Page 20

Chapter 20

Rev

“ Are you hurt?” I huffed breathlessly, hovering over Karus , digging into my pocket for the rhyzolm.

I felt our daughter, strong as ever, and let myself breathe a sigh of relief.

“ She can’t have her,” Karus choked, covering her face.

“ She won’t.”

“ Saelyn is not hers. Rev ,”—she gripped my arms, shaking me, her eyes an abyss of black as she raged, “she cannot have her. She can’t. She can’t. She can’t.”

Her sobbing filled the air with the low crackle of the dying fires around us.

“ Karus ,” I whispered, pulling her into my lap, cradling her head and rocking her back and forth. “ She won’t take her. She’s ours. I would never let that happen.”

Her cries fell into seamless rage as she pounded at my chest over and over, screaming, pulling at everything I could give her—my clothes, my heart, my life, our bond, my very soul which had become one with hers a long time ago.

I took all of it.

The brunt of it.

The full force of it as she ripped my vest, screaming her words of what the Blightress could not do into the smoke-filled sky. Her voice carried through the scorched grove as if those words on that wind would reach the Blightress in a declaration that she was wrong.

Time passed.

I didn’t count the minutes, which felt like hours, and when Karus’s voice was finally hoarse enough that her vehement words were merely a raspy whisper, she wiped at her face, gulped in a breath of air and rose from my lap.

Figuerah , Nyeimah , Ilyenna , and Talon stood nearby, each with their own tears, watching the Barons of Felgren hold onto the hope that their daughter would be saved.

Karus wiped her sleeve under her nose. “ We don’t know where she has taken Rell and Mychael , but we can guess at what she’ll do with them. We’ll be going to the Blightress’s heart sooner than planned. We’re going to get them back.”

I surveyed the charred syphoner trees. I needed to see the extent of the damage done to the channelers inside, but as I studied them closer, I understood the truth. Not a single light continued to glow in the circle of trees surrounding the clearing, each no more than smoldering wood and dying embers.

“ The Blight beast?” Karus asked.

“ It’s dead,” Figuerah answered, patting the head of the sleek black muri sitting beside her. “ This one ripped its head from its body. We’ll bury them separately.”

“ Burn them,” Karus murmured. “ Burning the Blight will kill it, too.”

Figuerah nodded, catching my gaze. “ The channelers in Radyx …”

“ Revich will continue on by portal with you to Radyx . Ilyenna , Talon , and I will return to Felgren to inform Pompeii and take care of Renn and Philius .”

I pulled Karus to me, countering, “ I’m not leaving you.” I looked to the companions. “ Figuerah and Nyeimah , you will leave for Radyx by portal where I will join you in two days to retrieve the channelers. We push this timeline forward. The Blightress has shown her hand and what she’s capable of. Tell Madame Zoreyah we need more channelers. I’ll explain to Lady Lamoral and The Queen as well.”

I gestured toward two remaining portals. “ These will take you both to Radyx . I’m sorry, but I cannot send your Muri as well.”

Nyeimah kissed the top of both of the beast’s black heads, saying, “ You don’t need to. These are wild beasts. Figuerah called them to our aid and they came.”

Figuerah offered her thanks to both of the large cats and they sauntered off into the trees. Karus wrapped her arms around the iumenta conduit and let go first, giving a quick hug to Nyeimah as well before taking Ilyenna’s hand and moving toward the trees.

Figuerah frowned as they left. “ I’ll explain the urgency. We need to spread the word about these beasts.” Figuerah gestured to the desecrated syphoner trees. “ And about what the Blightress has done to those she has stolen.”

“ Make your words count. I’ll be with you soon.”

I embraced her quickly, stepping back to let the companions step through their portals.

“ Baron , I —” Talon’s voice caught in his throat as we followed Ilyenna and Karus . “ I’m sorry. Rell , Mychael …” He brought his fist to his mouth, pressing hard to his lips before stammering, “ I want t-to go after them.”

I put my arm around his shoulder as his voice broke, and his body shook in silent sobs. “ We won’t let this be their end. They deserve better.” I gestured to the syphoner trees. “ They all deserve better, so let’s fight for them. Let’s find a way to bring them home.”

