand and pressed it to my own chest, above my heart. “She’s like a sister to me. I’m not asking for myself. Just for a chance to save her.”
The man’s gaze softened just slightly. Enough that I knew something had shifted.
He gave a short nod. “Wait here.”
Then he turned and walked away, back into the shadows of the trees, his boots silent on the earth.
I sank to my knees, pressing shaking hands to cover my face.
“You think he’ll come back?” I asked Dominic through my fingers.
My mate lowered himself beside me again, one arm brushing mine. “If he believed you… yes.”
“And if he didn’t?”
“Then we’ll wait until someone else comes. Or until you fall asleep and I carry you home myself.”
I laughed, dry and cracked. “You’d have to fight me first.”
He didn’t smile. “Then I’d fight you. I have a bad feeling about this, Brooklyn.”
The last light faded from the sky, and the wards shimmered faintly like stars clinging to the soil.
I closed my eyes, and prayed to whoever listened that the shaman had humanity in her and at least heard my plea. I barely breathed from the tension coiling my muscles.
And waited…
And waited.
Chapter Fifteen
ALICE
There was no light here.
No ceiling.
No walls.
Just an endless, viscous dark pressing against my skin like oil. It clung to me, slow, suffocating, creeping into my nose, my throat, my lungs. Breathing felt like swallowing static.
