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I could picture exactly what he’d say if he knew how I’d gone about finding said way. He’d tell me it wasn’t worth it, that I shouldn't have sacrificed my life for the sake of his. Still, that was behind me now. What was done was done, and I had to finish it.
Uncorking the vial, I removed the very last blue petal and held it in my palm. A flair of burning pain lanced through me, and I jolted so hard that I nearly dropped it. The light under my skin burned brighter than ever before, as if the magic inside me could sense each breath Drystan took.
Ignoring the pain, I focused on tearing the little petal into a few smaller pieces. There was no way for me to identify the plant it came from. Even Neera was stumped, and she was the medicinal-plant expert. The blue petal glowed ever so slightly and smelled like dirt with a hint of moss. I placed the petal bits on my brother's tongue, watching it dissolve right before my eyes.
Sitting back on my heels, I waited, holding my breath. I had no idea what to expect or how faerie magic was supposed to work, but all was quiet and still. I waited and waited, sitting in silence, counting his breaths as his chest rose and fell slowly.
Maybe Neera was right. Maybe I’d made a mistake trusting those princes after all.
Kyre
Drystan screamed.
I fell backwards to the floor as he sat up straight after more than a year without moving. In disbelief, I watched him stare straight ahead, screaming as if something had been holding him back until this moment. I scrambled off the floor and rushed to him, hands shaking as I contemplated what to do.
“Drystan, it's me…” I said in a hurried whisper, looking over my shoulder nervously. That scream would have woken everyone on the two floors below. I placed my hands on his cold cheeks, and his tremors only became more violent. “You’re all right, you’re all right...”
His wide, brown eyes flitted to mine, marred with little red and pink veins and swimming with tears. He looked at me as if he didn’t recognize me. I didn’t know what to do, or what I’d even expected. Maybe I’d expected him to gradually come out of his sleep, yawn and stretch, and hop right out of bed to take back Karn. That had been naïve of me. Whatever that witch of a queen had done to her son, it was thorough and it was evil in its purest form.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I tried to soothe him, running my fingers through his too long hair, studying his face that looked gaunt and pale. He’d lost so much weight, he looked frail. I wanted to take him far away from this place and keep him safe. He might be the eldest at twenty-nine, but I had the feeling that I was the only one left in this kingdom who cared if he lived or died. Sometimes it felt like Karn had forgotten about their sickly prince.
The door of the room slammed open, hitting the wall as someone rushed inside. I pulled a dagger from the belt on my thigh, shielding Drystan with my body as I turned to face the intruder. I was ready to slice them open if it meant keeping my brother safe.
Except it was just Dane. He hurried into the room, face dripping with sweat and breathing hard. “You need to get out of here. A servant heard his scream and sent for the guard. They're on their way right now.” He turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” I hissed, glancing back at Drystan to make sure he was still conscious, then I narrowed my eyes on Dane. I still had no idea what Neera saw in the man. He was handsome, yes—tall and strong with blond hair and golden skin, but he was weak-minded and full of himself, in my opinion. Neera could do better.
“I’m not getting arrested because of you. I told Neera that I would help you get in, but I never said anything about sacrificing my life to get you out.” For a moment, he almost looked regretful, his blue eyes softening. He backed toward the door. “I’m sorry, Kyre. I did what I could to make sure your maid went unnoticed all these months, but this is as far as I go. I suggest you leave while you still can.”
Dane was a coward. He’d helped me only as far as tipping me off on the guard’s nightly rotations and distracting anyone who looked at my hired maid wrong and nothing more. His future king lay dying on his sickbed, yet he did nothing.
Hissing in frustration, I stared at the door, weighing my options. In the distance, I could hear thumping footsteps ascending the stone stairs below us.
I strode to Dane and gripped the front of his guard uniform and brought my face close to his. “I truly hope you’re not as much of a coward as you make yourself out to be, for Neera’s sake.” This probably wasn’t the greatest attempt at keeping him on my side. “If anything happens to me and I’m not here to do your job for you, you have to protect your king with your fucking life. Do you hear me? Your fucking king! Not that fraud sitting on the throne.”
I released him, stepping backwards. Dane clenched his jaw hard, his eyes burning with dislike for me. “I’ll do what’s needed.”
Huffing a laugh, I shook my head and glanced at the tiny window on the empty wall. “I’m sure you will, Dane. You’ll do just enough to keep your head on your shoulders and nothing more. The royal guard has never known a braver man.”
Disregarding him, I knelt next to my brother, who was still staring straight ahead vacantly. “I have to go now, Drys, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to come back…” A pair of black, depthless eyes flashed through my mind, and I shivered. “You’re going to be furious when you find out what I did, but I need you to know that I don’t regret it for a second. I’ll be okay, I promise.” I was lying to him—lying through my teeth. There was no way I was going to be alright, not with the Wild Hunt coming for me.
Drystan didn’t respond, but I hadn’t been expecting him to. There was a struggle raging inside his head, and I wasn’t strong enough to help him fight it. Plus, I was running out of time. All I could do was hope that once the guard realized their king was awake, they would be on his side and not the queen’s…or the queen mother’s, I should say.
I kissed my brother on his forehead and whispered, “Don’t let her lie to you. I can’t prove it now, but I know it was her. I know she was the one who did this to you. If you can hear me—” My voice broke as I fought back a choked sob. I had to be strong right now, because I had only seconds. “If you can hear me, I love you, Drys. I love you so damn much. If any part of you remembers this conversation, please speak with a guardsman named Dane. He’ll tell you the truth about what really happened here. If not, you can find a halfling pixie named Neera in the slums. I trust her to fill you in.”
“Kyre, you’re running out of time,” Dane said nervously. I was shocked he hadn’t already fled. He nodded towards the window. “There are two men posted on the landing below. You’ll have to deal with them yourself, but you’re out of options now. Go!”
With a muttered curse, I ran to the window and pried it open. I’d only come in through it twice before when the guard rotation allowed it, but I knew it led to a two-floor drop onto a landing just outside a parlor. I braced myself on the ledge, looking downward as the night wind whipped at me. Two guards were indeed posted up against the double doors of the parlor room.
I looked back over my shoulder only to watch as Dane slammed out of the room, the door clicking shut behind him. Drystan was watching me, vacant eyes still glossy and hollow…but he watched, as if some small part of him was trying its hardest to claw back to the surface.
I let myself drop from the ledge directly on top of the guard below. He softened my landing, but it knocked him out cold. It took a moment for the second one to react, but I was already moving. Grabbing his head, I bashed it back against the stone wall, trying not to hurt him too badly. I didn’t want to kill an innocent man, but I needed him out of my way. He fell limply at my feet.
Wasting no time, I took off, leaping over the balcony of the parlor room and landing nimbly on the tiled floor of a courtyard that led to the queen’s garden. There was a commotion and footsteps echoing from every direction. The garden just on the other side of a stone tunnel was lit by flickering torches that lined the dark pathways, and in the glow, I could see dozens of moving shadows—guards rushing my way with no way around them.
My heart was in my throat as I contemplated my options. I still gripped the small dagger in my fist, but it wasn’t enough. If I was caught, that was it. I was done for, and there wouldn’t be anything left of me for the faeries to collect.
For a moment, I paused and considered that maybe getting caught by the queen was the lesser of two evils. Maybe I could allow myself to get caught and spend the rest of my life rotting in a cell rather than working as a slave to my faerie overlords. I shook the thought away, not ready to give up quite yet, not after coming this far.
