“The others?”
“The other four strongholders.”
“Of course. The others. Sorry. I’m…tired.”
“I imagine you are.” He looked up at me, his eyes soft and brown and kind. “Do you have injuries you need me to look at?”
I shook my head. “Took a couple of hits but I’m fine. Just a little sore.”
“You did the stronghold a service, Fox. Go finish your work, then you can rest. As you make your way through, I’ll apply the balm.” With a very gentle hand, he daubed it gently across Wren’s forehead.
I rose, stumbling a bit—unlike Catalaya, unintentionally—but the prince caught me, too.
“I’ll do my best.” It was a promise to them both.
I was exhausted, but the joy of once-possessed strongholders blinking awake far outweighed it. Their bodies were still worn down and they’d have to deal with the violations they’d experienced. But they were alive, and the excess Aetheric was gone. They’d survive.
I was ready to drop by the time the carriage arrived to take me, Wren, and the prince to the palace.
“I apologize,” Galen said as I prepared to climb up.
“For what?”
“For thinking less of you than you deserve.” Then he pointed. “Hurry up.”
It was a brief moment of niceness, but I’d take it.
“I’ll be in shortly,” the prince said when we arrived at the palace doors, squeezing my hand before I left him to follow Wren to a sleeping chamber near mine. I waited until the door opened and Sanj came in, Galen behind him.
Sanj nodded at me, checking her temperature with the back of his hand. “Stable,” he said. “Your siphoning has helped, as did the balm. Do you know where she learned her craft?”
“As a child. She had to fight to stay alive. Remedies were the other side of that coin, I think.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but we’re lucky she learned the skill.”He slid me a glance. “She is settled and resting, Fox, while you look pale and exhausted. You should sleep.”
“I can’t leave her.”
“I’ll stay,” Galen said.
I just looked at him. “Will you?”
He nodded, his wavy locks, disheveled by the fight, falling over his eyes. He looked so young, but so burdened. Maybe we all did.
“Then I’ll trust you with her,” I said. I squeezed his arm and opened the door.
The palace was quiet, the corridors empty but for guards—more than I’d seen before. Two waiting outside my door now. And when I walked inside and closed it behind me, Luna appeared.
“Wren?” she signed.
“A few rooms away. She’s resting. The doctor is with her.”
“Good.”
“You need Aether,” I said, and she nodded. Silently, with so much to say and no will to say it, I touched her hand, let myself drift to the Aetheric, and let it cascade into her until she shone brightly again. And then I pulled back my hand.
“You’re improving.”
“I practiced yesterday. And I think I visited the Aetheric.” I sat down on the bed and told her what I’d seen, and about the voice I’d heard.
