Chapter 28
AWAY, AWAY, AWAY
Seryn
Finally, I left the warmth of our bed after a morning of bittersweet pleasure. The darkness staining Gavrel’s skin was my doing. How cruelly fitting that the deal I’d made to save him was now trying to destroy him. Exactly as my uncle intended.
I padded across the room and took one of Gavrel’s white tunics from the armoire. Feeling his eyes on me, I glanced at him. “Enjoying the view?”
“Immensely,” he rasped.
With a smile, I slipped the garment over my head and scooped my belt off the ground.
Gavrel’s arms wrapped around me, his mouth meeting my neck.
A firm knock sounded, and he reluctantly released me. Frowning, he opened the door to a flurry of movement.
Derya Atwater pushed into the room. “Miss! Oh, by the Ancients, you gave me such a scare, you did.”
“Derya!” I cried, running into the older female’s arms. “What are you doing here? I thought you were only at the palace during the Dormancies.”
“Times are changing, my dear. Morpheus has returned, and what with Melina gone and the other two rotters fleeing. It’s a relief to say that for other ears to hear.
” She flapped one hand and shifted a bundle of clothes under her arm.
“And when Mr. Burlam sent word that you’d gone to retrieve the Commander from the Nether and that you’d brought your mother back. I came as soon as I heard, I did.”
My smile grew. “I knew Mr. Burlam cared.”
“But don’t be pointing it out to him,” she scolded.
And I suppressed the urge to giggle.
Her eyes softened as she studied me and Gavrel, her hand covering her heart. “It pleases me, it does, to see you finding one another at last. It’s a waste of time to be so stubborn.” She clucked her tongue.
I pulled her into another hug before my smile faltered as an idea crossed my mind. Derya was a skilled alchemist. Perhaps she knew something of curses. She often was a deep chasm of hidden information. “Derya, you wouldn’t happen to have any experience with runebound bargains?”
The chambermaid’s nose scrunched. “Not in the slightest.”
Damn me to the Murk.
Consolingly, she patted my shoulder, one worried eyebrow rising. “But there might be someone who has. Everything tip-top?”
“Here in Surrelia?” Gavrel asked, sidestepping her question.
Derya set the clothes on the edge of the bed, giving him a sidelong glance. “Of course, dears.” She cupped my cheek before flitting toward the door, her navy skirt flaring behind her. “The runemaster is here for tonight’s ceremony.”
“What ceremony?” I called after her.
“Oh my, yes. Yes, that’s why I came up. I’ve brought you clothes for your parents’ Kollao ceremony, of course.”
“What?!” I squealed, surprise squeezing my windpipe.
“Your father said they’ve waited long enough to join souls.” Derya shrugged. And with that, she flew out the door like a flighty bird. One that had dropped an egg on your head.
“A Kollao ceremony, huh?” I asked, but not really wondering. If Gavrel and I could, we’d undergo the ritual ourselves. I couldn’t imagine how my mother and father had suffered all these turns. Only seeing one another in a dream every so often.
“Is that even a question?” Mama smiled knowingly.
I chuckled. “No. I’m grateful you’re both free and finally together.
You deserve all the happiness, Mama.” An image of my sister as a child dancing with my mother and me flickered in my mind.
My shoulders slumped. “I miss Letti. It feels like turns since I left her. She’ll be so heartbroken she missed this. ”
Mama’s head dipped. “Give her my love and tell her I can’t wait to see you both again someday.” She put her arm around my waist. “I’ll be waiting for you, my beautiful girls. Always.”
I slid my hand to the back of her shoulder and squeezed gently.
This life could be so very cruel. I blinked away the dampness trying to slip from my eyes.
But my mother was safe, and she would be with her fated for the rest of eternity.
I hoped it would comfort my sister knowing Mama was finally at peace.
What is death but a dream? The words echoed in my memory as we wandered the halls after lunch. Gavrel had gone to find Kaden.
We paused, examining a painting of the Moon Ancient, Selene. The female draped over the inside curve of a crescent moon, nearly falling off the tip, reaching for her lover’s outstretched hand far below. My heart pounded against my ribs.
“I’m surprised you and Gavrel aren’t binding.”
“We don’t need the ceremony to love one another. But regardless, there … there are complications,” I said, glancing at her profile.
She kept studying the painting. “Never knew you to curl up in a ball of defeat, sweetheart.”
