Page 33 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Lai

“Hello?”Freya entered Lai’s room without bothering to knock. “You, with the purple hair. You’re hurt, yes?”

Lai jumped, spinning around. How the hell had she snuck up on him like that?

He didn’t think he was that distracted. Putting away the little silver hand mirror he’d found by the washing basin and quickly brushing as much of his hair over the right side of his face as he could, he got up to meet the woman.

“Mostly my pride. Got something for that?”He smirked, making a sweeping motion towards the bed, inviting Freya to sit.

“I brought bandages. Come on, the last thing we need is one of our guests getting an infection.”Lai felt the air evacuate his lungs as she gave him an unceremonious shove, landing butt-first on the mattress.

What the fuck? He couldn’t hide his surprise.

Freya was shockingly strong. She didn’t seem to notice his staring, setting down a basket stuffed with medical supplies and grabbing out a thick roll of bandages.

The glass syringe with reusable needles made Lai a little nervous.

Although he was no stranger to field surgery, the medieval tools didn’t fill him with confidence.

“Saying I need to cover up?”He chuckled bitterly as the woman approached him with the cotton wraps. He’d meant it to sound playful, and winced, his wounded vanity betraying his emotions.

“Until it’s healed, yeah. Probably.”Freya pushed his hair back and secured it behind his ear with a colorful pin from her hair.

She ignored Lai’s hiss of protest as he tried to cover himself, wildly embarrassed that such a pretty young woman was tending to his wounds while his beauty had been cut out with a knife. It felt so unfair.

“After that, wear your scars with honor. It looks like you survived one hell of a battle.”

“Yeah, let’s call it that. Should’ve strangled that fucking bird when I had the chance.”

“Ah! Woman problems, yes? Bird sometimes means a woman in English, I believe. Do tell. Also, this might sting.”She covered a tightly woven gauze in brown liquid, and Lai recognized the potent smell of iodine.

He didn’t pull away, letting her press it against his face, bearing the brutal sting with no visible reaction.

“It’s healing up well, considering my face was split in half the day before.”He watched the girl closely. “Your scars are pretty impressive too.”

He’d hoped he’d throw her with the comment. She was dressed modestly; he shouldn’t have known she had any scarsat all, but he’d noticed the slight pulling of her skin at her throat, which suggested tight, damaged tissue a little further down.

“Thank you! Unfortunately, my best scar is from a fence, but it’s a hell of a story.

”She untucked her shirt from the band of her floor-length skirt and lifted it to show a large scar on her side.

Another surprise. Lai suspected that she hadn’t been allowed to show her face at dinner, but now she was halfway to naked in front of a total stranger.

The youngest was much more relaxed away from her sister’s influence. Lai could use that to his advantage.

“Oh, nice!”He made the first move, tracing his fingers over the scar. “Let me guess: impaled?”

“Something like that. I was jumping over the fence, running from- well, I was trying to get away, and my foot slipped. I went down, and my body broke the fence. It cut me open, and I had a piece of it sticking out of me; imagine my sister’s surprise when they found me in the barn, still alive!

”She lookedextremelyproud of the story. Lai couldn’t blame her.

“You lived after that?”He blinked in surprise. With a scar like that, her organs should have been scrambled. “Pretty impressive.”

“I’m hard to kill.”She grinned at the understatement. “What about you? What really happened to your face? Tell me it was a woman and not actually a bird.”

Lai gave a slightly nervous laugh. Despite how badly he’d been wounded, he suspected he’d gotten off lightly; he’d take Eleanore over Barbara any day.

“A crazy bitch with a knife,”he grinned, consciously matching Freya’s energy, sharing excitedly in the stories of gruesome wounds.

“I did wind her up, but I couldn’t help it.

Tie me to a chair, and my only weapon left is my tongue, which always gets me in trouble.

”He gave a dramatic, playful sigh. “Years of training, and I still have no control over it. I’m lucky she didn’t cut it out. ”

“Must have been pretty unpleasant.”Freya nodded sympathetically, taking a moment to finish dressing Lai’s wound. “So, this is the person who took your home? Tell me about her.”

“A squatter on steroids. She got tired of having to weasel her way in and took it by force. There wasn’t much we could do against a floating armada, so we dipped.

She won’t get to keep it, though.”He grunted as she pushed his hair back, a few strands sticking to the wound.

“Wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to take our home. ”

“I must admit, you are very different from what I thought you would be. I certainly didn’t expect a woman to be leading you.”

“You know what? Same. It’s been a crazy few weeks. At least we weren’t bored.”

She didn’t say anything. Lai didn’t want the conversation to fall into silence, enjoying the break from his pity party. He cleared his throat, his striking blue eyes watching her hands as she fussed.

“I haven’t introduced myself properly, have I? My name’s Leander, but my friends call me Lai.”

“You can call me Freya,”she said as she finished bandaging him up. “Everyone just calls me Freya.”

“I met a griffin named Freya once.”Lai brushed his hair over the bandage. “It didn’t end well for me back then. Let’s hope it’s gonna be different this time.”

Freya blinked at him but didn’t push to elaborate.

“I’m surprised Lucy isn’t taking care of you.

If she is your matriarch, this should be her duty,”she commented instead, changing the subject.

Lai suspected it was the topic she had come to discuss, entertaining the prying and curious to see where it would lead.

“We had a bit of an argument. She’s still mad at me.”Lai pressed his fingers against the clean dressings, gently massaging the area to relieve the healing itch.

“Trouble with the new leader already? That’s not a good sign.”

“It’s different. She’s family, families squabble sometimes. Or are you gonna try and convince me you lot live in perfect harmony? I won’t believe it, not in a village of only women.”

“Mysisters and I quarrel, but we understand each other. There are always reasons we might believe we have the right of a matter; fights only come when we fail to communicate those reasons properly. When we fight, we talk. When we talk, we learn. When we learn, we trust.”

“There isn’t a lot of trust in my family,”Lai muttered, tasting his own bitterness.

“Speaking of trust.”Freya paused, pursing her lips as though she didn’t know how to word her thoughts.

“My sisters are not exactly on board, but I want to help. This place is my home, and I can’t imagine losing it.

I’m sympathetic. Unfortunately, my sisters will not even consider discussing the matter until after I pass my trials. ”

“Trials?”Lai asked, sitting forward a little. He’d heard trials mentioned at the meal and was eager to know more.

“Yes. In a few days, I’ll get to prove myself and earn my feathers. If I pass–and I will– I’ll become a headmistress of the school, along with Agata and Sabira. That means I’ll be able to offer the help you seek, even if my sisters decline. Does that sound like a fair deal?”

A few days in exchange for a solid chance. It was the best option yet, and Freya seemed eager. Maybe tooeager, but Lai didn’t pick up on any deceptions or tricks from her; the young woman was an open book, and although he couldn’t read, he had no trouble understanding her.

“It’s a deal.”