Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (35 page)

Room 301.

My stomach churned.

Room 308.

Cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

Finally, we stood in front of the room at the end of the hall.
 

319.

My hand rested on the handle.

“Kendra?”
 

I felt the weight of Julian’s gaze on me.
 

My feet twitched.

A soft weight on my shoulder.

“Do you want me to check?” Cam asked.

“No.” My voice was calm. “This is the last one.”

Just do it.

I opened the door.

Like the other rooms, abandonment greeted us.

But there was something more here. The strong stench of sweat and blood and sewage.

Julian grunted and Cam brought his shirt up to cover his nose.

I took short, shallow breaths through my mouth and walked in.
 

My flashlight skirted around the room, avoiding the open closet. A bead of sweat dripped down my temple.

Clear.

Cautious, I stepped inside the bathroom, Julian and Cam at my back. The smell of urine and feces was overpowering.

The air shifted.
 

I jerked my arm up. Light pierced the bathroom’s darkness.
 

A shirtless figure huddled in the bathtub, facing the corner with his back to us. The curve of his rib cage and the ridge of every bone in his spine jutted against his pale skin.

His sides and back bled a criss-cross of pus and blood. Angry scabs and sores marked his arms.
 

“Hello,” Julian said.

The figure didn’t move. A shock of dark hair fell forward, obscuring his face.

I raised the flashlight to get a better look and something winked in his ear.

A diamond.

Horror shook me. “Ian.”

Cam swore. “What happened to him?”

I didn’t know. But the marks on his arms were jagged and uneven, deep scratches gouged into the skin.

These wounds were self-inflicted, scabs he’d picked at over and over again.

My chest tightened so much it hurt to breathe.

I stepped forward. “Ian —“

He whipped around, a gaunt silhouette slicing through the dark.
 

I froze, instinct rearing up.

Suddenly, there was only remembered pain, the snap of breaking bone and the sharp, unforgettable scent of my blood.
 

In that moment, I wanted to kill him, inflict punishment on the being who’d done that to me.

But that person was Ian.
 

My friend whose torture at the hands of the Shadow had far exceeded anything he’d done to me.

Ian who sat with me when no one else would.

I forced my fingers to release my dagger.

“Let’s go, Irisavie.” Cam’s voice was tight. “We can’t take him.”

“I’m not leaving him.”

“Look at him! We can’t bring —“

“Cam. If you don’t want me to hurt you, shut the hell up,” I snapped.

“But —“

“He’s coming with us,” Julian said.

A long pause.

“This is a mistake,” Cam muttered.

But he made no move to intervene.

“Ian,” I repeated.

He lifted his head and met my gaze. Lost misery carved into his face, the look of someone who didn’t know how he’d gotten here.

“I’m scared,” he said simply.

I nodded. I couldn’t tell if he recognized me or where he was.

I forced myself to take a step forward.

Another.
 

I raised my hands in front of me and spoke quietly with no sudden movements.

“I know you’re scared. But we have to leave now.”

“Can’t get it out.” His lips tightened with desperate frustration. He picked the skin on his left forearm. A scab ripped off and fresh blood leaked from the wound. “Need to get it out.”

“Ian. We have to go now.”

He stopped scratching and looked at me.

I reached for him.

He jerked away.
 

“Can’t.” He huddled against the far end of the tub. His head drooped.

My fingers touched his hand, a small patch of skin unmarked by sores, scabs, or scratches.
 

What happened to you
?

Julian shifted closer. “Is he alive?”
 

I spoke past the lump in my throat. “He’s burning up.” His skin was hot against my hand. “Help me.”

Julian pulled out an extra flannel shirt from his pack. We gently dressed him, covering up the horrific mess of wounds.
 

I leaned into the tub and wound my arms around Ian’s chest. Julian and Cam wedged into the narrow space between the tub and the wall and lifted him from behind.
 