I smiled. “Well, first we need to figure out how to break Phobetor’s runebound bargain.
” I showed her my tattoo, and her eyes widened.
“Because it’s poisoning Gavrel. And then we need to remove the rune stone over his heart …
that Morpheus showed Hestia in a dream.” Mama’s mouth dropped open.
“It prevents him from talking about our bond. Although it likely protected him from Melina’s emb—”
“That … that bloody wanker!”
I clapped my hand over my lips to stifle the burst of laughter.
She so rarely cursed. That didn’t bode well for Morpheus.
My mother grabbed my hand and rushed through the halls and up the stairwell until we reached a massive study on the upper floor.
It reminded me of Phobetor’s, but in shades of silver and opalescence.
The Ancient of Dreams sat at an intricately carved desk, concentrating on various papers and books. His golden hair shone in the fractured sunlight dripping through the crystal ceiling.
He looked up, eyes practically glowing when they landed on my mother.
“My dream, what ails you?”
Mama stomped toward him, and he smiled. She poked a finger into the wall of his chest. “What have you done? You’re the reason Gavrel has a rune in his chest. The reason our daughter can’t bond with him. How could you?”
He held his hands up in surrender. I hadn’t really thought to be upset with him, especially with everything else that had happened in recent days. And seeing him, an Ancient, being reprimanded by my very mortal mother was causing a twinge of sympathy to course through me.
“Maya, let me explain.” Pausing, he looked at me, genuine regret framing his gaze. “My sincere apologies, daughter.”
When he called me that now, it didn’t feel odd. It felt … right. I realized I’d been thinking of him as my father more and more.
He continued, “We are all at the whims of the Fates, as you know full well. They offered me a way to protect you, and I’m not ashamed that I took it.”
I tilted my head, eyes narrowing. Mama wore much the same expression.
“Fates help me,” Morpheus muttered, eyes darting between us.
“They won’t be able to get here quickly enough to help you,” Mama threatened between her teeth.
He swallowed. Coming out from behind his desk, he waved to the cushioned seating area in front of a hearth on the other side of the room. He snapped his fingers, and a crackling fire ignited while we sat.
Mama crossed her arms. My father went on, “They said you would one day be in grave danger because of your gifts. That if your khorda and you bonded too soon, the prophecy and path laid out would collapse. That those who wished you harm would find you too soon … and all the realms would fall into Khaos.”
My fingers dug into my thighs, breathing shallow. “So, it is true.”
“What is, Little Star?” Mama’s soft voice comforted me.
“That I can consume an Ancient’s power.” After what had happened in the Nether Void, that kernel of truth had tunneled under my skull, but hearing the Ancient of Dreams say it now. It was too much. It was real.
Mama glared at Morpheus. “This is why? Why I had to run from the Bogs? Implant her rune? I knew she’d be more, but I thought it was because she was half Druik, half demi-Ancient.
I didn’t know she was the prophecy.” She ran her hands through her curls, causing them to fluff in a halo around her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
I stood, toying with my talisman, pushing my shoulders back. “How do we remove Gavrel’s rune?”
Morpheus closed his eyes for a moment, shame digging into the line of his lips. His gaze flicked to my blade—once his—before locking onto mine. “You must pierce his heart with that dagger.”
“But he’ll die. Why not just remove the stone?” The words were brittle on my tongue.
Morpheus dipped his head. “The symbol’s ember would have bound itself to his heart. You can’t remove it simply by cutting it from him.”
“Then what’s the use if it kills him?”
He steepled his fingers. “It isn’t for us to bend the will of the Fates.”
I scoffed. “Damn the Fates.”
My father frowned. He’d ignored the three sisters and paid dearly for it.
Pursing my mouth, I inhaled deeply. “And how do I break my runebound bargain with your brother? It’s already poisoning Gavrel,” I bit out.
“You can’t,” he responded gently. “Unless you fulfill the terms.”
“What was the deal?” Mama asked.
Staying silent, I crushed one fist closed and gripped my dagger, the metal hilt cold against my skin. I couldn’t form the words yet. Couldn’t tell them what Phobetor made me promise.
It was either Gavrel or my father. I drifted out of the study, thumb rubbing absently over the pommel.
Away from my parents and their troubled expressions.
Away from the nauseating truth.
Away from any sense of hope I clung to.