Page 41

Chapter 41

Rev

Holding her hand tightly in mine, I twirled Karus around as she laughed. The sound of her voice lifted through our rooms in a bright call that would always guide me home. She stepped back to me and I caught her at my chest, one arm wrapped round her back to pull her close, the other holding her hand over my heart, so she could feel the joy that she gave to me.

Our daughter, heavier and only a few months away from joining this world, separated us more than usual and Karus looked down, knowing my thoughts.

After Karus had been replenished by Felgren , we’d gone straight to the dining hall where Jesslyn had provided Karus with an endless amount of food. We sat, eating our first meal together in months, and I caught her up on everything that had happened in the time I’d waited for her in that tunnel.

But now was the time for dancing. Now was the time for holding her close to me, relinquishing my dark despair into joy, for she was there, and I would never let her go.

I pressed my forehead to hers as we swayed to the music, produced from something Pompeii had delivered from the Spire in honor of our first child. A cylindrical turner, he’d called it, explaining how the long gold tubes were inserted and the handle was wound to play music.

“ A child of summer,” I said, before kissing her lips and pressing my hand to her belly. “ We’ll never get Saelyn out of that forest to go to bed.”

Karus laughed again, adding, “ I’d imagine not. Just think of all the trouble she and Thevin will get into over the years.”

I chuckled at that.

It had quite the impact on me to finally hold Talon and Ilyenna’s child. The first one born in Felgren in hundreds of years. He was beautiful with long legs and a mass of yellow curls on top of his head, looking just like his mother.

I scooped my hands underneath Karus’s full belly, easing the weight of everything she grew inside her.

She stopped and tilted her head back in relief, letting a long breath flow loose into the air. “ I never expected motherhood to be so heavy.”

I kissed her forehead, lingering in her hair. “ I can’t wait to hold her, Karus .” I adjusted my grip, lifting our daughter higher. “ I can’t wait to see her beautiful face. To sing to her the song of my mother. I hope she looks just like you.”

“ That’s funny because I was hoping she looks like you.” Her eyes, a vibrant green, sparkled and she bit her lip in a smile. “ I hope she has this hair.” She tucked my black waves behind my ear, pulled haphazardly back into a ribbon at the top of my head. “ I hope she has this nose.” Her finger slid the straight downward slide of my nose and I laughed. “ But most of all,” she continued, her fingers drifting, “ I hope she has these eyes so that I can see you in her every time she’s in my arms. Every time I hold her close, I’ll be reminded of where she comes from and who loves her just as much as I do.”

I shook my head, my face crumbling as I attempted to hold back my tears of happiness there with her, on the cusp of becoming a father.

“ I love you,” she whispered, her hands trailing over the rough hair on my face that she’d insisted I keep for a little while longer.

I met her lips with mine in a soft kiss. “ And you’ll love me still.”

She gave a snort, agreeing, “ And I’ll love you still.”

* * *

“ About two months, give or take a week, and Saelyn will be here,” Clairannia all but squealed, her hands glowing a soft red over Karus’s belly. I had gone to retrieve the medicus conduit the day after Karus healed. I picked up Figuerah to join us as well.

Clairannia pulled Karus’s shirt back over her belly. “ Tell me more about this fae healing Moira put you through.”

Karus grunted in our bed, reaching out a hand for me to help pull her up from Clairannia’s examination. “ I don’t understand it myself.”

“ But it worked,” I added.

Karus nodded. “ Whatever fae healing that was, I needed it without knowing I did.”

Clairannia placed a hand over Karus’s heart, murmuring “ Vennae , ” checking the pulse of two heartbeats within her. “ And do you feel any different? Any noticeable changes? Violet eyes? Vines growing from your hair? The relentless need to stick petals to yourself?”

Karus huffed a laugh. “ Nothing like that. I could tell when I was healed, though. And it didn’t take long. When Rev pulled me from the earth, I was hungry.”

Clairannia brought her hand back to her lap, satisfied. “ Well , all we have to do now is wait.” She shrugged. “ It could be eight weeks, it could be six. Your body will decide.”

Karus bit her lip and glanced to me. “ But not longer than that? You won’t let me go too long?”

Clairannia took her hand. “ No , Karus . Don’t think on that for one moment. What happened to… her will not happen to you. I promise.”

She nodded, giving a small smile. A knock came at the door, and I rose to let Figuerah into the room.

She held up a vase of golden sunflowers. “ I thought this room could use some color,” she said, placing them on Karus’s bedside table and leaning down to give her a quick hug. “ Is everything going well?” she asked Clairannia .

“ Perfectly well.”

“ So , she can come with us to The Sun Which Does Not Sleep ?”

“ Yes , but nothing too wild.”

Karus drank from her cup. “ Moira says a human has never been to the celebration. So we don’t really know what exactly to expect. Besides the face paint.”

“ And the most beautiful fae we’ve ever seen,” added Figuerah . “ Moira won’t stop talking about how unprepared we are.”

