Page 69 of Hemlock & Silver
Strong arms locked around me, and Javier pulled me away fromthe mirror. I tried to struggle, but my muscles wouldn’t obey. I felt as limp and drained as if I’d been running.
“What were youdoing?” Javier looked utterly horrified. “Whatever it was, don’t do that again!”
I blinked up at him. I kept getting hugs that didn’t count. This onedefinitelydidn’t since he seemed to be holding me up. I locked my fingers on the edge of his coat, trying not to fall. My head throbbed. “What happened?” I asked. “I was trying to push the bird through, and then… I thought if I could just do it therightway, it would work, but it was so hard…”
“You started to turn gray.” His face was only a few inches away, brown eyes searching my face with alarm. I could see the line between his eyes, gone deeper with concern.
Concern? About me?
Don’t read too much into it. He’s your bodyguard, that’s all. If you die, it’ll be a professional failure.
But he was so very close. If someone walked in, it would look like we were about to kiss, if they didn’t know I felt so dreadful, and that apparently he was disgusted by me.
Okay, kissing was probably out of the question.
“I do feel woozy,” I admitted.
“No,” he said, with some force. “I mean you were turning graylike the mirror.”
I stared up at him, no longer thinking about kissing at all.“What?”
He shook his head. “Come on. I want to get you out of here.”
I left the hummingbird on my desk, out of the way, but where there was still a tiny bit of reflection to keep it colorful. Getting through the mirror together was difficult, but only because it wasn’t wide enough to fit two humans. I slid through the silver as easily as ever.
Once we were out, I sat down on the bed, winded just from the walk. Javier grabbed my hands and turned them over, peering at them as intensely as a palm reader. “No gray,” he said, even thoughI could see it for myself. “Your hands went first.” He looked at me, his brow furrowed, and I think he would have ordered me to strip if he could. Which was either tragic or hilarious, when you got down to it.
“I’ll check later,” I promised. “I think I need to lie down.”
“I don’t want you to be here alone. What if it starts to happen again?”
“What would you be able to do if it does?” I pointed out, quite reasonably.
The intensity of his scowl surprised me. His face fell quite naturally into it, the lines bracketing his mouth deepening into canyons. I wondered what his life had been like in the palace guard, to cause such lines.
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “Damn. I hate it when you’re right.”
“Sorry.” I flopped on my back across the bed. “I just really need a nap. Right now.”
I remember him taking my sandals off and me muttering some kind of thanks, and then I was dead to all the world.
When I woke up, the sun had begun to sink. I sat up in bed, my head pounding. My mouth felt as dry as the desert outside.
“Saints. I feel hungover,” I muttered, scrubbing at my face. I’d slept in my clothes, which didn’t help.
“You look hungover,” Javier said mercilessly. “Drink some water.” He handed me a mug. The water was tepid, but slid down my throat like silk.
“Thank you. Wait… what are you doing here?” I squinted at him over the rim. “I thought you were leaving.”
“I didn’t. Obviously.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on guard duty?”
“I’m your guard. This is my duty. The captain’s been informed.” He snorted. “The nightly patrols here are basically to justify theexpense of having guards and to keep any of them from getting too drunk on shift. Well, and to watch for fires.”
“Oh.” I drank more water. My eyes felt gritty. (That’s caused by your tears evaporating while you sleep, incidentally. Tears are salty, so when your eyes dry out, tiny salt crystals get left behind. Bodies are so marvelously revolting.)
“Should I send for some dinner?” Javier asked.
