Vérzavar Ház

Chapter 17: Not Enough

Even if Danaan had been freaked out by her, Hunt had seen and dealt with Lidia Cervos enough to know which buttons to push. Which to avoid. And that if he got her away from Mordoc, from Pollux, from her entire dreadwolf retinue, he'd leave her in smoking ruin. Fancy that–she was alone right now.

-House of Sky and Breath, pg. 399

She was dreaming. That much was certain.

And that was odd. She didn't think one could dream when they were dead. And she was definitely dead. Lidia had said her goodbyes, and had closed her eyes with some measure of peace. And yet...

She turned to the left and the right, finding herself in a moonlit clearing in the middle of a wood. It reminded her of the grove of olive trees where she used to run when she needed to clear her mind. Or even the forest that had shaded the small cabin that her father had banished her to when she was a child. She would run there, too - letting her feet pound the earth and the Gods see her tears.

Before her now was a great beast, golden fur shining pale butter yellow under the moon. Her great fangs and hooked claws glowed like the stars, but it was the creature's eyes that caught her by surprise. Bright, shimmering pools of liquid gold. They reminded her of her own, before the world had broken her.

The monster lay unmoving on the ground. Was she injured? Was she tired? Lidia could understand - she was exhausted, as well. She had given everything, up until that final moment. There was nothing left. But even as the scene around her seemed to fade, shadows falling and swathing her in blackness, those two glittering orbs remained. Wide and beseeching. And she faintly heard a whisper as she fell into nothingness.

Just hold on.

Lidia woke with a start. Her body ached, especially her leg and her back, and she wasn't sure if she had the strength to lift herself up off the bed. Blinking away the blur of sleep, her eyes darted around the space. It appeared to be a hospital room, or a medical space of some kind. The low hum of machinery and the consistent beep of a heart monitor seemed to support that conclusion. But nobody was there with her, and there was no indication of where this medical bay was.

Her lungs seized, squeezed by fingers of panic. Had she been found? Kept alive for the Asteri, just so they could torture her secrets from her lips? The monitor next to her bed echoed her rising heart rate, a metronome of dread.

There was a hiss, and she turned her gaze toward the door with a held breath. But the person who walked through the door was not Mordoc, nor a dreadwolf, nor Rigelus himself.

Ruhn Danaan, Crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae, stepped over the threshold. He wasn't smiling, but his expression was not one of panic or alarm. It was... calm. Unbothered. He was not restrained in any way, and appeared to be clean and clothed in new pants and a comfortable shirt. The shifter's brows furrowed as her confusion grew.

"How are you feeling?"

In spite of how they'd left things, those were not the first words she'd expected to hear from him.

"I... I don't understand." Gods, she sounded like a human who had smoked cigars for thirty years. Her eyes tracked every graceful movement he made, until he fell into the chair next to her cot with a wry smile. She allowed herself a moment to appreciate how handsome he was, how fortunate she was to have the opportunity to look upon his chiseled features again.

"I couldn't leave you there," he murmured, and she cursed the medical equipment for betraying the way her heart stuttered. "I found you and we got out. We're in the Depth Charger now, headed back to Lunathion." The shifter marveled at the revelations, turning her wide eyes to stare numbly at the ceiling. Not only was she still alive, but she was headed to the Crescent City - not as the Hind, but as Agent Daybright. Lidia Cervos. And she was free.