Chapter 40 Consequences
CONSEQUENCES
We moved through the darkness like ghosts, the moon high overhead. Waves crashed to our right, loud enough to cover our footsteps. Twice we froze when torches flickered on the beach. Once, we pressed ourselves behind a boulder while Skaldir soldiers passed close.
“How much farther?” I whispered.
“Border’s past the tree line.” He gestured at the forest. “An hour.”
“The patrols seem light.”
“They are.” He frowned, facing the plains. “Something must’ve happened.”
We kept walking. Kairos paused at the edge of the forest, scanning the trees, then we trekked through the woods. It thickened as we followed a creek upstream, the canopy blocking the moonlight. Kairos gripped my hand so I wouldn’t trip, guiding me slowly.
He squeezed my palm. “You holding up?”
I nodded, though my legs ached.
He stopped. “Let’s rest for a few minutes.”
I sank onto a fallen log while he stayed standing.
“Kairos?”
His head swiveled toward me.
“What happened at the palace…I need to know how bad it is.” I exhaled shakily. “When I broke the binding rune, it destabilized the other runes connected to it. The ones on the walls, ceiling…I felt them all unraveling. It was like pulling one thread made the whole tapestry fall apart.”
Kairos sighed, sitting beside me. “You did what you had to do.”
“I killed people.”
“Vaeris killed them.”
I wanted to believe that, but I’d caused the collapse.
“The other realms…what happens now?”
“Soren will call it an act of war. Even if Vaeris provoked it, I’m the one who brought you there.”
“So he’ll retaliate.”
“He’ll have to. Politically, he can’t let it stand.” Kairos rubbed his face. “Thalir has the strongest navy in the world. If Taressa sides with Soren, then we’re surrounded.”
“Your people will blame me.”
“Some will. Most will condemn me for bringing you.”
“I’m…so sorry. You didn’t have a choice, but I’ve made everything so much harder for you.”
“I’m relieved,” he whispered.
That knocked the air from my lungs.
I stared at him. “What?”
“I didn’t understand why you wanted to see him so badly. I thought—I thought you were tolerating me because you had to.”
My chest ached.
“But he marked you,” he said in a low growl. “I’ll never forgive him for that. But at least now I know.”
“Know what?”
His dark gaze swept over me. “That you were never his. You’re mine.”
We sat in silence, the lump in my throat too big to swallow. The way he said it sounded non-negotiable, and my thoughts were a crazy mixture of longing and fear. But a barely controlled fury still simmered inside him. I could feel it, somehow.
“Don’t risk your life just to free me from the bargain.”
He huffed. “You’ve freed me twice. Both times you nearly died.”
“That’s different. I had to.”
“Exactly. So don’t ask me not to do the same.”
My stomach clenched. “We could avoid him. If he never gets close enough, the deal can’t be enforced.”
He let out a growl. “Another male’s mark is on your skin. He can summon you whenever he wants. I won’t let that stand.”
I reached up, fingers sliding into his hair. He went rigid at my touch, jaw clenched tight.
“Why?” I whispered, stroking through the silver strands. “Why am I so worried about you? At the summit, when Lysander attacked you, I didn’t think. I jumped on his back. I could’ve been killed.”
“It’s normal.”
“What is? I’m doing reckless things for you, and I don’t understand why. What is this?”
He hesitated. “What do you want it to be?”
“I—what can it be? I have a faerie deal, my sister is gone, and Sanguir is on the brink of war.” My hand slipped to his shoulder. “What can this possibly be?”
He smiled. “It could be everything.”
What does that mean? My mind spun with possibilities. His realm would never respect me as a consort, but everything meant more than that. Did he see me as his queen?
He dragged me upright. “Come on. The border’s close.”
I stood on shaking legs.
Everything.
When we finally reached Sanguir, I could’ve wept with relief. Uther appeared through the mist, a gash bleeding down his brow, but he grinned like he’d been in a tavern brawl.
“Well, look who crawled out of the deep.”
He caught me in a one-armed hug, and I sagged against him.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I breathed.
“’Course I am. Someone has to keep Kai humble.” He disengaged from my arms, facing Kairos. “Everyone’s regrouping on the beach.”
Kairos nodded. “Lead the way.”
We hiked the short path, and warriors staggered to their feet to greet Kairos, seawater running off armor.
“What a battle.” Uther slapped Kairos’s arm. “Did you see that winged prick’s face when she bit him? I nearly pissed myself laughing.”
A male with a dented pauldron laughed roughly. “The Skyborn king, shrieking like a scalded cat.”
“And Aelie hanging on, ripping feathers out like she was plucking a chicken for dinner.” Uther shook his head, eyes bright with manic glee. “Beautiful. Best thing I’ve seen in fifty years.”
Laughter rippled through the gathered warriors. A few exchanged glances, smirking, but I couldn’t smile. The sound Kairos’s body made when it cracked against the column still played in my thoughts. Lysander had gone straight for Kairos, the bastard. Completely unprovoked.
I balled my fists. “The palace was falling apart, and he didn’t care about anything except hurting you.”
Kairos’s hand settled on my shoulder. “It’s over now.”
Then why did my hands shake? Why did the mention of Lysander send a lightning strike of rage inside me? I felt out of control, dangerously close to tears.
Kairos pulled me against his side, and I leaned against him, trembling.
“In the future, don’t hurl yourself at bastards twice your size.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Uther chuckled. “Everybody stopped to watch when you jumped on him. You bought me the opening I needed to make a kill.”
“How did you survive?” I asked.
