CAGED (#3, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 9

Taking the steps two at a time, I hurtled up the tower's inner staircase. Wildfyre torches, braced to the curved wall and guiding the way with their skittish blue flames, were unnecessary for my family with our heightened senses, yet we kept the tradition. At dusk our staff set about the Keep, alighting the torches.

The door to my bedroom, threaded through with wild magic, unlocked with a click as I twisted the handle and pushed it open. As I moved through the doorway, magic brushed against my skin like a cat rubbing its back against a farm post. Only I could enter this room and whoever else I willed, like Penn, whom I had earlier allowed, instructing her to source something for Nelle to eat.

Knowing Nelle, she'd petulantly refuse, so it was no surprise to see a tray on the dining table—I used more often as a desk—and the silver cloches covering whatever Penn had brought to her, remained untouched.

I frowned, drawing to a halt, then slowly circling. The room was empty.

Shit, had Nelle found a way to escape?

My heartbeat picked up in my confusion...and settled when I heard murmuring behind the bathroom door...then tapped a staccato beat against my ribs when I realized it wasn't Nelle's voice, and that distress was held within the string of polite curses.

I knocked rapidly on the bathroom door, and Penn answered, urging me to enter. Anxiety crawled along the walls of my chest as I opened up the door and a thick cloud of steam billowed out. Wet heat that dampened my cheeks and the collar to my armor. The bathroom was stickily hot, and the shower obviously had been just turned off, as the pebbled shower floor still streamed with water. And Nelle—

My heart shot into my throat.

Oh my gods...

Nelle!

She lay prone on the floor. She wasn't moving.

Penn knelt on the floor beside Nelle, unmindful of the water soaking into her uniform. She'd stopped halfway through the motion of drawing a large towel over Nelle's naked body. She glanced over her shoulder, her blue eyes wide and gleaming with concern.

I chewed through the space, my bones barking as I slammed to my knees on the knobbled floor. I looked for blood first, running my hands over her arms, her sides then legs.

Something sharp and painful twisted my gut and whispered—my fault, my fault...

"Did she fall?" Slip and hit her head? Hurt herself on purpose?

Oh my gods...

She wouldn't hurt herself, would she?

"She's fine," Penn reassured me in her soft voice. She placed a hand on my upper arm, squeezing when I didn't stop searching for injuries, for some sort of self-harm.

I willed back the panic and cleared my head, thinking through rationally. My senses sharpened, and when I heard Nelle's almost imperceptible shallow breaths, and saw the towel slowly move up and down with the rise and fall of her chest, I let out a puff of air in relief.