Page 55 of Memories Like Fangs
I had never been this overstimulated in my life.
I rolled over to my side, coughing and trying to steady myself. Everything ached, from the deepest corners of my soul to the tiniest muscles in my fingers, but it was only soreness.
Next to me, Izzy exhaled with a weary smile, “Welcome back, Little Huntress.”
Normally, I would cringe at the nickname. Being called “huntress” always had such a negative connotation for me. It carried the weight of the horrific acts that hunters were too often known for and the cruelty it was assumed that we all had. It often came as someone spat it out toward me venomously while they looked down on me like I was beneath them, an animal that could go rabid at any time. I hated that trepidation I could sense before I had even opened my mouth to start chipping away at their preconceptions. So, I learned to just surprise them and enjoy the gloat of proving them wrong. But, when Izzy called me “huntress,” there was a difference in her tone, in how she shaped the word. It was like she knew the history, but she was calling me that not just as a matter of what I was, but as a way to respect it. She reminded me of a teacher I had once at St. Allison’s, someone who you could tell was made to be a teacher and who loved to help kids grow.
I get why Byrd loves her.
I like her, too.
Rhois blurred over to Izzy’s side. The worry was so clear on her face that it made my heart ache. She sniffled on the brink of tears. “I told you that you were still healing,mo chridhe! Are you trying to givemethe heart attack?”
Journeed crawled over to their mates and embraced them while giving Rhois a kiss on the top of her head. “Hey, I told you that we would be okay, and we are, Puppy. We’re okay.”
“Oh, my fucking gods, you are alive!” Nat cried out, running into the circle to throw her arms around me.
“Aw, youdocare, after all,” I groaned in soreness but wrapped my arms around her all the same.
“Of course, I fucking care, you stupid bitch!” Nat pulled back instantly. The blues of her eyes were dark and glossy with unshed tears in their ocean depths, full of fear of the unknown and grief at what could have been. Shakingly, her hands clung to me like she was terrified I would evaporate at any moment. Even her bottom lip trembled. It made me soften and hold her tighter. I had never seen her like this before. Nat and the other cousins had seen me stabbed, shot, bit, and injured far worse on the field, I thought. Maybe seeing me hurt in a non-physical way they couldn’t remedy broke something. “Don’t you ever scare the living shit out of me like that ever again, Quinn January Garcia!”
“I’m sorry. I’ll do my best,” I apologized.
Cole and Cody bent down beside me and Nat. Cole asked, “That was fucking crazy, Q. What happened? Why did you come back wounded? Did it not work?”
“Oh, it definitely worked. I got to see her.” I smiled in spite of myself.She’s alive. I know she’s alive. She may not be okay right now, and that thought kills me, but I will see to that soon.
“What happened?” Talli asked as Everett carried Thompson over to join the rest of us and hear the full rundown. I treatedit like a mission debrief, informing them of what happened in a simple, clinical way. I was scared that if I let myself feel too much, it might eat me up again. But, Byrd’s sweet eyes and the promise to go somewhere far from here once this was over clung to my memories as I spoke. I thought it would feel haunting, but it actually invigorated me.
After I mentioned Lilah and her plans for Byrd, Nat interrupted me with a thoughtful, distant gaze and furrowed brows. “Lilah… Why does that name ring a bell?”
“What would a Blood Fitch want with a dragon enchantment?” Everett asked.
“You didn’t hear the answer to that in your question, lad? A Blood Witch-Fae wants the dragons’ blood. What better way to gain power through blood than to find an enchantment and bleed every one of them dry?”
“Rhois is right,” Talli agreed. “With that many dragons, Lilah would be powerful enough to find even more dragons and bend anyone in her way to her will. She would beunstoppable.”
“So, uh, what are the odds of Byrd giving up the location to her parents’ enchantments then?” Cody asked the room.
“Highly unlikely,” I answered. “If she did know them, she doesn’t remember them. My guess is that her parents didn’t talk about them enough for her to even guess where they could be. Either way, Lilah is barking up the wrong tree.”
Talli hummed pensively. “Lilah could access Byrd’s memories if she goes deep enough to find the location of the enchantments even if Byrd herself doesn’t remember, but she cannot get memories Byrd doesn’t have, even with the connection Byrd has with her mother. Magic doesn’t work that way. You can’t access the memories of another through someone else, especially if that someone else is dead. Lilah likely thinks that when a dragon mother passes on, they pass all theirmemories onto their children. That, however, is a common misconception about dragons.”
I clenched my fists tight enough to feel my nails bite into my palms, and I ground my teeth.So, Byrd is getting tortured over a rumor? Over something that can’t be found? All her pain and trauma is for nothing?
When I get my hands on that Blood Bitch, I was going to make her beg for death as a fucking mercy from me.
“What if Lilah’s going for something else entirely?”
Cody rolled his wrists for his sister to keep going. “…Such as?”
Nat threw her arms in the air. “I don’t fucking know, Cody! I’m just bullshitting a theory!”
I sighed.Now is as good a time as any to drop this bomb.“Well, thereissomething else. Lilah isn’t working alone.”
Everyone turned to look at me with a blend of raised eyebrows and questioning looks. I rolled my shoulders and steeled my spine. I swallowed deeply. Then, I looked at each of my cousins in turn.
“Cooper...” I started, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it fully. Even though I had seen it with my own eyes and I planned to kill him for it, it was still so… wild didn’t do it justice.