Ian shifted and mumbled under his breath. “Have to get it out. Have to…”

Once we raised him up, I sat on the tub’s edge. “I’ll carry him.”

Julian and Cam wrapped his arms around my neck. I hoisted him out of the tub and carried him on my back.

He was so light, so fragile, it was almost as if he were no longer real.

Ian’s voice brushed against my neck, soft, tired. “I have to get it out.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I’ll help you get it out.”

He sighed, a mere vibration against my hair. “Leave, Kendra.”

Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how afraid I was that he’d never know me again.

How very much I wanted Ian to see it was me.

“Never.” My fingers tightened around his scabbed hands. “I’m taking you home.”

TWENTY-TWO

By the time we hiked down the few miles to the lake, the sun was beginning its final descent to the horizon. A chilly wind set in from the west and the temperature was dropping fast.

“Here,” Julian finally said.

He stopped at the tree line bordering the south edge of the lake and lowered his backpack. His
kouperet
, tucked into a side pocket, cast a soft glow in the night.

It was an ideal location to rest overnight.

Julian prepared a fire while Cam took off into the woods to find us something to eat.

Exhausted, I carefully propped Ian against a tree. His eyes remained closed, his gaunt face slack.

I stood, muscles aching in protest.
 

Julian glanced up. “You should’ve let me carry him.”

I settled across from him. “It’s better if I do it.”

I didn’t explain further and he didn’t ask.

Julian and Cam didn’t know what Ian had done. What he’d become.

Telling them why they needed to be cautious around him was an explanation I wasn’t ready to provide.

Kindling smoldered then sparked. The flames cast long shadows across Julian’s unreadable expression.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. You?”

He didn’t answer for a few moments and I realized what a silly question it was.

None of us were okay.

“Bastien just took us there,” he finally said. “To the pool house. Didn’t touch us. Said you’d be showing up in a few days.”

That’s why they’d been expecting me.
 

I cleared my throat. “He let us go.”

A pause. “Figured.”

His voice was so soft, it was nearly lost in the crackle of the fire.

The only reason you leave is because I allowed you to.

Bastien ensured our freedom was more disquieting than our imprisonment.
 

The trees rustled and Cam emerged, carrying a rabbit in his hand.
 

“Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“Something I did as a kid.” His voice was subdued.
 

He sat and cleaned the rabbit with his
kouperet
, his movements sure and efficient.
 

I glanced up. The GrandView’s turrets spiraled up into the night sky, the former glory and beauty of the architecture still .

It wasn’t until you stepped inside that you smelled the rot devouring the ghosts of the past.

Maybe Cam’s resistance to natural settings also had more to do with the people who’d tainted it, rather than the places themselves.

Within a few minutes, the scent of freshly cooked meat saturated the night air.

We didn’t talk, just satiated our hunger until all that remained were bones picked clean.

A soft moan came from behind me.

“No….no….” Ian shifted restlessly against the tree, his face drawn and wan.

“Fever’s not breaking?” Julian asked.

I shook my head and headed over to check on him. My Virtue had strengthened and I lightly used its power to assess his state.
 

After days of suppression, Empath stuttered and jittered in my veins like an engine sputtering to life.
 

Ian’s insides were a tangled mess of confusion, panic, fear, and pain.

But I didn’t know what was wrong so I couldn’t fix it.
 

I cupped his cheek. “He’s still hot. We need to get more water and food in—“

His eyes opened. “Kendra.”

Startled, I drew my hand back.
 

He sat up, panic seizing his body.

“It’s okay. You’re safe —“

“Still inside.” He violently scratched his arms. “It’s inside!”

I tried to grab his arms. “Stop, Ian, you can’t —“

His voice rose, high and trembling. “Scabbard put it in!”

The injection our first day at the GrandView. Was that liquid doing this?
 

He squirmed, slamming his shoulder against the tree trunk. I tightened my fingers around his arms. “I have to get it out!”

He shoved.

I stumbled back.
 

