Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles Trilogy #1)(82)
Elbena examined the red-smeared dagger. “I’ve never cut anyone before. I didn’t think it would be so easy.”
I wanted to say something snappy, but tendrils of fire spread around my whole head. My thoughts burned into ash.
“I’ll send a doctor.” Elbena handed Hristo back his blade and started for the door. She paused in the hall and turned back. “You’ll be heading back to the Pit the day after tomorrow, once the Chance Encounter has finished securing cargo. So relax while you can, because the report I send to your keeper there will not be favorable.”
Then she was gone, the door closed behind her.
My hands were like claws over my face, as though I could peel away the pain. It didn’t help. Blackness swarmed up from the depths of my mind, and all the noorestones seemed to dim.
I collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.
Hristo rushed to me, but he was too late. My head cracked against the hardwood, and I knew only darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A DOCTOR STITCHED MY FACE AND DRUGGED ME until everything was numb.
My face.
My thoughts.
My fingers.
Even my numbers.
I faded in and out of existence for a while. Every time I emerged and the pain was unbearable, someone pressed a cup to my lips and made me drink. Never before had I realized how much my cheeks were involved in swallowing, but the bitter liquid dropped the hazy sky of numbness over me again.
Finally, a voice broke through. “We have to leave immediately.”
My heart stopped. Ilina.
“She’s not well enough.” That was Hristo.
“It’s her face, not her legs. She can walk.” Ilina paced through the room. “When the sedatives wear off, she’ll wake up.”
My mouth felt weirdly detached and slow, but I said, “I am awake.”
“Mira!” Ilina rushed to my side.
I peeled my eyes open to find the room lit only by noorestones. The curtains, pulled closed, showed no light around the edges, and the inn had the stillness of everyone sleeping. Bandages had been packed against my cheek, and rubbed against the gash when I spoke. Everything hurt, but I needed to be here with my friends. Present. Awake. “How long have I been out?”
“One day.” Ilina sat on the bed next to me and took my hand.
“I’m glad you’re here.” I tried to squeeze her hand, but I couldn’t tell if my fingers were actually moving. Everything felt so fuzzy from the medicine. “What happened?”
“You left the dining hall in an uproar,” Ilina said. “Everyone started talking after you left. Dara kept trying to explain that you were ill, but at least a couple of people wondered if you were right.”
That wasn’t what I’d meant, but I supposed it was good to hear that someone had listened. “Where are LaLa and Crystal? What happened to them?” That hadn’t been my intended question, either. I kept losing track of my thoughts. But suddenly I desperately needed to know about my dragon.
Ilina spoke gently. Too gently. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow when you feel better.”
“I want to know now.”
“Tell her,” Hristo said. “No point in sparing her feelings when wondering is going to make her feel worse.”
“Were they taken too?” I rasped. “Like the others? Tower and Astrid and Lex . . .” I needed to tell them about Lex, but Hristo already knew. He’d already seen— “Did they take my dragon?”
Ilina shook her head. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. The morning we came to visit you, before you were sent to Khulan, Crystal and LaLa just flew away.”
“They didn’t come when we whistled,” Hristo said. “Or called their names, or promised food. They left.”
“Have they come back?” My voice was weak. Small.
“Mira . . .”
I wanted to sink into the bed and die. “LaLa thinks I abandoned her.”
“No, I’m sure that’s not it.” But Ilina didn’t say what else it might have been, and misery dug its claws deep into me. My friends knew why I’d vanished, but I couldn’t explain the situation to a dragon. What kind of person befriended a baby dragon, spent nine years training her and growing close, and then did something stupid that resulted in prison? Leaving that baby dragon alone.
Of course LaLa and Crystal had flown away. They knew all they had was each other.
“Don’t look so sad,” Ilina said. “We have a plan.”
“For getting LaLa and Crystal back?”
Ilina made a face somewhere between a smirk and a grimace. “No. Your escape, obviously.”
“Oh. Right.” The medicine was making me slow.
“Escape can wait a few more minutes.” Hristo stood at the foot of the bed, his hands behind his back and his head bowed. Though he wore the Luminary Guard uniform, the mask was gone and the jacket was unbuttoned. Both daggers were at his hips, even the one that had cut me. I wondered if it felt poisonous to him now. Traitorous.
But Hristo didn’t think like that. He was sensible. Protective. I’d have said paranoid before, but after learning about Hurrok trying to kill me last year, I knew better. He was constantly on guard so that I didn’t have to be.
“Mira,” he said, “before anything else, I have to tell you that I’m sorry. I came to protect you and I failed.”