“Her head isbleeding!”
“It’s staunching,” Rina assured, nodding to my hand. “Her body is healing itself. There’s magic in that water—even if it’s for different purposes, it comes from the land. It’s speeding up the process.” Sure enough, Tolek’s undershirt had barely absorbed anything after I’d switched to it minutes ago.
Still, I wouldn’t leave Mila while she was unconscious.
“The magic isn’t healing your wrist,” I argued.
Rina’s lips pulled into a line. “I’m human,” she reminded me, voice soft. “I heal slower.”
“Technically,” Lyria corrected, “you’re a Bounty.”
“Oh, for the sake of the Goddesses,” Rina grumbled.
I only looked back down at Mila, counting the rise and fall of her chest again.One…two…three…“I can’t.”
“You must,” Vale said, but it wasn’t her voice. This tone rang with an untoward authority.
“I don’t give a damn about those emblems.”
“We need you to,” Tolek said. “Ophelia needs it.”
That alluring song wafted through my head again, and I snapped. “You do it, then! You go get it for her! You’re the one she loves.” I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Not in a jealous rage.
I only—I didn’t understand.
Why was I the one required to do these things? To be the second piece of chasing these emblems? The one who wasn’t truly meant to lead our people, called in as the reserve for the chosen one.
There was an irony to it that I couldn’t quite find with the woman I loved bleeding before me. Spirits, I hadn’t even told her I loved her. And now…
I counted her breaths. She was breathing. Alive. She’d wake up.
Tolek knelt next to me, and in a low voice the others wouldn’t hear, he admitted, “Trust me, Malakai. If there was a way I could take this responsibility from you, I would. I would sacrificeanythingto keep you from carrying more burdens for us.” He squeezed my shoulder and continued, “You’ve damn well done more than enough for seven lifetimes, brother. But there are certain things”—he swallowed, and when I looked up his eyes were on my Bind tattoo—“there are certain things I can’t be for Ophelia. At least not right now.” His gaze lifted, hardening. “So it has to be you. And not only for her, but for all of us. For every single warrior who will suffer at the hands of whatever this Angelcurse hides if we don’t succeed. Because I have a feeling we only know a fraction of the secrets hidden in the legends.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, gaze falling back to Mila. Brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’ll take care of her?”
“With my life,” Tolek swore.
Swallowing, I closed my eyes. Allowed that echoing melody to rise above the waves and wrap around me.
It was calling me, twisting and writhing beneath my skin. And I couldn’t shut it out.
Reluctantly, I brushed a kiss to Mila’s forehead. “Your tomorrows, Mila,” I whispered. “Every one of them. I’ll be back to collect, General.”
I carefully transferred the care of her wound to Tolek’s hands, ensuring he had the placement Rina had shown me.
Then, I rose and walked back to the edge of the water. It wasn’t churning as roughly as before, but the hum still flowed along the current. I removed my boots and weapons, hating the way it left me so bare but the extra weight would drag me down.
The music grew louder, and I counted the beats, taking deep breaths.
Then, I dove in.
Chapter Sixty
Ophelia
“You were…waiting for us?”
The sphinx nodded, onyx sheet of hair cascading around her lioness form. “For many years now. Long before your births, the lingering spirits in this hall told rumors of the universe stirring. Of the two sisters who could raise and slay myths returning to us.”
