The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(73)

“We’ll keep looking. I can do a reading in the morning and see what I hear. I’ll focus to the north.”

“Only if you’re rested enough.”

“The one this morning took hardly anything out of me. I’m fine.”

Leo closed his eyes and inhaled her scent. She was soft touch and tenderness. She was rest.

“Sura found bones.” It slipped out without his thinking. He hadn’t meant to tell her.

Kyra tensed. “Children?”

“Yes. They didn’t have any women there. I think they were human bones, not kareshta.”

“We don’t leave bones,” Kyra said. “We’re like the Irina. We turn to dust.”

He clutched her tighter. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“Even the babies turn to dust,” she said under her breath. “Not very much. Just a dance in the air and they’re gone.”

Leo’s heart broke every time she talked about her past. “I thought Barak didn’t kill his children.”

“He didn’t, but others did. He had a rival who once raided the compound where Kostas and I were kept. His men killed most of the women and children there. Kostas and I stayed under the floorboards where one of our older brothers hid us. We were valuable.”

“But the others weren’t?”

“Not like us. There were children killed that day. Then I’m sure my older brothers retaliated. I’m sure some of them killed that Fallen’s children.” She stroked a hand through Leo’s hair. “It’s a very violent world. There is no softness in it.”

“You were in it.” He knit his fingers with hers.

“I had a brother who protected me,” Kyra said. “Kostas… he took the brunt of everything for me.”

Leo spoke past the tightness in his throat. “Then I owe him a debt I can never repay.”

“He won’t let you pay him back. He’ll tell you it was his duty to protect me.”

Leo paused. “Should we call him? Just to let him know you’re well?”

“I called Sirius on Sura’s phone. I don’t want Kostas to know where I am yet. He’d worry too much.” She laughed a little. “He treats me with kid gloves, but he’ll be happy for me. For us.”

“I hope so.”

“He will be,” Kyra said. “He always talked about my having a normal life. Especially after I met Ava and learned how to make the voices stop. He wanted that for me. To have a family. A home. A real home.”

“Is that what he wants for himself?”

“He doesn’t think he’ll live that long,” Kyra said. “And he doesn’t think he deserves it.”

“Love doesn’t work that way,” Leo said. “It’s a gift I hope he finds someday.”

Kyra leaned over and kissed his head a moment before Leo’s eyes shut. “I hope so too.”



“No.” She shook her head, her eyes closed. “I’m not getting any sign of Prija, but I can’t be certain. There are so many people. So many Grigori. Kareshta. It’s a huge compound, but I don’t feel anyone familiar.” A tear slipped from her eye.

“Kyra?” Leo put a hand on her shoulder. “Pull back.”

“There’s so much pain,” she whispered.

“Pull back!”

“They need to take them away from there. The children…”

She started to sob quietly, and Leo put both arms around her from behind. He embraced her hard and felt blood on his cheek. It was leaking from her right ear.

“Kyra, pull back.”

Her cries turned to moans and she began to shake. Leo raised his eyes to Sura in panic. He’d been able to pull Kyra out of her visions in the past, but she’d stretched so far, fallen so deeply, he could barely feel her. Her livah was stretched thin, nearly snapped away from her body.

Alyah strode over and put a hand on Kyra’s temple.

“Ya kazas!”

Kyra’s head fell to the side and she went limp.

“What did you do?” Leo yelled.

“She’ll be fine,” Alyah said. “I diverted her mind. The mental version of a hard, fast punch. She might feel sick when she wakes up, but she’ll be fine.”

Kyra began to retch, and Sura rushed over with a bucket. Her eyes were still closed and her body limp, but Leo held her hair back while she emptied her stomach of everything she’d eaten that morning. She didn’t wake through the episode, but when Leo laid her on their bed, her eyes flickered open.

“Leo?”

“Alyah pulled you back from the vision.”

“I felt trapped. There’s someone there… Grigori maybe. He sensed me. He knows I’m looking for someone. He tried to… hold me.”

“Was it the Fallen?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. It didn’t feel like…” She slipped away again.

Leo brought a chair over and sat by the bed, bucket and washcloth ready if she felt sick again. When he looked up, Vasu was sitting at the foot of the bed.

“Why are you here?” Leo asked.

Vasu was watching Kyra. “She was very… Dear isn’t the right word. Her father held her in high esteem, which was rare for him. He was very cynical.”