Page 69

“Lil.” He pleaded next to her ear. “Stay with me.Gods, stay with me.”

A firm hand tugged on my arm. Valen pulled me behind him. His eyes were despondent, watching his mother fall under the curse he’d endured, watching her spit hatred at his father, at him, at us all.

Livia watched in horror as her grandmother bucked and thrashed in Arvad’s grip.

“Maj, don’t kill her,” she whimpered. “Please don’t kill her. She . . . she can be fixed.”

I kept one hand clasped with Valen, and with the other, hid Livia’s face in my bloody tunic. We’d heal her. Somehow we’d heal them all. A bitter tear fell onto my cheek. I wasn’t going to lose Lilianna. I wasn’t going to lose my damn kingdom. Not when we’d battled for peace through too much blood, too much pain.

From the back of the room, the door burst with more of our warriors. Sol, Stieg, Kjell Bror, Hagen, and Laila. Sol embraced Tor and Aleksi, but looked at his mother with a bit of horror. “What the hells . . . no. Tell me they—”

“She was attacked,” Valen said, a new hardness to his tone.

Sol blinked furiously. “Then . . . we’ll find a damn cure. You were cured.”

“By dying,” Valen snapped. “Dying.”

“In the East—”

“Malin is not here to walk our mother . . . to walk her back to us.”

Endless nights of fighting, and the stalwart optimism of my king was wavering. I wrapped an arm around his waist.

“I was recently reminded,” I said softly. “We do not leave each other behind. We’ll find a way.”

Valen blinked, then pressed a hard kiss to my knuckles. “Daj.”

Arvad’s muscles pulsed as he clung to his thrashing wife. Lili’s lovely blue eyes were red and hateful. She kept flinging her head back, smacking her skull against Arvad’s chest. Already she’d drawn blood on his wrist from biting him. He didn’t let her go. He didn’t give up his embrace.

“See if you can get her to sleep,” Valen’s voice was rough, like grit lined the back of his throat.

Arvad’s eyes darkened. His jaw pulsed. Next to Lili’s ear, he whispered something only meant for his wife, then carefully drew his strong, heavy arm beneath Lilianna’s chin. He tightened his grip, his forearm choking off her breath.

She kicked and thrashed. Her skin shaded to a desperate flush of purple as she tried to draw in a sharp breath. Cursed or not, to deprive the lungs of air would silence anyone. Arvad broke. A single tear on his cheek as his shoulders shook, but he didn’t relent.

Lilianna’s thrashing grew slower, weaker. Soon she could barely pound at Arvad’s arm.

At long last, she went still. Arvad let out a shuddering gasp and loosened his hold. He kissed the side of her head, holding his lips in her hair, holding her to his chest.

Kjell went to the former king, and clapped his shoulder. “We’ll heal her.”

Arvad still kissed her head, but nodded, closing his eyes.

“Come. We can’t stay,” Valen said, returning to his role as the king. “They’re closing in, but we’ve learned they despise fire. That was not the same for me. So, it’s hopeful that this isn’t the same curse. For now, we can keep them at bay until we make our way to the peaks. There are sleeping draughts to help with Maj, but we must try to find out what is happening in other lands. We will need Calista to end this.”

A glimmer of hope heated my blood.

No sooner had the reprieve begun than the ground quaked.

“Valen.” I clung to his arm.

“It’s not me.” He tugged my body against his side and held Livia against his other hip.

The ground rolled again. It dipped.

“What is that?” Sol shouted, taking Aleksi in his arms and shielding his boy’s head as the castle rocked. He pointed out the window.

In the distance, against the eerie red of the night sky, a burst of light broke in the western-most seas. Like a burst of shattering gold, it broke across the sky. Screams filled the hall when the floor dipped.