She blinked once and they were gone, vanished like phantoms in the night.
Krysta’s eyes were closed. Her chest wasn’t rising like it should. Her breaths weren’t enough, they were too slow.
The warm trickle of blood fell down Helaina’s arms and legs.
She pulled her sister in close, cradling that perfectly beautiful face.
She could fix this. She could save her; she’d watched Madge bring soldiers back from the brink of death. She just needed to get her to Madge.
“we’re here!” Helaina shouted into the night, trying to place her palms flat on Krysta’s chest, at the places she saw the most blood. If she applied enough pressure, the bleeding would stop. Even when the crimson began to stain up to her wrists, she forced herself to believe it would work.
“They’re coming, Krysta. They’re coming, hold on a little longer. I can fix it, I can fix it all. You just have to hold on.” Her voice was no stronger than a child’s as she continued to beg in her head and her heart for the gods to spare her sister. Helaina rocked back and forth, letting her tears mix with blood.
“Wake up,” she choked out.
Krysta didn’t move.
Her chest stopped rising.
“Wake up! Wake up! Please wake up!” Helaina’s shrieking sobs grew hoarse as she shouted and shook her sister over and over. “I can fix it, you just have to wake up! Please!”
Krysta’s body remained limp, her hands hanging to the sides.
“Please, please, please. I’m sorry. Wake up! Krysta, please! I’m sorry!” Mucus dripped from Helaina’s nose as she struggled to take in gulps of air between her anguished words. She didn’t hear the storm of boots, didn’t hear her brother as he entered the clearing, covered in soot.
Dolion’s distraction had worked. Adriel had been trying to put out the fire.
He dropped to his knees as soldiers scattered through the trees, fanning out, screaming and searching.
Helaina released a guttural cry, a blaring sound that could be heard across the kingdom.
Adriel’s keening cry joined hers.
CHAPTERFIFTY-SIX
She couldn’t move. The man that plagued her memories had returned just as he promised. But he was never a man at all. He was something else, something sinister.
Dolion Creed.
No, not Creed. He had stolen that surname from Glen. She had destroyed a family, father and son caught in the cross fire.
Just like Krysta.
Like Adriel.
She should have known there was something else amiss. Adriel wouldn’t have spiraled like that. He wouldn’t have abandoned her. But she never would have suspected their uncle Fessyk had sold them out to Dolion for her father’s throne.
Dolion, who manipulated Adriel into those nightly stupors.
Dolion, who held the blade the night Krysta died.
But it was Helaina who set it all in motion. Everything that had come to pass had been her fault.
Foolish. Selfish.
She had been the catalyst for everything.
Murderer. Coward.
