Page 80 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Three

ELIAS

I bent down, taking Teddy’s foot in mine to mend her ankle. Her fingers combed through my hair, and when I stared up at her, she shook her head.

“Wait,” she said.

Her attention bounced across the field, where bodies covered the spans of it.

Some dead, others injured and being tended to by the male mage.

The smell was overwhelming. The cries were so loud I was sure they’d follow me into my dreams. My parents, my uncle .

. . I wasn’t ready to face that yet. I only wanted to tend to Teddy. That I could do. The rest could wait.

She took my hand and led me up.

“Your mom,” she said. “She was still alive when I put one of those invisible shields around her.”

That boulder that had nestled in my chest shifted. My mother was alive. Of course, she was alive, or else the bargain I’d made with Leanora would’ve held true, and Leanora would’ve died the moment she attacked. I’d been careful in how I’d worded it .

Once my parents are dead, you are done.

While I hadn’t said when they had to die, I’d made sure she had to leave our world when they did. Still, I hadn’t expected my uncle to kill my father. Hadn’t expected my mother to try to kill herself either.

Knowing Teddy was injured, I scooped her up and cradled her in my arms before I barreled toward my mother. Teddy dropped the shield when we reached her. Letting go of Teddy, I went to my knees beside my mother and took in her thready heartbeat. It was weak but still there.

Teddy knelt beside me and rested her hand on my arm as she sent her magic to me.

I removed the dagger my mother had stabbed herself with and began mending her.

While the dagger had penetrated her chest, she’d missed her heart, which was the only reason she was still alive.

Alastor came beside me, and when he put his hand on my mother, I felt the flood of magic he sent to her.

After everything my family, my mother had done to his people, to his own mother, he still worked at healing her. This mage, this male, had suffered years of torture and abuse, yet he was still able to find a sense of grace. I wasn’t sure I was capable of such a thing.

My mother glowed with the array of colors that resembled his magic for two quick beats.

Her eyes fluttered open as her heartbeat strengthened. She groaned. When I went to help her up, she pushed me away. Her anguish barreled into me, leaving me shaken and scared.

“Let me die,” she croaked out, her words quivering.

“I can’t.”

I couldn’t lose her too. The thought of it was too much, too heavy. I shook my head, rejecting the notion and only wanting to keep my mom close .

“Your father.” Her sorrowful eyes clashed against mine.

I didn’t have to remind her he was gone. Didn’t have the words in me to say them anyway.

“You’re going to live,” I told her, taking in how quickly Alastor healed her. “You’re going to live, Mama.” I held on to her cold hand that suddenly seemed frail. “I need you to live.”

A tear fell from the corner of her eye and quickly disappeared into her dark hair. Again, I tried to urge her to sit, but she shook her head. Her pained cry pulsed through me, shattering the already broken pieces of my heart.

When Alastor finished tending to her, I picked her up and cradled her shaking body to me.

“Mother,” I begged through another one of her body-wracking sobs.

“Please, Elias.” She wrung her fingers through the fabric of my torn and bloody shirt.

“I can’t,” I whispered back.

My heart shuddered as hard as her limbs. It tore through me, ripping and mangling me to shreds.

I wasn’t sure where to take her so she could rest. Too much needed my attention in Niev, where I’d left fae in cells and the city in ruins. Even more needed my attention here, but I didn’t have a place of my own in this realm anymore.

After everything we’d all been through, I didn’t want to leave my people alone any more than I wanted to leave the humans to pick up the mess those in my realm had brought here.

So I carried her through the field, casting my eyes down so I didn’t have to look at anyone, but not too low so that all I saw were the dead.

My mother’s cries carried over everything else. Her anguish was all-consuming. It was the only thing I felt.

I stopped suddenly, and when Teddy rested her hand on my arm, I turned to her. To Everly, Ryenne, George, Donnie, Nate, Brenton, and Alastor. They were all there, offering quiet support.

“I don’t know what to do,” I told them.

The vulnerability of those words, of everything I felt, hit me. Teddy kissed my arm.

“Take your mom to Ry and Donnie’s,” Teddy said.

“It wasn’t destroyed?” I asked.

Someone, one of my fae friends, used their magic to remove the blood from our shirts and skin, including my mother’s.

“No,” Ryenne answered. “Whatever magic destroyed everything here never made it to our neighborhood.”

