Page 22

Chapter 22

Rev

More curses escaped me.

I squeezed the sides of Boros , urging him to run faster through the forest trails, taking the quickest, but less trodden one that led right to the Fortress doors.

I needn’t bother, though. Karus was already whispering words of magic in his ears, giving him some of her power so that he moved easily and seamlessly through the underbrush. She called to the wind to help guide his way, the air moving swiftly as he bounded over logs, bushes, and fallen debris with ease.

What would have taken over an hour, became merely half of one as we reached the tall, black towers of the Fortress . Pompeii , Talon , and Ilyenna would still be far behind us.

Karus all but leapt from the massive black beast, faltering only slightly on her skirts as she picked them up, bounding across the path that led to the stone steps. I knew how quickly she moved because I ran just behind her the entire way, ensuring any slip, any stumble, I’d be there to catch her.

She burst into the foyer, calling out to Lia who came immediately, her face stricken with tears.

“ This way,” she said, ushering us through the dining hall doors.

We followed Lia at a run, passing through the warm kitchens, then through the doors that led to the servants’ quarters. We headed to the only empty room. It had once been Sylva’s , Heimlen’s lover and life source. Karus burst into the room without a knock, arriving at the bedside within seconds. Philius lay there, his face gaunt, his wrists wrapped in clean white bandages.

“ Philius !” Karus yelled, shaking him awake. His eyes flew open and he reactively reached for her. He stared down at his bound wrists instead, shaking slightly at what he had done.

“ Why ?” Karus shook her head, gripping his arms.

“ It’s how she did it,” he rasped. “ The Black Fever was still there, inside of me through my diseased hands.”

My stomach rolled at his admission. I heard Renn move before I saw her in the corner of the small room. Her arms were crossed at her chest, her red curls unbound and falling limply at her shoulders. Her light brown eyes were rimmed red and tears streamed heavily down her freckled cheeks.

“ How did this happen?” I asked her, turning so that Karus and Philius could speak in private.

She lifted her chin in a defiance I had never seen on her young face. “ He asked me to. So , I did.”

I hid none of my anger as it slid from my voice. “ How did you do it, Renn ?”

Her eyes widened slightly at my tone and she returned, “ An axe. We went out into the forest, and we got rid of her in his mind.”

I bent my head, in a deep exhale. When I looked back to her face, her lips trembled and she took a crying, shaking breath. “ She took my sister. She took my friend. She took over Philius’s thoughts and forced him into those trees of people!” She was shouting now, pointing at Philius . “ We solved that problem without you! I would have done it earlier if I’d known what she’d do!”

I pulled her to me as she cried in heaving sobs at my chest.

“ She’s right,” Philius said. “ This is the solution we came up with and it worked.” He lifted his face back to Karus . “ She’s gone from my head completely. I couldn’t let her do this again.” He reached out to her. “ Hear me when I say I’d rather die than let her take over me again like that. I didn’t remember anything. When I found myself back here and Renn told me what had happened, we had to do something.”

Renn silently cried in my arms, and I brushed at her hair, understanding the depth of despair she held.

“ Get up,” Karus demanded. “ Get dressed.” She turned from Philius’s bedside, stopping at Renn in my arms. She pulled the hair back from Renn’s face, quickly fixing it into a long red braid down her back. “ Wipe your face and get something to eat. I need you at the back door of the kitchens in an hour.” She swept her gaze to me briefly, then turned to everyone in the room, including Lia at the door. “ As soon as the others arrive, we head to the Blight and destroy it. This is our forest and no part of the Blightress will remain here.”

She swept out of the room and all eyes locked on me. I pulled a handkerchief from my vest pocket and handed it to Renn . “ I need to speak to Baron Karus . Will you be alright?”

She nodded, wiping at her nose. “ I’ll be doing what she says.”

My eyes darted to Philius who nodded, then to Lia .

She said, “ I will do what I can to help, Baron Revich .”

I bit back a reply. I would be outnumbered in this and Karus knew it.

“ Excuse me,” I murmured, letting go of Renn and exiting the room, following the hall into the kitchens. Karus was there, filling a plate full of food from the communal tray.

“ What are you doing?” I asked, refraining from letting the anger seep through my words.

“ I am eating, Baron Revich ,” she responded, setting her plate down at the small table and cutting into a slice of cold ham.

“ We don’t need to do this right now. Let’s think about it and what our options may be.”

“ No ,” she countered. “ The Blightress will not sit and think about her next move. She is two steps ahead of us and will not expect this. As soon as the others are here and fed, we leave. We destroy the rest of the Blight in this forest. They may not be trained in Cosensian Magic , but you know we don’t need much. The Blight will be gone by morning.”

“ You’d risk all of them?” I ran my hand through my hair, sliding into the chair next to her. “ What if she sends an army of those beasts out from the Blight and attacks us all?”

“ She could do that at any time. And the best way to stop her from such a threat is to destroy the Blight in this forest.”

I sat back in my chair, rubbing a hand over my mouth, watching my love, the mother of my child, as she speared a piece of ham she’d cut so carefully and brought it to her mouth. Her hand shook. Her eyes were dangerously close to letting those formed tears spill over, but her back was straight. Her chin high.

In all the years of Baron I had on her, I’d never had someone to make decisions with. I’d had to make hard ones. I’d had to sit and eat with the weight of what was heavy on my shoulders, but I’d done it alone.

I gripped her wrist as she went to take another bite. Her body froze while she decided if she’d take my help, if she’d accept that we did this Baronship together, made our choices for our people together.

Her black eyes finally met mine and her lips quivered.

“ We do this together,” I whispered, leaning in, holding her gaze as her tears finally spilled over her lashes, falling in long shiny trails to her chin where they dropped into a splash over her plate. “ You breathe, I breathe. You live, I live.”

She let out a cry and nodded, attempting to focus her face back into a solid expression.

She couldn’t. And I didn’t want her to.

“ It’s time,” she trembled, taking a stuttering breath.

“ I know,” I murmured, pulling on her wrist to bring her onto my lap. I wrapped an arm around her waist and tucked her arm around my neck, cradling her head to lay on my shoulder.

Her weight fell onto my body, immediately comforting my soul as I held her, welcoming more of her tears, gathering all of the pain she emitted through our bond and holding it there for her within my own chest, my own heart.

Karus was my companion, my partner, my love, and though I knew loneliness, I swore in those moments of time when she needed to fall apart, that my beloved never would.