Page 74 of Kill the Beast
“Alderic,” Lyssa warned, her voice as sharp as the pain in her body, but before she could threaten him with violence if he didn’t start talking immediately, Ragnhild poked her head into the kitchen as if summoned by her name.
“Ah, you’re awake!” she said brightly. “Time to check your wounds.”
“Not now,” Lyssa said, her eyes boring into Alderic’s face. He was picking flakes of blood from his palms instead of looking at her. “Not until—”
“Yes, now,” Rags said. “Alderic, scram.” She hooked her thumb toward the door leading out to the porch. “And take the dog with you,” she added, but Alderic had already fled—and tripped over every single herb pot on the porch steps, by the sound of it.
“Did you know that Alderic is immortal?” Lyssa demanded as soon as she and Ragnhild were alone.
“It came up, yes,” the witch said, swatting Brandy’s rump. Hehowled his dissent, but jumped down from his perch on Lyssa’s legs and trudged over to his bed by the hearth.
“What did he tell you?” Lyssa wiggled her toes. The feeling was slowly returning to her feet, though she couldn’t tell whether it was from the effects of Ragnhild’s healing, or merely because she no longer had a certain bullmastiff cutting off her circulation.
“I am not in the habit of spilling other people’s secrets,” Rags said, leveling a severe look at Lyssa. “If you want to know the details, you’ll have to ask Alderic.” She lifted the bandage pasted over Lyssa’s stomach just enough to peer beneath it.
“Thathurts,” Lyssa hissed.
“Oh, stop complaining,” Rags said. “You’re lucky you can still feel anything at all.” She peeked under another of the bandages. Apparently the sword through the stomach had been only one of several nasty wounds that Lyssa couldn’t recall acquiring. “Alderic got you here just in time. If he’d come through the Gate, you might not have made it.”
“Wheredidhe come through?”
“Here, in the kitchen.”
Lyssa gaped at the old witch. “But the wards on the house—”
“They let him in,” Rags said simply, changing a bandage on Lyssa’s arm that she had bled through.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Their purpose isn’t to keep people out, necessarily. They’re here for our protection. Maybe they sensed that you were dying, and that Alderic was trying to save you.”
“He couldn’t have done it without you,” Lyssa said, a sudden wave of emotion surging through her. She reached out and took Ragnhild’s hand, squeezing it. “Thank you.”
A pleased grin spread across the old witch’s face, and Lyssa realized with sudden horror that Rags was missing several teeth. The gaps were raw and bloody, as if the wounds were fresh.
“Your mouth,” she gasped, struggling to sit up. “What happened?”
“Don’t rip your stitches out on my account,” Rags said sternly. “I’m fine.”
“But—”
“You almost died,” the witch said, busying herself with a roll of bandages. “One cannot simply steal from Death, once a life has been marked as Hers. One must… bargain, a little.”
“So you ripped out your ownteeth?”
“Teeth are powerful,” she said with a shrug, as if it were nothing.
Lyssa’s eyes burned with the threat of tears. “Why would you do that for me?”
Ragnhild gave her a look. “Do you really think I’d let the best blacksmith I’ve ever had bleed out on my kitchen table? I would have sacrificed more than teeth to save you.”
“Rags,” Lyssa croaked, her throat tight. “I—”
“I didn’t do it alone,” Ragnhild said, waving her hand dismissively. Lyssa thought she saw a tear slide down the old witch’s face, but Rags scratched her cheek and it was gone. “Alderic gave so much blood that he almost fainted. Although, between you and me, I think he was being a touch dramatic.”
Lyssa laughed at the image of Alderic swooning on a ladies’ fainting couch.
Ragnhild eyed her sidelong. “He cares about you, you know. A great deal. He’s been sitting by your bedside fretting like a mother hen this whole time.”
