Page 55 of From the Edge

“You switch it on, put that deadman switch on. Start climbing, and when you are done, you fall on your ass or jump off the wall.”

Aspen turned it on, and it started moving, and then she put the clip on and started climbing. Rowan smiled and sat nearby watching her aunt climb. Rowan felt herself beginning to relax, and then she nodded off. She could rest now.

Chapter Nine

Rowan woke up warm, and someone was holding her. She blinked as a familiar face swam into view. “Renyet?”

“Just Ren. Told you that.”

“I thought you went to work.”

“I had a late start today. Me and the other orcs were comparing tusks.”

That was funny, so she giggled. “Why are you holding me?”

“Your life signs tanked. I came immediately.”

“Weird fetish, but you do you,” she muttered. She slumped against him.

Her aunt barked a strangled laugh.

Ren pressed his forehead to hers. “Do you need to go to the garden?”

“No. I just relaxed a little too hard. Didn’t have to hold either of them together anymore, so I unravelled a little bit.”

Aspen gasped. “What?”

“The curse would have held you mostly together while they drained you, but you cut it off, so you became energy floating loose. I gathered you up and anchored you to the carriage house. That became your body. Your voice was all of the music you could grab and repeat.”

Rowan dragged her voice in. “They kept coming for Mell, so I put her somewhere safe that I had created in the woods, and I set the estate to protect itself. She couldn’t be here for that. It would have killed her.” She looked at Renyet and said, “You know what happened when she finally went receptive.”

“Norecayet found her.”

“Sort of. I laid out a scent trail. He’s a good guy on paper, but I didn’t count on having to fight him. So more self-defense and you know what happened there.”

“The feedback.”

“Yup.” She frowned. “So why are you here?”

“Because you were close to dead.”

“Close doesn’t count,” she mumbled.

“Hm. I suspect you haven’t had a physical recently, so I have asked Dr. Oriel to take you on as a patient. She heard my description and was fascinated.”

She frowned. “You don’t have the right to do that.”

He sighed. “Who is your next of kin?”

Aspen lifted her hand. “That’s me. I used to have her power of attorney and medical power of attorney.”

“Can you authorize her to have a physical workup?”

Aspen looked at her with a shocked expression. “Rowan, when was the last time you went to the doctor?”

“I have had two hospital visits in the last twelve years.”

Renyet sighed. “And no follow-ups?”