Yield the Night (12 page)

Lyre had returned an hour ago, unable to procure any information on the Head Consul’s whereabouts. Her father and the Board of Directors had gone to ground in case unknown terrorists were targeting them. Piper figured the simplest solution was to find the nearest intact Consulate and announce her non-death to the local Consuls. Surely one of them could track down the Head Consul. Ash and Lyre both thought that was too dangerous; not only were the Gaians probably still looking for her, but Samael’s spies would be everywhere in the city by now.

That meant she was stuck here until Lyre and Ash could unearth the information they needed. And
that
meant days stuck in the tiny apartment with Seiya. Seiya was in an even worse temper thanks to the continued interaction between Piper and her brother, and because Ash was taking risks for Piper again, exposing his location to the same Hades spies he wanted to keep her away from.

“Soooo,” Lyre said, “will you two be okay this evening while Ash and I do some digging?”

“I should go with Ash,” Seiya said. “You can stay here with Piper.”

“Lyre has contacts he can tap,” Ash said, frowning at his sister. “And you’re better suited to getting Piper out of here if the apartment is attacked.”

Piper snorted, not because Seiya wasn’t capable, but because the girl was more likely to leave Piper to her fate and skip off to join her brother.

Ash and Lyre stared at her then looked at each other.

“Uh,” Lyre tried again. “Can we talk about the problem here?”

“No,” Piper and Seiya snapped in unison.

He stepped back. “Okay then.” He looked at Ash for help but Ash just shrugged.

Her head throbbed. She pressed a hand to her forehead and stared at her sandwich, fighting nausea. Ugh. She closed her eyes as the pain intensified and expanded inside her head, an unbearable pressure that felt as though her skull was about to burst.

“Piper?”

Lyre touched her elbow, concern in his voice. She realized she was squeezing her head between her hands.

“It’s just a headache,” she said, a little breathless. An agonizing headache.

“Are you injured?” he asked, tugging gently at her wrist. “Let me see.”

“I’m fine.” The pain felt as if it were crushing her. “I just need to lie down.”

“Piper—”

“I’m fine.”

She tried to lower her arms but the agony swelled. She clutched her head and groaned. Ash stepped closer until they were both in front of her, filling her view. Too close. She couldn’t quite catch her breath.

“I—I need space. I need to lie down.”

Lyre took her wrist again, trying to pry her hand off her head. “Piper, something’s wrong, let us help you—”

She couldn’t breathe. She needed air. She needed space. The pain was like a steel band around her skull, around her chest, suffocating her. They were too close. Why wouldn’t they give her space?

“Piper, let me see—”

“No, get
back!
” she yelled, letting go of her head to shove them away.

A crack like the sound of thunder.

Lyre and Ash flew back as if they’d been hit by a truck. Ash barely managed to catch himself, skidding gracelessly, but Lyre crashed into the kitchen table. One of the chairs broke under him as he fell.

Piper froze in place, staring at them. They stared back at her, two sets of pitch black eyes. After a moment, she slowly lifted her hands to look at them.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“Magic,” Ash replied, his dark voice shivering through her.

Panic simmered in her gut. “But ... but it didn’t work. Helaine didn’t break the seal.”

“It looks like she did,” Ash said.

Piper shook her head stubbornly. “No. That wasn’t me. I don’t have magic.”

The forced calm in his voice wasn’t enough to hide his dread. “You do now.”

CHAPTER 9

P
IPER
sat on the sofa with Zwi in her lap, staring at nothing. The irony was painful. The one thing she’d always wanted she now had—and wished more than anything that she didn’t.

The headache was starting again, the pain of the conflicting magic inside her. She knew what to expect. She’d been through it as a child. The headaches would gradually begin, coming and going like an ever-increasing tide, growing worse and worse. Migraines would intensify to the point of nausea and seizures. That’s when her parents had found the daemon healer who had sealed her magic, though she couldn’t remember it; the daemon had blurred her memories at her father’s request.

The rest she knew from stories about haemon children who’d died from the same affliction. The seizures would become more frequent and more violent. Eventually, the most terrible seizure would grip the child, and once it ended, she would be brain-dead. Death followed shortly after.

