Page 20

WES

E very day Mara slept, I placed another rose in her vase.

Ten roses found their new home in Mara’s room.

Ten nights I slept at her side.

Ten days I sat restless, waiting for her to wake.

And while she slept, war raged on the borders of the North, and we were eating shit.

My mother worked hard to pacify the region, offering half-truths that would quell the dissension in the North.

She and Sasha seemed to get along well enough, though the tension felt thick between them at times.

Nonetheless, she was a fit choice, and she worked well with Krous and Giza.

Sasha agreed to relocate several Dissenters to the estate to reinforce security until we knew the threatening messages being sent were benign.

Due to the low number of soldiers fighting in the front lines, however, it wasn’t many.

I had to pull from the Northern military too and tried to choose people who I trusted and knew personally.

In the end, there were only twenty soldiers, and I knew if a legitimate attack happened… it wouldn’t be enough.

So I stayed with Mara every night. If an attack was to happen, the chances of it happening under the cover of darkness were extremely probable, and in the end, I didn’t trust anyone to do the job better than myself.

I saw to her safety in the evenings after I had spent the day either being dragged by mother to different bases in an effort to improve public relations or attending Council of War meetings.

But my heart wasn’t in them. I struggled to muster the enthusiasm, not when I knew Mara was still in stasis.

I was exhausted every night, but no matter how tired I was, I always managed to read to her…

at least a little. I read Shakespeare, silly romances, and poetry.

And I shared all my secrets with her. Told her tales of how we first met, and how she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I told her how much I feared becoming my father, how I hated the responsibility of ruling a region, and how the thought of losing her terrorized me more than death itself.

I asked her to marry me every day, wanting her so badly to open her eyes and tell me always once more.

But even as I told her everything, I still couldn’t find the courage to admit to her my deepest, darkest secret. Even while she rested in stasis, oblivious to me and the world around her, I couldn’t admit to her the role I played in Chase’s death.

I hated myself for it.

But all I could do was soldier on. It’s what I did best. I walked around like stone.

Never wavering. Never caving. Giving orders when I had to and taking shit from no one.

But every day that went by and Mara didn’t wake up was another day I felt myself crack.

But I couldn’t break now. I had to stay strong.

I had to make sure the North held. Mara needed to be safe.

And I was the only thing that stood between her father and her life.

** *

mara

Jacob cupped my face in his hands, his oceanic eyes engulfing me. “Remember I love you, Mara,” he said, kissing my forehead.

“I love you too, Jacob.” I was so happy to be in his presence again.

“But it has to end,” he whispered, pleading with me. “It ends with us.”

“Jacob,” I began, watching as a trickle of blood dripped from his nose. “You’re bleeding.” I reached out as blood dripped from both of his ears. “Jacob!” I shrieked, more alarmed.

“It ends with us,” he repeated. “You have to finish it.” Suddenly, the whites of his eyes shifted to pink, and then crimson.

“Jacob, your eyes! What’s wrong with your eyes?” His grip tightened on me, his nails digging into the flesh of my cheeks, causing me to try and pull away. “You’re hurting me!”

“Finish it, Mara. You have to finish it before it’s too late,” he said, his voice desperate as blood flowed unchecked from his nose, ears, and both his eyes.

I screamed, “Let go of me!”

Jacob’s skin began to bubble, charring, and melting off in chunks as flames consumed him. “Finish it, Mara! It ends with us!”

I tried to pull back, but I couldn’t. His fingers held me in a death grip I couldn’t escape as the flames climbed up my legs. “Jacob, please!”

But it wasn’t Jacob anymore. Chase was screaming out, the fire consuming his molten flesh as he burned alive. I screamed again, even more desperate to get away from him as he turned his blackened face on me, green eyes trapping me.

No…not green eyes, but hazel. Wes’s hazel eyes stared back as he shared his brother's fate, all the while never letting me go, consuming me in flames.

I screamed once more, yanking back hard, until suddenly, I was released, and I went falling backward, landing hard on my back, causing my whole body to jolt.

I screamed .

“Mara! Wake up!”

I opened my eyes, panting as my heart thundered in my chest. I was staring up at a canopy—lush red fabric I recognized.

I felt hands on my forehead, and I slapped them away.

“Ouch! It’s okay, newbie. You’re safe.”

Newbie?

I looked to the right and almost shrieked when my sight fell on familiar almond-shaped brown eyes.

“Edith?”

She smiled, reaching out to stroke my hair. “That’s right,” she spoke softly. “You’re okay now. It’s just me.”

I panted, my lashes fluttering as I tried to remember what happened. I looked around the room, noticing the familiarity of the space. “Am I—”

“Home, girly. You’re home.” I looked at her, catching her smile.

“And might I add that you have yet to invite me over for a sleepover.” She was trying to be funny, to lighten the mood, but I had nothing in me to laugh with.

I looked around again, catching sight of the familiar wingback chairs next to the fireplace in the corner.

The beautiful, intricately carved wooden furniture.

The stained-glass window depicting a young woman in an elegant white gown running through a forest. And my king-sized bed, with pillows and blankets so plush, my body felt like I was resting in the clouds.

But there were some differences this time. A monitor with a black screen and green jagged lines and white numbers. IV poles with bags hanging from them—clear fluid and something bluish. And tubes…so many tubes hanging from those bags and connected to me.

I looked at myself. I was dressed in a white gown, tucked into the blankets of my bed, healthy and unharmed. How was it possible?

“Edith,” my voice was weak, hoarse, raspy .

“Hold on,” she said as she scurried off the bed. She was in the bathroom and then out again, holding a glass. “Here. Your throat’s gotta be dry.”

I took the glass with shaky hands and sipped. When that water touched my parched throat, I started guzzling it down.

“Easy, Mara. You don’t want to make yourself sick. Just sip it, okay?”

I nodded. Slowed my drinking. Then I looked at her again. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” She smiled.

“How long have I been here? What happened?”

She placed a hand on my lap. “Two weeks. You’ve been pretty drugged up, though.

You were in rough shape, girly. The doctor told Wes you might not make it.

” She sighed. “They’ve been dosing you regularly with some new, experimental drug, and it looks like it worked.

You’ve been healing really fast, but you’ve been completely comatose ever since they brought you in from the prison.

I don’t think the doc was expecting you to be out this long, though.

Wes has been having people watch over you twenty-four-seven.

He was worried you’d wake up and find yourself alone and totally flip out. ”

I blinked, my brain trying to absorb everything. “Two weeks?”

She nodded. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you for the last several days, but Wes always takes the night shift. He works all day, but the minute he’s done, he comes in here and stays with you.”

I blinked again, reverting my gaze to my hands. I didn’t understand what was happening. I went from being caned and bleeding to death in the pit, to sitting in a luxurious bed, being nursed back to health. What happened? How was I still alive? And where the hell was Charles Calvernon in all this?

“Edith, I don’t understand. Charles was going to send me back to Telvia. How am I here?” my voice cracked. Tears threatened, stinging the back of my throat as the memories and fear made my skin crawl .

Edith cooed tenderly as she stroked my hair. “It’s okay, girly. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”

I looked around the room, my eyes landing on a bouquet of white roses on my dresser, my mind still in a fog. “I just don’t understand,” I muttered under my breath.

Edith gently grabbed my arms, trying to settle me. “Mara, everything’s changed while you’ve been gone. It’s all gone sideways.”

I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

She grimaced. “Charles is dead, Mara. And the North’s in deep shit.”