Koi
I killed three people. My hands are now stained with blood.
Part of me feels like I should feel different.
That my sunny disposition will now be dimmed, the beginning of my demise.
Not sure how I will feel when reality fully sets in.
Will I relish the feeling? Will it cause me to become heartless like my father?
First and foremost, I need to find my sunshine in all this darkness.
Petra flies past with a piercing squawk—I break out in a run following her. I don’t have my girl’s ability, but I know a distressed crow when I hear one. My brothers and the other mercenaries are behind me.
Jax mentioned the Dragon Gardens. Which means nothing good could have come from the location Clarsef portaled them to. We don’t even go around those gardens. So many spirits of blood magic spells gone wrong roam there. Plus, it’s just downright creepy.
From a distance, I can’t see any people, just Max’s large furry shape. That’s when I hear the heartbreaking sobs from Arabella. Archer and Sylas must hear it too, so we sprint.
Lying in a pool of blood, Arabella is crying over Grayer. She looks to me, heartbreak in her eyes.
“Koi, I am so sorry. He-he took the dagger for me when Bernice lunged. I-I couldn’t stop it. It’s all my fault,” she cries.
I drop to my knees beside my brother.
“No. Gray, come on, dude, wake up. This isn’t funny.” I push on his torso; his whole body is immobile, like stone. His chest isn’t rising. I am unable to hold back my tears. For so long, I tried to protect him, and I constantly failed him.
Archer comes up and cradles a sobbing Arabella while Sylas rests his hand on my shoulders.
“Yikes. You princes are sooo dramatic.” Elliah saunters out from the bushes.
“Where the fuck have you been, prick?! You said you would protect Arabella and, by extension, Grayer!” Sylas roars as he wraps Elliah into a rock formation.
“Re-lease me. I- can… Fix him…” The mercenary wheezes. Jax and Smith look relaxed, as if their partner isn’t about to get crushed by boulders. Sylas releases the rock formations, and he falls to the ground.
“Fuckin’ touchy. This is why I don’t like to deal with royals and people in power.
Always so quick to jump to using your magic against us Nulls.
” Elliah dusts off his clothes before taking out a syringe from his satchel.
He uses two rocks to grind a leaf from his pocket along with a few other ingredients.
He crouches down to Grayer. “If you must know, I could tell by the way the bloke fell that he was spelled. It’s the oldest trick in the book.
It renders the stabbed to be formed into stone.
He may look dead, but he very much is alive. ”
“Is he conscious?” I hear Bridgette ask. When did she and her parents get here?
“No idea. I have only seen this spell used a handful of times, and those fuckers are still stone.” Elliah snorts as he puts the mixture of the leaves with a vial of some other strange blue liquid substance into the syringe. He twirls the mixture.
“How can we know to trust you? If you haven’t seen anyone come out of it, how do you know what to do?” Arabella asks weakly. Her voice is hoarse from all the screaming. My heart constricts further as I take one of her shaking hands in mine.
“You will just have to trust a little, Blondie,” Jax adds from the side, dark circles under his eyes. Smith looks to be holding him up.
Swiftly and suddenly, Elliah forcefully stabs the syringe into Grayer.
“What the fuck?! That’s my brother!” I roar.
“And I am saving his fucking life, unless you would rather your brother be in stone form forever? Back. Off.” Elliah growls back at me as he continues to inject the substance into Grayer.
I feel Arabella’s other tiny hand caress my arm.
“Let’s trust him, my love. I need him back. We need him back.” All I can do is nod as I watch him continue to slowly feed the mixture into Grayer.
“We are going to need to remove the blade and heal him. So we may need to carry him to the medical bay of the castle. But we will need to be quick. We don’t want him to lose any more blood. If he does, then he will die of blood loss. Not because of me.”
“No need. I am a healer.” Alec strides over, as Sylas moves, letting him take his place.
“Alright, pool prince, I am going to need you to slowly take out the dagger,” Elliah asks me, but before I can, Sylas intercepts me.
“I can do it if you want, brother.”
“No, I need to do this. I need to help.”
Already I can see Grayer’s body relax, the rigidity of his body softening. The pink hue to his previously paled complexion comes back, and I slowly take out the dagger. Alec is already on the other side, mending his wound.
When Grayer groans, Arabella is already pushing away from Archer and me, patting at his face.
“Grayer? Please tell me you’re alright?”
“Fuck,” is all he mutters, and we all break out in a relieved sigh. The tension leaves our bodies as Alec continues to use his magic to heal all his internal wounds.
“My love. Grayer,” Arabella whispers in reverence.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily, Duchess.” He winces. Arabella cries as she laughs, bringing her forehead to his.
“I would like my pleas of gratitude now, thank you very much,” Elliah says, swiping the sweat from his brow.
“Yes, thank you, but what took you so long?” Archer asks.
“Well, when I saw the scary bitch stab the pyre prince, I noticed how he went straight to stone. And like I said, I have seen the spell before. That’s when I knew I had to go get the poison berry leaf to mix with my counterspell elixir.
But of course, I had to go to the forest outside of the castle grounds.
Little thief- what did you do to that woman?
!” He points at Bernice’s shredded body. We all seem to notice at the same time.
It’s a brutal scene of unrecognizable flesh and blood. My stomach feels queasy at the sight. Arabella seems to pale too.
“Max killed her for me. I just had my serpents restrain her.”
“Ha! Brutal. Remind me not to get on your bad side, Blondie!” Jax says as Smith smiles and shakes his head, chuckling.
Grayer’s eyes shut, but his chest is moving.
“The fire prince may need to rest before he fully comes to,” Alec says as he swipes the sweat from his brow.
“Thank you for everything. I-I don’t know how I can thank you enough.” I help Alec up off the ground.
“No need, son. You are all my family, and I would always come to save you,” Alec says, squeezing my shoulder before I go in for a hug. Breaking the hug, he goes into Margie’s open embrace. He will need to rest after all the magic he used today, too.
“Now, about those ingredients…” Elliah croons.
Sylas wipes his hand over his face, exasperated, and turns to Bri.
“Bri, could you be the bestest friend ever and deal with these relentless bastards? Set them up with a room, and Margie, if you could whip up something for all of us… We would really appreciate it.”
“Of course, boys, let me get Alec to bed. We can fix the kingdom tomorrow.” Margie helps Bri wrangle the Mercenaries back to the castle.
I look to all my brothers and my love. Relief that we did it, yet also a sadness that it had come to this ending.
I didn’t like killing Harvey he was just about to deal the killing blow to Sy and Arch. But the council people… it’s weird having to kill people you have known most of your life.”
“I understand. I was going to kill Bernice. But I couldn’t, even after all she put me through.
She basically confessed to killing my father, and I still couldn’t.
Max had to kill her for me. I know your fear is turning into your father, but you are my golden prince; you protect those you love.
It’s the thing I love about you. Your big heart. ”
“You love me, Sunshine?”
“I do love you, you big brute.”
I stop to kiss my purpose for living. From the moment I met her, something changed within me. I had always coasted, okay with living in my father’s shadow as long as I could protect Grayer. Yet she makes me—us—want to be better princes. True future kings. With our Queen at our center.
I feel her little mouse friends scurry up onto my shoulders and chitter away as she giggles. I smile at how uniquely perfect she is.
“Yes, yes, you two will get big cheeses and your own little room once we get back. No-I will not make a decree to eliminate all cats.” For the first time since entering the castle this evening, I laugh.