Leena
I ran on adrenaline until the adrenaline ran out. The Doctor—the new Doctor—was hard at work on Rever and, at some point, I fell asleep. On a bench, slumped against a carefully folded tent. It was not a good pillow, but it seemed my body didn’t mind one bit. It was a slightly soft surface and that was all that mattered.
I woke when someone checked my pulse.
“Sorry! We just wanted to make sure you didn’t need medical attention,” Gigi said. “It didn’t look like you were breathing.”
I blinked a lot before she came fully into focus, then back out again. “It’s okay. I’m alive.” Mostly. Apparently lack of sleep and a kidnapping were just a bit too much for my body.
“I think you need to eat,” my sister said, looping an arm behind me and offering her shoulder. “What about some broth and tea? Warm and nutritious.”
“Or maybe just a bed.” I cuddled into her and started dozing again.
“As soon as you get some food in your belly.”
Ryddyck appeared with the broth and tea. The pair of them fed me like a child, then shifted me to a nice, soft bed. It was a blur, getting blurrier now that food was in me.
“How’s Rever?”
Gigi pulled a blanket over me. “He’s fine. He also needs food, a bath, and a good night of sleep.”
“That’s good.” And then, I was asleep.
I woke up because I was hot. Also, I couldn’t move. It took me a few minutes to fully come to consciousness and realize I wasn’t back in the cave, but was still in bed with an Atsila wrapped around me. His heavy arm was as good as any bind.
Even though my stomach grumbled for more food, I let Atsila sleep a little longer. He only snored when he was in a deep sleep, so he was probably as tired as I was.
He drew in one enormous breath after another, his arms and legs twitching from time to time. Then he jerked, gasped, and sat straight up in bed.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I pressed my hand against his thigh, hoping it helped ground him.
His eyes were wild as they searched the room, finally meeting mine. “Thank fuck. I dreamed you were gone again.” He pulled me into his arms, crushing me with a powerful hug. “I dreamt you were in that cave, being pulled apart and tortured.”
“I’m not. I’m right here.” We spent several minutes just holding each other. Then it moved on to touching. But not necessarily a sexual kind of touching. More of a way to reassure each other we were here and in one piece.
Then my stomach growled again, louder.
“You need food.” Atsila was up and out of bed, changing his clothes in the blink of an eye. “What can I get you?”
I slid out of bed too, finding some clean clothes in a folded pile that someone left for me. “Why don’t we go together and get an update?”
He stared at me for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. I’d prefer it if you stayed in bed for a month and let me feed you, but I suppose that’s out of the question.”
“With everything that just happened? Uh, yeah.” There were salishan, beings from another world, and rifts tearing reality apart. “But when everything is normal and calm again, I’ll totally take you up on that.”
He brushed my cheek with his hand, cupping it, dipping down for a soft kiss. “Deal.”
A buffet had been set up near the square. Where there had once been rows of long tables and benches, there were now only six. Gigi and Ryddyck sat at one with mostly empty plates in front of them. My sister beamed when she saw us.
“You’re awake! Sit, sit. Let me get you a plate.”
I would have fought her, but I was too hungry. Besides, she knew what I liked to eat as well as I did.
Not that Atsila appreciated that.
He glowered until I shoveled the first bite into my mouth, appeased that I was eating enough to let go of the fact someone else brought me food. I ate faster than was probably healthy and forced myself to stop and let my body catch up before I made myself sick.
“So what’s the news?”
Gigi and Ryddyck shared a look.
“What? Is he okay?”
Gigi sighed. “Yes, he’s fine. It’s just…the answers don’t make a lot of sense.”
Atsila scowled, pushing his plate away. “And those answers would be?”
“That time moves differently on the other side of wherever he went,” Gigi said.
“Time?” I swirled my coffee and downed the last of it.
“He says he was gone for months. That’s why his hair and beard are longer than when he left.”
A part of me expected her to say that. I didn’t know how it worked, but it was the only thing that made sense. “And the Doctor?”
“Says that matches with his exam and Rever’s medical records. What was a matter of minutes to us, was months to Rever.”
