Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(40)

I needed to convince her to ask for help. Or maybe I needed to ask it myself. I knew they could help. She needed to trust them.

“Have sweet dreams of lollipops and unicorns, not death and destruction,” Risha said as she blew out the lamps between our beds, covering each of us with the rough cotton blankets that smelled faintly of smoke, blood, and an old soap my grandmother would have used.

I stared into the dark, listening to them whisper as they left, trying to figure out a way to convince my sister to trust them. My brain was already foggy with exhaustion.

“I wish that were possible,” Míra mumbled from beside me.

I was pretty certain that was the most honest thing she had said since she had come here.





DRAMIN





9





“How am I expected to think straight if you refuse to remove your feet from my face?” I didn’t think I could have said those words with a straight face. I tried, but the laugh still leaked out, deep chuckles I was known for echoing in the still room around us.

The sound was a welcomed accompaniment.

Joclyn looked up from where she lay at the foot of my bed, her eyes peering over the cover of a large leather-bound book that had been recovered from an old school last week.

As her eyes wrinkled in a taunting smile, I could see her intent before it came.

“Joclyn!” I yelled in an attempt to stop her action, and her laugh broke past, the bed underneath us creaking as she continually dodged my poor attempts to push her away, more little toes pushing against my shoulders and face.

“Child!”

She laughed more at my outburst.

“Why must you be so disagreeable?”

“I’m not disagreeable, Uncle,” she gasped out around giggles, still trying to fight me. “I’m entertaining. Admit it.”

“Avoiding required tasks … with feet … is not entertaining.” I wouldn’t admit it, and she knew it. I wasn’t foolish enough to think she would admit anything, either. We had both inherited the same stubbornness. “I will send you back to bed if you don’t cease this!” I yelled, knowing it was hopeless.

“No, you won’t. We have required tasks, after all. Besides, I slept last night. You have another twenty hours to put up with me.”

“I guarantee I will be rid of you before then!”

Her laugh increased, her perceived win obvious. Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten I had raised a legion of offspring.

Without warning, I stopped moving, letting her toes press against my cheek before I turned and allowed the stinky little digits right into my mouth. With her toes wiggling against my tongue, I licked them, my teeth holding her firmly in place.

She screamed, loud and playful and panicked.

“Let me go!”

I didn’t know if she was laughing or disgusted. It made me laugh more.

“I’m sorry. What do you want?” I asked, knowing there was no way she could understand me with the large appendage still caught between my teeth.

“Let me go, or I’ll zap you.”

I knew her too well by now to dismiss that the threat, so I loosened my jaw, letting her free.

She scuttled away from me, retreating to the foot of the bed and away from any other possible foot attacks.

“That was gross, Dramin.”

Ah, so she was disgusted. Perfect.

Laughing, I lifted a corner of the blanket, wiping whatever residue was left on my lips, regretting the need to swallow the now foot-flavored saliva.

“Hmmm? And I suppose your stinky, little pigs against my jaw were meant as a sign of endearment, then?”

She wrinkled her nose at my question. “Point taken.” Now she was trying not to laugh, something she was losing at.

“I think I will accept victory for that, then.” A smug smile in place, I grabbed the volume Joclyn had previously been looking over, scanning the words in feigned interest. Unfortunately, it took me a second too long to realize that the book was upside down.

Joclyn’s giggles broke free as I turned the book right side up. I still refused to look at her over the ancient type set.

“If victory required tasting my foot fungus, then you can have it.” With a flip of her hand, Joclyn leaned against the wall by my bed, staring into the darkened room, the lone lantern flickering away in the. Haunting shadows licked against the dark corners, making Thom look more corpse-like than usual.

Idly twisting and fiddling with the long, golden ribbon that was bound in her hair, she began to stretch her legs out again then thought better.

“Smart move. I will have you know, child, that it was worth the victory, foot fungus and all.” Closing the book, I met her gaze, smile for smile. I leaned back, as well, grateful for the residual chuckles that moved over me, joy swelling in my chest.

Joy was worth it, even if it did taste faintly of rotten fish and ocean sand. After all, joy came in unseen packages at times. You never knew what you were missing unless you took chances and opened every box.

It might have been an odd box that I had opened, but the rewards were great … if only for this moment of happiness. Dismal misery had dwelled in this room since Thom and I had been placed in here months ago, but it had lifted in the last few minutes.

Part of me wondered if he could feel it, too.

He lay there, surrounded by plants and pills, covered in bandages and salves. His skin looked grayer by the day, hair dirtier, eyes and lips fading to blue.