Page 5

Chapter 5

Karus

Briefly , I wondered how I knew.

I wondered if I was sure.

But as I pressed Revich’s hand to my belly, I had no doubts our child grew within me. I let out a cry of disbelief, laughter, and joy. Every emotion swept through our bond, together and all at once, shifting across our faces.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.

He beamed at me with such love, such devotion, I cried again and inhaled sharply when his other hand lifted to my cheek, brushing into my hair as he bent to my lips and kissed me.

“ Karus ?” I heard Clairannia at my side before I broke our kiss and turned to her.

“ Can I …?” she questioned, gesturing to where Rev’s hand lay over my womb.

I nodded, bringing her hand above Rev’s .

“ Vennae ,” she murmured, watching my face. Her own lit with glee. “ It’s there. I can feel both of your hearts beating.” Turning to the small crowd of party guests, she announced, “ The Barons are having a child!”

The cheer of the crowd filtered through the clearing where we stood in cries of surprise, congratulations, and laughter.

Figuerah had her arms wrapped around me a moment before Clairannia joined, my hand still clasped tightly in Rev’s .

I struggled to hear the words that spilled forth as the world around us erupted into a dozen conversations echoing at once. I heard Pompeii’s voice somewhere behind me followed by Mychael’s , and though we were pulled separate ways, Rev did not let go of my hand.

Moira fluttered before my face, grabbing my cheeks as tears streamed down them. All three of my friends began talking at once?—

“—start to make a list of what you need to eat?—”

“—don’t know how you’ll get there, but I’m coming, too?—”

“—more, Karus . Remember when I said you were more ?—”

“—told you so, but I did warn you, Karus? —”

“—certain routes we should take, and I’m the best option we have to get?—”

“—grow from flower buds, so I didn’t know why you felt like a bud somehow?—”

“ Please ! ” I stepped out of their reach. “ Give me some room to breathe!” I put a hand over my chest, closed my eyes and inhaled.

I heard Revich speaking quietly to Pompeii and Mychael as more of our party guests started the music over again and danced around the clearing.

I caught Lia’s stare in the small crowd. Her grey eyes watched me with a sorrowful stillness. I cocked my head in her direction, questioning. She plastered a thin smile on her lips, shaking her head before moving through the crowd.

I brought my attention back to my friends. “ Clairannia , I’ll take that list of foods to eat when you have it. And yes, you warned us plenty about what could happen if we kept skipping the styris tea. This child was not intended, but it is wanted and loved.” She nodded emphatically, unable to hide her glowing excitement.

“ Figuerah , I don’t know how we’re getting to the Attatok Mountains to pick up the new channelers now, but we’d love if you’d help us.” I gestured to the two green portals. “ Revich’s portals allow one beating heart to enter before they close. I won’t be able to enter one until he can fix that or I have this child.”

Figuerah took her companion’s hand, confirming, “ When you’re ready to leave, Nyeimah and I will guide you there.”

“ Moira .” I turned to my faerie friend in her gown of crimson petals. “ You were right. And you were the first one to recognize what was happening. I’d love to see that field of flowers where faeries are born someday.”

A sharp toothed smile lit her face.

Revich tugged on our clasped hands, and I turned just in time to see Mychael step through one of the portals. In a moment, he was gone. Rev made a motion with his other hand and the second portal disappeared in a flash of light.

He pulled me to his chest, cradling my head into his neck as he addressed the crowd. “ Thank you everyone, for your congratulations. We are just as shocked as you are of this news. Karus and I will now excuse ourselves. Please enjoy the rest of the party and celebrate for us. Mychael has gone to explain our situation to Geyrand and Vivianna , and I will retrieve him soon.”

Wrapping his arm around my waist, Rev pulled us toward the Fortress , giving a final wave to our people who cheered, calling for the celebration to last the night.

As the music faded behind us, I let my emotions seep to him. Through our companion bond, he’d be able to pick up on everything I was feeling. I laid my head on his shoulder as we walked in the late spring evening.