I didn’t know how that affected us in the long term, but I didn’t like it. Ryddyck shifted in his seat, eyes down.
“So is this where you’re from?”
His eyes darted up and met mine. “Yes.” He blink-twitched. “But I didn’t know about the time thing. That’s…interesting.” Another blink-twitch.
“If time is different in each of our realities, but neither of us knew that until now…” I didn’t know where I was going with this. Only that it mattered somehow.
“I would think that information stayed on this side of reality,” Ryddyck said. “Rever showed us that. I don’t think my kind would have had a way to discover this knowledge.”
But what else were they able to learn from Rever while he was there. One day was a lot in that cave. He’d been in a strange reality with strange beings for months.
“On that note,” Atsila shoved bacon in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed, “I have to get to work.”
“The salishan interrogation?” Gigi asked.
He nodded. “I’ll need your help.” His eyes fell on me.
“For reaching them on the Plane?”
“Yes.”
“You might prefer to ask Rhiannon then. She’s much more powerful than I am and she might be able to do things I hadn’t even thought of.”
Atsila frowned, then smiled. “I guess if it gets you more rest, then this is a good thing. Is she at the archives?”
Gigi wiped her mouth and stood, gathering plates onto a tray. “She is. I’ll go along with you. I want to help with the research so we can get it done faster.”
“And I am needed by the Doctor,” Ryddyck said.
Everyone had somewhere to be but me. “I’ll tag along too. Flipping through old books isn’t hard.”
Atsila held my hand as we walked down to the archives. It was cool and dark, with Rhysa and Rhiannon hard at work at the tables near the back. After a few minutes of chatting Rhiannon agreed to help Atsila while the rest of us kept up the work here.
“It might be a long day,” Atsila murmured. “Don’t forget to eat. And rest if you feel tired.”
I went up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Stop being such a doting male.”
He grunted. “Is that an order?”
“Never.”
I waited until Atsila and Rhiannon disappeared before turning back. “So, how can I help?”
Rhysa snapped a book closed and placed it on top of a pile of identical books. “We’ve covered all these shelves.” She waved at the oldest bookcases at the back of the archives. “And are halfway through these. Any books that contain useful information are being stored here so we can find them again easily if need be. I’m photographing the useful pages and emailing them to Bridge as we go. Gigi, if you’ll take this stack, and Leena this one, I think we can finish off the second row today.”
It was interesting reading the history of a different House. It was just as dry as ours, but different, so it was more engaging to my brain. Or maybe the events of the last few days made the information feel even more imperative. There were whole paragraphs dedicated to bear scenting or samhain mating, while chapters were dedicated to cosmic alignments and best shifting practices.
“The Heida records are much more comprehensive than the Wren’s,” Rhysa said, breaking the silence. “Why do you think that is?”
“They aren’t split,” Gigi replied. “The Wren’s are divided between the Black Forest and Blood Falls. The Heida are the Heida are the Heida. There is no House of Heida in Asia or Africa or anywhere else. They have always lived in the North.”
Understanding dawned on Rhysa’s face. She still had so much to learn. “So that’s why Dray had to go to the Black Forest. How does that work?”
“Oh! I know this! I just read about how our House split and came to Blood Falls!” I raised my hand like a human school kid. It made Gigi laugh and Rhysa smile. “Aethel—I’ll call her Aethel the Elder so as not to confuse her with our sister—was the oldest daughter of the House of Wren. When her parents died she assumed the hereditary role of the Head of House. Only her brother didn’t like that so much. Apparently he was a bit of a sexist ass. That part wasn’t written down, by the way, that’s my interpretation. Anyway, Ehrich convinced the members of the House to appoint him as Head of House instead. As you can imagine, Aethel the Elder was not pleased. She fought back, forming her own group of loyalists, but it wasn’t enough. She had no desire to live under her brother’s style of ruling and decided it would be best to start over somewhere new. So she requested to start a new House of Wren in the Americas.”
“And here I thought the samhain were more progressive than humans,” Rhysa clucked her tongue between words. “So she came to America, found Blood Falls and set up House?”
