Page 273 of The Throne Seeker

“Look at her!” Roman exclaimed, gesturing to Rose’s bloody hands and cloak. “This happened right under our noses. She’s not safe here. She never has been.”

“I promise you it won’t happen again,” Tristan said, seeking her trust.

Roman had had enough. He took a threatening step toward Tristan.

Rose stepped between them before Roman could kill him. “I’m leaving, Tristan. Whether you allow for it or not, I am leaving. I’m not asking for your permission. I’m not negotiating.”

Tristan’s ocean-colored eyes swirled as he leaned in closer. “You promised you wouldn’t leave.”

She withstood his waves. “We didn’t take the talisman, Tristan. The proof is lying here on the forest floor. And deep down, you know it wasn’t us. He may still be in the woods. There’s still time if you take your men now and search. I would do it myself, but my mother needs me.” She swallowed hard as she gazed into the eyes of her fiercest protector—the man she’d once loved. In many ways, she still did. That’s why she declared,“But you and I… we are done, Tristan. For good.” Without waiting for a reply, she climbed onto Onyx.

“Rose, wait!” Tristan pleaded, his voice breaking.

She ignored his desperate plea, his pain pulsing through her, prickling her veins as Roman followed suit, climbing onto Onyx.

“Rose, please,” Tristan begged again.

She nudged Onyx. His hooves went from standing to a gallop in a matter of seconds.

“Rose, don’t,” Tristan called behind her. He took a step towards Onyx’s retreating figure. “Rose…Rose!”

The storm drowned out his cries as another clap of thunder roared overhead, this time so close it shook the ground.

Onyx sped back to the cliffs to retrieve her mother and Xavier.

“Is he following us?” she dared ask, too scared to look back.

Roman shifted, glancing over his shoulder. “No.”

She exhaled in relief, but soon an ache took hold in her heart.

She could have sworn she heard a ghost of a cry carry with the wind.

CHAPTER 91

The violent wind battered them as Rose and Roman made their way back to the cliffs. Dark clouds blanketed the sky, obscuring the stars and moon, as lightning flashed haphazardly over the ocean. A raindrop splashed against Rose’s cheek, followed by more pattering around them.

The high council members and the guards were nowhere in sight, likely having fled to the castle for their own safety. Cowards. Fortunately for them, she didn’t have time to care.

Xavier and her mother remained huddled near the cliff’s edge. Xavier was cradling her mother against his chest. His head snapped up at the sound of Onyx’s hooves.

“Thank the lost city above,” Xavier said, looking to the sky in reverence.

Rose jumped off Onyx. “Is she still alive?”

“Yes, but barely.”

Rose took her first full breath that night.

She drew the vial from her cloak and knelt beside her mother’s unconscious form, next to Xavier, who was still supporting her head.

She put the vial up to her mother’s lips and poured the contents down her throat, her hands shaking all the while. Thiswould fix her. It had to fix her. She wouldn’t let herself think of an alternative.

“You’re going to be okay,” Rose willed, stroking her mother’s sandy hair, wet from the rain. “Get her on Onyx,” she said to Roman and Xavier. “We need to find cover so I can treat her wound properly.”

Xavier moved to pick her up, but Roman blocked him, taking it upon himself. “I’ve got her,” he said, lifting Rose’s mother into his arms, even though his legs and arms shook from the strain as the rain poured around them.

Rose was about to follow, but something shifted in the darkness.