63. Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Rahk
I stumble to the back door of my human estate, holding an unconscious and injured Kat against my chest, and kick at the door. “Edvear!”
Edvear opens the door. “Master! I thought you weren’t coming ba—” He stops, his mouth open mid-word as his yellow eyes fall to Kat’s limp, filthy form.
“Send for a doctor, immediately!” I shove past him, careful not to jostle Kat’s wound.
Mary appears in the hallway. Both of her hands go to her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. “Is she alive? Oh, I have been so worried! It’s been weeks and I thought for certain she was dead! I came here out of desperation to see if—”
“Weeks?” I demand, dread coming over me. Caphryl morphs time as it pleases. I thought I’d ensured that we wouldn’t be spit out far away from our timeline.
Mary’s face is hollow. “She has been gone for fifteen days.”
I whirl on Edvear. “How long ago did I leave?”
“A little over three weeks ago, my lord.”
I curse. Then I whirl on Mary, fixing her with a black glare. “You knew everything.”
She pales and doesn’t reply.
My fury threatens to overcome my control. I move past Mary, heading to the room we once called ours.
“My lord!” says Edvear at my heels. “I must tell you—”
“Is that Kat?” a woman’s voice calls from the parlor. “I have been waiting for hours now! I will not leave until I speak with her!”
My mind trips over itself. Lady Duxbury Vandermore is here? Why in all the—
“Kat will not speak to you!” returns an impassioned young man’s voice. “You know you were cruel to her all those years and if she refuses to see you now, it is because you made yourself odious to her!”
Lord Oliver.
“My lord!” cries Edvear again as I barrel past the parlor, ignoring both uninvited guests. Kat is in a bad state, and I need to get to her at once.
I kick open the door to the bedroom. And immediately freeze.
Pelarusa lounges across my bed, her long hair splayed across my pillow, her gown draped over the covers. She sits up at the sight of me. “Great Kings, finally! I have been waiting here since dawn for you, and it has been an agony unlike anything else I’ve experienced. I can hardly breathe and my glamours are giving me a violent headache! Your incompetence is a cruelty! Wait, what is that?”
This situation gets worse by the moment. I am going to strangle every person in this house. I clench my jaw hard and stride past Pelarusa, heading toward the bathing chamber. I’ll deal with my sister later.
“Rahk! What is that? Don’t tell me that is the Ivy Mask!”
I use my toe to pry open the door and fling it wide. Mary is there a moment later, ladened with two full buckets of water. She dumps them in the tub.
“Is that the Ivy Mask?” Pelarusa’s voice reaches a shrill note.
“Yes!” I snap, baring my teeth at her as I carefully place Kat on the floor, leaning her against the wall. “This is the Ivy Mask. Now leave!”
She draws back. “Don’t tell me she’s your mistress.”
Edvear comes with another two buckets of water, followed by Charity. It’s enough to fill the tub. Edvear takes Charity’s empty buckets from her, and something about the way he gently touches her shoulder at a time like this rankles my ire. I dismiss everyone but Mary and throw a quick ward over the room so Pelarusa cannot barge in. Then I plunge one hand into the cold bath water, murmuring a spell under my lips. The water temperature rises, until it is warm.
“Did you do this?” Mary snarls at me, crouching over Kat like a mama bear protecting her cub.
I hold her gaze until she looks away. She should know that I would never hurt Kat.
She undoes the ties of Kat’s filthy cloak. “You’ve got to protect her. She’s your wife! You love her!”
“What I do with a criminal,” I reply, “is none of your business.”
Mary glares at me so furiously, I could expect her red hair to catch fire. “What you do with my sister is every inch my business.”
I don’t have the patience to deal with this. I get to my feet and point to the door. “Do you want to leave and let me tend Kat by myself?”
She shakes her head.
“Then work in silence.”
She bites her tongue, but she isn’t happy about it—and I don’t care. I lift Kat and carefully place her into the bathtub. Mary spreads a large towel across the top and begins the slow process of wriggling off her clothes. The shirt we have to cut off to avoid jostling the wound. Mary and I work in silence, me keeping Kat upright with one hand while gripping just above her wound with the other, Mary scrubbing the mud from her skin.
We get her wrapped in a clean robe just as Edvear knocks, announcing the doctor’s arrival. I don’t trust my own wound tending skills at a moment like this. When I carry Kat back into the bedroom, Pelarusa is still there.
“Out!” I jerk my head toward the door. “We will discuss this in a few minutes.”
She rolls her eyes and groans. “Why couldn’t I have been the firstborn?”
“Pelarusa,” I hiss.
With a huff, she storms out of the room. I lay Kat down on the bed, tilting her arm so the branch lies parallel to the bed instead of at an angle. The doctor comes to her side.
“What happened?” the doctor demands.
“That doesn’t matter,” I growl. “Just fix this. Mary, stay with her. Send for me if I’m needed.”
She takes up residence beside Kat, holding her good hand while the doctor begins cleaning around the wound. I march out of the room and shut the door.
Pelarusa is waiting right outside, her arms crossed over her chest. “Why did you bring her back here? You should have taken her directly to Lord and Lady Nothril!”
“She was half dead,” I reply coldly. “She wouldn’t have survived until judgment.”
“I don’t care about judgment!” Pelarusa snaps back. “I care about not feeling like I’m constantly choking in this air! If you’d taken her directly there, I wouldn’t have had to come.”
I walk past her, not even realizing where I’m going until I end up in the parlor. Lord Oliver and Lady Duxbury Vandermore both shove to their feet. I immediately slam the door in their faces and march to the nearest unoccupied room. I pull a bench over to the empty fireplace and drop into it. “Well, that would have been a mercy for both of us, wouldn’t it?”
Pelarusa crosses her arms over her chest. “I can’t go back without her.”
“You won’t,” I say dully. “We will move the Ivy Mask once she is well enough to be moved.”
“Don’t you dare try to find a way to get her free of justice! You know Pavi’s life is on the line.”
My fingers curl around the edge of the bench. “I will not allow Pavi to die. Tell Edvear you want a more comfortable room. He’ll get you whatever you need.”
“You have been insufferable ever since you received this post!” She slams the door behind her.
I listen to her footsteps as she leaves. Then, as the silence swarms and surrounds me, I bury my face in my hands and groan.
What am I going to do?