Sleep. I needed sleep.
“Brexley Kovacs.” A deep inhuman voice scratched through my mind, spinning my head, my body stumbling, colliding into cots and chairs. “The girl who challenges nature’s laws will defy me? You cannot fight me.”
“Whoa.” The woman healer grabbed for me. “I think you need to lie down, honey.”
I couldn’t seem to speak or fight as she lowered me onto an empty bed next to Kek. Dizzy and nauseated, my eyes closed.
“Sleep,” she ordered, my body already curling like a cat, drifting off, feeling like I was spinning and falling into the pages.
The book was across the room from me, yet it grabbed hold, drawing me into its familiar darkness, flipping through the pages of time long since passed.
Chapter 16
“Bitzy, get your finger out of there.” A voice slunk into my dreams, tugging me from the depths of my mind. “You don’t know where that one has been. It might be rabid.”
Chirp.
“Yes, I can see she likes it... a lot.”
Chirp.
“I do not! Total misunderstanding.” He huffed. “Now get away from the cerulean hellion.”
My lids cracked open, taking in Opie’s figure standing on my pillow, a groan leaking from my lips.
“It’s alive!” He deepened his voice, his arms going up. “It’s alive!”
Chirp! Bitzy’s tweet came from the bed next to mine, her tiny form leaping over to us, scrambling up my pillow. Her fingers waved in a morning salute.
“Good morning to you too,” I muttered, the heels of my palms digging into my eyes.
The dream from the night before stuck to me like syrup. Gooey and thick, muddling to just flashes and a deep feeling of something important.
Was it only a dream? The book couldn’t pull me in if I wasn’t touching it, right? I couldn’t explain the visions. They were blurry and distant, but I recalled a small cottage I had never seen before, though something about it felt like home. I had seen a secret hiding space and a notebook of some sort in it. My dad was there. I didn’t see him; it was more that I felt him. His presence whispered in my ear like he was trying to tell me something.
“We’ve been waiting forever for you to wake up, Master Fishy.” Opie swung his arms dramatically, spinning his layered skirt up. Today, he wore white bandage strips constructed into a long skirt and a bra made out of cotton balls. His hair was in a Mohawk, a cotton ball speared through each spike like marshmallows. Bitzy had the same layered skirt, but pulled up to her chest, and had two cotton balls on the end of her ears. All stuff you’d find in a small clinic.
“Like for-ev-er,” he emphasized. “We got bored.”
Sitting up, I wagged my head to shake myself awake. Something in my hair knocked against my shoulders. Reaching down, I found over a dozen tight braids with white cloth plaited through one side of my head above my ear.
“Told you we got bored.” Opie’s smile was full of chagrin. “And your hair was lacking oomph.”
Sticky, sweaty, bloody, and dirty, I lacked more than oomph.
“Is this...” I picked up, examining the material. “Sheets from a bed?” I peered down at my shredded top sheet. “My bed?”
“Did you a favor... you looked hot.” He shrugged, batting his eyes, trying to look innocent. “Like I said, we were really, really bored.” He grabbed his strands of the striped sheet and twirled, the fabric floating around him like kite tails in the wind. His Mohawk was the perfect juxtaposition. “It was worth it, right? Though the fabric is dull. I mean, I had very little to work with here. I still think I added a certain flair to it.”
“Flair is certainly one way of describing it.” Blowing out a chuckle, I knew I could never stay mad at him.
Rubbing my temple, I tried to reach out for Warwick, feeling nothing but a wall. Was he blocking me? He looked irritated outside Andris’s office before, and I had no idea why. I passed out before I had a chance to see or talk to him.
Peering over where Kek still slept, I noticed strands of her blue hair were re-braided with white cotton, the brownie clearly finding her hair in need of a little more panache also. The color was back in her cheeks, and she looked mostly healed.
My eyes twisted over to Caden’s sleeping form. Wes was guarding him now, trying not to doze. My heart wrenched seeing Caden chained to the bed. His expression was already strained as if he subconsciously knew he couldn’t relax. A captive in enemy territory. I didn’t even want to contemplate how Caden would react once he woke. It was going to be bad. But what choice did I have? No matter what happened, I would do everything to protect him, even if he didn’t think I was.
Luk still lay in the same position, ashen and sweaty. Ash was in a seat next to him, bent over the bed, fast asleep next to Luk’s legs.
“How long was I asleep?”
“For-ev-er,” Opie moaned.
Chhhiiirrp. Bitzy flipped me off like it was all my fault.
“Okay, let’s try this. What time is it now?”
“I don’t know. Do I look like a time fairy?” Opie motioned to himself.
“I’m starting to see Master Finn’s side,” I grumbled, rising from the bed.
Opie’s eyes widened to saucers. “You want to spank me with rubber gloves and a dustpan too?”
“What?” I blinked.
“What?” he squeaked back.
Chirp?
“Did you say dustpan?”
“No.” Opie’s eyes moved around the room. “I didn’t say spatula either.”
“You didn’t say spatula.”
“I know; I told you I didn’t.” He busied himself, fiddling with the layers of his skirt. “You must be hearing things, Fishy.”
Chirp!
“I did not,” Opie hmphed.
Chirp.
“Oh, don’t bring it up again. He wanted to know how the vacuum got stuck.”
Chirp.
“I did not show him five times.”
“O-kay.” I held up my hands. “I’m gonna stop you two right there while I still have an appetite.”
“Oh, I’m not sure you want one.” Opie wrinkled his nose. “We already sampled the breakfast, the after-breakfast, snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. All blah...”
“Dinner?” My eyes widened. I had gone to sleep just when the sun rose. Had I slept all day? It felt like I was scarcely out for a moment. Parts of the dream were still vivid in my mind, rubbing at the back of my head like I could step right back into it.
With no windows or way of telling what time it was, I had no idea how long I had been out. My stomach grumbled, telling me it had been far too long since I last ate.
“Yeah, dinner... it’s eight-thirty.”
“Eight-thirty.” I lifted an eyebrow. “You know what time it is?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
My lids shut, fists rolling up, breathing in and out of my nose.
I had slept more than twelve hours.
“Have you seen Warwick?” Trying to reach out to him through our link, I still found it barred, which shifted me onto my feet with irritation. Why was he blocking me?
“You mean that big, bad, sexy wolfy?” Opie fanned himself.