Piper cuddled Zwi closer, shivering. She had three options. One, she could do nothing, wait, and see what happened. Maybe she would be fine like the three hybrid women her mother had discovered. The headaches, however, suggested otherwise.

Two, she could return to Mona and search her records on those women in the hope of finding a clue as to how they’d survived their magic. But that involved putting herself at the mercy of the Gaians. She could deal with that, but the chances of finding any useful information were slim. The chances of finding useful information
in time
were even slimmer.

Or three, she could find a daemon healer to reseal her magic. She didn’t know who had sealed it the first time or how to find a daemon with that kind of specialized skill; it wasn’t the sort of thing any old daemon could do. She didn’t even know if it was possible to reseal her magic now that it was free. Ash and Lyre were currently out in the city, searching for information on her father’s whereabouts. If they could find Quinn, they could get the name of the daemon healer who’d saved her life the first time.

She lifted a hand and stared at it. Magic. There was magic inside her. She’d craved it for so long. Her first urge was to experiment with it while she had it but Ash and Lyre had warned her not to. Using magic was like working out a muscle, and the last thing she wanted was to make her magic stronger.

Sighing, she dropped her hand and watched Seiya cross the room with an armful of clothes. She listened as the draconian girl rustled in the bedroom. She reappeared, heading back to the first room. Piper briefly considered asking Seiya about Ash’s control issue. She must have noticed it too, and Piper had no idea how to raise the topic with Ash.

But no, she didn’t want to give Seiya another reason to be an overprotective jerk. As she watched the girl, resentment surged inside her.

“Why did you do it?” she burst out before she could stop herself.

Seiya paused on her way by. “Do what?”

Piper instantly regretted the question. “Why did you save me from Samael? You were almost killed.”

Seiya assessed Piper coolly. “There’s only one person I’m willing to risk my life for.”

Piper narrowed her eyes. Ah, of course. Seiya had done it for Ash. If she hadn’t charged in to save Piper, Ash would have done it instead, and he’d been in no condition for that.

“I’m not self-sacrificing like my brother,” Seiya continued, coming over to the sofa. “I’m not noble or brave. I want to survive, and I want my brother to survive.” She lifted the lock of her hair with a red silk ribbon woven into it. “Do you know why I wear this?”

Piper shrugged. “It’s a symbol of your promise to Ash that the two of you would be free someday.”

“No.
Ash’s
was the symbol of his promise to free us. Mine represents a different promise.” She stroked the ribbon. “It’s a draconian tradition to wear visible symbols of promises from our hearts. Like humans wear wedding bands in some cultures.”

Piper had thought it was just a thing between the two of them, not a part of their culture. Did it bother Seiya that Ash now wore a symbol of his promise to Piper instead?

“So what was your promise?”

“To be strong enough that Ash would never have to bleed for me again.” Her eyes went distant and her voice turned husky. “He told you about our first escape attempt, didn’t he? I will never forget that night. We would have escaped if I’d been stronger. But I was weak. And Ash—”

She closed her eyes. “You can’t imagine what it feels like to hold your dying brother in your arms, knowing it’s your fault. Because you were too slow, too weak, and he had to take a stupid risk to save you.”

She opened her eyes, her blue irises dark and hard as steel. “I almost lost him that night. If Vejovis hadn’t happened upon us, my brother would have died there—because of me. So I swore that I would not take our second chance for granted. I swore Ash would never bleed for me again. I would become strong enough to protect myself, so he would never have to take a stupid risk for me again.”

Piper stared, caught up in the steely determination in Seiya’s eyes. After a moment, she frowned. “How did you get so strong when you were locked away for years?”

“I trained every day from that point onward,” Seiya said. “I learned from the other draconians—I wasn’t always locked away by myself—and most of what I know I was taught by Raum. I know more lethal spells than recipes. Ash trusts me to protect myself.”

Her eyes went cold again. “But just when I thought there would never again be a reason for him to jeopardize his life to protect someone weak and vulnerable, you show up. And suddenly Ash is taking risks to keep you safe.”

