"Deidre and Demos were unharmed," he continued. "Cadby had escaped with Royston. They're all in Asile." He dropped his hand, his eyes finding Nana's as if to ask permission to continue.
"And Carrig? Sinead?" I pressed.
"Those who attacked us took Carrig," he finally said. "I'm not sure who they were. They wore cloaks, and it was night. Sinead must've gotten hurt during the fight. She's in the infirmary here."
After catching Emily's gaze, I shifted my eyes to my messenger bag, indicating that she should watch over it.
She nodded slightly.
"Take me to Sinead." I spotted a nearby door and marched over to it.
He followed me. "Gia, you need to let her rest."
"I have to see her." I opened the first door I came to. It was a supply closet. "Arik, please."
"All right," he said. "Follow me."
I shut the closet door. If she died, or if they killed Carrig, I wasn't sure I could survive the blow of losing them.
Arik opened a door in the back and held it for me to pass. I had expected a small room, but instead it was an enormous area with three galleries surrounding the main floor. There were about twenty rows of beds filled with patients on the first floor and several more on the balconies above. There had to be more than a hundred Fey and other Mystiks in them.
"What's wrong with them?" I slowed my steps, glancing from one bed to the next, searching for Sinead.
Arik put on a surgical mask and handed me one. "Here. Don't touch anything. It's a disease that's spreading through the Mystik world."
I took it from him and secured it over my mouth and nose. "Where is Sinead?"
"Third floor. Isolated from those with the illness."
I slid a glance at him. His worried face scared me. The fear in his beautiful brown eyes mirrored my own.
"She's that bad?"
"She's in a faery sleep," he said, darting looks at me. "She'll be all right. I'm worried about Carrig. And, of course, not knowing Lei's or Jaran's whereabouts is maddening. There is all manner of evil out there. The human news channels are full of reports. Attacks on humans. Creatures roaming their streets. We must end it."
His words strangled the hope out of me. I couldn't bear it if something horrible had happened to Carrig, to Lei, to Jaran.
"Are you all right?" Arik's voice seemed like it was miles away.
"I'm fine. Where's Sinead?"
He nodded in the direction of the main row. "That way."
I kept pace with Arik down the aisle, my eyes roaming over the row of beds.
The faces of the sick struck me as I passed each one. A faery with sores around her mouth, blanket pulled up to her chin, stared at the towering ceiling. A bird person, breathing heavily, missing feathers to the point that he was balding, mumbled what sounded like a prayer to himself. A curer pulled a sheet over the face of a Laniar. I only caught a glimpse of him, but blood from his sores had streaked his chin, and his dark eyes were glazed over, lifeless.
Each face took a bite out of my soul. The linen mask sucked in and out with my stuttering breath. I staggered alongside Arik, walking on numb legs.
Someone had to do something to save them all.
Down the row, Afton sat on a stool beside one of the beds. She blocked the face of the child under the covers. I detoured down the row toward her.
The sound of Arik's boots hitting the floor followed me. "Where are you going?"
"Afton?" I approached her.
She twisted on the stool to look at me. A linen mask covered her nose and mouth, surgical gloves were on her hands, and her hair was pulled back in rows of braids. Just over her shoulder, I could see the boy's face.
Dag.
I stumbled back, and my hand flew to my mouth.
Afton shot up to her feet, blocking the boy's view of me. "Don't frighten him," she whispered.
"Will he be okay?" I whispered back.
She didn't answer-the tears welling in her eyes told me it all. He might not make it.
I sucked in my emotions and forced a smile behind my mask before going over to the bed. A sore had formed at the corner of his mouth. His almost-black hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. I reached out to brush it away, but Afton caught my hand with her gloved one.
"Don't touch him," she said. "You could catch it."
I dropped my hands and leaned over him. "Hello, Dag," I said.
His eyes fluttered open.
"Why can't I be with Peyton and Knox?" His voice was scratchy and quiet, his words ripping my heart into pieces like an unwanted note.
I hesitated, not sure how to answer him, not wanting to lie.
