Page 32 of Deathless
“You’re wobbling like a newborn fawn,” Devin pointed out.
“You need to lie down,” Val agreed. “With your feet elevated. And you’re probably dehydrated.”
“You all don’t need to fuss over me,” Rori snapped. “But I will rest so you all can stop worrying. We’ll brief everyone on the mission tomorrow.”
Torr leaned down to pick Rori up, much to her grumbling dismay. With her secure against his chest, he turned toward the house. I followed him while everyone else dispersed to go their own ways.
While Torr took Rori up the stairs, I started rummaging through the kitchen for something to feed her. She’d barely eaten the last couple of days, only taking small sips of water on our rest stops. When she’d walked off to take a piss, I’d also noticed her dry-heaving.
I found a sleeve of saltine crackers and an empty water pitcher with a built-in filter. I filled the pitcher, grabbed a glass and the crackers, and headed upstairs with them.
Torr had gotten Rori out of her riding clothes and was tucking her into bed when I entered the room. “This should help settle your stomach,” I said, setting everything up on the nightstand.
Torr frowned. “What’s going on with your stomach?”
“Nothing.” Rori glared at me.
“I saw you dry-heaving,” I admitted to her. “I know you wouldn’t want anyone to know while we were out there, so I didn’t say anything until now.”
“What, now you’re motion-sick?” Torr asked.
“Maybe, I don’t know.” Rori begrudgingly accepted a cracker from me and nibbled on it.
“What happened out there?” Torr demanded when she didn’t say anything else.
“I thought we were leaving it for tomorrow,” Rori grumbled.
“Not with me, you’re not.”
“Tell him what you told us,” I said, holding out another cracker. “What you saw that none of us did.”
Torr got laser-focused on her as soon as I said that. “Better start talking, Ror.”
“Or what? You’ll spank me?”
“I am not fucking kidding around. Start. Talking.”
While I could understand her wanting to use humor to deflect, I stood with Torr on this. As her VP, and the one who knew her better than anyone else, he needed to know.
Reluctantly, Rori relayed the night of the bonfire to him. She held nothing back, not even the vision of the hovering, black swarm that had chased her. After she had first told us what she saw, she immediately clammed up. Like she was afraid we’dthink any differently of her if she saw things we didn’t. I couldn’t speak for the others, but I believed every word.
The Sisterhood’s goddess had spoken to her, infiltrated her dreams. She was the one being targeted by the enemy’s deity. And now my biggest fear was that the enemy had succeeded.
“So you started feeling sick after this cloud thing had caught up to you?” Torr asked.
“No, I felt fine when I woke up. It’s come and gone in waves, actually. Like right now, I feel good.” Rori sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard as if to prove her point.
She did look better, with more color to her face and her eyes more alert than she had been.
“Why didn’t you go after the four women?” Torr asked her. “That was the whole goal, right? You want to eradicate this cult, so why didn’t you go after the ones who we’re all but certain are the leaders?”
Honestly, I had the same question. LJ had seen the van leave and suggested giving chase. Rori had just woken up then and still seemed a little out of it, but she’d shaken her head and adamantly refused to go after the cultists.
Rori frowned now as she stared at Torr. Then she blinked, looking confused and saying nothing.
“Paloma?” I prompted, worry stabbing through my chest.
“I, um.” She ran a shaky hand through her hair, the color once again draining from her face. “I don’t remember making that decision.”
