Page 104 of A Subtle Scar
All of him was gold, even the eyes, and he was no boy at all, just looked young. Boyish. When our eyes met, whatever this was—vision, dream, hallucination—shattered.
I heard a loud bang, and something very hard hit me in the back. The pain was sharp and numbing, slicing from the back of my head all the way down to my spine.
Don’t let this be a spinal injury,I thought. Then I passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Theboomwasdeafening,the light from where the god coin sat on the cave floor blinding. Ronny’s eyes fluttered. My head swung around just in time to see Chandler hit the cave wall, his body moving like a coal-drawn shadow in the blinding light. I heard his bones break before he dropped like a sack of flour.
His didn’t sound like a flute, they just sounded like pain and suffering and blood.
“Baby!”
I lowered Ronny’s head. He was trying to say something, but his throat still didn’t work right. I left him with Tiamat and ran to our boyfriend’s side.
His nose was bloody, his eyes bloodshot, and tears of blood ran out of them. He was so pale, and he was…twisted. I was scared of touching him.
“Move,” Tiamat said, pushing me aside. “Idiot boy.” She looked over her shoulder as she put her hands on Chandler to heal him.
“Will he—will he…” I didn’t know what to ask. Humans didn’t have our healing capacity, and Chandler had touched magic strong as a live wire. It still brightened the room.
“He’ll be fine, but I need you to keep that one calm,” the Dragon Mother said, jerking her chin at…I had no idea what the thing was, but it was advancing. The light emanated from it, but with each stumbling step the creature took, it dimmed.
I stood and positioned myself between the naked golden creature. From the metallic color, I would have called it a robot or automaton, but it was human-shaped, had delicate limbs and all the right parts, even between his legs.
“Stay back, whatever you are,” I said. “You’re not touching our boyfriend.”
The thing stopped, but I wasn’t sure whether it understood. Person, maybe it was a person. It sort of looked like one, eyes going wide and mouth gaping, then closing, then gaping again. It tilted its head and reached out with both arms—as if it wanted to get to Chandler.
“He’s probably scared and confused,” the Dragon Mother said. “Be nice.”
Ronny groaned. I glanced over. The golden creature followed my line of sight. It gasped at the blood and the tattered wings, healing though they were. It stepped back and made a small sound, a tiny yelp. It sounded like someone who hadn’t spoken in a long time.
It looked back at me, at Chandler, at Ronny. It pointed from me to Ronny, then to Chandler, then me and Ronny again. On the third round, it pointed from itself to Chandler and back again.
“You’re not getting near him,” I told it. “Dragon Mother?”
The creature started whimpering, but kept on pointing, its arms and legs trembling.
“I’m mending this one to the point his body can finish the last bit by itself, and then I’m getting back to Charrie. His wings need more work.” I had never before seen the Dragon Mother tense. But she was.
“What happened?” I asked as the golden creature began crying. Actual tears. It looked at me, imploring. No matter what it did, I wasn’t going to let it near Chandler.
“Your Chandler somehow managed to connect to the god coin. I…these are magicks the kind of which even I cannot hope to understand. You feel the coin is gone too, yes?”
I tugged on my power, and it was there. “Yeah,” I said. And good fucking riddance.
“Well, now there’s that pretty golden youth instead, and he seems very concerned about your intended.
“Chandler’s our boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend then.”
“Dragon Mother, are you saying that thing was the coin that did all of this? How?”
“First Magic is nothing any god alive today really understands. Hermes?”
“Yes, Dragon Mother?”