"Once you're better, you can see them," Afton answered for me.
"I have to go," I said. "But I'll be back later, okay? Is there anything you want?"
"Do they have ice cream here?"
"I'll see." I gave him one last smile before returning to Arik.
It was as if the world collapsed on me, the weight of it unbearable, suffocating. "Take me to Sinead," I said, trying to compose myself.
Arik led me down the aisle, up two flights of stairs, and stopped at a glass partition. A willowy girl with doe eyes and hair so shiny it was like an iridescent oil slick opened the door. The gemstone piercings lining her pointy ears glinted in the light.
"We're here to see the patient," Arik said.
The girl nodded before opening the door then closing it behind us. We stopped at another partition and waited for her to let us through. Six beds lined the walls in this part of the infirmary, but only one was in use. A cocoon-shaped apparatus made of glass covered Sinead. She looked peaceful in her sleep. My emotions were still so raw from seeing all the sick people, from seeing poor little Dag, that I almost didn't notice the new set of tears burning my eyes.
I placed a shaky hand on the barrier, wanting desperately to hold hers. "Has she spoken to anyone?"
Arik crossed his arms in front of him and shook his head. "No. She was unconscious when we found her in the barn. She's in a faery sleep. The curers have done all they can for her. It is now up to her to do the rest."
I turned away and wiped the tears now falling from my eyelashes. "How do we get her out of it?"
"We can't." He lowered his head as if he feared I would see something in his eyes.
"What are you hiding from me?"
"It's nothing."
"I know you better than most. We're battle partners. Tell me." I swiped away tears still lingering on my lids. "Tell me, Arik."
His face lifted, his eyes capturing mine. "When Sinead married Carrig, their lives became tethered together. She can't live without him, but he can live without her. Since she isn't dead and is in this state, we believe Carrig is still alive."
There was a silver thread in the midst of all the sadness. "So there's hope," I said, my gaze going to Sinead.
"By the state Sinead is in, Carrig is barely holding on to life."
And the world collapsed again. I rested my forehead against the glass and closed my eyes.
Carrig is strong. He'll be okay. He has to be okay.
I couldn't fall apart. Carrig and the others needed me. I took several deep breaths, releasing them slowly, then turned to face him. "What are we going to do now?"
"Return to Asile," he said. "Not straightaway. You need some rest."
I nodded, too tired to speak.
"We need a break from all this despair," he said. "Shall we get some air?" The sincerity in his voice softened his accent. It was soothing and held strength, even though I was sure he was hurting inside just as much as I was.
Arik had always been strong; I'd rarely seen him weak. It seemed so long ago we'd bumped into each other at the Boston Athenæum. So long ago that we were more than just sparring partners. So long since we'd shared intimate words, and he'd been the only star in my dark universe. I held on to hope that we could be true friends, not just cordial.
I walked beside Arik in silence down a long hallway. The glass walls and metal fixtures were cold and unwelcoming. When we exited a door and ended up in the lush outdoors of the Fey realm, it was a completely different feeling. It was warm and colorful, with floral smells and the musical humming of life around us-a paradise wasted on two people at odds with each other.
The path cutting through the thick shrubbery ended at a cliff with a decorative wrought iron barrier blocking it.
Wrapping my hands around the top of the fence, I arched my back to stretch it. My entire body was tense. "Wait. This isn't iron," I said, trying to ignore the weakness in my muscles. "Is it copper? It seems like everything here is made with it."
"Yes, it is. You won't find any iron in Tír na nÓg," he said, watching me intently. "It burns faeries."
"Like their Kryptonite?"
"Sort of," he said, pulling his stare from me and turning it to the valley below.
"It's so beautiful here. It's too bad we can't stay forever." My thoughts played back what I'd just gone through. Time was running out. For the sick. For our missing. Staying in the Fey realm wasn't an option.
"We have to find Carrig and Nick … Lei and Jaran. We can't waste time here." I released my grip on the barrier and stepped away from him. If I kept moving, maybe the image of Dag in that infirmary bed wouldn't catch me.