Ian loomed above me, eyes wild and desperate. Fear pounded through my blood, my insides cringing at remembered blows, the Ian I knew and the Ian of 319 layered on top of each other.

He stumbled toward the fire. Julian was already on his feet.

“What are you —“

He grabbed Julian’s
kouperet
from his backpack.

Fear shattered. “No!”

I lunged but it was too late.

Ian plunged the blade into himself.

I froze in mid-step.

The ivory handle protruded from his stomach.
 

A dark stain slowly spread across his shirt.
 

Shock rattled my bones.

Ian tilted his head, silvery moonlight illuminating the confusion and pain warring on his face.
 

“I need to get it out,” he told me.

The world snapped back.

Cam grabbed Ian from behind, locking his upper body in place. “Julian!”

Ian panicked at the restraint. He struggled, wide, terrified eyes locked on me. “Help me!”

My chest felt as if it were being ripped in two. “I am.”
 

Julian carefully grasped the
kouperet’s
handle and looked at Cam. “Hold him.”

Cam nodded, his face pale.

“Please,” Ian pleaded.

I felt like crying. “Hang on.”

Julian yanked. Crimson blood dripped off the tip of his
kouperet
.

Ian howled and reared up.

Cam tumbled back and crashed into the ground, Ian landing hard on top of him.
 

The wound in Ian’s gut looked vicious, a messy, angry breach into his flesh.

Blood leaked and pooled onto the ground.

I ran to my pack, pulled out a long-sleeve shirt, and tore off a long strip. I wadded up the material and placed it flush against the wound. Julian tore the sleeve off one of his shirts and wrapped the makeshift bandage tight around Ian’s stomach.

“Kendra?” Terror darkened Ian’s eyes.

I tried to smile. “You’re okay now.”

“Did it…Did you get it out?”

I brushed a lock of hair off his forehead. The fever was still raging. “Yeah, it’s out.”

“Good.”

His eyes closed.

Cam slowly eased him off his chest. “What the hell just happened?”

“Help me get him warm.”

Julian and Cam carefully carried Ian over to the fire.

As the wound continued to bleed, his body would go into shock. Like selkies, nixes had self-healing powers. But Ian had used a
kouperet
and I wasn’t sure what the effect would be. The scabs on his body already indicated his nix healing was no longer functioning as it should.

My stomach twisted. There was nothing else to do but wait and see.

Using the rabbit carcass and a bottle of water, I made a mild broth in a small pot.
 

He was awake. I brought the broth to his lips and he placidly took a sip.

Dark eyes stared up at me, lucid and aware.

“I hurt you.”

Cam froze, his gaze darting between me and Ian.
 

Julian carefully wiped Ian’s blood off his
kouperet
.
 

“Come on.” I brought the pot back to his mouth. “You need to get more of this in you.”

“What did he just say?” Cam asked.

“He’s hallucinating.” I wiped away the liquid dribbling from the corner of his mouth. “He has a raging fever.”

“Kendra.” Ian’s voice was raw and throaty.
 
“I didn’t mean to hurt…don’t understand.” A fit of coughing cut him off. “What’s inside…what made me. I hurt you so much.”

Cam partially stood. “What the —“

“Sit your ass down, Martin,” I said sharply.
 

“But —“

“Ian protected me until the end. Do you understand?”

That was the only truth leaving this mountain.
 

He stared at me. “Was he the one who beat you?”
 

I held his gaze. “The person who did that no longer exists.”

Silence stretched. A fierce scowl settled across his face.

I shifted closer to Ian in a protective gesture.
 

“Cam,” Julian said quietly.

Without taking his gaze off me, Cam slowly sat.

Julian turned his attention back to his
kouperet
.

Ian gave another cough, feebler this time. I carefully poured a few drops of water on his parched lips.

We were all strained to our physical limits and tomorrow we had another half day’s hike to reach the nearest town.

I had to keep them alive.

“You should get some sleep while you can.”