I sent him my surprise, my excitement, my awe in how our lives were forever changed. But strongest, I sent him my love. I sent the spring breeze of Felgren through his hair, over his cheeks, ruffling the linen of his sleeves. I summoned the scent of strawberry blooms from where they grew near the Fortress ; his favorite fruit. I grew him a trail of creeping ivy that wove through the path before us; his favorite color. I bent the trees to the west so that the setting sun could shine on his face; his favorite warmth.

“ You’re my favorite warmth,” he murmured in my ear, pulling me closer while we walked.

The dense line of trees thinned, and the cold stone fortress we’d made into our home rose from the forest. When our boots met the bottom of the dark staircase, he turned my shoulders, cupping my face. I closed my eyes and tilted my head, leaning into his grasp. He gently pulled my head back, urging me to look him in the eyes.

Not a fleck of black rose through the ocean blue. Not a single hint of the power of Baron peered out from his gaze. These were Revich’s eyes. His mother’s eyes. Hopefully , the eyes of our child to come.

He filled his lungs, confessing, “ I do not love you more. That would be impossible to do.”

I laughed, shaking my head and pulled his wrist to my lips to kiss. Once again, and just as gently as before, he moved my face back to look at him.

“ But I want you to know something,” he continued. He brushed his lips across mine, passing over my cheek, my jaw, my neck, before his hands left my face, sliding down to my waist as he lowered to his knees. He bent his head to my stomach, declaring, “ Karus , I promise to spend my life loving you and our child. I will do whatever I must to keep you both happy and safe. This is a vow I will not break.”

He lifted his head to meet my eyes as I wove my fingers through his black waves. He continued, “ I could not love you more, but our child…our child I will continue to grow to love. Everything has changed. Everything I thought before…everything I thought I wanted…” He shook his head, sliding his hands up and down my waist. “ All of it feels so insignificant.”

I lowered to the first step, sitting so I could pull his face to mine. “ It’s alright, my love. It will take time to adjust, but we still want the same things. We will still be able to do the same things for this world that we’ve been working toward.” I kissed him, adding, “ We’ll just have even more reason to do it.”

I pressed his head to my chest where he murmured, “ We’re having a child.”

“ We’re having a child.”

“ We’re going to be parents together.”

I kissed the top of his head, laughing. “ We’re going to be parents together.”

He wrapped his arms around my back, kissing my cheek as the sun slivered into a thin line of gold, broken through the trees across the horizon. “ Will you wait here with me for a little while?” he murmured.

I breathed in the forest, his scent of pine and earth more recognizable to me now than my own. “ Baron Revich , I would wait with you forever.”

* * *

“ If you doubted our fates were tied, Little Sprout , you carry even more proof.”

My eyes shot open in the lingering dark. The fire in our hearth continued to burn and glancing at the clock on Rev’s bedside table, dawn was still hours away.

His face was nestled into my belly, his arms wrapped under and over me. I attempted to slow my pulse so that he would not wake.

The Blightress spoke to me in my mind for the first time since I had faced her in the conduit trials. They’d been almost two months ago, and not a snarl nor threat had come from her.

I had known that wouldn’t last.

I had known she’d seek me out again, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to push her out completely now that I carried the power of a Baron .

I heard her tsk at my thoughts. “ Karus , we are even more entwined now that you’ve taken half of the power of Baron . When will you accept this? ”

I squeezed my eyes shut and addressed her there in the corner of my mind where her vines of obsidian wove through the space in a knotted web. “ I won’t. ” I swallowed hard. “ I won’t ever accept it. You murder, you steal, you kill the forest you gave power to. Why would I allow you into my life? What reason have you ever given me to do so? ”

Revich stirred.

“ I only kill those who deserve death. Your father arrived in my lands to hurt me, and I killed him for it. Baron Ereyth was weak and would have hurt those channelers more than help them. ”

Revich stretched his arms out around me and rolled to his back, pulling me with him. I followed his movements, doing my best to keep him sleeping while I tried to understand her words.

