Chapter 16
Jessiah
Xavier would have been a much more rational choice. But there was no way I’d leave Rummy in that castle with King Cornelius after the way he had been looking at her during dinner.
Did the man have no respect?
She arrived with two men. We might not have been romantically involved, but how could he know that so soon?
Likely because Rummy made it very clear where her interests lay. And it sure as all hells was not with me.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Rummy whispered.
Now that she’d changed out of the red dress, I could think straight again. How could any man sit there and eat dinner when she looked like that just inches away?
Or maybe I was the only one with an issue. King Cornelius had no problem. He ate plenty, though he didn’t even try to keep his eyes to himself.
Even Xavier had more restraint, and that said a lot.
“No,” I whispered back. “But it beats waiting around for Cornelius to bring it up, especially when we don’t know that he’d be truthful.”
I crept down the dimly lit hallways of the castle with Rummy at my back. Though I’d studied every detail of the path to our rooms, we weren’t using the main entrance. Instead, we snuck around through back doors and into small tunnels that were surely only used by the guards and the castle staff.
And guests with too much curiosity.
Miraculously, Rummy followed without argument as we slunk through the shadows, silent as air.
It was only when we approached the door that would lead to the city that we encountered a slew of guards. There were at least twelve, standing shoulder to shoulder near the opening in the massive wall that surrounded the castle.
Before they could see us, I grasped Rummy’s shoulder, and the two of us slipped behind a large pillar in the castle courtyard.
“How are we supposed to get past them?” she hissed. “They’re never going to let us through. Not without alerting Cornelius.”
The moon was high in the sky now. The guards were alert, but they seemed more interested in mingling with one another than they did with keeping the surrounding wall secure.
I glanced to our left, toward a part of the wall more shadowed than where we were hidden. “This way.” Instinctively, I slipped my hand in Rummy’s.
The second my palm was pressed to hers, I tensed, waiting for her to pull away. When she didn’t, I took off, jogging through the darkness with Rummy in tow.
“Great,” she sighed when we were once again ensconced in shadow. “Now what? There isn’t a way out over here, and this wall is too high to climb.”
I didn’t let go of her hand. “Do you trust me?”
Her eyes widened. And for a heartbeat, I thought she would say yes. I was a delusional man. A man living in the past.
Because this Rummy didn’t trust anyone or anything.
“Absolutely not,” she replied.
But her hand remained in mine.
“Perfect,” I sighed. “Then you better hold on tight.”
I hauled her into my arms, and as we cascaded into the sky, she gasped, locking her arms tightly around my neck. She clung to me for dear life, and memories of flying together in those early days of Scarlata ripped through my mind.
She hated flying, but that delusional part of me once thought that maybe with me, she didn’t hate it half as much.
But things were different now. We were different now.
I stayed low, just barely clearing the castle wall, and when I confirmed that the area below was clear, I glided toward the ground.
On the other side of the wall, the guards were still chatting amongst themselves. There wasn’t a cry of outrage or a clamoring of feet.
We’d made it undetected.
Rummy’s body tensed in my arms as my feet hit the ground. And the second I set her down, she scrambled away.
“Are you crazy? Anyone could have just seen that!”
“No one saw us.”
“Really? And how do you know that, oh mighty one? Did you manifest a special power that has made you an all-knowing god?”
“Calm down,” I urged. “If anyone had seen us, the guards would be shouting. Do you hear anything?”
She glanced over one shoulder, then the other. Other than the sound of the wind, we were engulfed in silence.
Rummy narrowed her eyes on me. It was the closest thing to a you’re right I’d get.
“Right,” I sighed. “So let’s keep going.”
This part of the city was damn near empty. Most of the citizens had been near the front gates, shoved together on the main streets of the kingdom. The streets here looked older, forgotten.
The farther we got from the city wall, the more my senses tingled. I remained on high alert, scanning our surroundings, but nothing stood out.
“This is weird,” Rummy whispered from where she chose to walk a foot behind me.
I let the tip of my wing graze her arm every so often just to make sure she still followed.
“Where is everyone?” she asked. “It’s like a dead town.”
The sinking feeling in my stomach grew. “I don’t know.” What could have made an entire community up and leave?
The streets here were flanked by small, humble buildings. They were half crumbling, some with boarded windows, some with missing walls.
Every part of this area lacked color. Lacked life. There wasn’t a single living tree in sight. The only plant life was wilted and brown.
“Come on,” I said. “The main city is this way.”
We turned down a cobblestone path, finding signs of life in the distance.
As we got closer, Rummy eyed me. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
I slowed so we were walking side by side. “Like what?”
“Your wings, you idiot. Now might be a good time to winnow them away or whatever it is you angels do. We’ll have a hard time blending in if anyone catches sight of those massive white wings.”
My heart rate ticked up a notch as she called my wings massive, but I quickly squelched the sensation.
So what if she called them massive? They were big.
And she was right.
I took a breath and released a flicker of magic. This was a skill I rarely used in Scarlata, but here? It was necessary.
My wings disappeared in an instant.
I turned to Rummy, arms out. “Is this better?”
She eyed the empty space over my shoulders. “Much better. Maybe next we’ll work on winnowing away that giant ego of yours, too.”
With that, she stormed forward.
Be grateful she’s alive, Jessiah. Only yesterday, you missed those sassy remarks of hers, remember?
I’d already forgotten why.
But I followed after her anyway.
A mile later, life erupted around us.
A type of life, at least. It was nothing like life back in Scarlata.
Though there were hundreds of citizens lining the main streets of the kingdom, every one of them wore ragged, dirty clothing.