“Yes. Ehrich thought very highly of himself and consolidated all the power around him. He thought history was dumb. Or maybe he wanted everything to be about him? I’m not sure. Anyway, a lot of the books came with Aethel and her followers. So did a lot of the armor and swords. Aethel the Elder wanted to keep the House of Wren the way it had been before her brother took over, putting an emphasis on history, family, and traditions.”
“And the other Houses?” she asked.
“Gatlin had to flee England when witches were considered bad. They moved their whole House here when they saw how happy the Wrens were. The House of Sato is different. The house here is more like a satellite office to the main House. The House of Wren is the only truly divided House.”
“And are things friendly between the two Houses?” Her voice had an edge to it. Probably because she was worried for Dray.
“Friendly? Yes. Ehrich’s influence is still there, I think. Reading through the history really helped me understand why our Houses are so different.”
“I can’t wait to have Dray back,” she murmured.
“Any day now, right?”
She nodded, picking up a new book and flipping it open. “He’s already pushed back his return twice.”
I wonder what was going on that was so important. Were the other Wrens uncooperative? Or maybe there was just so much to discuss. Either way, we’d all find out soon.
Dinner was a small homecoming feast. Roasted meats, potatoes, gravies, and vegetables. The beer flowed. A small bit of hope seemed to have infected everyone. It was probably the sense of survival mixed with making contact and taking prisoners. Progress had finally been made.
It was cold and the snow was falling at a decent clip, so we feasted inside the main tent. Lyla seemed distracted and occasionally traded words with Hex. Hex’s wife sat beside him frowning. It was the first time I’d met her and she seemed very quiet, but nice.
Atsila had been in a mood all evening. All he would say was that it was “about the interrogation.” And for reasons I didn’t understand, wouldn’t say more. He drank his beer and picked at his food, glaring at it like it insulted him.
Gigi and Ryddyck stayed since we weren’t quite done with the archives. One more day and we’d be able to send everyone home, where hopefully Bridge had been able to make a lot of progress.
I got a little caught up in the hopefulness despite Atsila’s mood. In just a few days it would be the solstice and all of my family would be together.
Atsila kissed my forehead. “I’ve got to meet with the Doctor real quick.”
“I can go with you.”
His glare told me I could not. “Stay here and enjoy yourself. I’ll be right back.”
After an hour of nursing my beer my head started getting a little fuzzy. I smiled warmly as some excused themselves for the night, while others began kissing and rubbing.
Just another night in Heida territory.
But as much fun as it was to watch, I missed having Atsila to enjoy it with, so I pulled on my furs and started the walk back toward our tent. Since there was so much snow, there were no pairings having sex in the town square as I passed. But I did catch the sight of two bears going at it in the trees, so it was probably a lot more enjoyable in animal form.
“Leena.”
I turned to find Atsila moving toward me in the shadows. “Hey there stranger.”
He smiled, much happier than when he left. “You’re a little tipsy, my love.”
“I am. It feels nice after the last few days.” Like I was floating on a happy little cloud. “You have good news?”
“How can you tell?”
“You’re smiling.”
He pulled me close, slipping his arms under the furs and against my skin. “I’m already looking forward to warmer weather when I can have access to this skin all the time.”
I looked forward to it too. Though, there were some benefits to keeping each other warm.
As we kissed, the sounds of lovemaking drifted through the air, spurring us on. My hands found his skin, his lips grazed over mine.
“It’s cold out here.”
I froze, the unfamiliar voice startling me right out of the buzz.
Atsila’s head turned toward the delicate voice. “Are we bothering you, Liliana?”
It was Hex’s wife.
“Not at all.” She cocked her head to the side, her eyes roaming over us from head to toe. “I was asking if you wanted to come inside and watch. It is warmer after all.”
Atsila growled against my ear. “It’s up to you.”
Did I want to watch? And possibly have them watch us in return? My center grew wet at the thought of it, so yes. Yes I did. “I’m up for it.”
“Fuck yeah, you are.”
We followed Liliana inside the tent.