“ Baron … Ereyth ? The Baron who went mad and murdered his channelers after their Offerings ? You killed him? ”

Over one hundred years ago, that event had set off a spiral of distrust toward any future Baron of Felgren . Though the Lady of the Spire and Madame of the Mountains at the time had decided to continue to let their channelers be taken to train in Felgren , the Queen of Hyrithia had not. And so, for a hundred years, no channeler born in the city could be given an Offering . That was until Baron Heimlen created a deadly disease in Hyrithia , offering the cure if the Queen handed him me.

“ He deserved it. He had abused his channelers before. I know some of what goes on in the heads of Barons . ”

I didn’t like that. “ So , you’re calling yourself a hero now? And I should just forgive you for what you’ve done because you have good intentions? ”

“ My intentions are for us, Little Sprout . Come to me. Bring your lover if you must, but come. We can be together as intended. I see how you wish to help your people. I can aid in that. When my power is restored, we can help the people you love together. Mother and daughter ruling the isle side by side in a greater realm than we could ever achieve on our own. ”

“ By stealing people’s power to wield for ourselves? ” I pressed the palms of my hands to my eyes, wishing I could shut her out entirely.

“ It is my power. It has been taken from me . ”

“ You gave it away to the forest! You cannot just take it back. ”

“ What choice did I have? ” her dark voice seethed. “ I was young, I was foolish and reckless. I made a choice that I thought would make me loved. Instead , I broke, and centuries later, I found you. You were always meant to be mine. Beloved ? Why do you think that name suits you so well? ”

“ Because I chose ?—”

“ Because you are loved. You have been loved by me when you grew in Arah’s belly, just as you love the babe in yours. Everything I have done was for us . Everything I continue to do is for us . For our family, Karus . And you will see. I will do what I must to make you see. ”

Revich’s hands brushed my face as tears fell freely down my cheeks. He pulled me to his chest, rocking me in his arms as my body trembled.

“ I cannot love you. I am sorry for you, but I cannot love you, Visalia . ”

Silence .

My words to her lingered in silence.

“ Speak to him. Speak to Adaynth , and then tell me how sorry you really are. ”

Revich held me tighter to his chest, letting my last tears fall. My face pressed into him where I’d never leave as long as he let me stay. And he’d let me stay forever.

The Blightress had gone. Her last words to me had come hard and chilled. Words I’d rather not follow.

I wiped my hand under my nose and whispered into Revich’s soft, black waves, “ How can we make the world better for our child? What can we do for her, so that she grows more loved than we ever were?”

He smoothed the hair from my face, pulling his thumbs across my wet cheeks. “ Her ?”

“ Yes . Her .”

His face lit. Even in the dark, I saw joy produce from his eyes so blue. For the first time since I’d met him, I watched as his power poured from his skin. It lifted in smokey tendrils of a deep blue that hazed around his body.

“ A girl? You’re sure?”

I nodded. I didn’t know how I knew we were having a daughter. I just knew.

“ Karus .” He spoke my name as he meant it. His beloved. That was why I had chosen it. His love, Clairannia and Figuerah’s love—those were the reasons beloved fit me so well. What love had the Blightress ever shown me? Hers was possession, a desire to own me as her daughter. That was not love, and I knew it.

I kissed him deeply, pulling myself back to a place where I had a solid ground. A place where my soul had taken root in the threads which bound us by fate. This man was my fate. He was the path I’d chosen years ago, and the Blightress would not take that from me nor our child.

“ You’re glowing. Look .” I smiled down at him, placed in his lap, straddling his hips.

He shook his head, not even glancing down as his power radiated from his skin. “ Ah , Karus . It was bound to happen to me, too.” He kissed my jaw, catching my final tear that swelled there from the words of the woman who I knew would never stop pursuing what she longed to possess.

“ She said?—”

He slid his thumb to my lips. “ Is it urgent to know?”

I smirked, heat pooling in my lap. “ No .”

“ Then let me love you, Karus . Let me love the reason I glow.”