“Swam out of the vortex.” Uther swiped a hand through his black hair. “A Thalir ship was nearby. They dragged us aboard, threw us in the hull but didn’t think we’d punch through. Idiots.”
Kairos grunted. “You sank their ship?”
Uther shrugged. “Didn’t have much of a choice. It was that or be tortured.”
“Any losses?”
“None.”
“Good.”
Kairos strode to the beach, his cloak dragging dark lines. A male hunched in the sand, clutching his stomach, and Kairos crouched beside him. I knelt on the male’s other side.
Kairos grasped his wrist. “Let me see.”
The warrior’s hand fell away, revealing a deep gash. I clutched his bloodstained palm, squeezing it.
Crimson light poured from Kairos’s fingers, and the flesh knit together.
The warrior breathed deeply. Kairos touched his forehead to the male’s before moving on.
We went through the warriors—him healing, me bringing water, holding bandages.
My chest felt too full as I watched him with his people.
He listened when they spoke and held their weight when they faltered.
He knew when they needed comfort…when they needed to laugh. He was everything, all at once.
Someone groaned.
A warrior lay farther down the beach, propped against a rock.
I ran over, and Kairos followed.
He was pale, his lips tinged blue. A black arrow jutted from his shoulder, and tendrils spread from the wound, crawling up the warrior’s neck like green veins.
“Thalir bolt,” Kairos muttered. “It has a poison rune.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
Kairos’s jaw clenched. “The shaft.”
I pulled on my gloves. “I’ll be fast.”
I fingered the arrow and heat seared through the leather, the rune writhing like a nest of snakes.
“Hold him still.”
Kairos gripped the warrior’s good shoulder. The male’s eyes rolled back.
The threads felt thick, barbed with magic that dug deeper every time the arrow shifted. I hooked it carefully with my finger and began to unwind.
The warrior convulsed.
“Almost there.” Sweat dripped down my temple as a thread loosened. I yanked, and the rune shattered like breaking glass.
Kairos wrenched the bolt free. Blood welled, but his healing took hold, crimson light chasing the poison from his body. The warrior sagged, color returning to his face.
“Thank you.”
I nodded, my eyelids heavy.
Kairos’s hand found my neck. “You alright?”
I looked up at him. “Yes. Is he going to be okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” he said gruffly.
Warriors nearby gaped at my hands. The silver-braided female stared at me.
“How did she do that?”
The warriors prepared to leave.
The mairen answered their riders’ whistles, their ghostly shapes slipping from the forest to appear by their masters’ sides. Kairos and the others grabbed food from saddlebags, joking about how the Sunken Palace had finally earned its name. They urged me to join them, but I couldn’t.
I felt terrible.
I’d seen the bodies floating in the water as we escaped.
How many people had I killed? Servants preparing the feast. Guards stationed at their posts.
Courtiers who’d dressed in their finest to attend a summit.
They’d woken up that morning with no idea a human would tear their world apart by nightfall.
All those people, dead because of me. I could still feel the runes snapping. The way the threads had unraveled so fast, and I’d known what was happening but couldn’t stop it.
And Soren. He’d been trying to help. Had offered me sanctuary, treated me with more respect than I’d ever received from a fae, and I’d repaid him by destroying his home.
Kairos’s warriors had nearly died, and now they’d return to a realm that would soon be at war. The guilt clawed at my lungs.
What good was runebreaking if all I did was destroy?
I sat on the beach, watching the waves. Dawn was hours away. Sleep wouldn't come, so I let the golden sand and crashing waves steady me.
I scooped a handful of sand, and it was like powdered bone falling through my fingers. Shells glinted everywhere. I brushed one free. Pretty. My gaze wandered down the shore, pausing on a glint of silver.
No. It can’t be.
I clawed at the sand until my fingers closed on something familiar. Rheya’s mirror. Its frame was darker, warped at the edges like it had been submerged for too long, but it was intact. I’d dropped this thing in the palace. It should’ve been at the bottom of the ocean.
So how was it washed up here?
I peered into the clouded mirror, brushing off sand, but saw nothing but my exhausted reflection. It was strangely hot, like metal left in the sun. I flipped it over, where red stones circled a tiny rune. My finger grazed it, rolling over an unnaturally smooth surface. My hackles raised.
It felt like skin.
Ugh, probably another sacrifice? I shoved the mirror into my satchel and fastened it shut. I should ask Kairos about this. I found him near the center of camp, surrounded by warriors.
“Kairos.”
He turned. “There you are.”
I opened my mouth to mention the mirror, but then he handed me a scroll. I took it, scanning its contents.
“Vaeris states your presence at the summit was unauthorized and that I coerced you,” Kairos sneered. “He’s framing it as a breach of peace. He wants you returned or he’s declaring war.”
My hands trembled on the parchment.
“The Skyborn are already moving,” he continued.
“Caelir’s mobilizing their forces. Thalir hasn’t responded yet.
They’re still pulling bodies from the rubble.
Queen Taressa claims your power ‘risks upsetting the natural balance of the realms.’ She wants to contain the damage.
That could mean shackling you…killing you. ”
My thoughts spun. “What about my sister? Vaeris said she’s in Skalgard.”
“I don’t trust a word that asshole says. He’s trying to lure you to him so he can activate the summons clause.”
“But what if he’s not?”
“If I march into his realm, it gives the other rulers the justification to unite against us.”
“So we’re supposed to leave her there?”
“For now, yes. I will get her back, but not by walking into Vaeris’s trap.”