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I quickened my pace until I dropped down at Calista’s side. She draped herself over Tor, sobbing. I helped her roll him onto his back.
“No.” Her voice broke. “I sang your song. Stay with him, Tor. Look at me.”
She clasped his cheeks in her hand. Blood dripped over his lips when he coughed. His eyes were hazy and unfocused, he looked around, as though searching for someone. Searching for Sol.
Sea fae were descending again. Regrouping from their fear of the king’s blood. We’d be struck, killed. I had to move her, but Calista clung to Tor, desperate to keep his eyes open.
Calista cried out in anger, fear; a bit of despair.
“I sang your song!”
At her final word, the ground shuddered violently. I braced with my palms. Then, much the same as the night the world shifted to the first land, a golden strand of light encircled her. It rippled out like the pulse of a heart.
The strand of light shoved back the sea fae, a gilded ward much like the Rave had created at her command. It shielded Hus Rose against its enemies. It shielded Raven Row. The pulse of Calista’s power covered us, our wounded, our dying, from the enemies.
We had time. We had a chance.
Sol skidded beside Torsten. “Tor! Tor, look at me.”
He took his consort’s hand.
The flicker of a smile crossed Tor’s bloody lips. “Sol.”
“I’m right here.” Sol pressed Tor’s knuckles to his lips. “You stay with me. Nik . . . Tova, they can . . . they can heal you.”
Sols’ gaze fell to the blood soaking Tor’s tunic.
“Sol.” Tor coughed. “Tell Alek . . . tell him I love him.”
“No.” Sol shook his head violently. “We promised him a hunt in the peaks. Don’t break those promises, Tor. Don’t you dare.”
The Sun Prince tightened his hold on Tor’s hand.
“I love you,” Tor whispered. “Always . . . always have. I’ll save . . . I’ll save your seat, Sol Ferus.”
“Tor.” Sol’s voice broke when Tor’s eyes fluttered close. “Torsten.”
He shook his consort’s shoulders. Tor’s chest rose in fading breaths.
“Niklas!” Sol shouted in a rough cry of anguish. “He needs . . .savehim.”
It wasn’t long before Night Folk fae, before Valen and Ari and Sol’s father were there, lifting Torsten’s limp form off the Row, shouting chaotic words, and taking him into the trees on the edges of the fortress.
The gleam of Calista’s ward burned bright, giving time for others to collect the wounded. The fallen.
“I sang his song,” Calista whispered, tears in her eyes. “This doesn’t make sense. I sang the song, but he’s . . . he’s gone, Silas. You saw that wound. It’s . . . too deep.”
I knew death. I’d witnessed Calista’s over and over again for centuries. My stomach burned in sick, in an ache for folk I hardly knew, yet felt as though I’d always known. Whether it was the entanglement of our fates or as the silent voice in the shadows as they became Calista’s new family, I didn’t know.
But I knew them.
And in my mind—we’d just lost one.
Chapter39
The Storyteller
This couldn’t be happening.I didn’t understand. The song had burned in my soul, so thisshouldn’tbe happening.
