Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
Selene
Elderan steps back, tugging the light magic he used to change Tristan into one of his new creations back into his eyes. His robes are as stiff as the walls of the small room. For one blink of an eye, nothing moves, not my heart, not Tristan’s body, nor the dust particles drifting in the air.
Static prickles along my skin, and then Tristen’s body collapses. “No!” I cry.
I shove forward, expecting a push back, but I’m free too! I blanket Tristen with my body, then shake him. Is he dead?
I slap his face. “Open your eyes!” I plead. He looks… dead. He bears such a resemblance to Titus, it’s haunting. “No!” My inhale burns. “Tristen, wake up!”
Why do I feel like this is a warning of what could happen? My mate, dead in my arms.
Sealing my eyes shut, I blast my healing magic into him. But I barely have any left. I’ve been treating sleep like an option when I should’ve made it a necessity.
“Do not waste your last dredges of magic. You will need it soon,” Elderan says flatly.
A faint exhale warms my palm. “Tristen!” He’s alive. I rub his cheeks, trying to bring color into them. “What did you do?” I scream, cradling Tristen to my chest and rocking him.
“I told you already,” Elderan bites with exasperation. “I changed him. I did my part; I played my last hand. The rest is up to you. Your fate is in your own hands. Let’s see how this plays out.”
I whirl around, arms and legs spread wide, covering Tristen. “We are not games! Not pawns for you to move!” I snarl.
Elderan angles his head; his appearance shifts, as does my breath.
He stands taller, younger, with a body of brutish strength.
His eyes gleam intensely, like stars against the dark.
If they’re supposed to inspire hope, I feel diminished.
He begins to glow a faint shade of colors, like the night sky exposing its dark depths.
My toes curl. His jaw makes Titus’s look like a child, but what scares me are his haunting eyes, not of light but dark heavens, vacuums that pull at my chest, trying to drag me closer.
He’s seen life, death, and the in-between. Traveled the heavens, moved the lands all with his exhale.
Don’t ask how I know this. I sense it as one senses a pebble in their shoe.
Thick-cored arms crossed like chains, an exposed scarless torso, nothing but leather pants covering his legs. No weapons. He needs nothing, only his blinking eyes and dancing fingers.
My chin and shoulders inch in. “Are you a god?” I sound so weak. I know he said he was endless, but isn’t that the true definition of a god?
“I already answered that.”
“You said those we called gods could die. Maybe we labeled them wrong. Maybe you deserve that title.”
Amusement lights his face. “If I were, shouldn’t you be bowing?”
I am no coward. I raise my chin. “Not all gods deserve to be praised.”
His eyes turn from hot granite to soft silk as he tips his head back and laughs. The sound is a drum so deep it changes my heartbeat for a moment. “Oh, Selene. I know what men see in you. I dare say you intrigue me.”
I growl, feeling my mate mark burn.
He holds up his hand. “I would never touch you.” He rolls his eyes. “If only others felt the same.”
Tristen is right; speaking with Elderan is running in circles. I jab a finger towards Tristen. “Undo what you did to him.”
“It’s too late for that.” He glances at Tristen as if he were picking an item from a wardrobe. “The change has started. You can’t remove spice from a mixing bowl; it’s best to accept the new taste.”
“You sicken me!” My finger curls in. “This was not what my brother wanted.”
Elderan steps forward, and I almost stumble.
It feels like the land quakes beneath my feet.
“Your brother was the catalyst that saved you all.” His words hold no bitter notes, but his eyes find me lacking favor now.
“I tried to guide others, but they turned out like Torin.
They molded my advice to their own agendas.
Everett was the first one to listen. I came here in another form, spotted Everett, and talked with him.
“I was so accustomed to seeing men want objects, but your brother wanted something else, and that intrigued me. It was Everett who saved you all; he deserves your bowed heads. Now, it’s up to you not to dilute his end goal.”
I crumple, sinking to my knees. I pull Tristen’s torso onto my lap and push his hair off his head. He’s hot now. Is that good? No, wait… that’s a fever.
“I did not cause your suffering, Selene. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
“You aided it!” I cry.
His shadow looms over Tristen and me, but inside the darkness, it’s bathing us in light. “Bandages can hurt when applied, but their purpose is to heal, as is mine.” He waves his hand, and the door appears.
A faint draft of air from the stairways touches my cheek, but I feel sick.
His light builds. I know if I turn to look, it will blind me again. I press Tristen’s face closer to my chest.
