Page 30 of A Curse of Breath and Blood (The Mind Breaker #1)

29 AELIA

“Aelia?” Caiden and Roderick rushed to where I lay crumpled on the floor, heaving me onto the bed. Emotions whirled inside me like a cyclone. This could not be the world I lived in. A world where Baylis allied with my tormentor. A world where I erased the mind of the only person who had truly loved me.

“I need a minute,” I said, curling myself into a ball. My ankle throbbed with pain. I wanted a mountain of dust. I didn’t want to feel anything ever again. My breaths came faster as the world closed in on me. My vision tunneled, growing smaller by the minute.

“I can’t breathe.” The air in my lungs diminished.

“Aelia, breathe. You must breathe.”

I could hear Caiden’s voice, but it sounded far away. With each shallow breath, I drifted farther away from my body.

Caiden lay next to me, wrapping his warm body around mine. “Do not let this break you, Aelia.”

Tears cascaded down my face. What did I have to live for anymore? Everyone I loved was gone. I wanted to rip my soul into a million pieces and scatter it into the wind .

I buried my face in his neck. This world had beaten me.

Caiden pulled me in closer. “Aelia, look at me.” He held my face in his hands. “This will not break you.”

“I’ve been broken for a long time,” I said through tears, gasping for air. “There is no fixing me.”

“You are not broken, Aelia Springborn. You are strong. I remember the girl I met ten years ago. The girl who has faced death. She is in there somewhere. I know it.” His eyes searched mine, for the woman he loved.

I did not know if I had the strength to resurrect her.

“Okay.” I sank into Caiden’s embrace, matching my heartbeat to his.

Amolie brought a healing tonic. The green viscous liquid tasted like sap and pinecones.

“When this is through, you better serve Gideon’s head on a platter.”She eyed the two sylph men in the tent.

“Oh, we’re planning on it,” Roderick said, cracking his knuckles.

“Good… because if you don’t. I will.” Her voice dripped with vitriol. I wasn’t accustomed to seeing this aspect of Amolie.

“Oh, I know you will, my love.” Roderick put an arm around the witch.

“His father killed my mother, and he nearly killed my best friend. I will carve his heart from his chest.”

I tried not to choke on the tonic as I stifled a laugh. “Thanks, Am. Thank all of you.” A calm washed over me.

Everyone nodded.

“I think Aelia needs her rest,” Caiden said, hurrying everyone out of the tent. He stoked the fire. The light danced on his face. I wanted to live in this tent with him forever.

Caiden brought me a plate of roasted chicken and vegetables, filling the tent with the mouth-watering aroma of thyme and rosemary .

As I ate, I glanced at Caiden’s desk, where the bone scepter slept, waiting for me to return.

“What are you looking at?” Caiden asked.

“The scepter… it calls to me. Talks to me in my head.”

He set his plate to the side, a seriousness overtaking his features. “What does it say?”

“It wants my blood. It wants to bind itself to me. I have been beyond the veil, and it knows.”Leaning back on the bed, I let out an exasperated sigh.

Caiden shook his head in disbelief. “Lucius was right. It requires a blood sacrifice.”

“I don’t think it needs an entire sacrifice. Just a prick. You sylphs are so dramatic.” I rolled my eyes.

“We need to tell Lucius.”

“I don’t need a lecture from him.”

“He needs to know. Will any blood work? Or just yours?”

I shrugged. “Would you like me to ask it?”

“Yes, of course.”Caiden bounded out of bed.

I regretted asking. Of course, they wanted me to communicate with a talking scepter who controlled the Army of the Dead.

“Tomorrow. I am too tired tonight to argue with an ancient artifact.”

“Yes, my apologies, you need your rest.” He pulled back the pelts from the bed and slid in next to me, pulling me close and running his calloused fingers down my back.

We lay there, holding one another until late into the night.

“Remember when we were looking for the crack in the wall surrounding the bog?” I ran my hands over Caiden’s broad chest.

“Of course. It was the first time I got to see your swordplay. You took down an Arachnai on your own.”

“And you told me beer tasted better after a battle,” I chuckled.

“I was a charmer,” he said, stroking my hair.

“You were, and I ate up every bit. ”

We both laughed.

Caiden’s face darkened. “I should have taken you away. Run as far away as we could get. We could’ve had a family.”

I pressed my fingers to his lips. “It does no one any good to dwell on what could’ve been.”

Grasping my hand, he pulled me in closer. “I want you to know. I thought about it. About stealing you away.”

“Stop.” Hot tears burned behind my eyes.

“Your Promised Day almost killed me.” His voice cracked like sharp glass. “I watched you on your pedestal, dressed in white. All those eyes on you. It was unbearable.”

A sob caught in my throat. “Caiden, please…”

“And then when your father announced your betrothal to Gideon Ironheart of Highlands. It took everything in me not to slit his throat right there and run away with you.”

“I wish you had.” A smile crept through my tears.

“Me too, Aelia. Things would have been different. Maybe they would have been worse, but at least we could have been together.”

“We have each other now,” I said, pulling him in close. “We need to treasure the time we have together.”

Caiden squeezed me tight. We could have ruled over the Stormlands together. I wouldn’t be this terrible crossbred creature. Shaking my head, I pushed the thoughts from my mind. I couldn’t let delusions of grandeur get the better of me now.