“You want to show up and be a dad now when he’s dying?” I spat. “He’s needed you in the past few months, and where have you been? Partying and fucking off and doing ancestors know what else.”
“You won’t speak to me that way. I am his father!” Cameron demanded.
“You are nothing because I say you are! I am the Holy Mother to the Elves, the symbol and messenger of Idril and Carolyn on this earth, and you will not command me!” I bellowed. “You are not welcome here!”
“But—”
“LEAVE!”
Cameron might’ve had more authority than me as the Crown Prince, but he listened to my order all the same. He ducked out with his head bowed low, tail tucked between his legs.
I had no regrets about throwing him out. He was pitiful and would only get in my way.
Was that really necessary?Oberi asked dully. She’d been holding off the poison’s growth for some time, and was getting tired.
“You tell me.” I went to lay my hands on Charlie again, but they fell to the mattress as I heard more footsteps behind me, this time, lighter and slower.
My hands bunched in the sheets as I snapped, “I said no one can come in here.”
“You have authority over all in Ilamanthe, child, save for me.”
The gentle voice that met my ears gave me pause. I turned my chair again. Emperor Cassiel was standing in the doorway, not demanding I let him approach, but instead, asking to be invited in.
“Are you here to say goodbye, too?” I asked harshly. I wouldn’t let anyone do that, because this wasn’t the end. Not yet.
“Of course not. I know who you are, princess. You will not deny your beloved Charlie the comfort of having his grandfather at his side in this time of need.”
My lip quivered. “You can come in.”
Cassiel strode toward me with a gentleness I could never imitate. He took a chair beside me, near the head of Charlie’s bed. “You have half the staff quivering in fear. You are as terrifying as a lioness, or perhaps, a wyvern defending her mate.”
I had to be terrifying— be mean, be vicious and ruthless and all these terrible things. No one else would go to the lengths needed to save Charlie, and I had to protect him from whatever happened. He was vulnerable right now.
“It’s my job to defend him when he can’t defend himself,” I said. “It’s always been that way.”
“Who are you protecting him from?” Cassiel asked quietly. “The Warden? The world? Himself?”
I didn’t know. Because the worst had already happened, and I hadn’t been able to protect Charlie from the people who’d already hurt him the most.
For the first time that day, I broke down into tears. Cassiel put his warm hand over mine in comfort.
“What am I going to do?” I wailed. “We’ve tried everything. It’s hopeless!”
Oberi dropped her head and made a low note, but Cassiel didn’t crumble. He looked… sad, and definitely worried, but he wasn’t panicking.
“There were many Elves who said that about me, when I was bitten by aserpens speluncamany years ago,” Cassiel said lowly. “And yet here I am decades later, because Aponi refused to give up when all others did.”
I didn’t say anything, because I was still crying.
Cassiel went on. “When I was bitten, there was no antidote or cure for such a venom. Everyone who had been bitten by aserpens speluncadied, and there were no exceptions. Healers and alchemists tried for many years to find a cure for the venom, and failed miserably. But my wife succeeded, and she created an antidote that saved me and thousands of others when it had never been done before. Do you know why?”
I shook my head, and Cassiel said, “It is because she believed she could. Everyone told my wife that it was hopeless, and that she couldn’t cure me, but Aponi refused to give up. She worked on that potion tirelessly until she found something that worked. She saved my life, and that hope blossomed into love.”
“Love isn’t enough to save people. If it was, so many people I loved wouldn’t have died,” I wept.
“But like Aponi, you are not the kind to give up and let this poison take him,” Cassiel pointed out. “My wife saved me from the venom. You can save Charlie, too. You are an extraordinary demigod, princess, the best of our people. I know you will rescue the prince from this fate.”
Cassiel rose from his chair. “I will leave you be, so you can concentrate.”
