Perigee [bxb] | Bad Moon Book II

48; {Jaylin}: like death

Jaylin could smell so many things at once, it felt like he'd been knifed in the sinuses. Antiseptics, blood, metal, sweat—and the faintest waft of grilled meat somewhere in the building. The towel he'd been given was already caked in his blood, but he refused the shower they'd offered him. Not until he knew.

He'd sat in a silent hallway for nearly an hour, curling his toes against the linoleum. Occasionally, someone in a white suit would rush past with boxes of belongings in their arms, eager to finally leave this place and never come back. Sometimes they would stop to ask him if he needed anything. But mostly, Jaylin sat in the silence, listening to the soft whirring and muffled ticking of medical equipment in the room just to his right.

Mostly because the conversation in the room to the left was too much to register.

"I didn't mean to kill Qamar!" Sadie's voice had grown louder in the coming moments. Within that room was Devi, Acadia, Leo and someone Gunner referred to as Councilman Percy. Imani and Nicon and all of the other injured were brought to the same floor. Sometimes, when Jaylin focused, he could find Imani's heartbeat. It was one of the strongest. One of the easiest to find his ears. It was the hard click of a grandfather clock. The sleeping breath of a lion. He listened to it for his own sanity, until Sadie's muffled voice grew again.

"Explain then!" she was shouting. "I didn't touch Qamar. I swear, I didn't. You were all there; you all saw!"

"Alright, calm down." For the first time, Jaylin allowed himself to focus in on the conversation. Leo's voice was gruff, like he'd been holding a keg of air in his lungs. "Someone explain, she's givin' me a damn headache."

"As I told you, Qamar was to die when Ziya died," said Devi's distinct voice. "It's been written in the their history since the day they were born, child."

"Right, whatever," Sadie snapped. "Ziya gave Qamar her heart—I get it. But that didn't actually happen. That was just a story."

"The heart is a metaphor." This voice was old, the kind of old that shivered when breath ran thin. Councilman Percy let out a sigh through his nose—one so loud, Jaylin could hear it clear as day through the walls. "Ziya was on her death bed the day the twins were born," Percy said. "Complications during birth. Their mother called upon an elder witch and Ziya's life was threaded to Qamar by a single spell. But nothing—not even magic—comes for free. Qamar knew that killing her sister meant dying herself."

"How long have you known this?" Sadie asked.

"I was there," the old man said. "I was a councilman to Aisha long before her daughter. But this was critical information. Ziya kept matters like these top secret."

There was a clatter—the backrest of a chair, knocking against the wall.

"I don't understand," Sadie said, her voice more muffled now, like she was cradling her face in her hands. "Why does this make me Queen?"

"For centuries, Queen has been a title passed down by blood. Each time a queen has died, she's had an heir to take the throne from beneath her. Qamar and Ziya were too young for children. Werewolf law dictates that she—strictly she—who kills the queen earns her throne. Might just be my own humble opinion," Percy said, "but I've got the feeling whoever created that law never actually expected this would happen."

"But I'm not a wolf," Sadie challenged.

"It was never specified that you must be. She was all the law stated. She who kills the queen."

A deep laugh came from Devi. It'd been some time since Jaylin heard so much as a chuckle, and it sounded all wrong after such a long drought. "I suppose there are loopholes to everything. Even in this world."