Page 13 of Heartsong
“We’ll be closed tomorrow, so don’t worry about coming in as early as you usually do. Rest as much as you can. Gavin and I will handle everything. Oh, Anna, I’m so sorry!”
Again, she assured Carrie that she was all right, then a few more times, trying to convince herself as much as her boss. It took a while to get Carrie off the phone, and by the time Anna hung up, she felt wrung out and left to dry.
“I’ll need to go in tomorrow,” she told Frey as she rubbed her tired eyes. “Give a statement.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I have to. It’s my job. And I have to tell them what happened. It’ll look hella suspicious if I don’t, and the last thing we need is someone coming to look around here.”
Frey advanced on her, fangs flashing. Not in a smile. Anna reared back further into the couch, throwing her hands up to protect her face. Frey stopped at her flinch, but the snarl stayed on his lips.
“You cannot go back to that place. It isn’t safe. It’s been attacked once already. And it’s soaking infae magick.” He spat the words like the deepest insult.
Anna shook her head. “They’d be crazy to come back, especially in broad daylight. I’ll be fine. Besides, I need to get my things.”
“Things are meaningless compared to your safety,” he insisted, looming above her. His wings had unclipped from his chest and now hung above him, making him seem ten feet tall.
Sighing, Anna sat back on the couch, arms and legs crossed. She didn’t feel like arguing now, especially when she already knew she’d be going in. Despite her tiredness and denial, she wanted answers.
What the hell happened tonight?
“Why don’t you tell me again what happened to you,” she told him. “I need to know everything because I don’t…this is all craziness.”
His mouth pinched into a displeased line, telling her without words he hadn’t missed her redirect. Anna didn’t care. She was tired, absolutely drained, and the echoes of a dissipated migraine teased at the circumference of her head. She’d get her answers from a man that should be myth, and then she’d see about the museum.
And then she was going to take the mother of all naps.
Frey silently unfolded a blanket from a nearby basket and laid it gently atop his sleeping mate. They had found the end of her strength, and she’d faded into slumber some time ago. Shamefully, perhaps sooner than he’d realized, so caught up he’d been in his story of what had befallen his kin.
She looked peaceful in sleep, the lines of worry and pain smoothed from her beautiful face.
A grumble worked up his throat. He wouldn’t soon forget the sight of her stabbing herself in the stomach.Medicine,she’d said. What kind of medicine could possibly require that? He wouldn’t allow any harm to come to his heartsong, even by her own hand.
He’d decided to brood on her strange medicine rather than the times she’d jumped back from him. His head already swirled with disbelief and sensations threatened to overwhelm him—he couldn’t bear the thought that he scared his mate.
Curled up under the blanket, a hand tucked under her cheek, he could be content that she was comfortable and safe for now. A possessive need to care and protect curled around Frey’s heart, stronger than anything he’d felt before.
He considered himself a proud male, independent and strong. He’d chased his share of women before but had never let his head be utterly turned. Yes, he’d longed for a mate, searched for her at every Gorsedd, yet he hadn’t been prepared for the way the knowing shifted his whole world. He could feel it already, his aligning with her.
And she’s my only connection to this world. Her world.
The one he knew was dead and gone, swallowed by the merciless mouth of time. He didn’t understand why he’d awoken, only that it was because of Anna and her touch. But why him and why now—he had no answers.
Outside his mate’s dwelling were even more unknowns. Flying tonight, he’d seen a city so large, so full of humans that it defied belief. The world had changed; he knew little of its rules or dangers.
How am I to protect a heartsong when hobbled from the start?
A tide of grief threatened to overwhelm him. Why now? In the quiet left by his mate asleep, leaving him to his thoughts, it all seemed…insurmountable.
Through the centuries, thanks to the link shared by the guardians who remained, they shared what information they could. They listened with stone ears to languages changing around them, blaring from records and radios and televisions. He knew something of this modern world, knew many of its words—but tonight, getting to interact with this new world, had shown him that he didn’tunderstandit.
And because he didn’t know or understand, until he did, he had to remain vigilant.
Frey prowled toward the windows with their poor view of the street below. Guardians slept as humans did, but he doubted he’d sleep for days yet after being imprisoned so long. All the better to make safe his mate.
It wasn’t long before her black feline joined him at the window. Rather rotund, the cat jumped onto the back of a plush chair beside him and began kneading the upholstery. It blinked up at him, a light purr vibrating from its chest.
“We shall both keep watch tonight,” Frey told it, not unhappy for the company.
