Page 79 of The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire
“Great-niece,” I correct her.
Neirin frowns. However odd this is for me, I think it might be stranger for him. Delyth is his sister-in-law, after all.
“Well, this is a very charming reunion.” I cross my arms and nod to the soldier. “What happened?”
“He was like this when I got here, wandering the beach. I don’t know when Y Lle Tywyll spat him back out, but there was nothing human left.” Neirin stares down at the soldier. “I recognized himand… I wanted to restrain him and await your direction, but he ran back into the house.” He nods toward the door.
Delyth exhales a shaky breath. I follow her gaze to Neirin’s mutilated left hand, and the earth slips out from under my feet. The stump of his missing finger is poorly bandaged, the wrapping doing little to protect him. Black mars its veins and there, at the center of his pale flesh, a small piece of rock protrudes, tumorous and vile, bursting from fine bones.
“It can happen that quickly?” I whisper.
Neirin flexes his fingers around the infection. “We’re at the heart of it. It’s only fitting, isn’t it? I sent you and your sister to die for me, and now I’m going to die for you instead.”
Some things are the same in both worlds, and a wound left open to infection is always a danger. This is partially my fault, I realize, my body going numb.
I stutter over my words. “You—you can’t die.”
Neirin’s the one constant in Eu gwlad, so certain of his own power and timelessness. The very idea of anything being able to end him is unfathomable, and yet, there it is on his arm. The same disease that’s claimed so many of his equally ageless kin and torn apart his land. He was so careful to avoid it, to send my sister and me in his place, only to run right into Y Lle Tywyll chasing after me.
“I never said I can’t die,” he replies. “Merely that I didn’t plan on doing so until…”
I meet his gaze. “Until?”
He shoots an uncomfortable glance at Delyth.
“Don’t mind me, I’ll…” She gestures toward the sea and provides no further explanation before she walks toward the shoreline.
I take a step toward the house, pausing only when I reach the doorway to look back at Neirin. His movements are labored as he tries to reach me, and I know the disease has run more than skin-deep already.
“Well, are you coming?”
I hold out my hand, and we both realize the truth. The worst has already happened. There’s nothing left in here for him to fear. “Dropping dead won’t make me forgive you,” I say.
“I know,” he replies. “I was hoping an apology would do that.”
“You haven’t made it yet.”
“I’m building anticipation.”
Neirin’s fingers are light when they find my own, gentle. I give him a final heave over the threshold, then release him quickly.
The inside of the house is as spartan as the exterior. Moss covers the walls, flecked with shimmering black marks of infection. Light enters through one small window, rendering the space sickly and pale. There’s a flimsy old door at the end of the room, and the darkness that leaks through the gap beneath it is impenetrable.
That door is all that separates me from Y Lle Tywyll.I try to imagine Ceridwen here, bracing herself in this final shaft of light. At first, I struggle to picture her doing it. Then I remember that she could stand here as easily as me. Shedidstand here, head held high and a prayer for the future in her chest. I hope I am not too late for her.
Neirin lets out a sharp breath and winces, reminding me that I’m not alone. I whip back around and find him grasping his own hand, pressing it close to his chest. He beams despite his obvious pain. He still wants me to like him.
How strange. How lovely.
How awful.
“You used me,” I say. “I hate you.”
“I missed you, too,” he replies.
My face contorts. “Are you insane? I cut off your finger and now it’s infected!”
“I chose to come here without seeing my healer.” Neirin examines the bandaged stump on his hand. The disease stems from his missingfinger and runs up to his forearm. “You cutting off the finger, though? That was your decision, and it’swhyI missed you. You’re so unpredictable. You can have the favor if you win. Share it with your sister. Ask for immortality. You have too much to give for one lifetime.”
