Chapter 43 #2
Where in the hell had the Vangar commander gone, though? I hadn’t seen him go down.
Then Brogan was at my side. He lunged for the front of the chains, grasping it farther down. Together, the two of us pulled, hauling her up the cliff and over the ridge.
Brogan pulled his wife into his arms. “Oh, my love,” he murmured as she wept.
My shoulders heaved, my muscles aching. A sound rumbled above us—something shifting in the shadows of the cliffs. I barely had time to process it as I turned to stand and find the Vangar commander when Brogan tackled me. “Get down!”
A dagger whizzed past the tops of our heads as my forehead connected with the rock.
“Brogan,” Lucia’s voice whispered behind us.
The dagger had speared deeply into her chest.
Horror spread through me as Brogan gave a cry, releasing me to catch his wife before she fell backward again.
I whirled to see the Vangar commander standing on the other side of the gap, ready to throw yet another dagger, a wicked smile on his face.
An unexpected growl came from above me. From seemingly out of nowhere, a black flash leaped from the top of the cliff above us, landing on the commander and pinning him down.
A vuk.
The dagger tumbled uselessly from the commander’s hands as the vuk’s enormous, sharp teeth dug into his neck and ripped out his throat.
The guard went limp as the vuk raised its head, still growling, flesh in its teeth. Blood dripped from his snarling spittle onto the rock below it. The vuk’s eyes met mine, holding them, something familiar in its gaze.
Could it be?
I took a step toward the vuk, holding out my hand. It swallowed back the flesh in its jowls and then came toward me, leaping across the gap easily, its tail fucking wagging.
I palmed the top of its head, leaving a trace of blood from my fingertips on its black scales.
My uncle was long gone—no doubt hidden safely within Emberstone, but I wasn’t here alone.
Turning slowly, I faced Brogan and Lucia Ragnall. Tears streaked his face as he cradled her in his arms.
Brogan Ragnall, who had participated in the murder of my entire family.
“Brogan,” Lucia whispered, her lips a deathly shade of blue. The color had drained from her face and a bright spot of blood pooled in the corner of her mouth. “Brogan, you came back.”
“Don’t speak, Lucia. Don’t speak. Save your energy.”
“King Calix …” Lucia held a hand out toward me, her movement still restricted by the chains.
Brogan lifted his face, a dazed look in his eyes, as though he was surprised to see me standing there. He said nothing, staring at me without wonder or interest, lost to his own sorrow.
Forgiveness was a small mercy that I did not want to grant him, but Lucia Ragnall had been kind to me. Helped me. Bitterly, I crouched beside her. “Why am I not dead, Lucia?”
Her watery gaze met mine. “The blood of the vuk.” She wet her mouth, but only blood stained her lips. “Vuks are immortal creatures …”
The Seidr’s cryptic words rang in my head.
“… he is no ordinary mortal. A beast lives inside him, forged in the blood of the oath.”
Lucia reached for my hand, tracing her thumb against my palm as she searched it. “It is one of the gifts the bond has given you. I saw your lifeline was unbroken.”
Immortal?
My head swam with her words. What in the hell did that mean?
I swallowed hard. “And Seren? Is she immortal too?”
“No.” She shook her head, softly. “And she’s dying. The bond’s killing her. You must take the oath. Use … this. Search the memory I showed you. Y-you’ll find you’ll … remember.” She pulled out her amulet, streaked with blood, then pressed it into my palm. “You must.”
The Seidr had said something about that, too. That I had to take the oath for Seren to survive. Her words crept back with eerie precision. “He will release a great evil inside her. The threads of fate are fixed.”
“Am I a beast?”
Lucia’s face was solemn. “A-an immortal man. Immortals can be killed … b-but you won’t die on your own.”
My head had stopped processing her words.
Immortal man.
The depth and breadth of forever was incomprehensible.
Every single person I would ever know, every love, ever hate, would die … while I continued living.
Including Seren.
No wonder the bond between us was diminishing her but not me.
I had to get to her. Had to save her.
Releasing Lucia’s hand, I stood to give Brogan and his wife a moment alone. “Rest, Lucia. I’ll pray to the gods for you.”
“No, I-I have to—” Lucia reached for me once again, but more blood came from her mouth, her words drowning with a gargled gasp.
“No!” Brogan’s shoulders shook with broken sobs. “My darling. Lucia, my love. Lucia!”
Lucia held his gaze for a moment longer, then the life faded from her, her body going limp.
Thunder cracked through the sky, as my hands clenched into fists. Already, the pain in my body had started to fade, though I was certain I’d need the gifted hands of a healer to remove the ironstones.
What in the hell have I become?
Lucia had died too quickly. I needed more answers from her. Answers that I might never have.
Would Seren ever forgive me for this? No matter how little part I’d had in the death of her mother—my presence here had cost the Ragnalls everything.
And I still had this murderous traitor in front of me.
I would never forgive him. Ever.
“Brogan Ragnall,” I said in a low growl.
Brogan’s head snapped up, grief written in his face. “Your Highness. Please. Spare my children. The fault in what I’ve done is mine and mine alone.”
“And Madoc? Didn’t he slaughter my family too?
Brogan bowed his head. “No. He came to help me save you. I instructed him not to kill you. It was the only way we could convince the world that you were dead. But I never expected—” He gritted his teeth, his eyes red with tears.
I blinked at him, his words like soft blows against my numb heart.
It would be so easy for me to kill him now. To make him suffer as my family had suffered.
He deserves it.
“Rykr …” Seren’s voice floated through my head.
I couldn’t delay. She needed me now.
“Bury your wife, Ragnall. But you won’t die an old man. When I come for you, you’ll wish you had.” I turned to go.
“Your Highness—”
I glanced back at him.
He shook his head, as though deciding whatever he’d wanted to say no longer mattered. “Thank you.”
I ignored him.
I have to find Seren.