To the Bloody End (DFZ Changeling Book 3) by Rachel Aaron

Author:Rachel Aaron [Aaron, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aaron/Bach
Published: 2024-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Simon had to put his soul back together piece by piece.

If he hadn’t been exactly who he was, it would have been impossible. Victor’s attack had blown straight through the layers of his mind, shattering his death like a dropped Christmas ornament.

Anyone else would have died in that moment. For Simon, though, death had always been familiar territory, and not just because of the comas. Back when he was training, Victor had killed him on a regular basis. Simon would never ever thank him for that, but he could admit it was a useful skill as he picked his shattered fragments out of the dust and put himself back together.

When he’d finally collected enough pieces to open his eyes, he was covered in mice.

As usual, they paid no attention to him. They were too busy cleaning the blood off his bandaged chest with tiny scrub brushes. Simon was hoping those weren’t the same tiny brushes they used on his floor when he realized there was someone standing beside his bed.

“How feeling?”

He jumped a foot off the plastic mattress.

A four-foot-tall star-nosed mole in a white lab coat was standing just down from his elbow. It lifted its paw when Simon stilled, reaching out delicately to shine a penlight into the mage’s blinking eyes.

“Any pain?”

Simon shook his head, not trusting his voice to speak. That must have been good enough for the mole, because it nodded and shuffled away, leaving Simon blinking at the emergency clinic he’d helped Lola design in her house’s formal dining room.

The large, sunny room was filled with more low creatures than he’d ever seen. Whole legions of them were scrubbing blood off the sterile floor with their tiny mops. Yet more mice in little nurse outfits were holding a tray for the mole doctor, who was examining vials of glowing liquid while writing notes on its clipboard with a tiny fountain pen that fit perfectly into its curving claws.

“Charming.”

The condescending word rolled over Simon like dirty water, and his eyes flicked over to see Victor’s ghost sitting on the windowsill.

The sight made him go still. The other blood mage hadn’t been able to manifest like that since Simon had bricked him up. Clearly, Victor’s attack had done even more damage than he’d realized. He was about to start the long process of boxing the monster back in when Victor slid off the ledge.

“You probably think you’re clever,” his old master drawled as he strolled over to Simon’s bed, stepping on the mice whenever possible even though his ghostly feet passed right through them. “But all you really are is desperate. There’s no other explanation for why you’d keep coming back from the dead over and over when you know it won’t change anything.”

Simon closed his blue eyes.

“How many times does this make now?” Victor asked. “A dozen? Two dozen? You’d think a brilliant planner like yourself wouldn’t need to be so skilled at failure recovery, but I’m starting to think that’s your only real talent. You certainly aren’t good at anything else.

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