I didn’t stop my illusion. I let it run out, trying to find words to comfort the girl as she slowly bled out. I waited until her eyes rolled back, and she was limp in her cousin’s arms.
My vision swirled as my illusion died with the girl. Rainer was sobbing now, rocking her dead body back and forth, and screaming at the top of his lungs.
SEVENTY-NINE
SCOTLIND
My body ached,and my head was screaming when I finally came back to myself. The last thing I remembered was Tezya holding me, and I was okay with dying in his arms.
I slowly blinked my eyes open and was blinded by bright lights.
Crystal blue and silver eyes were staring into me. “Tezya?” My voice cracked, unsure if I was imagining things.
He leaned forward, his bone-white hair covering his forehead. “I’m right here.” His calloused hand cupped my cheek too gently, and I couldn’t decipher the expression on his face.
I looked down and saw I was lying on a cot. A scratchy, cream blanket was folded neatly over me, and Tezya was perched on the side of the mattress. He looked so tired, so exhausted.
“What happened?” My throat felt like sandpaper, making it difficult to get any words out. Tezya leaned forward, grabbing a glass of water from the table next to me, then helped me sit up with his other hand.
“Here, drink first.” He tilted my chin as he guided the water down my throat, and I gulped greedily. He refilled the glass froma pitcher, then brought it to my lips again, before pressing a tiny white circular pebble into my mouth. Why he wanted me to eat a rock—
He laughed gently, reading my thoughts. “It’s not a rock. It’s a pill. It’s mortal medicine. Savannah said it will help ease the pain. Too many were injured that the healers are only tending to vital wounds… for now.”
I nodded, then swallowed the tiny rock—pill—before meeting Tezya’s gaze again.
How am I alive?I asked into his mind. I knew what I was doing on that mountain. I knew I went past my reserves.
Tezya hesitated for a moment.You need to rest—he started.
Show me,I said, grabbing his hand. I needed to know what I missed. I needed to know what happened and who was still alive.
Tezya hesitated for a second, before he obliged, and I started seeing everything through his eyes. I soaked it all in as if I lived through it myself. I’d been out for days apparently. After the King died, Brock healed Sie enough to make him conscious. Tezya fought him over it, but they needed a way to get back to the castle. Tezya kept holding me—screaming, and crying, and begging Brock to heal me. Then, he was pleading with the goddesses. I’d never seen him so distraught, so out of himself.
I was terrified I was going to lose you,he said into my mind before continuing with what happened.
Sie teleported us until he collapsed a mile out. He shouldn’t have been able to teleport at all, let alone, teleport all of us. He was pale and sickly and covered in too much of his own blood to even be standing.
We didn’t have a choice,Tezya commented.If we did nothing, you both would have died on that mountain.
Is he—I couldn’t finish my thought, but Tezya knew where I was going.
He’s alive. I sprinted the rest of the way to the castle, and Dovelyn flew Kallon to where Brock was waiting with you and Sie. Kal portaled you both to the medical ward in Tennebris.
I nodded as I watched what else happened through Tezya’s memories. Some of it he witnessed himself and others were from what everyone else told him.
The battle ended shortly after that, but it was brutal. There were some soldiers who didn’t stop fighting, regardless of the news that the King had died. They wanted the ranking system and believed in what they were fighting for. Tezya said a lot of the army had been brainwashed into brutality and that half of them were dead by the time they finally surrendered. Most of the remaining Luxians cooperated, although the high ranks didn’t take the news as easily as the Tennebrisians.
Arcane and Savannah managed to stop the mass compulsion serum. The humans who were still alive were healed, fed, and then compelled to forget everything that had happened. But out of the thousands of humans who were captured, not many were still breathing.
Kallon and Savannah brought them all back to their home territory. The two of them were purposely staying busy and went head first into any task that needed to be done. I could feel Tezya’s worry for them. I knew the mortal lost her father, but Kallon’s girlfriend died too. Raeya. I’d been so consumed by losing Tezya that I never anticipated anyone else losing the person they loved.
How did it happen?I asked.
Three Luxian soldiers charged her at once. Rainer took out two of them with his lightning, but the third got to Raeya before he could.
I could sense he wanted to keep the rest from me, but it was too late, I already saw it through our bond. She died because of me. Kallon left to help me and now…
It’s not your fault,Tezya said.I was the one who asked Kallon to leave, not you.
