Page 11 of Beasts of Briar
Driscoll stood behind her, running a hand over his short curly black hair. “She’s good with wounds,” he said, nodding at the woman. “Being a queen’s guard and all, she has experience treating them.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, not able to believe it had come to this. That I had to accept help from these strangers. Well, Driscoll wasn’t exactly a stranger. We’d met shortly before I escaped from the Wilds. I’d actually even liked him a little. I liked that he was honest, said exactly what was on his mind. What I didn’t like was that he’d chased me here, that he was trying to stop me. I looked down at my satchel and pulled it closer when I realized he was staring at it.
Then I turned my attention back to Soloman and gently laid him in the woman’s lap.
“I’m Leoni,” she said, reaching into her own satchel and pulling out some salves and bandages.
I nodded, signing my name, even though I doubted she’d understand.
“Bellamy,” she repeated.
My eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“I learned sign language in school.” She unrolled the bandage.
Driscoll huffed. “Seriously? Do you just have to know everything? It’s kind of annoying.”
Leoni unscrewed a small jar and spread the salve over Soloman’s wound. “You’re just jealous that I know how to read.”
“I know how to read, thank you very much.” He made a face at her. “I just prefer doing other things.”
“Like Aron?” Leoni asked, not looking up.
Driscoll sputtered.
Aron. My heart hurt just hearing the name. He was my closest friend. Well, not anymore. I couldn’t think about that right now.
“That was just a fling,” Driscoll said.
Aron and Driscoll had bonded when Driscoll came to the Wilds. Really bonded. And it made me happy for Aron. He didn’t often open up to others, had never shown any interest inrelationships in all the time we’d been trapped together in the Wilds. But then Driscoll appeared and got him to open up in a way I’d never seen before. Aron was smitten. My tall, muscled, stoic friend. Smitten. It had been amazing to see.
“Where is Aron?”I signed.
Leoni looked up at Driscoll. “She wants to know where your lover boy is.”
Driscoll scowled at me. “He’s safe, no thanks to you and your antics. Did you know he was the heir to the frost throne?”
I had. I also knew he had no interest in ruling. He didn’t think he was worthy of the crown, thought he was better off staying trapped in the Wilds, staying by my side.
I nodded slowly.
“Well, it turns out we kind of killed the frost queen and now Aron is trying to ascend to the throne and claim his rightful position.” Driscoll waved his hand in the air. “It’s kind of a mess.”
Oh, spirits below. Aron as king of the frost court? I wished I could be there for him. To help him. He must feel so stressed right now. Aron would have been an amazing leader, and I’d told him so many times. But he never believed me. I wondered what changed. I studied Driscoll with a growing feeling that I knew exactly what had changed.
The swans ruffled their feathers, a few of them shuffling back and forth as they kept staring at Soloman, eyes darting to Leoni as she wrapped a bandage around him.
His chest rose in short, quick bursts, breathing rattled.“It’s not working.”
I hoped Leoni would tell me this was normal, that it would take time for the salve to heal the wound. But she just scrunched her brows together and pursed her lips. “I can only do so much,” she said softly.
No. No. She couldn’t be saying what I thought she was saying.
Driscoll swallowed thickly. I’d told him the truth. He knew these were my brothers. He knew I couldn’t lose one of them. Especially not when I was so close to finally saving them.
Something glinted in the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head to see a bottle laying on the edge of the thick jungle tree line. A bottle filled with a purple liquid. I gasped. I’d heard of these objects. Magical items that appeared every time a shadow elemental ripped someone’s shadow from their body. The violence of the act created these objects that filled the shadow court. The items tended to appear right when you needed them.
Powerful items that could produce powerful magic. For a price. Magic always came with a cost. I looked at Soloman, laying limp in Leoni’s lap.
