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“Just reckless enough to be believable,” Airlie said. “That’s what we decided anyway. Drake, Amara, Hayes, Gia, Renley, and I were all in on it, so there were enough of us to restrain the others so that the drama could play out.”
“The drama being…” Evermund raised his eyebrows.
“I pretended to threaten the king,” I explained. “I claimed I was either going to be saved by Colton learning to make a wall, or else I was going to die on the spot, taking the king with me for revenge. I would never have actually harmed him, though, no matter what happened.”
Evermund glanced at Colton who slowly nodded, looking like it pained him to admit I was speaking the truth and he’d been fooled.
“But…why did you need to fake such a thing?” Evermund asked me, sounding bewildered.
“I’ve tried teaching others how to make their own walls before and always failed,” I said. “But then Grey managed to make one during our final confrontation, and while I was sitting in my cell, I came up with a theory about why. Although a wall can be used to block the power of others, it’s primarily about blocking a healer’s own power. But our power is so central to who we are that it requires true desperation to cut it off. Curiosity, interest—even greed, as Grey previously discovered—aren’t enough motivation.
“I was raised to hate and fear my power, and my first experience of it after activation was traumatic. So I started with the necessary desperation to separate myself from it. I had that desire before I had any knowledge of what should or shouldn’t have been possible. Grey didn’t start with that same desperation, but when he had his back against the wall and his life on the line, he was suddenly able to break through and create a wall as well.
“So I took a gamble that the same would be true for making a wall for others. I showed Master Colton a wall so that he understood the concept and truly believed it was possible, and then—”
“You provided him with sufficient desperation,” King Marius said. “Am I supposed to be flattered that I was the chosen victim?”
I pulled free of Nik’s arms to drop into my deepest curtsy. “It was the most believable and compelling scenario I could come up with. I apologize wholeheartedly for the distress it must have caused you and the lack of respect it showed.”
“As to that…” The king paused and looked at his son who met his gaze challengingly. “I can see why it was necessary for me to be in the dark.” He looked at Colton, and for the first time, an eager light showed in his eyes. “You can really do it now? As long as we’re in physical contact, you could protect me from any attack from a healer?”
“I believe so.” Colton also sounded enthusiastic. “Now that I’ve got the feel of it, I can bring my own wall up and down with ease.”
“It’s even better than that,” I said. “If someone does manage to mesmerize you while you don’t have a wall up, just bringing up the wall drives out the mesmerization. I’ve done it for myself many times, as well as for the people of the island and many in Eldrida.”
“This changes everything,” the king said before suddenly subsiding, as if he’d just remembered what had been required to reach this breakthrough.
“The healers among the royal guards will need to be taught it first,” Anka said briskly. “And then my law keepers. But we’re going to have to put some thought into how to manage the lesson. I don’t fancy reenacting a similar scenario to this one a hundred times.”
“I’ll make it my first priority, of course,” Colton said, and I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.
Someone better equipped than me was going to take over the burden I had been carrying. Colton knew how to make a wall, and he could be responsible for teaching others. Maybe—just maybe—I could go back to being no more than a healing apprentice.
“Father. Mother.” Nik looked from one to the other. “I brought the woman I love home to meet you, and you considered having her executed. Now that you know Delphine was never going to harm you—no matter what happened with Colton’s wall—you can let this matter go. Can’t you?” He paused, his eyes hard as steel. “Because if you can’t, don’t think I’ll just stand by. Or that once we’re gone, you’ll ever see me again.”
Marius exchanged a look with his wife before allowing his gaze to roam across the room. Anka and Colton had their heads together, discussing potential strategies, while Augusta was standing back, her eyes narrowed to slits as she took in the scene. But Drake, Amara, Hayes, Airlie, Evermund, Gia, and Renley were all watching the king, waiting to hear how he would respond.
If I had acted alone, I doubted I would have gotten away with threatening the king—whatever my intentions and whatever the outcome. But King Marius was a prudent man. Half his government, and most of his family were arrayed against him, and that would be enough to give more reckless men than him pause. It was certainly far too many people of importance—to both the kingdom and him personally—for him to consider punishing them all for treason. And if he wasn’t going to punish them, then perhaps…
When even Anka broke off mid-sentence to look up and wait for his reply, he finally capitulated and nodded to Nik and me.
“Word of what happened here must not leave this group,” he said. “This is not a situation that we can risk having repeated.” He paused and looked at me. “But I am acutely aware that wrong has also been done to you, and I can understand why you felt driven to extreme measures. I accept the assurance of my healers that you were acting without malice in order to bring about an outcome that would benefit all. In light of that, I think I may issue a pardon for your actions. And Delphine, I hope you will accept my apology for locking you up and threatening permanent incarceration. And Nik—” He hesitated his voice softening more than I had yet heard it. “I’m sorry…for more than just this.”
Nik nodded once, the movement rough, but I could feel his relief. It was nothing to how I felt, however. Fresh tears slipped down my cheeks, and Nik pulled me closer.
“Clearly banning all future physical contact wasn’t going to work,” the queen muttered, and I blinked, unable to process the humor in her voice as her eyes dwelt on her son’s arm where it wrapped around me.
Her eyes jumped up to mine, full of concern and sadness. I tried to smile at her—reminding myself she was Nik’s mother—but my mouth only twitched.
She stood and came closer, stopping with a hand on her husband’s shoulder where he still sat on his throne.
“We have not had the best beginning, Delphine,” she said in a quiet voice, “on either side. I’m sure our treatment of you will not be easily forgotten, just as your actions here today will not easily be forgotten by us.” Her eyes moved to her son’s face before returning to mine. “But we love Nik and have been sorely grieved by his absence. It is clear he has tied his future to yours, and I hope somehow we can find it in us to move past this and start afresh.”
Her husband twitched beneath her hand, and she sighed. “Perhaps that is too much to hope for. Let’s say instead that I hope we can start now to build a new foundation, and that it will one day prove stronger than this unfortunate beginning.”
I thought of my own parents and the way my thinking about my father had changed over the past year.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I said. “I would like that.”
