Chapter Twenty
SHE’D WANTED TO HOLD VIGIL AT SAMIRA’S BEDSIDE, stay there until her sister woke up.
But the more she heard talk of the ruin at the palace’s gates from those venturing in and out of the infirmary, the more impossible it became for Kadeesha not to help clear away the wreckage.
She shouldn’t have cared; this was neither her kingdom nor her people.
But then she’d looked at all of the injured folk in the infirmary and she’d felt completely useless.
Had been feeling that way since she’d arrived with Samira, trying her best to stay out of the healers’ ways.
So, she’d kissed her sister’s forehead and ordered her to wake up soon, and then she’d gone to the destroyed section of the palace wall.
There was so much rubble to clear away, so many bodies to still dig out.
Magic-less fae cleared what they could with bare hands, hauling the slabs, boulders, and smaller rocks into wheelbarrows.
Those who possessed void magic used it to eat away at and break up the largest of stone and onyx pieces that were too enormous to be lifted.
Kadeesha set about helping the Apollyon fae with the arduous work.
Witnessing the utter carnage made her gut viciously wrench, and though these were not her people, she mourned for each of the dead that were unearthed.
At some point, she found herself toiling away beside Malachi.
As she used her aether to burn chunks of rock to fine ash, Malachi used his shadows in a similar fashion.
He engulfed large areas in pools of blackness that left only fine silt behind when the blackness vanished.
They worked silently, well after the waning moon appeared in the sky and night spilled across the land.
When the cleanup crews were starting to thin out, Malachi breached the silence that had lingered between them.
“Why did you provide cover for the boy before doing that for your own people?” he muttered from a few feet away. The question was abrupt enough that it startled Kadeesha. She gazed at him for a time, speechless.
Finally, she shrugged. The answer wasn’t that complicated. “Theo is young. He may be about to cross over to the age of maturity, but he is still a juvenile. Making sure he was safe first was the right thing to do.”
“Even if you could have spared your friend from harm instead?” For once, Malachi didn’t speak with his usual arrogance. The question was asked in earnest, so Kadeesha decided to return a genuine answer.
“Samira wouldn’t have had it any other way.
In fact, she would’ve been furious if I even thought about making a different choice.
Not that I would have. We are Kongamato Flyers—Nkita—and that means something to us.
When we formed our sisterhood, it was founded upon the principles of protecting Aether interests and protecting all who could not protect themselves.
We swore oaths to each other to uphold those principles always. ”
Malachi stared at her for an extended time, his dark gaze penetrating. Eventually, he told her, “I’ve accrued more than one debt where you are concerned this day. I owe you for protecting the boy and for allowing harm to come to Samira when I swore none would befall your people.”
“I suppose you do,” Kadeesha said because she couldn’t think of anything else to express. She was at a loss for words at the realization that Malachi was right and she hadn’t yet thought about any debts or how she might use their accrual to her advantage.
“Why did you not mention them when we spoke in the infirmary earlier?” Again, his question was earnest. It held none of his usual taunts or condescension or conceit.
“I guess it was because Samira’s condition meant political maneuvering was the furthest thing from my mind,” she answered truthfully.
“Plus, even if I had thought about it earlier, I am not so callous or cruel that I’d demand boons from you while you stood at your injured friend’s bedside, clearly grieving his circumstances. ”
Malachi didn’t respond at first. He merely gazed at Kadeesha in an intense way that threw her off-kilter.
She bit the inside of her cheek. Malachi’s unwavering stare made a deeply unsettling sensation steal over her.
With just the fixed look, it felt like Malachi was attempting to take a knife to her and peel back the myriad layers to cut straight to the core that comprised her.
“It’s late, and most have called it a night.
I think I’ll go too,” she said, disturbed.
“Excessive use of my void magic leaves me famished and then I need to refuel. Does your aether magic function the same way?” he called out when she turned to leave.
She spun around and faced him with furrowed eyebrows.
“It does,” she answered in a measured way, trying to decide if confessing it revealed too much information.
They were having a conversation free of sniping and threats and barbs, and it was so bizarre that it was messing with her head.
It was also making things come out she might have otherwise not divulged so he couldn’t wield the information he unearthed as a weapon later.
“I am going to call it a night too and get food. Do you want to join me if you need to eat as well?” Malachi inexplicably asked. The invitation, coming from him, sounded so ludicrous that she nearly sputtered.
She eyed him warily and inquired, “Why are you behaving in this manner?”
“In what manner?” His eyebrows crept up in plain confusion.
“You aren’t being an ass at present. Since you started speaking to me, you’ve been someone who seems actually decent.” Perhaps even … kind and compassionate. She glanced upward to be sure the sky hadn’t fractured apart and the very heavens weren’t about to crash down on their heads.
“As I said, I owe you debts and I always pay my debts.” Malachi’s words pulled her attention back to him. The explanation settled her nerves. That reason made his uncharacteristic behavior make sense.
But still … it was difficult to trust it and not be completely bewildered.
Malachi must’ve sensed how taken aback she was because he smirked.
She immediately started to rebuild her armor, pivot back to engaging with his impervious asshole form, when he sighed, then muttered, “It’s been an infernally long day.
I need to eat. But I don’t much desire to be alone with the hellish events of the blast and afterward playing on loop in my mind while I do it.
I’d like company while I eat. All of my Cadre have dispersed to tend to various other necessary tasks.
But you’re here. So I am asking if you’d like to eat with me, Kadeesha. ”
She didn’t think she could be more confounded until she came to the realization that she felt much the same.
She could eat and refuel while sequestered within her own room and call upon one or more of her Nkita for company.
But Samira wouldn’t be present if she did so, and that meant she’d find no true respite, not even a brief one, tonight.
And after the day she’d had, she definitely needed a moment of solace—and strangely that solace would come in the form of the Apollyon king.
Kadeesha found herself telling Malachi, “I’ll dine with you.”
If nothing else, Kadeesha thought their usual banter would do well to hold back the tide of self-recrimination and fresh grief that would eventually hit her over dragging Samira into a situation where she’d almost died again.
Then there was the other emotion that had been clawing to escape since the blast that she needed to keep locked down tightly.
Doing something, anything, to temper that emotion when it finally hit was critical.
She hoped she might literally swallow it down at dinner.