“I know,” I said with a sigh. “A Healer.” Running at half capacity wasn’t ideal, though if it was the best I was going to get, I’d have to take it. But a healed body and all the time in the world weren’t going to help me if I couldn’t find Brakae and the bastard who’d taken her. “Where’s Faolán?” I asked again. “Do you know how to find him?”
“Brakae is no fool,” Nila said. “All you have to do is follow the trail she’s left for you. Now lie back,” she said, stomping her foot down on my forehead, “and let us finish up here. As you said, you don’t have time to waste.”
Chapter 26
I lay back and waited for Nila and her team to finish sewing me up. Two potentially mortal wounds in one day weren’t an all-time record for me, but the rate at which I healed was breaking all sorts of records. It took a considerable amount of concentration to keep from banging my head against the ground in frustration. Too many variables stood in the way of my success, one of those being Brakae’s not so gentle handling of me.
She could have been under Faolán’s influence when she’d rammed the dagger deep into my flesh. I saw it reflected in her eyes. But she’d spoken to me with a presence of mind that belied his control. Had she simply been playing along so as not to alert Faolán to her stability? If she’d meant to really kill me, I doubt she would’ve bothered with the prestab warning. No, Brakae had only put on a convincing show for Faolán. She’d been precise in her aim. She’d avoided my lungs and directed the slant of her blade low and to the outside. I’d said I trusted her and meant it. No way would she betray me-not Raif’s daughter.
As the Sprites worked on me, my hand wandered to my throat to where the pendulum should have hung. “Where is it?” I asked no one in particular.
“Almost done,” Nila said. “Lie still.” A pit bull couldn’t have been nastier as she pushed at my forehead again with her foot.
Just then, the Sprites looked up to the sky, and I followed their gazes. Dark night had melted away, the sky becoming bright with sunlight. This was the chaos Nila had described. Time couldn’t be marked in seconds, minutes, or hours. The sun broke over the horizon without preamble. If dawn had indeed preceded the sunrise, it happened in the blink of an eye-too fast for me to track. Black skies had been replaced with blue as if someone had flipped a switch.
“Are we done?” Not that it mattered. I was out of here. “Time’s wasting.” Literally.
Nila stepped away as the other Sprites took to the air, floating toward the morning sky, which matured to midday in what seemed like a matter of seconds. Faolán must have been close to following through with his plan; time seemed to move more unevenly than it already did. And I had a feeling, if I didn’t get my ass in gear, we were all as good as fucked.
“Go, and be well.”
Yeah. Okay. Sure. Time wasn’t something I could afford to waste. I took off at a slow jog in no specific direction without a word of parting to the company of Sprites. No “Thanks.” No “I owe you one.” Nila would just have to take my appreciation as a given. Light glinted through the tree branches, shimmering red and gold and bright green on leaves revealing their fall colors before my eyes. I’d thought spring ruled in this place, but as Nila had so graciously pointed out, the natural order followed a different set of rules.
Where the hell was I headed? It wasn’t like Brakae had been so kind as to leave me a trail of bread crumbs to follow. I lacked a decent sense of direction, and as the landscape changed with each passing second, it was hard to find a landmark that might point me in the right direction. My lungs burned from running, the ache spreading into my chest. Slowing to a manageable pace, I stopped in a small clearing as I realized I’d landed myself in the middle of nowhere, alone, without a path to track. “Would’ve been nice if she’d left me some way to track her,” I muttered as I tried to catch my breath. “Like some sort of infrared trail showing me which fucking way to go.”
Infrared. Jesus, I was dense. I’d felt her presence once; I could feel it again-just one of the perks unique to my evolution. Although the urgency of my predicament demanded that I keep going at a breakneck pace, I knew the only way I was going to find Brakae was to take things slow. Slow and steady. Fuck.
Plopping down on the grass, I assumed a meditative pose. The sun sank in the horizon, an entire day gone in a matter of minutes. Closing my eyes, I drew several deep breaths-in…out…in…out… A chill wind rustled the brittle leaves now falling from their branches, kissing my cheeks with the promise of winter.
I tilted my head to the north, Brakae’s presence coming to me as a slow thrum, pulsing deep into every muscle. It was instantly calming, and I allowed the feeling to spread through my body until I felt as though I could lie down and take a fifty-year nap right in the middle of the forest. God, I wanted to. And I deserved it, damn it. But it would have to wait. First, I had to find my Time Keeper. Then, I had to kill the lousy SOB who’d taken her. Only afterward could I tackle the issue of getting my ass home. Maybe, when all of that was done, I would be allowed to rest.
Slowly, as if I might disrupt the trail with any sudden movements, I opened my eyes and started north. I didn’t run this time but kept a steady and manageable pace, allowing myself the concentration I needed to sense the invisible bread crumbs Brakae had left for me to follow. Drawn as I was to her calming energy, my pace quickened as if all I’d needed to do all along was settle the fuck down and lift my nose to the wind.
Twilight melted away as I walked, the sky darkening to a beautiful navy blue, and with the shifting of time, my panic mounted again. How much time had passed at home?
“It’s about time you got your head in the game,” a voice said from my right.
I whipped around, crouched and ready for a fight. A fawn-colored ponytail swung to and fro with the woman’s gait. Confident. Deadly. Ready.
Moira.
“I’m noticing a trend with you: You seem to always show up right at the tail end of the action.” I stalked toward her, trying not to favor my injured torso. Showing weakness could be dangerous since I wasn’t quite sure if she still wanted to kill me or not. “And where the hell did you come from anyway?” I’d had a lot to process since I’d wound up in this backward place. Allies had become enemies, and enemies, allies. And just because Moira was apparently one of the good guys didn’t mean I wasn’t still wary of her.
“You need to seriously work on your interpersonal skills, Darian.” Moira’s lips twitched, threatening a smile. “You won’t win many popularity contests with that attitude of yours.”
As if I didn’t already know that. I was surprised I didn’t walk crooked from the weight of the enormous chip on my shoulder. Miss Congeniality, I wasn’t. But since I hadn’t exactly been a social butterfly for the past eight or nine decades, Moira would just have to cut me some slack.
“You know, you could have saved everyone a lot of trouble if you’d just come out and told me what the hell was going on. I mean, did it ever occur to you or your brother to say, ‘Hold up, Darian. Before you run off with that hourglass, let us clue you in on a few things’? No, you decided to go all Xena Warrior Princess on my ass and scare me off. What the hell is it with you supernaturals anyway?” My temper threatened to get the best of me, but I kept my tone level. Sure, I was angry. But mostly, I was hurt. I didn’t want to be a pawn anymore. I had a hard enough time trusting, and it seemed that everyone I’d met wanted to use me for his own agenda. “Why do you all wait until the last fucking second to tell anyone anything? You know, I work a hell of a lot better when I’ve been prepared for a job. Winging it isn’t exactly one of my strong suits. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you guys get off on jerking me around.”