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I followed the source of his energy and lapsed to his side.

He lay on the ground, clutching a blade of Elvan ore. I didn’t count the bodies lying on the soil around him, but there were more than I’d managed to kill today. Considering my total was zero, that wasn’t saying much.

He didn’t look much like Medica. His eyes were swollen shut, lips twice their normal size. His nose was skewed to the side.

“You put up a damn fight, eh?” I asked, patting his cheek to grab his attention.

He only groaned in response, head lulling to the side.

The damage must’ve been awful for these wounds to take so long to heal, but he’d survived.

He fucking made it.

“We’re gonna get you taken care of, esiasch.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

NIX

Ididn’t know where else to go. Nowhere on the mortal world was sheltered. The safe-haven I called home was gone. The Elder’s Hall was gone. Anywhere I normally would’ve gone for refuge in a time like this no longer existed.

That left one option. The Land of Light.

I was hesitant because if the boys were after me, I didn’t want to put the Fae on this realm at risk. But were they after me? If they had been, wouldn’t they have found me when I lay in an open field?

Were they even capable of opening an egress here? Lux and Rafael had managed it, but likely because they had a friend who was Fae to open it for them. After what the boys had done in the last year, they had no Fae friends.

Even so, there were people here I needed to speak with. The queens had to know that Véa was gone. It’d kill me to admit aloud, but they had to know.

Heylel and Alastair needed to know as well.

Fuck, how was I going to tell them their parents were gone?

I shook that thought off. Right now, I needed to get Medica to safety.

Like I’d opened the egress to the mortal world from Matriax, I opened one from the mortal world to The Land of Light. It was easier, in a way, since my blood was used to create this world, but maybe it was because I was less determined than I’d been earlier. I was rushing to get my wife and children to safety, and now…

One way or the other, I opened the egress. I ushered Vinion and Ayla through first. They hated egresses, but I wouldn’t leave them behind.

Then I hoisted Medica to my arms and we dropped through the vortex of swirling colors.

Upon the landing, he lurched and hurled before fainting again. Vinion and Ayla were in a similar state when I lapsed us all to the house I’d stayed in with Véa and the children for the last year.

The only home I had left.

Once I got Medica situated on the sofa, I sat in a neighboring chair, and I waited.

Waited for him to heal, waited for my brain to shut off so I could develop a plan, waited for my racing heart to slow, waited for my eyes to get heavy so I could collapse into oblivion for a while.

None of that occurred. I sat in that chair for a while, and then I paced when my legs felt like they’d crawl off if I didn’t. My eyes caught on one of Vanna’s toys tucked in the corner by my guitar, and the pain of their absence smacked me like a lightning bolt.

I sat again, and I waited.

In this spot, staring at Medica, I didn’t have to think about them. That was how I had to get through this. I’d process soon enough, but for now, I needed to get through this.

So I sat, and I stared at Medica’s slowly healing wounds all night long.

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