He wiped at his face and sniffed into the cold air. “ What do we do now?”

Karus watched our exchange, and I stared back into those eyes filled with black, filled with anger, and hatred, and fear. I took a deep breath in, slowly, letting her see my chest inflate. She followed, filling her own lungs before we both exhaled together. She turned back around, still holding onto Ilyenna’s hand, who wiped at her eyes continuously. I looked back at the man beside me, murmuring into the midday air, “ We hold onto hope, Talon , and we defy the dark.”

* * *

We made the long trek back to the farm in silence. Once a line of nine, now only four, met Wellyn and Shay at their stone cottage, the sun beginning its descent behind the hills. Karus explained that the four of us would be leaving at dawn, taking our four horses back to Felgren immediately. She offered them the carriages as payment for hosting us for so long.

She didn’t explain. She didn’t go into detail of what we’d seen, and as Karus and Ilyenna were ushered into the house with Shay promising a warm bath, I took a moment to warn Wellyn of what awaited on the Tectus Trail , urging him to consider packing up and moving to Hyrithia or the Spire .

He didn’t believe me at first, listening with a deep-set frown about how the Blightress lived and was searching to regain her power. It wasn’t until Talon angrily shook the old man that the truth began to settle in.

“ But she’s a myth,” he insisted. “ We all know the songs and legends.”

I nodded. “ Passed down through centuries. Her real story is a tragic one, which I will not repeat here. All you need to know, we’ve told you. What you do with that information is up to you.”

He patted my shoulder, heading back into the cottage. “ Thank you, Baron Revich . For telling me the truth.”

I stood before the door, my hands in my pockets, one squeezing the rhyzolm tightly. Talon followed the old man, taking a glance back at me, but I shook my head. He closed the door behind him. Alone , in the dusk of winter’s chill, I sat on the stone steps, head in my hands, and wept.

* * *

Karus hardly spoke as we rode back to Lythglyn . The four of us were faster by horseback than by carriage. We kept our horses at a trot, aware that though Karus was not far enough along for concern, Ilyenna should not ride hard with her almost five moons of growth.

I held Karus again that night at the inn. Her tears streamed freely down her face with sobs of how we lost two of our channelers to a terrible fate and were left with the Blightress’s threats to take our child.

No words could soothe her. No amount of kisses I placed on her temple could cease her tears, so I held her instead. I rocked her in my arms, singing the only lullaby I could remember from my mother.

“ Sweetly does sing,

The wren to the tree,

Calling into the summer breeze.

Softly does hum,

The bee to the sun,

Flying into the summer breeze.

Shyly does bloom,

The babe in the womb,

Growing into the summer breeze.”

She laughed into my chest, now bare and wet, soaked with her tears. “ Your mother sang that to you?”

I stroked the wet strands of white from her cheeks. “ Yes . I remember her voice only through that song. She’d sing it to me when the night felt especially dark. She’d hear me cry out and slip into my bed, my head in her lap, and she’d sing it over and over until I fell asleep. She’d still be there in the morning, ensuring I made it through the night without being afraid.”

“ That’s beautiful.”

“ When Saelyn comes, I want that to be the first song she hears. A gift from my mother. I think she would have liked that.”

“ Rev ,” Karus broke, her voice still hoarse, barely audible as she met my lips with hers. “ She would be so proud of you.”

I swiped at another tear falling down her cheek. “ She would have loved you. I don’t remember a lot of her, but I know that much.”

We fell into silence. Her head rested on my chest in the dark, the only source of light a few slivers of wood still burning in the fireplace. I watched the moon as it danced across the sky, feeling Karus’s head grow heavy as she gave way to her exhaustion.

I reached down to cover the hand at her belly with my own, pouring love and hope into our child, ensuring myself that what I had repeated over and over in this room, and back in the snowy clearing, was true. Saelyn would not be taken from us. The Blightress would not have her. I had used hope as a weapon before. I knew how to wield it once again. I knew that a man with hope was still alive.