Bone Walker by Angela Korra'ti Page A

him, strong enough to blind him to all else. He writhed where he lay, conscious of little more than a tangle of blankets and sheets around his limbs and a pillow beneath his head. He couldn’t scream.
Wouldn’t
scream, not when to do so would be to accept that the workings of his Queen had reduced him to craving the instrument of his own doom. Elessir rolled, burying his face against the pillow’s softness. He’d muffle it at least, he thought, if he had to scream after all.
    Only then did the scent of it reach him. He remembered Miss Thompson’s presence now, her voice grudging, yet comforting all the same, and in dazed shock he realized that the smell of her was all around him.
    Elessir snapped his eyes open, half certain he had to be dreaming—but no. A simple mortal bedroom presented itself to his sight, smelling of changeling, lavender and roses, and the fainter traces of brownies and cat. While the blinds on the nearby window were drawn, faint slivers of sunlight peeked through their edges. More distinct to his senses than the light, magic suffused the air. It was homelier stuff than he was used to wielding; some was brownie work, but far more was unmistakably Warder.
    He was in Seattle, in Miss Thompson’s house. In her
bed
.
    That should have been a relief. But with the absence of cold still gnawing hungrily at his bones, all he could think was to wonder why Melorite was gone, what Miss Thompson and her Warder allies must have done. Surely they wouldn’t have known how to kill an
alokhiu
. For that matter, he was stunned that they had not in fact killed him.
    Elessir fought to focus and marshal enough strength to get to his feet. Somewhere beyond the bedroom’s walls distant voices were arguing, which told him the mortals were alive and near and not in danger, not yet.
    But if Melorite had gotten free of him, they soon would be.
----
    â€œHellfire and damnation! Are you children
trying
to give me heart failure?”
    Millicent’s rifle wasn’t her only weapon—her temper had been forged in Texas, and when it ran high, her vocabulary became a furious hail of verbal bullets. When Christopher and I staggered in through my front door half an hour later, she launched into us with all the fury of a miniature hurricane. There was little either of us could do but let her vent. Behind us, edging into the house as if not at all sure of her welcome (quite correctly, since I’d only grudgingly invited her in), Melisanda took refuge in a wise and diplomatic silence.
    â€œWhat the hop-skittering hell were you two thinking? Were you thinking at all? Did you even remember that fancy cell phone you’ve been carrying around for the express purpose of
letting me know
when something happens, or were you just trusting I’d figure it out from here? Jesus Jehoshaphat Christ! Three
nogitsune
! Three goddamned
nogitsune
and a dragon child running loose in my city and I’m the last goddamned person to hear about—”
    â€œThat isn’t everything,” I squeaked, still wincing at her volume, and then again as she stomped to a halt before me and fixed me with a gimlet stare. Christopher had taken one end of the couch, while a tense-eyed Jake, wielding antibiotic and a bandage, worked on his arm. He and Carson had come home from their tech jobs to help, and both of them were wisely keeping their mouths shut. I had the couch’s other end and was about ready to join my cat in hiding underneath it if that was what it took to avoid Millicent’s wrath too.
    â€œExactly what else have you not told me, girlie?”
    I swallowed. “Christopher crossed into Lake Forest Park.”
    Whatever Millie might have been expecting me to say, this clearly wasn’t it. She started. She blinked. Then she squinted hard, first at me, then at Christopher, and back to me again, before proclaiming at last, “Either I’m going deaf as well as nearsighted, or I just