Page 19 of Maleen

The door creaks open and Ravina’s head pops in. She quickly glances around before she lands on me. “Are you ready?” she asks, letting a bit of her own nerves slip through the bond. Nero ruffles his feathers as she gets closer to me, and I can feel her exhaustion build through the bond. Killian and Jesper follow in behind her and stand like guardians near the door. This cursed stone fills my other pocket, and I want nothing more than to chuck it into the ocean and be done with it. But knowing our luck, some sentient sea beast would deliver it straight into Craven’s greedy hands.

Instead of answering her, I begin talking. I’m not sure why, but once my mouth opens, the words won’t stop spewing out. “I’ve hated him for years. Since the day everything happened and we found out he was a part of your family’s downfall. But if it didn’t happen, I would have never had to step up and help with ruling Vathia; I wouldn’t have had the ties to help Tal, Kill and Jesper. Managing the rebels would have been even harder without this position. I resent him because I had to be there to help pick up the pieces of my mother’s broken heart while nursing my own, along with the loss of you, on top of having to keep secrets from my friends who have become my family—that the male who raised me to be kind and respectful turned into a massive betraying bastard. Twenty-two years of hatred building and building, and now there’s a chance that it wasn’t even his fault. And if it’s not true, then I’ll be the one to break my mother’s heart the second time, by putting his rotting corpse in the ground.”

She doesn’t say anything, none of them do; they just listen as I bare my emotions and feelings surrounding the male laying comatose in the bed, his pale hair now long past his shoulders. He looks the same, yet aged. Tonics have kept his nutrients up so he hasn’t lost weight. He’s simply frozen in time.

At last, my thoughts return to the present. “So, to answer your question, no, I’m not ready. But sometimes being in charge means making the hard choice, and if this can help Talyn, or bring my mother back to her mate… then my feelings on this shouldn’t matter.”

“Your feelings will always matter to me,” Rav states firmly. “If you need a minute—”

Killian growls. “I don’t like this. We shouldn’t be fucking with that stone. It hurts her!”

“It drains me,” she corrects. “And it doesn’t drain me nearly as much as the piece Craven has; this is a much smaller portion of it. Plus you all are here. I’ll be okay; we need to do this.”

Kill growls again but doesn’t say anything, and I know this is hurting him the most. He never liked seeing her hurt. None of us do, but Killian is extreme when it comes to her protection.

She smiles at me. “Whenever you’re ready. I mean what I said. Your feelings matter to me. So if you need some time—”

“No time.” I take a breath, grabbing her hands and kissing her knuckles. “Thank you,” I whisper, so just she can hear it.

Following the instructions of the healer, I empty the contents of the vial into my father’s mouth. Rav stands beside me while Jesper and Killian wait on the other side of the bed. He’s weak, so he shouldn’t be too much trouble when he awakens, but… just in case.

“Did she mention how long this will take?” Jesper inquires as he cocks his head to the side, staring my father down like he’s ready to pounce any second.

“No, but I’m assuming it won’t be—”

The body on the bed groans and the room becomes so silent you could hear a pin drop. My father’s eyelids slowly lift to reveal familiar green irises. They harden as soon as they land on me.

“Who are you? What’s going on?”

“Father. I would say it’s nice to see you awake, but that’s still to be determined.”

Nero’s voice reaches through Rav’s bond. “If he’s an asshole after this, can I have his eyeballs? I haven’t got green yet.”

“Nero,” Rav hisses. “Not the time.”

My father’s gaze flits around the room as he pieces everything together, and when they land on Ravina, my back stiffens. His words are weak but full of venom. “You bitch. You should be dead, or even better, being bled like a stuck pig for slaughter of our one true ruler!”

Everything happens so fast. Jesper is on top of him with knives poised at his throat, and Rav is using air to stop Killian from getting involved. “Remember why we are here!” she shouts. “Jesper, enough. Aemon, give me the necklace. Kill, I’m going to let you go, so don’t kill Lord Zorn.”

I reach into my pocket and pull out the chain as Rav slices into the meaty palm of her hand. My father tries again to sit up, but thankfully he’s far too weak to do much damage.

A presence I haven’t felt since that first battle at the front line encampment takes over the room, and Ravina moves. She grabs the necklace out of my hand, her eyes glowing ethereally as she presses the stone against the center of my fathers forehead. There’s nothing but a calm knowing coming from Ravina, and it worries me because it feels like her, yet doesn’t. The exact same thing happened before we discovered that shadowflame can defeat the wraiths.

Hair raises along my spine as she presses her bloodied palm against the necklace and the blue around the gem melts away, giving light to a gem so red it looks as if it’s made of blood. My father gasps and slumps back, and a moment later Rav follows, draped alongside my father. I grab her, throwing that damn stone across the room, getting it as far as possible from her and the eerie presence it leaves. Ravina’s panic and awe drift lightly through our bond as her gaze drifts open.

“It happened again,” she whispers, her eyes fluttering like she’s trying to stay awake “Like what happened with the swords at the battle. I wasn’t in control of my body and I was all warm…” she croaks before passing out, drained.

Killian shoves me out of the way and scoops her up into his arms without so much as a flinch that their skin is connected before storming out of the room with her, Nero close at Kill’s shoulder.

“Go with them. I’ll wait here and see if it works,” I tell Jesper who’s eyeing the door.

His head turns towards mine. “And if it didn’t?”

“Then I have another funeral to plan.”

I’VE BEEN SITTING in this Fates-damn chair for almost an hour and finally my father is stirring. Thankfully Jesper updated me: Ravina is still passed out. The healers said it might be a bit before her body recovers. They also mentioned that her mother has fallen into a coma, a natural one that happens at the end of life, so I’m praying to the Fates that this works—that I’ll have some good news to share with her when she awakens.

My father stirs again and this time his eyes open.