“Tell Titus not to be fooled by peace. It is a prelude to turbulence, just as the ocean stirs slowly before a storm.” His hand on my shoulder shocks me; his light illuminates my body.
“Sometimes fighting—sailing against the current of fate—is what batters the ship the most; allow the tide to sweep you to a new destination, Selene.”
Light fills every nook and crevice of the small room, climbing up the stairs until it fills the entire library. I gasp, curling inward as I squeeze Tristen to me. By the time I control my breathing, the light vanishes, creating a loud snapping boom that shakes the land.
The castle trembles, and dust seeps out from the cracks in the stones, raining down on me.
We’re alone.
Everett never warned me about this. Does that mean we altered the future Everett saw?
“It’s okay,” I tell Tristen. “You’ll be okay.”
I’m happy he’s unconscious; I’d hate to lie to his face.
The land shook for miles when Elderan vanished. Adrian saw a flash of blinding light and rushed to the library. I ordered him to bring Tristen to my bed; the location was private and secure, rather than the medical wing.
Adrian’s questions were a relentless whip, digging into my spine. I had no answer that made sense.
No treatment has helped alleviate Tristen’s fever. They started an IV with human blood in hopes that his magic would help keep him strong. A second IV has vampire blood to help heal the unseen damage.
I pace the room, too scared to stop, and sit by Tristen’s side. Adrian hasn’t received word from Titus, but his men come and go with updates on securing the castle.
“Where?” Titus shouts.
I’ve been in such a numb state that I didn’t feel the bond tug me until now. I halt, stomach plummeting as I look at Tristen; chest bare, only a thin sheet and his boxers cover him as his body sweats with fever.
How do I explain this? I failed to keep your brother safe.
Will Tristen even be the same person when he wakes?
Reaching out, I touch the wall as the room spins. A pull jerks my eyes to the door. Titus rushes inside, eyes wide as chasms. They lock onto me like a hook in my cheek, breath flees from my lungs, needing his to replace it.
I sway, stumbling forward, rushing to him. A cry of relief fills the room as his hot exhale stirs my hair.
“Mate,” he murmurs. His hands hold me as tightly as skin clings to my bones, but it doesn’t feel close enough. There in each other’s arms we linger, forgetting time, our problems, and tomorrow. Everything feels whole. Secure.
“I love you.” He presses a kiss to my head.
I sniffle, pressing my ear to his heart. “I love you, too.” Thump, thump; perfect and steady. He’s alive!
“I’m sorry,” he confesses.
Time breaks. We’re forced to confess our sins. I look into his eyes, swirls of brown, like wood split open by smoldering embers. His face is covered in smoke and dirt.
He raises his blood-covered hands to cradle my face, then lowers them upon seeing the grime.
I grab his hands. “You killed Galen.” All those nights I slept with Galen, put up with him, tried to make this sham of a marriage work, it’s all for naught.
I’m disillusioned with myself, with life, and with a woman’s role in general. I want a world where my daughter is not a coin to be bartered. How did females who can make a child and ensure the survival of our kind become so powerless?
Galen’s rule is truly over. Repeating it doesn’t make it feel real. I need to etch it in stone, burn his throne. Better yet, I’ll parade it through the street so the people he never viewed as worthy can take a seat in it.
But Galen is one king, and if the future Everett foretold must unfold, it means Titus and I need to dethrone many kings. I want to relish the sweet taste of victory, but the sour tang of reality overpowers it.
“I had to,” he replies with a mixture of pride and remorse. “I know you lusted to be there, but I had to do this, Selene. I couldn’t think with you at my side. I needed you here with Tristen, safe as the world crumbled.”
I swipe my thumb over a deep indent in his palm, thick with Galen’s blood.
“I should have been by your side, helping you find purchase to stand. With you, Titus, not your brother. Do not betray me again. If your feet are not on firm ground, then mine are not. Distance does not create an illusion.” I swallow my resentment.
“I am not a bird to be caged. I am a creature that longs to fly with my mate by my side.”
“I can not make a promise like that. You are my heart; I cannot expose it to death.” He presses his forehead to mine. My lips press into a flat line. He’s smart enough not to kiss away our problems. “Hate me for this. I can bear it. I cannot endure a life without you.”
I want to fight, but it would be like shattering a mirror. I would do the same if his life were on the line. I’d lie, escape, and slay any beast who tried to harm him. I’d give my life if it meant he was tucked safely away.
Words stick in my throat. Great effort shoves them free. He needs to hear it. “I understand.”