Page 106 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
Chapter Twenty-Three
Harrow jerked upright the moment awareness returned. Or tried to. What she actually did was flop like a fish out of water, a low moan rasping from her bruised throat as she rediscovered the pain of her injuries.
“Whoa, easy there.” Gentle hands pressed her back into the soft mattress. “Just relax for now, yeah?”
Eyes racing beneath her lids, Harrow fought as never before to regain consciousness. “Raith…”
“He’s not here. He can’t hurt you—”
“No.”
“Calm down—”
“No!” Invigorated by her fear for Raith and her frustration at being helpless, Harrow fought off the hands holding her down and the remnants of unconsciousness.
With a jolt, she sat upright, fully awake.
She was in her caravan. Why this surprised her, she didn’t know. Malaikah was beside her, eyes wide, reaching out as if to force her back down. Her hair was dry, her clothes fresh. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, and the door was open, a gentle breeze teasing the edge of the sarong hanging over it.
“Where’s Raith?” Harrow demanded, the betrayal of what Darya had done eating at her heart.
“Harrow,” Mal said softly, “he was one second away from killing you.”
“No, he wasn’t! He was fighting it. He was going to fight it and then— What happened? How did Darya get here? What did she do, Mal?”
“What she did was for the best—”
“How can you say that? She’ll kill him! I have to go after her. She manipulated me. She lied to me about what he was and convinced me to run from him. It’s my fault this happened. I have to—”
“Harrow, calm down! No one is killing Raith. He’s okay, I promise you.”
“You can’t know that. You can’t trust Darya. You can’t—”
“If you’ll shut up for a second and listen, I think you’ll find that I can know that, and I can trust Darya. For this, at least.”
“But—”
“Just let me explain, okay?”
Harrow took a deep breath and willed herself to calm. She trusted Malaikah, and after everything Mal had done for her, she owed it to her to listen. “Okay. Just make it quick.”
“Your shoulders have gigantic holes in them, and your throat is purpler than my stage makeup. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Please, Malaikah. I have to.”
“Fine, fine. Just listen first. After you came out of the vision and told me you were heading South to find Raith alone, I… Well, understandably, I wasn’t too keen on the idea. So I went back to the Underground to find Nashira, and I told her what had happened. She was her usual weird, vague self, but she seemed almost excited, which struck me as odd, considering the circumstances.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with Raith.”
“Harrow.” Malaikah gritted her teeth, and silence fell between them. They rarely argued, but Harrow had promised to listen.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I won’t interrupt.”
Malaikah smiled wanly. “Thanks. So after I told Nashira, she sprang into action. She grabbed me and portaled me all the way to Darya’s bloody castle in the Western Territory. The jump we did before was a short distance and disorienting enough, but this one? I passed out, and then when I came to, threw up. It was gross, and Nashira was all surprised, like she hadn’t known it would affect me that way.” Mal scoffed. “Anyway, so Darya was there, of course, and she told us that she talked with you and was helping you scry for Raith or something. She was half crying the entire time because, apparently, she had this vision of Raith killing you, and she didn’t know what to do and couldn’t reach you with her magic anymore.”
“I felt her trying to tug me into a vision,” Harrow grumbled, “but I ignored her. I don’t trust her.”
“Yeah, she figured as much. So she was devastated about Raith killing you, but Nashira insisted it would be all good if we just sat and had tea for eight hours.”
