Page 22 of Faerie Hunted

I should leave, get out of here while I had the chance.

And yeah, I’d make it about a mile before I collapsed, without the transfusions. If I wanted to live, I needed them.

I shifted my head toward the door. Baldric closed it behind him when he left and I waited, on edge, for it to swing open and a swarm of guards to run through. It was only a matter of time.

I kept a close watch and hardly noticed the distinct tapping of something hard against glass. It wasn’t until Noren whined that I looked over at the window at the hazy shape of a black crow perched on the ledge.

It rapped its beak against the glass again, insistent, its beady eyes focused on me.I know that crow. The leaping in my stomach picked up to an entirely new level.

“Noren, can you please let Bronwen in?” I said in a low voice. “I’m not sure I can move yet.”

Not until the transfusion finished.

He shifted off the bed and nosed open the latch.

Bronwen hopped inside, cocking her head left and right to take in the room.

“We’re alone,” I assured her. “You’re safe.”

She gave a brief nod before she shifted back into her human form. Magic blanketed her through the transformation and once she finished, she scanned me, with her gaze lingering on the IV connected to the crook of my arm.

“Well, you look less like shit than you did the last time I saw you. So whatever that thing is, it must be working for you.”

“It’s good to see you too,” I drawled, but the sight of her made me smile. “Even if you were skulking around.”

“Skulking? It’s more likelurkingand it’s done out of care. I worried about you. No one’s let me in to see you” Bronwen pressed her hand to her heart. “Now tell me what’s going on because this looks complicated and scientific and such.”

Noren settled himself on the floor between us.

“It’s a blood transfusion,” I explained.

“Excuse me?” Bronwen’s eyes bugged. “For what?”

“The nurse who takes care of me, Baldric, said there is something wrong with my immune system. The blood transfusions get me upright. Has to be done a couple times a day though.”

Her expression went skeptical. “Are you sure?”

My lips pursed. “I mean, I’m notsureabout anything. It’s all a little too crazy to me because with my healing abilities, I should be better by now.”

“You know, I spoke to the shifter doctors. Before you left. They, ah, they think something deeper is going on,” she admitted. “That it’s a magical problem.”

Which would only confirm my own suspicions, but I didn’t know enough about any of this to form a concrete opinion.

I only knew I was on my ass and nothing helped until now.

Bronwen paced back and forth, her brown hair secured in a ponytail swinging with every step. “I’m happy to see you’re finally doing better, Tavi, but it seems like there’s a lot more going on. I think it would be best if we talk to a dukun.” At my puzzled look, she explained, “A shaman.”

My senses tingled. “What do you mean, a shaman?”

“A witch doctor. You need a witch, not a fae or a shifter. A witch will be the only one who can understand the kind of magic we worked that night,” Bronwen continued. Her nostrils flared and her eyes went distant and glassy. “These fae doctors are great for their type of magical maladies but we both know what we did with Madam Muerte goes beyond this. She bit you.”

At her words, the bite started to throb.

Yeah, the zombie took a nasty chunk out of me. I’d been sick ever since. Baldric’s explanation made sense but so did the proposition of this being something different, something no one had seen before.

“Are there even witch doctors in Faerie? Or whatever you called them. Adukun?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Bronwen agreed. “You just have to know where to find them. I mean, our people aren’t supposed to be here either. There are all kinds of creatures hiding beneath the surface who don’t want to be found for obvious reasons.” She stopped, tapped her fingers to her chin. “Let me dig around and see what I can come up with. If you’re okay with it, of course.”

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