“Where dothe souls go once you guys collect them?” Cameron looks to the group, and for the most part, they ignore her.
Except Carver.
“We’re just a filter. They go to an in-between place to be sorted into the afterlife.” He’s always so knowing. So well thought out.
His rational behavior is almost an odd fit for the Wild Hunt.
“And this in-between place, someone could get there?”
“If they knew wheretherewas, sure.” Carver seems to be trying hard to be kind to the Witch after today’s events.
“The king knows where thisthereis.” Cameron’s attention drifts across my vacant expression.
They brought me to the meadow while I was out. These four, the only family I have, apparently, brought me to the one place that I find comfort in. They laid me in the thick grass and waited for me to wake.
Fireflies flash in the night sky, warming the darkness and calming me just slightly.
My fingers fist the soft grass, and my gaze holds Cameron’s for a long while. There’s pity in the depths of her eyes. I’ve been awake for about an hour, but I haven’t found the strength to move. And Cameron hasn’t mentioned it. She has let me pretend to be asleep.
Nollix follows Cameron’s heavy attention.
“Is she awake?” Nollix storms over to me quickly. White flowers crumple beneath his boots as he strides toward me. The other three keep their distance. Carver watches me with big eyes. Jeriko stares a hole through the side of my head.
I wonder if she knows how badly I want to kill her for taking my mother’s soul? Someone had to do it, I know. But seeing it, seeing her dissolve into the unknown, it was more painful than I could ever imagine.
Nollix lowers himself until he’s kneeling in front of me. The dark sky is above him, shadowing his features to me. The looming heavens lie behind him like a painting of a god of war. The scar lining his jaw glitters darkly. It captures my attention for several seconds.
I don’t move. I keep my body locked in the fetal position like it’s the only thing holding me together.
Gentle fingers push back my hair, and I wince as his touch skims over the wound against my temple.
“I’m sorry, Vi.” It’s a whispered sound that holds more meaning than any of us realize. It’s the gentlest I’ve ever heard his voice sound.
But still I don’t move.
I’d give anything for sleep to pull me under once again. To forget the pain that’s consuming my heart right now for just a little while.
I just need time to sort out my mind. To calm the ache in my heart.
“What can I do?” He looks as if he might actually care about me.
Maybe he does.
But he can’t help me right now.
I look to Cameron. She holds my gaze for a long time, as if reading my thoughts perfectly.
She shifts from her sitting position. She crawls until she’s close enough to touch. Hesitantly, she wraps her arm around me. Her chest lines up against my back as she settles in behind me. My palm pushes her slender arm down over my ribs as she squeezes me tightly in a hug. A tear crawls down the side of my face, dripping into the grass.
Nollix’s gaze is held on the Witch behind me. His eyes narrow dangerously. As he shoves off from the ground, giving me the span of his back as he walks away, my lashes flutter. Cameron’s warming magic lulls me to sleep.
It numbs me just like I wanted.
* * *
I sleep for so long, my joints ache. It’s quiet for the first time in what feels like days. Not even death has the balls to disrupt us now. I sit with my back against a tree, watching over the other four as they sleep. Nollix turns abruptly. His dreams always seem to get the best of him. Or nightmares, I should say.
I once tried to wake him when I first became a part of the Wild Hunt. He almost murdered me in his sleep. I haven’t touched him since.
