Page 25 of Guardian of Exile
8
Nyx woke to stabbing rays of morning sunlight streaming through the window she’d never closed the curtains on. She flung her arm over her eyes. Alcohol was clearly the devil’s drink. Her head throbbed, her eyes were grainy, and she considered it a legit Dead Earth miracle she wasn’t nauseous.
Why had she thought getting drunk was a good idea? How much had she drank? And why was she sleeping in her jeans? She hated sleeping in her jeans. And her bra. Sleeping in a bra was only one step up from actual torture.
Fumbling for the clasp, she undid it, slid the straps down her arms, and pulled the whole thing out from under her shirt. She wanted her jeans off but didn’t quite have the energy yet to shimmy out of them. She did not remember coming to bed. Frowning, she tried to play back the previous night’s events. She remembered being the kind of near-manic jubilant that being tipsy sometimes made her, and subsequently deciding that more alcohol was definitely the answer, and…had she really decided a Lord of the Rings drinking game was the way to go?
Yes, yes she had. And she’d drunk significantly more than Kaden had because Aragorn wouldn’t stop being hot, while Kaden apparently did not find any of the elven women attractive. She couldn’t remember actually finishing the movie.
Hadn’t she fallen asleep on the couch? And why did the graininess of her eyes feel less like the result of an ill-advised night of indulgence and more like she’d been crying?
It came back to her in a cascade of broken pieces. Kaden picking her up. Physical contact making her heartsick. Wanting to feel anything, even if it was pain, and then—
Fuck.
What the hell was wrong with her? Why did she have to keep interrogating every single thing she didn’t understand? Thank the stars Kaden hadn’t answered her question. Thank them more he hadn’t stayed when she’d asked him to.
Seriously, what the fuck was wrong with her? She turned over to bury her face in the pillows and rolled onto something hard and metallic.
I did warn you that you were making poor decisions.
She groaned. How had Alihana gotten into bed with her?
It was rude of you to leave me behind on the counter.
“You don’t even like being around me,” she grumbled.
Can you blame me? Now arise. Let us find this Shaman so you may fulfill your promises.
“Yeah, ‘arising’ is unlikely right now.” She felt like shit.
Your friend has left you rejuvenating items.
Evra had left her what? She cracked one eye open, spying a red sports drink and a small pill bottle on the nightstand. Summoning all her strength of will, she retrieved both. A cursory inspection of the bottle label proved it to be generic naproxen sodium. After wrestling with the child-safe lid, and then the foil seal that proved it hadn’t been previously opened, she tapped out two blue oval pills and swallowed them.
How had Evra even known she preferred naproxen to ibuprofen? Maybe it was all they’d had in the hotel lobby shop? No mystery how the Amazon had known she was trashed, though. Alihana had probably taken great delight in relaying that.
An hour later, having successfully kept the sports drink down, showered, and found clean clothing, Nyx braced herself to emerge from the room. She tried to put the events of last night into perspective. How bad was it really? She’d been drunk, and nobody ever trusted what you said when you were drunk, right? Also Kaden been drunk, so maybe he didn’t even remember? Maybe she could pretend she didn’t remember?
Deciding on the last one, she sucked in a breath and opened the door. Evra lounged on the couch, flipping through a magazine. She looked up when the door opened. “You are awake. Wonderful. We may go.” She stood, tossing the magazine onto the couch.
“Go where?” Nyx asked. Hopefully not right to work. “And where is everyone?”
“Kaden woke early and left a note that he had gone to resume tracking. When Morgen and I woke and found it, Morgen was annoyed Kaden left without him and went to find him. I have been waiting for you to wake so that we may have breakfast. I am starving. We may go now, yes?”
“Sure.” Food sounded both wonderful and terrible. It was either going to fix everything that was wrong with her, or make her throw up. She held up the empty sports drink bottle. “Thanks for this, by the way. And for bringing Alihana in. Whatever they told you, I was not that drunk.”
Evra’s brows drew together in a frown, her gaze sweeping over Nyx, landing first on the empty bottle, like she’d never seen it before, then on Alihana. Then her expression cleared, and she said only, “Of course.”
After the best and greasiest breakfast in Nyx’s recent memory, she felt almost completely human again, or at least enough that the idea of walking miles through the city didn’t sound like a herculean task. How Evra was vertical and—for Evra—chipper, Nyx had no idea, since she and Morgen had apparently come in around three in the morning and woken at seven. Nyx chose to chalk it up to Scythian biology and let Evra lead the way from the diner.
As they walked, Nyx found her gaze sliding to every stranger they passed. Evra’s suggestion that Nyx should have a hookup had seemed absurd when she’d made it, but after the disaster of last night, Nyx couldn’t deny that maybe she should take it. Maybe she needed something, even if only for a moment.
But no matter how many people she passed, she couldn’t imagine sleeping with any of them. Couldn’t imagine finding anything she wanted in any of them. She needed a connection, however tenuous, to be that intimate with someone. It was no doubt why she’d drunkenly wanted Kaden. Because she had that connection with him, even if it was littered with a metric ton of baggage.
“You are thinking entirely too much,” Evra said. “What on?”
The word nothing had never come out of Nyx’s mouth so fast in her life. Evra made a skeptical noise in response, but fortunately didn’t press for further answers. She just kept walking. Nyx kept following without asking where they were going. For one, because she was still deeply hung over, and for another because “canvassing the streets” was Evra’s area of expertise.