Fires were lit here and there, surrounded by elderly fae, who warmed their hands around the glowing embers.
Garbage and waste crunched under our feet, and children cried out.
Why the hells were there so many people out at this time of night?
So much for sneaking around.
The smell was overwhelming. My senses were heightened because of my angel blood, but even Rummy scrunched her nose. On the air, the scents of rot, death, decay were pungent.
I’d smelt it before. In The Golden City.
Without hesitation, Rummy crept forward, scanning our surroundings, taking it all in.
I had to fight the urge to reach out. To slip my hand in hers. To pull her body closer and shield her as the streets grew more crowded.
Once we reached the wide main street that led to the castle, Rummy stopped dead in her tracks.
I caught up to her, bumping my shoulder against hers, stiffening when I caught sight of what she was staring at.
The entire street was crawling with… with…
Impoverished was too kind a word to describe the status of these people. They were angry. Starving. Sick. Calling out for help. Some of them begged for coin. Most rushed forward toward the castle gates.
As if the castle would help them.
“Is this the rebellion he’s talking about?” I asked. “His own people destitute and starving?”
We had seen the same type of people on our way into town. They didn’t look dangerous. They looked defeated and ill.
Rummy looked up at me, her dark eyes shadows under the hood that covered her blonde braid. “This doesn’t seem like much of a rebellion to me,” she replied. “Just people in need of help.”
Across the way, a large tent had been set up between two crumbling buildings. The main flap of the tent was being held open by a rope, allowing us to see inside. A desk sat in the middle, illuminated by a lantern set on top of it. There, a woman sat, her focus fixed on something in front of her.
Recognition hit me, and a shot of adrenaline worked its way through me.
It was the healer.
The woman who had come to us when Rummy needed help.
My feet were moving toward her before I could stop them.
“Follow me.”
I strode for the tent, weaving through the angry, bustling crowd.
“Hey!” Rummy whisper-yelled from behind me. “Where are you going?”
Rather than answer, I stepped inside the tent.
Rummy followed.
The woman didn’t even look up. Not at first. It took a few moments for her to even register that we’d entered the space at all.
I cleared my throat. “Excuse me?”
The healer finally straightened the documents on the desk in front of her and gave us her attention. “Can I help you with something?”
“Actually, yes.” I stepped closer.
The tent was tidy, an odd contrast to the chaos around us. Other than the desk, it was almost completely empty.
“Do you remember us?”
Her face remained annoyingly expressionless. “Of course I remember you.”
Rummy stiffened at my side. “You’re the one who healed me,” she breathed.
The woman’s jaw tightened, the first hint of emotion she’d shown since we walked in here. “I am. It’s good to see you’re walking, girl, but what are you doing here?”
She peered down to her papers, as if the documents were more important than anything we had to say.
I clamped down on my temper and kept my voice even as I replied. “We’re here looking for information.”
“Information on what?”
She was either pretending to be dense, or she simply wanted to make this as difficult as possible. It wasn’t surprising, considering the last time I’d seen her, she’d spoken in riddles and partial truths.
“On the rebellion. On the king. On what in all hells has been happening in this place!” My frustration got the best of me at the end.
She sighed, lowered the papers, and returned her bored look to us. “What you saw out there wasn’t explanation enough about what’s going on? Take a look around you, boy.”
“It explains that people are in need and clearly aren’t happy, but it doesn’t tell us why.”
She eyed Rummy, her brown eyes darkening, and scoffed. “You should go. Get out now while you still can.”
“We’re not going anywhere.” I took a step closer, the impulse to puff my wings a fraction hitting me. But I couldn’t, since they were hidden. “Not without answers. And if you can’t give them to us, we’ll have to find them elsewhere.”
“You won’t find the answers you’re looking for.”
Rummy took half a step forward. “And how would you know that?”
The woman’s eyes flashed, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I fought the urge to pull Rummy behind me. This woman had healed her. She wasn’t a threat to us.
“Destinies entangled in a sinister snare,” she said, her voice monotone.
Every instinct told me to back out of here. But my feet were frozen in place and my blood ran cold.
“Overcome these pleas of passion and despair.”
Rummy swayed beside me.
“Where chaos reigns and hearts beat, through the veil of love and deceit.”
“Wh-what are you saying?” Rummy demanded, a hint of fear bleeding into her sharp tone. “What does that mean?”
The woman simply repeated the words, using the same cadence the voices in the Whispering Caves had set.
Rummy held her head high and stepped even closer to the woman, slapping her hands down on the table.
“I’m not interested in riddles,” she barked. “Just tell us what you know! We want to help, but we can’t do that unless we know what the hells is going on!”
The lines around the woman’s eyes deepened as she glared back. “The darkness in you is fighting,” she said. “Have you felt it yet? Have you felt it since that day, knocking to escape?”
“Stop,” Rummy demanded through gritted teeth.
I didn’t dare move. A heavy weight pressed down on my lungs, making it impossible to breathe.
“If you’re here now, if he’s met you already, then it’s already begun. There’s no stopping it.”
“What does that mean?” Rummy gripped the edge of the desk, her knuckles turning white. “Are you talking about the king?”
The woman took a breath and leaned back in her chair. “You see this chaos raging outside? The death? The destruction? This is only the beginning. And if I were you, I’d mind the company you keep.”
“This is the beginning of what? What’s the king doing here?”
The woman lifted her chin, her lips pressed into a line.
She wasn’t going to give us more.
So I reached for Rummy, eager to get out of this tent and forget the nonsense this woman was spewing. But before I could make contact, the woman spoke again.
And her words chilled me to the bone.
“He’s going to raise the dead.”