I nodded, sending a silent prayer of thanks to whoever our gods were.

“She can stay with Grandma Richter,” Donnie told me. “While we. . .” His shoulders lifted and fell in a defeated shrug. “I need to get back. Help whoever I can.”

“I’ll go with you,” Alastor offered.

Not knowing who he was, except for what he’d seen on the field, Donnie eyed him warily but then nodded in agreement. Nate followed them.

“There are fae in the cells of our dungeon.” I swallowed hard as I told George and Everly. “I left them there. I”—I cleared my throat—“I don’t know about the rest of Niev, but the mage destroyed everything in Somnio and Reignom, aside from the castle.”

When George threaded his fingers with Everly’s, she leaned against him.

“We’ll go back,” George said. “Get everyone out of the cells and?— ”

“They can live in the castle while we fix the cities,” I finished for him.

I felt my mother’s eyes on me while her cries grew quieter.

“There have to be more than those who are in the cells,” I said. “Unless she killed the rest.” I shook my head.

“Dead or alive, we’ll find them,” Everly said.

“What..” Brenton sighed. “What do you want to do with your father and uncle?” he asked softly.

Those broken shards of my heart pierced through me so that I wheezed out a painful breath. Teddy was there, though, her hand still on my arm, her eyes pleading with me to tell her how to help. I shifted my mother in my arms, kissing the top of her head when she cried into my shirt.

“Take them to Niev,” I said, my voice far calmer than I actually felt. “Ask any fae who can to help you take our dead home. We’ll honor each of them when I can go back.”

“I think any fae who wants to go back home should be able to do so,” Teddy said, her tone quiet. “Any fae in all the regions, Elias. They shouldn’t be forced to live here if they don’t want to.”

“I can’t harvest enough food for everyone on my own,” I told her. “I can’t keep the electricity or water or any of it going without the fae who are here.”

“Then we figure out something else,” she said.

“Your mate is right,” my mother said, sniffling. “No one else should be punished for what we did.” She closed her eyes and rested her head against my chest. “I want to go home too.”

“You will,” I told her. “As soon as I can get away, we’ll go home. We’ll lay Father to rest.”

With her eyes still closed, she nodded.

“Ask fae from other regions to come here,” I told Everly and George. “We can divide them into those who stay and those who go back to help. But we need to rebuild here and back in Niev before anyone can settle anywhere.”

George nodded before he and Everly headed back to the square.

“I need you here,” I told Brenton. “After everything settles, you can go back to Niev if that’s what you want, but I need your help here for now.”

With that, he also left for the square while I bent space so that Teddy, Ryenne, my mother, and I could step into Ryenne’s home. Although she and Donnie had said their home hadn’t been touched, I was still surprised to see it standing.

Teddy led me through the halls to the room she and I had shared while Ryenne went to speak to her grandmother. Teddy pulled the covers back so I could lay my mother on the bed. When I sat beside her, Teddy covered my mother up to her chin.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked my mother. “Tea, water? Ms.—Your Majesty?” Panicked, she stared at me through wide eyes while her cheeks flared with a blush.

Despite myself, I smiled. “Mother, is it okay if Teddy calls you Renee?” I asked.

Eyes vacant, my mother nodded. “That’s fine.” Her voice sounded distant, too far away for me to reach.

Giving me a small smile, Teddy backed away and left.

I took my mother’s hand in mine and brushed her hair back. She blinked in reply. That was it. All she could muster. Desperate to reach her, I lay down beside her.

“Mother?” I asked.

She turned to face me. “I don’t know how to live without him.”

I understood what she meant. I didn’t know how to live this life in his absence either.

The enormity of losing him—this male who was greater than life.

Inside the grief that ripped at my heart was fear.

So much fear and dread. He’d been the foundation I’d built my life on.

Everything I was, he and my mother had helped me become.

Without him, I feared everything would all crumble to nothing.

But because of him, because of my parents and uncle, everything had already crumbled.

Their selfish, barbaric actions from so long ago had impacted all of us.

Killed too many in a battle that should never have happened.

My father was dead, leaving me unable to rage at him for what he’d caused.

And my mother was too broken to handle much of anything.

A part of me felt lost, like I’d never known my father. Where I’d once wanted to be like him, I no longer knew the kind of prince—no, the kind of king—my people needed from me. I didn’t know how to take up his mantle, which was built on lies and deception.