Page 40

Chapter 40

Karus

Voices drifted through my head.

A man I’d met in a grove of maple trees, determined to convince me of…something.

A woman, a ghost, a piece of me, and I a piece of her whom I could not escape.

Without my conscious mind to force them to their dark recesses, they warred within me a fight I struggled to understand, but a battle I could hear all the same.

My body ached, my head pounded, and my daughter kicked, restless within my womb, bringing me back to the surface again.

I knew this room.

I knew this bed, these walls, this man beside me.

My eyes fluttered continuously as I tried to pull myself fully awake.

I lay on my side, my hand in his as he slept, his other hand spread over our child.

It took a moment to pull myself back to what had happened. I remembered the cave, the truth of the Blightress’s heart I did not comprehend until it was too late.

I remembered Lia’s sacrifice to get us out.

I remembered waking in the portal to Saelyn’s swift kicks and leaving, finding myself in Rev’s arms, right where I most desired to be.

The growth of hair on his face along with how much Saelyn had grown, confirmed that I’d been in that portal for months.

Just as before, I’d been kept alive by the Blightress’s power.

I needed food.

I needed water.

I needed to move, to get up and walk.

I heaved breath into my lungs, attempting to swallow the panic that loomed as the voices of two ancient beings faded into faint echos, crawling back to their corners.

I wondered why they left so easily.

I wondered if they’d chosen to pause their eternal war to let me live. They needed me to live.

“ Rev ,” I rasped, hardly more than a groan from my lips.

His eyes shot open and he rose, reaching out to my face, his breath a rush of air as he held his forehead to mine.

“ Karus ,” he choked. “ Pompeii is on his way here with food and water. Are you hurt? Can you feel Saelyn ?”

I pried my tongue from the roof of my mouth, choking on an attempt to swallow. He reached for a cup at his beside table, helping me sit up and holding it to my lips. I basked in the cool water as it flowed across my tongue, barely strong enough to take a few sips.

He pulled my limp body to him, his hand moving across my belly, feeling for our daughter.

“ She’s healthy,” I managed to whisper. “ Our daughter is strong.”

He huffed a sigh of relief, rocking us back and forth on the bed. I felt his chest shaking, but I did not hear him cry. I felt his anguish down our companion bond, tethered with relief and joy.

My arms limped at my side, but I tried to raise them to hold him, too.

“ You don’t need to move, Karus . I’ll hold you.”

A rush of air filled the dark room and Pompeii entered, carrying a tray of food. A flash of iridescent wings caught my eye behind him, and I tried to grin as Moira kicked off his shoulder, flying to us on the bed.

She attempted to shove Rev’s face away from mine, screeching, “ Get her up! Now !”

He swatted the air, replying, “ What are you doing? Stop that!”

She maneuvered around his hand easily, fluttering to my shoulder and tugging at my dingy shirt. “ Karus , get up! You need to come with me!”

“ Moira !” Revich roared as I all but fell out of the bed at her tugging my sleeves. “ Explain yourself or leave!”

He caught me easily, pulling me back to his chest where I wanted to fall to sleep again, too tired and weak to do anything but stay still.

“ Do I have to do everything for her?” she spat, flying to Revich’s face. “ Get her up, now! Get her into Felgren !”

I heard Rev’s attempt to keep his cool, replying through gritted teeth with, “ Why ? ”

She released an exasperated growl. “ Because she’s almost dead , you hairy-faced behemoth! Can you not feel her life fading? I’ve felt it since you brought her here! Felgren feels it, too!” She put her hands on her hips over petals of red roses. “ Get her outside now!”

“ Why would Felgren? —”

“ Because she’s part fae, for toadstool’s sake!” She spat each of her next words. “ Listen to me!”

Revich halted a moment in silent question to Pompeii .

“ I will help you lift her,” the Overseer offered, setting the tray on the table and moving to the bed, pulling one of my arms around his shoulder.

A sigh of relief came from Moira , her enormous violet eyes steady on my face. “ I’ve got you, Karus . I know what to do.”

She flew to the door, waiting as Revich and Pompeii helped me limp to it. I stumbled at the doorframe, my head lolling forward. Moira snapped her long sage fingers in front of my nose, a twinge of something floral bringing my focus back and my eyes wide.

“ Stay with me,” she commanded.

I blinked wide, stumbling forward, my eyes entranced by the shimmer of every color of her wings as she darted around the foyer and through the Fortress door out into Felgren .

I blinked again at the glow of the setting sun, wondering if this was just a bizarre dream. A line of Growers had planted themselves into the edge of trees that marked where the Fortress ended and Felgren began.

“ Lay her down here.” Moira pointed to a grassy bed of moss and soft petals dug into the earth and shaped just my size.

Revich voiced what I myself was wondering. “ When did you make this?”

He and Pompeii carefully laid me down in my Felgren bed as she answered, “ I can feel her in the many branches of this forest. Ever since she presented herself as fae in the Great Stream , all of us have been able to feel her life source.”

I closed my eyes for just a moment, promising myself to open them again.

“ You can feel each other? All the fae?” Rev asked, bending to my side, pulling my hand in his.

I sensed Moira’s eye roll without needing to see it. “ Barons , leaders of the forest, humans who know nothing.” She coughed and added, “ No offense, Karus .”

I felt the tug of a smile at my lips.

“ What now?” Revich asked.

“ Be quiet and let Felgren replenish what she has lost.”

I felt the roots of trees grow over my legs, the pop of blooms opening around my head.

Pompeii questioned somewhere nearby, “ Baron Revich , do you think this wise?”

Rev squeezed my hand once, refusing to let go even as long blades of grass swept over our fingers, growing from the earth beside my arms. “ Moira kept her alive and well for seven years through the darkest winter this forest has ever seen. I won’t question her now.”

Moira huffed and murmured under her breath, “ Smartest thing you’ve ever said.”

The forest hummed. It grew its roots, its flowers, its grass over my skin, my rounded belly, my chest, sending with it that whisper of my name on the wind—the one I’d known and first heard years ago across the sway of trees on newly unfurled leaves in that first spring.

Felgren lived in me and I in it. Our fates linked, our lives sprung from the same source of power. Terrible , endless power, but we would decide what to do with it. We would decide our own fates and paths.

Another smile tugged at my lips as a bloom burst open at my chin, tickling me and I laughed.

Rev squeezed my hand tighter and the silence was not silent at all.

It was warm and many sounds at once.

I felt the scurry of something small racing through the underbrush nearby.

I heard the creaks and groans from the ancient trees above me, who fed me their life through the roots woven over my legs.

I smelled the late spring air, wondering if it had yet turned to summer, the season our daughter would be born into this forest, healthy, and new, and loved.

With her perfect timing, she kicked and I choked out a groan.

My eyes opened to see the wall of flowers, purple, blue, and pink surrounding the shape of my head. Moira’s long pointed face came into view, and I grinned, matching her own.

“ There you are.” Her lips pulled to the side. I recognized her sharp canines and the flicker of light and color as her wings buzzed in a rapid hum.

Another face shifted into view, his eyes a worry of black that melted to blue at the sight of my glow.

For glowing, I was.

A radiating green washed over my skin. I could see it there, following the swirl of power as it drifted, unbidden but a part of me just the same.

Revich smiled, a laugh escaping him. “ Moira ,” he started, not taking his eyes from mine. “ Thank you.” He touched my cheek. “ Thank you for loving her, too.”