One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3)(84)

He paused, looking them over.

“If the inn had sprouted anywhere within a ten-mile radius of Gertrude Hunt, Gertrude Hunt’s magic would smother it. This inn would’ve felt the death of the seed and it would likely die itself and kill all of us within. She couldn’t let that happen. She took the seed out of Gertrude Hunt’s area, but once she’d done that, Dina was outside of her power zone.

“At the moment of its birth, the inn has only one objective: to find an innkeeper. That little inn on the cliff was weak and fragile, because it had been trapped in its shell too long, but its power was still greater than any of us could imagine. Dina couldn’t let it die. It’s the same instinct that would make a human dive into ice-cold water to save a drowning baby. The inn was terrified. It sought a bond, and Dina comforted it and bonded with it, because that’s who she is. She couldn’t let it suffer and die alone. The bond, as short as it was, was real. When the seed died, in that moment, on that cliff, she lived through the death of her inn. Innkeepers do not usually survive this. She knew it would happen. She sacrificed herself for our sake, for Gertrude Hunt, and for that little seed.”

“But she’s still alive,” Sean said.

“Technically, yes.”

“What do we do? There has to be something that can be done?” Arland demanded.

“There is nothing that can be done,” Tony said. “I’m so sorry.”

Above us, far within the inn, the corruption awoke within its prison. It smashed against the inside of the plastic tube, coated it, burrowed into it, and made a tiny crack. Gertrude Hunt screamed, but nobody heard it.

*

We lay in bed. He held me. His arm was around me. I couldn’t feel it.

“This is the part when you tell me, ‘Sean Evans, get out of my bed. You’re not invited.’”

I said nothing.

“I will stay here with you,” he said. “I’m not leaving. I’m not taking you to the Sanctuary.”

The darkness thickened, trying to block his voice, but I still heard him.

“I love you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I won’t let anyone take you away. You’re not alone. Just come back to me, love. Come home.”

*

Time had no meaning in darkness. The darkness was jealous. It pushed everything else out. Joy, anger, sadness. Life.

They brought me to the heart of the inn. I lay in the soft darkness, while around me the inn wept tears glowing with magic.

Maud was crying again. “Why isn’t she bonding?”

“Because her inn already died,” Tony said. “Right now you are the only thing keeping Gertrude Hunt from going dormant.”

“But she was only bonded to it for a minute.”

“It doesn’t matter. She’s beyond our reach. If Gertrude Hunt can’t reach her, nobody can.”

“I wish she never saw that fucking seed.”

“She couldn’t help it. No innkeeper would be able to resist a sprouting seed. It is who we are. We tend to the inns. That she saved Gertrude Hunt is a miracle.”

Maud growled like a vampire. “I hate this. Fucking Draziri. Fucking Assembly. She asked you for help and you did nothing. Nothing!”

“I’m so sorry,” Tony said.

The corruption slithered out of its prison, and dripped out, one molecule at a time.

Sean picked me up off the floor and carried me away.

*

“It’s a simple plan,” Sean said. “Simple plans are best. Tomorrow is New Year’s eve. Lots of noise, lots of fireworks. The perfect cover for us. We bring all the remaining parts of the Archivarius together at the same time. Arland and Lord Soren will get one, Tony, Wing and Wilmos will take the second, my parents volunteered to bring in the third, and I will get the fourth.”

“Alone?” Arland frowned.

“I’m taking Marais with me. We bring them all here at the same time and complete the Archivarius. The Hiru are on board. They know where all of the parts of the Archivarius are now.”

“The Draziri will pull out all the stops,” Tony said. “We’ll have a full-out assault.”

The corruption slithered closer.

“Let them,” my sister said. “Let them all come. I can’t wait.”

“It will be too much,” Gabriele said.

“Yes,” Corwin agreed.

“I’ll talk to our people,” Wilmos said.

“Will we still have Christmas?” Helen asked. She was sitting on the floor by my chair, hugging my leg.

It was suddenly quiet.

“Yes,” Sean said. “We will still have Christmas. It’s important to her. We will kill every Draziri, until there is nothing left but blood and bodies. And then we’ll have Christmas.”

The darkness around me grew a little thinner.

*

He never left me. He talked to me when I lay in bed with an IV and he lay beside me and held me. He talked to me when he carried me to the bathtub. He sat with me when the inn moved me downstairs during the day. He held me when Maud cried because it hurt her to look at me.

He told me he loved me. He joked. He read books to me. He held my hand.

The world hurt. There was no pain in the darkness. I wanted to stay wrapped in it, but he refused to let me go, always there, connecting me to the outside like a lifeline.