Chapter 57
Petra
I saw nothing as Nell dragged me forward, leaving Cal in the sand. I was numb as we traversed the forest, but my eyes widened the moment we entered the clearing and I saw…
“Solise?” I asked, shock panging through me at the sight of her face. “What are you doing here?”
I threw my arms around her, reveling in the feel of her embrace. “Lots of healers here, dear,” she said, pulling away and giving me a quick smile before turning back to her task. “Riding on the back of a driva was terribly uncomfortable.”
She crossed the Widow’s Sea to get here. She must’ve come with Cal and Whit. “My mother?” I asked quickly.
Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed Solise’s momentary pause, but I couldn’t ignore it. “Let’s talk after.”
After …
All my questions about my mother withered on my tongue when my gaze landed on the man laying in the clearing. Miles was impossibly alive, though just barely.
How?
“This motherfucker refuses to die,” Nell mumbled under her breath as I crouched at Miles’ side.
Her eyes surveyed the scene before she backed away.
“I need to go check in with Whit. Don’t you fucking die, Landgrave.
” She jabbed a finger in the direction of Miles.
Her voice was harsh, but it quivered at the edges, like she was doing everything to hold back a sob.
“This is our chance to restore the Penumbra.”
Minus Cal, I thought to myself.
Miles didn’t say anything as Nell walked away. His fist was held to the middle of his chest. His eyes were closed, his breaths steady but each one shaky. “It’s still here. I’m f-fighting it, but I don’t know what will happen if it t-takes over.” His body began to quiver with effort.
My head shook. “Malosym is dead. All the Occulti, too. How is this still happening?” I straightened, wanting to find Tyrak and ask him what he knew, but then it hit me again that Tyrak was gone.
“Cielle?” he whispered, his eyes opening the slightest bit.
“I-I haven’t seen her,” I stammered. “I’m sorry.”
His eyes closed again, his jaw tightening. “J-Just kill me, p-please.” The shaking worsened, his face strained.
I reached for the gash on my cheek, wetting my fingers with blood and swiping them across his forehead. I knew it wouldn’t work, but I couldn’t sit there and not try.
“Solise? Is there anything you can do?” I begged, trying to discern what she was thinking as her weathered face stared down at Miles.
“There is one thing I may be able to try,” she started, her words cautious.” I’m not especially familiar with the process. I only know what I can remember from my studies. And it was for illnesses of the blood, not…removing evil. ”
“Anything,” I pleaded. “Anything you can do.”
“I need blood,” she stated, her eyes hard on me. I extended my arm immediately, but she shook her head. “I need the blood of a relative, and I need a lot of it.”
I felt the color drain from my face as I opened my mouth to speak. “Cal…” I started, unable to spit the words out. “He’s… He didn’t…”
“Cal?” Miles asked, his eyes shooting open.
“He’s okay,” I quickly said, the lie burning my tongue and stinging my eyes with tears. “He’s just back in Araqina.”
Miles’ eyes shut again as he seemed to accept my answer, but understanding flashed over Solise’s face. Horror quickly followed for a split second before the healer’s mask snapped back into place. “Is there anyone else? Any other blood relatives?” But she knew the answer to that.
Miles’ movements had grown more erratic, his body seizing as the power grew stronger and tried to take hold again.
My strike must’ve damaged the evil enough to take him down, but it was coming back.
He was fighting against its pull, I could see it, but it was taking everything in him to keep it at bay.
“Kill m-me,” he begged through gritted teeth. “Before i-it gets s-stronger.”
I wracked my brain, tearing at my hair as if it would dislodge an idea. “Could you just try my blood?” Maybe the power in my blood could cancel out what Malosym left behind.
Solise’s eyes moved over the thrashing body before her.
Though her expression was neutral — a healer surveying her patient — there was an uncertainty in her movements.
“I can’t make any promises, and I’m not sure of the effect it will have on you.
A blood relative would have the greatest chance of success. ”
The roaring cheers of victory were background noise here, an inconsequential, meaningless buzzing as the rest of the world celebrated but mine continued to fall apart .
I’d lost Cal. I couldn’t lose Miles, too. Please. Let me keep my friend.
Ludovicus stumbled into the clearing then, his breath sawing violently in and out of his lungs, his dark eyes wild as he took in the scene. Horror marred his features and he froze the moment he took in Miles. His mouth opened then closed again, his face suddenly pale. “He’s alive? How?”
