AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jake looked down at my hand, then raised a glare to my face and took a deliberate step backward, moving out of arm’s reach.
Once I was no longer touching him, I could finally draw in a breath.
“Del?” Fin asked, his hand settling on my back. “Are you all right?” He looked back and forth between Jake and me, knowing something serious had passed between us.
But before he could ask more, Jake said, “Looks like you’re going back to where it all started, kid.”
“What?” Fin asked, surprise driving away the concern tensing his features. “What do you mean?”
“Zoe’s notebooks,” Jake said. “I stashed them in a chest with some other things we couldn’t bring with us but didn’t want to leave out in the open and buried it at the base of the tree on the farm.” He looked at me. “As much as I hate the thought of going back there, if you really want to find the rest of that prophecy, you’ll need to go there and dig up the notebooks.”
It was clear that all the talk of Becca’s prophecies scared Jake. How could it not? Her prophecies had upended his life repeatedly, eventually forcing him and the rest of the Patrons into hiding. He didn’t want to unearth them, but that didn’t mean hewouldn’tdo it.
“Wait, are you talking about the Patron Tree?” I shook my head, my brow furrowing. “But that’s going to be impossible to get to unnoticed.”
The Patron Tree had been created by Camille, the Patron of the Movers, at the Patrons’ original homestead on the first anniversary of the Turn. It was a huge metal tree, the leaves of which were engraved with the names of all the Patrons’ loved ones who fell to the virus and the turmoil after.
The farm was located in Hope Valley in Zenia, the kingdom immediately to the north of Corvo Kingdom, and the entire site was a holy place for people throughout the Seven Kingdoms. Tens of thousands of people went on pilgrimages yearly, and the surrounding land was supposedlyalwayscrowded with visitors’ tents. How would we ever be able to dig up a chest buried at the base of the holy site’s focal point?
Jake looked from me to Fin and back. “I’ve lived long enough to know thatnothingis impossible.”
41
Fin
“Leave for Hope Valley?Now?” I frowned and led Jake and Del farther away from the door to my quarters, not wanting to disturb Liam’s rest. For the first time since reuniting with Del, I felt the future I’d dared not hope for with her wavering around me like it could crumble at any moment.
“Del,” I said carefully. “We just got you and Liam here where it’s safe.” Dread slithered its way in because if Del and Liam left, I couldn’t go with them. Not this time. Not when the people here needed me more.
“I know it’s not ideal, Fin—”
“Ideal? King Eduart could have his army here within the week.”
“Or maybe months,” she countered. “It could be ages—a year—before he makes his move. He has to figure out thatyou’rethe danger first. Besides, his troops are scattered all along the borders right now.”
“And if he attacks the settlement and we’re not here?” I said, glancing at Jake. “What happens to all of these people?” I glared at him. I knew the settlement wasn’t his priority, but it was mine. “I won’t leave them to fend for themselves.”
“Then you should stay,” Del said, resolved. The words were reluctant, but they were true. Ishouldstay. I knew I should. “Hills and Ada,” she continued, “they’ll go with Liam and me. Jake, too.” She glanced at him, waiting.
He nodded reluctantly.
“We’ll figure it out with Jake’s help, and you can stay here and prepare for what comes next. But this is important to—”
“To the Corvo Kingdom. Yeah, I get that, but those aren’t my people. Corvo and the rest of the kingdoms turned their backs on me and everyone else here. Iwon’tdo the same to these people. Look—” I took Del’s hands in mine, willing her to understand what a risk she’d be taking. “I know you don’t want your people to suffer the same fate as your mother, but right now, you aren’t even their princess. You aren’t their queen. You’d be risking your life to find a cure for people who stood by while you were imprisoned. Don’t forget, all those people at the coronation turned their backs on you.” My words were desperate, but I grasped for them all the same. “You’ve already given so much to them, and now there is a bounty on your head. You realize that, right?” I hated the way her expression shadowed, hearing such truths, but Del knew she might be dead right now if we hadn’t gotten her out of her precious kingdom.
I saw the indecision in her eyes. The resolve mixed with the questions neither of us could answer. “I don’t care,” she said. “My people are dying, Fin, and I might be able to do something about it. And just like you, I won’t turn my back on them.”
“You mean the wealthy aristocrats who doomed themselves?” The words were snide, but I didn’t care. Knowing Del had sacrificed her happiness and safety for the past ten years to keep both Liam and her kingdom safe, and was yet again considering risking her life for people who were completely unaware of the sacrifices she had already made for them, made me sick to my stomach.
Del glanced between me and Jake. “I know you both resent the nobles of Corvo Kingdom for what was done to the Healers, but that was all Mother and Maylar. And it’s no longer only the purebred nobility who are getting sick. There have been countless other cases—people whose ancestors crossed Class lines and whose gene pools should be so diluted, a hereditary, congenital illness like the wasting sicknessshouldn’taffect them at the numbers it is. Butit is.”
I stared at Del, hardly hearing her because I already knew there was nothing I could do to change her mind. And there was nothing that would change mine, either. She would not stop until she knew if the cure mentioned in Becca’s prophecy was real, and I would not abandon my people to search for a cure for Del’s. Not when real, tangible lives were at stake here. And more than that, I wouldn’t continue to risk my life for people who didn’t deserve it, not when I had a son’s future to think about now, among all the others.
“Then I guess we know where our paths lead us next,” I said, and squeezing Del’s hands once more, I let go of them.
Del’s eyes watered as she peered up at me. “I have to try, Fin,” she whispered, pleading with me to understand. But I already did.
I nodded. “That’s because, crown or not, you’re the Corvo queen. You were born to lead them, Del, even if they don’t know it yet.” I wrapped my arms around her and inhaled the scent of her hair, faint lavender and pine from the forest. I knew it might only be hours or days before she and Liam walked away again, and I wasn’t certain they would ever be back.
