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My heart sped up.
I walked slowly towards him.
When I reached his side, I looked down at the girl in his arms. Taina’s eyes were closed.
“Is she...” I stopped, not wanting it to be true.
He looked up at me, his face impassive. “She’ll live. She needs a healer.”
I wondered why he hadn’t already sent for one or begun carrying Taina to the temple. Everyone knew Kasie, the High Priestess, was the best healer in Camelot.
Then I took in the exhaustion on Crescent’s face. The blood. The way he held Taina towards his chest so carefully that I had almost missed the way his own arm was twisted at an unnatural angle.
I opened my mouth to offer to help. Then remembered.
“They came for me.”
He nodded. “I figured as much.”
“Odessa...” I stumbled over the name. I couldn’t finish. Couldn’t say it.
I looked down at Crescent’s face. He was looking at me as if he didn’t want me to continue.
“Don’t,” he said quietly. “Please.”
But I had to tell him. Someone had to know. I couldn’t hide this from him. Not when she had died to save me.
“She’s dead. Odessa is dead.”
The words hung in the air for what felt like an eternity.
I could feel the weight of condemnation without him saying a single word.
Finally I could take it no more.
“She died because of me. She died saving me. Sarrasine—one of my aunts—came here for me. I was going to go with her. Odessa tried to stop me. Sarrasine killed her.”
Still Crescent said nothing. In his arms, I could see Taina’s small chest rising and falling and was strangely grateful to the girl for simply staying alive.
I wanted to tell him it was all right. That I had killed Sarrasine. That it was over.
But somehow, I knew it wouldn’t be much comfort.
“You need to go,” I said, trying to restore his sense of urgency. I couldn’t understand what was taking him so long. “Odessa is dead. But Taina isn’t. You need to take her to the temple.”
I waited for him to tell me I had to join him. That it wasn’t safe for me here.
Instead, he simply looked down at his daughter. “Yes.”
“Go now, Crescent,” I said as gently as I could. “I haven’t seen any more of the...” What was I to call them? My grandfather’s soldiers? “The invaders. I think they’re gone now.”
To my relief, he pushed himself slowly to his feet. Still cradling Taina, he turned towards the door.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Crescent. I didn’t mean for her to die.”
He froze. “I should never have brought her here.”
They were the last words he said as he moved away from me.
