How did he feel? It was difficult to put into words. New vitality hummed through his body, as if a million tiny sparks had snapped against his skin, leaving their tingling reminder. Even his head felt clear, unfettered from the nightmares and dark thoughts that had been his constant companion since his imprisonment in the Shadow World. “Better.”
“You are a master of the understated,” Rhys said, handing Siban his shirt.
“Thank you.” Siban slid the tunic over his head and shook his chin-length curls from his eyes. “When will you heal Rell?”
“Tonight.” Gregory placed the dagger back on the table. “That will give you time to rest. She will need all of our strength.”
“I will be there.” Nothing would keep him from Rell’s side.
“Good.” The king faced him. “I don’t foresee her transformation to be as easy as yours.”
“I’ll give her whatever strength I have.” He scooted from the table. His legs quivered, and he grabbed the edge of the wood in an effort not to stumble. Gregory reached for him, but Siban waved him away and straightened. “I’m all right.”
“Then come to the house and eat.” Willa, Rell’s mother, stepped from the shadows. Her white-blond hair glimmered in the candlelight and her eyes sparkled with determination. “We’re all going to need to fortify ourselves if we plan on saving my daughter.”
Though he wasn’t the least bit hungry, under no circumstance would Siban contradict Willa once she’d made a command. The woman was fire and ice mixed into a tiny, unassuming package. He was fairly certain Willa would have gone into the bowels of the Shadow World herself to bring back her daughter’s body if Luc and Jade hadn’t beaten her to it. Such fierce loyalty was a trait he understood and respected.
He nodded. “I am coming, my lady.”
…
The wind beat against the thick, murky glass of the window, its low howl like a consoling friend. Rell dragged her talon through the dirt on the floor, circling the point in an endless design of interconnecting loops. Though the Bringers had provided her with a comfortable bed and blankets to warm her against the nip in the air, she preferred to feel the cold. Material comforts were something she hadn’t had since she was a human and using them now somehow poked at her like a lie.
The cell the Bringers had constructed for her sat in the center of the room, out of reach of the stone walls, which had been warded to keep her in. The iron bars pressed against her back and wings like an icy reminder that though the Bringers were trying to help her, she was still subject to their decision of whether she would live or die.
“You look like a giant bird,” said a child’s voice from near the door.
Rell dragged her eyes away from her mindless scrawling and leveled her gaze on the small boy. Hayden, she’d thought she’d heard the human woman call him. His blue eyes were round and his brown hair tousled from the wind. Dirt smudged his face and the faint scent of fear mixed with unrepressed curiosity emanated from him. He’d been a regular visitor, though Rell suspected his mother didn’t know. “What kind of bird?”
“A love bird.” Hayden scooted forward a few inches, his pants scraping against the dirt floor. “Like the pretty green one in the painting in Lord Le Daun’s library.”
She cocked a brow. “You think I’m pretty?”
His head bobbed up and down. “Sometimes the light from the fire makes your skin sparkle, like jewels. And sometimes, like now, your eyes turn bright green.”
“My eyes turn green?”
He nodded again. Except for her reflection in the hot pools in the cavern of the Shadow World, where she’d raised Jade, Rell had never seen her demon reflection. Always she’d assumed her eyes were yellow, like the other Bane. The boy’s words pushed the darkness that threatened to steal through her soul back to a tolerable level. His unguarded innocence and honesty encompassed her like the warm blankets she refused to use.
“Thank you.” Besides Siban, nobody but the boy had ever made her feel like she wasn’t an abomination. Even Jade’s tireless struggle to help keep Rell’s humanity had been mired in the fact that Rell was a Demon Bane and not a normal sister. Every struggle they’d overcome, every move they had made had hinged on her being Bane. Rell’s time with Icarus, the Demon King’s son, had been based on the fact that the two of them were different from the other demons. It seemed that even among her kind, she did not fit in. “I think you would like flying.”
Hayden’s eyes widened. “Can you take me one day?”
She gave him a sad smile. He was so trusting, which would mean his death if he’d been talking to any demon other than her. “I don’t think we’ll get the chance, Hayden. The others are going to try and make me better tonight—human again.”
A frown creased his small face. “Will you still have your wings?”
Rell shook her head.
His scowl increased. “I like you the way you are.”
“Thank you.” A knot formed in her throat. “Perhaps when I am human we can hunt together. It’s not the same as flying, but it would still be fun.”
That idea seemed to placate him, but before he could answer the door swung open, bringing with it a blast of cold air and Siban. The boy scooted backward and pressed his back against the wall. Hayden stared up at Siban, the wonder in his eyes now replaced with fear.
“Does your mother know you’re here, boy?”
Hayden shook his head.
“Best run along to the house. There are warm biscuits and honey in the library.”
Hayden rose and skirted Siban’s large body but stopped at the door, turning back to Rell. “You promise we’ll go hunting?”
Her lips tightened into a smile and she nodded, unable to speak the promise she might not be able to keep. The healing the Bringers were to attempt on her had never been done before—by any of them. There was no guarantee she would survive the transition. The one consoling thought was that at least she would be free of the oppressive darkness inside her that constantly demanded she give in to its will.
Siban pulled the door closed behind Hayden and turned to face her. “It’s time.”
She pushed up from the floor of the cage and stood, ignoring the quiver in her legs that was more from nerves than fatigue or cold. “I’m ready.”
He approached the cage and wrapped his hands around the bars. “Everything is going to be all right, Rell. I’ll be there with you through the healing.” His troubled hazel gaze held hers. “We’ve already been through so much.” His voice cracked slightly. “When this is over, we’ll be able to start a new life.”
Together was left unspoken. There was no need. From the first time they’d met, their paths had been joined. She’d secretly cared for him in the Shadow World, tending his wounds after Sha-hera and Vile had tortured him for information about the Bringers. She’d fed him when, trying to break his will, they had left him to starve. She’d given him the comfort of her companionship, which she’d needed just as much as he had.
“I hope you’re right, Siban.” Rell approached the door of the cell. “But if something goes wrong…”
“It won’t.” His jaw clenched and unclenched. “I refuse to lose you again.”
She nodded, unwilling to shatter his fragile conviction to save her. “What now?”
“I’ll need to carry you to the healing room. The floors and walls are still warded, as are the grounds. You’ll be burned and drawn back to the Shadow World if you touch anything.”
Her sister, Jade, and Ravyn, had been thorough in marking the area around Rell’s cell. The wards left the walls and the floor inside her prison free of magic. Even though escape would have been impossible, Rell had not even been tempted. There was nothing left for her in the world of the Demon Bane. There never had been.