Wind Wielder

Chapter 10 - White Curtains

They arrived in a room full of white curtains.

That was the only thing Zara managed to register before the blinding pain bowled her over, and her vision went black. Bile was spewing from Zara's mouth and her knees were racing toward the hard floor, slamming into it painfully. Zara heard harsh cursing above the ringing in her ears, and then hands were under her armpits, quickly carrying her into another room. Zara heard the door being kicked open and then she was lowered to her knees, the distinct sound of vomit hitting the toilet water. Hands pulled her hair back from her face.

"Breathe," Azriel commanded, holding Zara steady from behind.

Zara gripped the toilet bowl like a lifeline, unable to breathe or see or think past this pain. It was all consuming. Her very blood was set to boil and her bones felt like reducing to ash, her brain muddling into nothingness. Zara's vision came to be, enough behind the spots to see red water within the toilet. Blood red. Zara heaved again.

When it finally was over, Zara reached up feebly and flushed the toilet, gasping unevenly for breath. Her lungs rattled and ached with each grievous inhale. Azriel had tied her hair back with string at some point, she had realized.

"Thanks," Zara choked out.

He stood behind her. "Stay here," he commanded, then left. Gone to clean her mess, Zara realized.

Zara pushed away from the toilet, half crawling to the tub that was next to her. She sprawled her arms over the side of it, leaning her back against it and relishing in the sharp cold of it against her blisteringly hot skin. Zara could not see as far as the end of the room she realized, and understood with a jolt as she beheld her pale, sickly feet sticking out underneath the bottom of her dress that they must have winnowed far enough away it was out of Rhysands reach. Meaning his protection against the pain was now gone. And it was worse now, far more than it had been even with Eris. Zara wondered if he too had been masking some of the pain, if Eris had somehow been able to glamor her out of feeling as much.

Zara must have blacked out, because when she came to again, the first thing she heard was heavy breathing that was not her own. Azriel stood near the entrance of the bathroom, face contorted in a horrified rage and clenching his shaking fists as he beheld her unglamored state. His siphons gleamed violently, and Zara realized then she could smell the metallic scent of his magic too. It was colder, sharper than what she had expected it to be. Like the unforgiving arctic peaks of a mountain pass. He saw Zara was awake, and his face shifted in a moment. Masked, and expressionless.

"Who did this to you?" Azriel asked, voice empty and quiet.

"Who do you think?" Zara chuckled weakly. She rolled her eyes at him, but it brought the world tumbling so far out of depth Zara managed to slip from the side of the tub where she had been resting, drifting off to one side in her slumber.

The ground rose up to meet the side of her face, but a hand was there under her armpit to stop Zara from reaching it, gentle and careful. Azriel sat her up again.

"What do you need?" Azriel asked.

"Water." Zara rasped.

He got it, quickly as if the palace had somehow actually gotten it for him. Zara knew she must be delirious, so she giggled at the preposterous thought. Azriel looked at Zara like it was the scariest thing she had done to date.

"Madja is coming." Azriel promised her.

"Who?" Zara asked.

His brow furrowed, those scarred hands coming to nudge her side again. Zara hadn't even realized she had been leaning to the side once more. "The healer you helped to heal Cassian."