“ How are we supposed to prepare for a fae festival humans have never seen?”

I kissed Karus’s hand, rising to leave them to discuss what Karus and I had decided were our plans moving forward.

I too, needed to explain our next steps to our channelers, so I headed to Viridis to meet them.

“ It’s quiet. ”

“ I know.” I turned down our hall corridor into the foyer.

“ Don’t trust the silence. ”

“ What else would you have me do?” I replied in a low whisper, nodding to Jesslyn as she scurried around the halls, taking over Lia’s duties.

“ She will not wait the twenty years it will take to gather an army to subdue her. Your plan is not good enough. ”

I stopped in the empty, dimly lit corridor. “ Again , Adaynth , what would you have me do? Unless you plan to tell me what you did centuries ago to dampen her power, I don’t want to hear your warnings.” I continued down the labyrinth that was the path to Viridis . “ It’s all we have. We cannot destroy her heart without killing us all, and even then, who knows if she’d still survive. My guess is that Lia merely bought us time in that cave. We know the Blightress survived, but we don’t know if she’s been hurt. Our only option right now is to find a way to contain her power and that answer may lie in Viridis .”

“ You don’t have twenty years to train enough channelers to help you in this task.”

“ THEN WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO ?” My bellow echoed through the hallway, amplified by my power as Baron and snuffing out every sconce along the walls. Darkness fell and I pressed my hand to the cold black stone of the Fortress , taking my breaths deep, holding back my desperation from spilling out of me again.

A figure loomed in the dark. A man. His back against the wall, his head tilted as if he gazed up at something I could not see. I didn’t relight the sconces, preferring the dark to regain my composure.

He spoke, his voice no longer contained to my mind. “ I left Visalia . The last one to stay, the last one to leave. That’s why it won’t work again. Nothing heroic. No last stand against her. I finally left her for good, and she stopped her spread of darkness upon Felgren .”

I stood upright, facing him. “ You gave up on her.”

Even in the dark, I could see his features from some distant flicker of flame far down the hall. The Blightress’s companion, her lover and childhood friend, stared into the space behind me, unmoving, no more than a ghost haunting the halls he built, speaking warnings of the woman he’d scorned.

“ How could you do it?” I asked, sliding my hands into my pockets and clenching the rhyzolm in my palm.

“ She had become something else entirely from the woman I loved. I kept her heart safe and warm. That was where I loved her. In a tiny room under this Fortress , I loved her still.”

“ You left her with nothing. No hope, no way back into the light.” I scoffed. “ I pity you, Adaynth .”

“ Why ? Leaving destroyed all of it—the Blight she had grown, the dark creatures she had dreamed into reality—all of her hate and anger fell away the moment she understood I was gone and not coming back.”

“ I pity you because even now, you do not accept your role in the path that has led us to this moment. This point in time where my companion is on the verge of bringing our daughter into this world, and yet, the woman you loved still walks this earth even more capable of devastation than when you left her. It’s you who has played a part in all of this, and I am sick of hearing you in my head.”

I stepped back, regaining my composure. “ I am done listening to your warnings of Karus , of your long lost companion, the fate of this forest—all of it.” I ran my hands through my hair. He watched me with dark hazel eyes. “ You want to know the worst of it?” I laughed. “ I’m not sure you’re real. I’m not sure if this is all a dream or if I’m still in that fucking tunnel, waiting for Karus to find her way back to me. I wake every day, unsure if I will see her there beside me. I fall asleep every night, unsure if she’ll be gone by morning, if she’ll be taken by this woman you left because you didn’t know how to love her at her worst. I feel my daughter moving in her womb, unsure if I’ll ever get to hold her or some next great tribulation will befall us before I can, so I ask you again, Adaynth , what would you have me do?”

I wiped my eyes, sniffing and standing tall. “ No more warnings. No more suggestions on what I should or should not be doing for myself because none of that matters. What matters is Karus . Our child. Their future. Whatever I must do, I will do it to ensure that they are safe. There’s the difference between us, Baron .” I shook my head. “ I would’t have left.”

“ I left and saved Felgren ,” he snapped.

“ You left for the wrong reasons.”

He cocked his head at that, turning to look down the corridor, unfolding his arms from his chest. His stare sent a chill through my spine, and I followed his gaze, squinting in the distance at the flicker of light down the hall, seeing nothing.

“ I’m sorry I cannot be of further help, Revich , but I am trying.” He stepped closer. I could see through his wispy form, no more than a figure who lived with me in my head since the day I had accepted the power of Baron , bargaining with him to let me share it with the woman I loved.

He reached out as if to put a hand on my shoulder. “ Whatever happens next, remember that I am trying to fulfill the promise I made to Karus and keep you happy, and safe, and loved—just like she asked the night she took half of this power.” As he began to disappear from my sight, he repeated one more time, “ Revich , I am trying.”