But before anyone could answer, Cielle was there, stumbling in behind Ludovicus. I watched the moment Miles’ eyes fell on her, the moment something loosened and tightened in him at the same time — the relief she was alive but the dread that she was near him in this state.
“G-get her o-out of-f here,” he spat.
Cielle ignored his order and closed the distance. I stepped back, giving her space. The smile on her blood-spattered face was so rife with thinly veiled fear, my heart stumbled over itself. I couldn’t tell if she was injured, but she was moving well enough to crouch at his side.
“Hi, soldier,” she breathed.
His teeth were gritted together as every muscle in his body seized, his eyes slammed shut. “P-Please, go.”
“Tempting offer, but no,” she whispered, reaching for his trembling hand.
Ludovicus’ eyes were locked on Miles as he took a cautious step toward Solise. “He needs compatible blood,” she said, her voice low enough that hopefully Miles couldn’t hear. “Cal didn’t make it.”
A sob broke free from my lips where I stood. Miles was in his final moments. And even after everything that had happened, I was more scared of losing Miles for good this time than whatever the hell would happen if evil took over once again.
Cielle’s lips were pressed to the back of his hand, as if it was enough to hide the smile that faltered as her shoulders began to shake. “I’m sorry, Miles. I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you.”
Just like Cal, tears fell from the corners of his eyes and rolled down his temples. I couldn’t tell if they were the result of the effort it took to stave off Malosym’s evil, or because of Cielle’s words. Maybe both.
I dug the heel of my hand into my chest in an effort to staunch the pain. Grief ripped me apart from the inside, a canyon cracking open in my heart so wide and deep it was going to swallow me whole.
“What about his father?” Ludovicus asked.
“He doesn’t know who his father is!” I screamed at Ludovicus before I recoiled the slightest bit. He wouldn’t know that, and I had no reason to scream at him considering he’d just given up his greatest secret for the good of the realm.
Cielle crumbled further, her forehead falling against Miles’. He reached a shaky hand toward her shoulder, but pulled it away before he made contact.
My eyes widened, my posture straightening as an idea came to me. “Kauvras. Kauvras knows.” Maybe he’d survived. Maybe he was one of the voices that made up the roar of victory echoing from the beach. “We can find him, see if he knows, see if–”
“I know who his father is,” Ludovicus said.
I opened my mouth to demand the answer before I promptly snapped it shut. Ludovicus’ eyes moved from Miles to me, his dark brows downturned in silent apology.
What?
No.
This was a trick. A shitty fucking joke at worst, and an unfortunately timed misunderstanding at best. Ludovicus’ features were laced with regret, his brows furrowed in a familiar way. Familiar because… I took in the obsidian eyes, the same depthless midnight of Miles’. The shape of his jaw .
“Holy shit,” I whispered, surveying his features, like if I looked long enough, I’d see the similarities weren’t actually there. I didn’t want to find hope only to watch it slip through my fingers yet again.
“I’m… I’m his father,” Ludovicus said quietly, the words strained as he stared down at the writhing figure in the dirt.
Cielle gasped, her face whirling to Ludovicus. Miles finally opened his eyes, grunting in agony as the tremors worsened. For a moment, it looked like he was going to attempt to speak. But the words never came.
“You’re sure of it?” Solise asked.
Ludovicus nodded, tears lining his eyes. “Without a doubt.”
Without another word, Solise turned to her bag and started unloading glasses and vials as Ludovicus dropped to his knees, looking down at Miles.
Cielle’s eyes were on Miles’ newfound father, assessing his features the same way I had.
I stepped back even more, hoping I’d blend into the background of trees.
“I’m sorry,” Ludovicus said, tears brimming in his dark eyes.
Miles’ eyes moved back and forth between Ludovicus’ eyes — his fathers’ eyes.
Both of their tears started spilling faster now.
“I didn’t know you existed until the day your mother died,” he answered, his words so painful I felt some of that pain in my own gut.
“I saw you for the first time just before I…” He took a shuddering inhale as the tears began to roll down his cheeks. “I killed her.”
Miles stared back at his father, his brows furrowed, nostrils flaring. And amid the tremors that were quickly gaining strength, he managed a clear shake of his head.