Child of Legend - A Shadow and Bone Fanfic

Chapter 36

As soon as I took a step inside something felt off, the usual comforting sound of Grisha and servants going about their daily business was gone, replaced by an uncomfortable silence.

The air around me seemed to still and I tensed, before I knew it I felt a strong gust of wind slam the main doors shut and throw my petite form against it, hard. Curiously enough I never felt the floor and that was probably because I never met it, my body was being held to the wall by a strong wind, whichever squaller was doing this must be drained.

As if answering my question a woman walked into view, her glossy black hair shone against her Suli skin, her arms outstretched using her abilities to pin me against the wall, unlike what I had thought she did not look drained, but she did look furious. I'd seen her before, I raked my brain for a name, one of the things I was never good at remembering, her kefta told me she was a squaller, then it hit me, Zoya.

I remembered Zina telling me about her and when we saw her and Ivan arguing from ukryt'sya. "You have some nerve showing up here," she gritted.

I didn't respond, I couldn't respond, it felt as if all the air had been pulled from my lungs and was being used against me. I tried to shift my body but she wasn't having any of it.

"Zoya?" I heard someone call, "What was that noise, I-" a Corporalki walked in on us, his eyes widening when he saw me plastered to the wall. He looked between me and Zoya, unsure, I don't blame him for not knowing what to do, I wouldn't either but eventually he raised his own hands and and made Zoya drop her arms, I went sliding down the door.

"Sergei!!" Zoya exclaimed, "I had her where I wanted," she let out a frustrated breath and walked towards me, slowly, menacingly.

Sergei placed a hand on her shoulder and looked like he regretted it when she shot him a death glare, he found his voice, "Just, breathe Zoya, we don't know what happened."

Their little conversation gave me enough time to struggle to my feet and basically collapse onto a table by the door to lean on. Both their heads snapped to me and Sergei furrowed his brows, "Dislocated," he told me, pointing to the ankle that I had landed on.

I didn't care, right now I was focused on not being fried alive by Zoya, she was dangerously angry with sparks coming off of her, had I made her that angry or was it just unfortunate timing that someone had pissed her off before this?

"May I?" He asked, inching forward. I hadn't know Sergei personally during my main time at the little palace but of what I heard he was a talented Corporalki who had a love hate relationship with an inferni named Marie.

I knew that if I tried to pop it back into place by myself I'd probably end up fracturing it so I slowly nodded.

He got down on one knee and placed the ankle upon it, Zoya watched on from where she was standing. "I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt," he told me, it may have been my imagination but I thought I heard Zoya mumble 'good' from where she was, under her breath.

"I've been through worse," I commented, it was true, I had died and come back again but at least then I had been unconscious.

"Ok, on three," he told me. I knew this trick, he was going to pop it back in on two not three, all mediks had tried and failed to use this method on me. "One," I braced myself and caught a bit of the tall collar of my kefta in my mouth, "Two," he pushed down and tried to reduce the pain with his gift, but it didn't help much. I wouldn't scream, I wouldn't shout out in pain, I would take it in my stride and brush it off, just like everything else. He never said three.

"Liar," I groaned as he put my foot back down, he gave me a small smile.

"Talk," Zoya demanded.