“I didn’t
ask
the Gaians to unseal my magic—”

“And yet here we are.”

“You’re awfully worried about him considering he’s one of the most powerful daemons alive.”

Seiya’s expression turned from cold to subzero arctic. “There’s nothing more dangerous than trying to compensate for a weak link. I don’t think you understand that.”

“Of course I understand that.”

“Really? But you don’t think he’s in danger while protecting you? Are you saying he’s never been hurt in a fight because of your presence?”

Piper opened her mouth but her voice died in her throat. Shortly after they’d gone on the run with the Sahar, Hades assassins had ambushed Ash in a medical center. When he’d tried to stop one of them from going after Piper, the second one had gored him. He’d nearly died. Had he not been worried about her, he could have made it out okay. And she didn’t even want to think about Samael using her as a puppet to stab Ash with a poisoned knife.

Seeing her point hit home, Seiya flicked her ponytail off her shoulder. “Look, we’ll get your magic sealed and then we’ll get you back to your father where you’ll be safe. And then we can all go back to worrying about our
own
survival.”

Piper pressed her lips together. Her chest ached. That was about right, wasn’t it? The strong, wise daemons would solve her problems and dump her back on some capable adults to keep her safe. It was starting to look like the only ones who wanted her around were the Gaians.

Something tickled her memory. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she stared at the wall across from her. Right. Survival. Seiya’s remark reminded Piper of a comment Vejovis had made when he’d visited her cell in Asphodel. He’d admitted to almost killing her so Samael couldn’t use her to wield the Sahar, “despite the effort I’ve invested in your survival,” he’d said.

Despite the effort.
She hadn’t given it any thought at the time, having been more concerned with other things. But now that she thought about it, up to that point, he hadn’t invested any effort into her survival. He’d never healed her. He hadn’t taken any risks for her aside from sneaking down to her cell. Yes, he’d healed Ash, but not her. So what effort had he been referring to?

“How much of a coincidence do you think it is,” she asked slowly, “that Vejovis has shown up
twice
to save the day at places where I’ve been?”

Seiya leaned back, caught off guard. “What do you mean?”

“Vejovis is a legend, isn’t he? Most people never meet him even once. No one knows where he lives or where he is at any given time. Yet he’s been in the same place as me twice in as many months. What if that’s not the coincidence it seems?”

“Samael summoned Vejovis to Asphodel to examine Ash, didn’t he? Vejovis owed Samael some kind of favor.”

“Right. But Vejovis didn’t have to help me after that. He even admitted he’d been tempted to kill me so Samael couldn’t use me, but he didn’t because of the ‘effort he’d invested in my survival.’”

“What effort?”

“That’s what I was wondering. But what if that wasn’t the second time I’d met Vejovis? What if that was the third?”

Seiya frowned. Then her eyes widened.

“Wait, you think—”

Piper leaned forward, excitement ballooning in her stomach. “What if Vejovis was the daemon healer who sealed my magic when I was a child?”

They stared at each other.

“That would be the effort he was referring to,” Piper said, her words tumbling together. “And it would explain why he didn’t kill me to keep me out of Samael’s hands; if he’d had no connection to me, then I’d just be some girl who was threatening the lives of thousands. What was my life worth compared to thousands of others?”

“And he waited for you too,” Seiya said. “He killed the guards at the bridge. That was a big risk for him; he’s always remained neutral, as far as I know.”

“And the medical center—what if he’d heard about my father being there? Maybe he came to heal Quinn since he knew him. He was near my father’s room.”

Seiya shook her head, not in disbelief but in wonder.

“And he followed us out of the medical center too,” Piper continued. “I assumed it was because he knew Ash, but maybe he was actually following me.”

“Vejovis is the best healer there is,” Seiya said. “If anyone can do the kind of delicate work needed to seal a child’s magic, it’s him.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Piper exclaimed. “And since Vejovis helped me before, he should be willing to help me again. All we have to do is—”

Her and Seiya’s excitement vanished in the same instance.

“Find him,” Piper finished in a whisper.