And for the first time in a long time, neither was I.
“One of my people is injured,” the creature told me. “Will you let us help him?”
The request was quiet, measured, calm. The blinding energy of a moment ago was gone, drawing back inside him. He looked like a fey, I realized.
He wasn’t one.
But he wasn’t attacking, either, and he’d drawn his power down. I hesitated, feeling strangely off-balance. He wasn’t even looking at me now, but at something behind me, near the door to the outside.
Where a fey lay on the floor, I realized, arching up in pain and screaming.
I didn’t know why. There were no wounds of consequence on this one. He seemed to be—
And then I understood, when something hit me, too, like a wave of acid.
* * *
—
It hurt—God, it hurt—like nothing I’d ever felt before. And that was saying something, I thought, staggering against the counter. Caedmon was there, grabbing me before I hit the floor, holding on while I writhed and screamed. I wasn’t usually the screaming type; I’d trained myself out of it years ago, because it doesn’t up your chances of survival if you broadcast to the enemy both the fact that you’re wounded and exactly where you are.
But this time, I couldn’t seem to stop.
And then it cut out, as abruptly as it had come, leaving me panting and bent over. And then straightening up and staring wildly about, knife in hand. But all I saw were confused-looking fey.
“Dory?” Caedmon said carefully, concern in his voice, because yeah. I was acting crazy.
With good reason, I thought, still trying to spot the attacker.
Because there was one. Something the fey had missed. Something I had missed.
“Someone’s here,” I heard myself say, and it was my voice, but lower, deadlier, almost unrecognizable. I saw a nearby guard’s eye twitch, ’cause yeah. Not bored anymore, huh?
Neither was I.
“Dory.” That was Claire, getting up from where she’d been kneeling by a fey. Soini, I thought, recognizing the baby fey, who didn’t look like he was enjoying his vacation, all of a sudden. He was white-faced and panting, and looking like I felt. For a moment, we just stared at each other.
And then Claire was touching my arm, and the cool feel of her power was swamping me, trying to soothe, to help—
“No!” I jerked back. That wasn’t the kind of help I needed.
* * *
—
I flinched, suddenly back in control, but I hadn’t been for a moment. I knew that, even though it felt like no time had passed, because there was a knife in my hand, and I was suddenly in a different position. It was disconcerting, confusing. I took control and kept it until the job was done. I didn’t slip like that; I never slipped!
My back hit the counter and I snarled, my eyes flicking around the room, trying to assess the threat. But for the first time in memory, I couldn’t do it. Not for all of the ones right in front of me, the ones I could see.
Much
less the one I couldn’t.
The one that was sending waves of excruciating pain that were causing my brain to malfunction. Or to switch consciousnesses in a desperate attempt to ward it off, I realized. Flipping between me and my twin whenever one of us became overwhelmed.
Which was happening every few minutes now, and I didn’t even know what I was fighting!
“Dory—”