Page 25 of Horns & Heart
Chapter10
“Are you fucking shitting me?”Vergis threw up his hands.“You went from runaway mate to gold digger pretty damn fast, human.”
“You cannot blame a hangu for—” Nokim began, but Vergis snarled in a way that made me break out in goose bumps.
“He’s not a hangu, in any sense of the word.All human fetuses start out on the female blueprint, so they all have nipples, that’s it.Trust me, this dude is no more a hangu than I’m a horse.”
Vergis wasn’t even shouting.He was saying it calmly, but with a sort of icy precision to his words, every syllable carefully controlled and neatly intoned.It was scarier than if he’d been shouting.He added something in their language that sounded just as hostile, just as precisely venomous.
Fellisse grunted.“We have learned that Rory is a magical conduit, that other humans have used him to craft a spell, that the human anatomy never ceases to gift us yet more mysteries, and that our mage wishes to investigate this spell even if the conduit does not.I have two questions for you, Vergis.First, why do you want to investigate this, and second, is it likely that whoever cast the spell might have more use of this conduit yet?”
Those were more words than Fellisse had spoken altogether since I’d gotten here, and I felt stupid now for underestimating him.I’d thought Lissir was the smart one in the group—he was back to looking at me like I was a puzzle he needed to solve—while I had underestimated the biggest of the bunch.
Nokim set down his tray and respectfully held out a mug to Vergis.Vergis ignored him.Lissir got up, took the mug Nokim was holding out instead, and walked back to the mattresses where he once more sat next to me.
“Active conduits aren’t as practical to keep around as passive ones,” Vergis said.“But I’d want to keep any conduit regardless.We’re going back to the Stone because we need to know what they did and whether anyone helped them.I’ll be able to analyze the magic there.”
Inkiri cursed, and I felt him stiffen.“You’re thinking someone from Aër might have done this.You think they know there are mages among humans while magic is dying back home.You think our people want to take the magic from these human mages.”
“I think some of Aër’s inbred so-called high mages might come over and that it would ruin the place.”Vergis looked back at me.“You can stop making googly eyes at your love-besotted Raikenga.He has a brain, you know.”
“I wasn’t—excuse me?”I blushed.I hated that Vergis had that effect on me, and not in any kind of sexy way.
Fellisse growled and looked at me.“Rory, did anyone try capturing you that day at the Stone?Or after?”
“What?Back then, uhm… It was chaos.So many people simply vanished, you know?There was a whole group of school children there, and I remember the screams and the panic.”The group had significantly shrunk all of a sudden.Actually, before they’d panicked, everything had gone deadly silent.“I just sort of wandered off.”I didn’t want to say that I’d actually had trouble piecing those specific events—the ones directly after I’d said my wish out loud—together later on.It was a blur, the kind of thing people talk about after a traumatic experience, which it totally had been.One thing I remembered very clearly though.“There was a sort of flat brown monster there that… It attacked some people just outside the gift shop, and…you know.It was bad, and I’d never seen anything like that.What it did—eating, but… It was bad.The screams were the worst.There—one woman, she… It ate her feet first.”
After that, I’d run.I’d hidden.I hadn’t slept in the same bed twice for at least two months out of fear, scouring the internet in the hopes that the nightmare would end soon, that the government would do something and fix it.But it had never ended, and no one had come up with any idea of how to fix it.
Inkiri rubbed my arm.“It’s fine, sweet thing.You’re safe now.I told you that, remember?”
I wanted to trust him, but I’d seen so much blood.Inkiri whisked the mug from my hands, and only then did I realize I was shaking.On my other side, Lissir clicked soothingly and took my hand in his.My mouth was going dry.Why was this happening?My skin was tingling, and my chest was too tight for my pounding heart.
“He’s chilly,” Lissir said.
My vision was darkening, and I felt dizzy, weak.Like I was about to die.
Inkiri clicked at me, the low noises now actually soothing.He kissed my neck, then pulled back.My body didn’t feel right.Fear made my arms and legs heavy, and I just wanted to curl up into a ball.
They talked in their language.It was easy to just close my eyes and shut all that out.Lissir stroked my head and neck and kept holding my hand while Inkiri pulled me against him.I was effectively the juicy human filling in a monster sandwich.
Vergis stormed out at some point.Well, he turned into a shadow that passed through the room silently and out the same glass sliding door through which I’d first entered the house.
After an indeterminate amount of time, I found myself huddled between Inkiri’s legs, which he had pulled up onto the mattress.They were still talking in low voices.My head was pressed against his chest though, and his steady heartbeat drowned out most of the rest of the world.
I took a shaky but deep breath.“What language do you guys speak?”
Inkiri paused his clicking to bend over me and wipe at my cheeks.“Lugarra, sweet thing.Our language.”
“Not everyone’s language.”Lissir had the tone of voice of someone repeating himself over and over.“You didn’t fake that, did you?”
I shook my head.“No.”
Fellisse hissed.“He really is frail.”
I glanced over at the big monster.It didn’t seem as if he was criticizing me, he was likely just voicing a fact.Maybe this was all a cultural thing to begin with.I wasn’t sure I was a good ambassador for humans, but here I was.Being frail.
“I think humans are adorable.”Nokim held my honeyed coffee out to me.“Here.I used the microwave on this.”He narrowed his cat eyes at Inkiri.“Your mate call definitely draws you to him?”
