Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Thea
The pain in my wrist was constant and all-consuming, an agonizing ache that radiated up my elbow and shoulder. Just the breath of fabric across the swollen skin from where I’d crudely attempted to splint it myself with strips of fabric, leather, and kindling from the hearth was an acute torture.
It was slowing me down too.
I cradled it awkwardly against my chest as I ripped a cloak out of my wardrobe and tossed it hastily onto the bed. A pile of simple clothing was starting to build there. Riding pants, a clean tunic or two, fur-lined gloves, woolen socks.
Ignoring the pain was easier, at least, when I focused on the task at hand.
And the task was evacuation.
This castle wasn’t safe for me.
That fact was increasingly obvious after what had happened at Hyrax Manor. I couldn’t stay here a minute longer.
Not when Caldrius was a friend one moment and an enemy the next.
Not when Hyrax’s moods were unstable at best.
Not when I was facing the actual possibility that my powers might never return.
So we were leaving, with or without that damned book.
I heard the door to my suite open just as I was gathering undergarments, and I rushed out of the dressing room, eyes scanning for my friends.
Nessira’s face was flushed, hair falling out of her usual neat bun. Dimitri slumped against the door, breathing heavily even as his muscles remained locked and alert.
“I don’t think anyone saw us,” he told me.
I barely heard him though; my attention was completely focused on the bundle of fabric wrapped in Nessira’s arms. Simple rags that she held onto as if her life depended on them. As if all of our lives depended on them.
“Hyrax is practically mad with rage,” she panted, arms holding that bundle close to her chest. “We just barely escaped his suite when he and Caldrius arrived back. He’s destroying anything in sight.”
“And anyone,” Dimitri grumbled, straightening as he caught his breath.
I felt a heavy lump form in my throat. “He’s killed?”
A shadow fell upon his features, and he bowed his head. “A kitchen maid got in his way. He was so blind with fury, I don’t even think he noticed when he caught her in his magic.”
It seemed impossible to be so overwhelmed with emotion that you had no idea what your powers were doing.
It wasn’t as if the magic was sentient and acted of its own free will.
That was the crux of Godhood, though, a danger I knew intimately.
We had so much power, that it was all too easy to lose track of it.
That made us unpredictable.
And dangerous.
I turned back to the bundle in Nessira’s arms. “Did you find it?”
Her pale lips were so dry that they cracked as she grinned, and my heart lurched with hope as she pulled away the fabric to reveal the worn leather-bound book in her hands.
There it was.
Eagerly I reached for it, with an excited trill. It was impossible to maintain the weight of it in my single uninjured hand, so I lowered myself to the ground, setting it on the floor in front of me so I could examine it.
“My lady!” Dimitri’s voice was stern. “What happened?”
He was at my side in an instant, taking my left wrist in his hand while I flipped through the pages of the Book of the Gods in my right. I bit down on the hiss of pain that threatened to escape when he began unwrapping the makeshift splint.
So many spells.
Spells that could wreak havoc.
A spell to possess the mind of one of Ciclopia’s beasts.
A spell to kill an entire Descendant line.
A spell to claim another’s power as your own.
A spell to create the Veil.
A spell to remove it.
Such danger written out in tiny script on ink-lined pages.
“You need to see a healer,” Dimitri told me, turning my wrist over in his fingers.
I hunted through the pages of the book, searching for one spell in particular.
“There’s no time,” I absentmindedly protested.
Nessira lowered herself next to Dimitri, staring wide-eyed at the skin that had already turned startling shades of violet and black.
It wasn’t here. No spell to initiate a Forging.
How could that be?
Slamming the book closed, I rolled back on my heels.
“We’re leaving,” I told them.
Dimitri shook his head, releasing my wrist as I stood but jamming a pointed finger in its direction. “After you see a healer.”
“You said yourself that Hyrax is blind with rage right now. There’s no better time for us to run than now, while he’s distracted.”
There was no way of knowing how long his anger would last. Especially while Caldrius was with him, who seemed to have a particular talent for calming the God.
It had already become clear that Hyrax had tired of my excuses about needing space and time on my own.
Once he came to his senses, he would no doubt feel some strange need to attach me to his side more permanently in an attempt to erase what he had done to me in Hyrax Manor.
He’d want to see me at every dinner. He’d want me seated to his right in every meeting.
If I was ever going to escape this place, it had to be now.
“I’ve packed a bag.” I gestured to where it lay on the bed. “We need to move.”
Nessira glanced towards the bag as she crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. Biting down on her lower lip, she looked as if she wanted to protest more, but something in my burning gaze must have convinced her I was right because she nodded and moved to pick up the book.
“Leave it,” I barked, lifting my good hand in a warning.
She frowned her confusion.
Slowly, my chin lowered so that I could look upon the worn leather once more. I didn’t bother to hide the way my face contorted in disgust. Sinking back onto my knees, I slid open it once more.
And then I began tearing out the pages.
“I don’t want it,” I spat. “And no one else should have it. It poisons anything it touches.”
After a few moments of watching me struggle, her fingers joined mine and the sound of pages being torn apart into tiny, unremarkable pieces was all that we heard. And with each page that we removed from that cursed book, I felt the tiniest bit of weight being removed from my shoulders.
When it was done, Dimitri stood, unsheathing the sword on his hip, before moving to the bedroom and gathering my small pack. He threw it over his shoulder while Nessira passed me a cloak before sliding her own arms into another.
“We need to move fast,” Dimitri warned, pressing his ear against the door of the suite to listen for any movement outside.
I nodded.
Nessira readied herself.
“Down Hyrax hallway, through the grand foyer, and out through the gardens. Then we go to the forest line.”
He considered the plan for a long moment. Nessira clenched and released her hands.
Finally, he nodded. “Let’s go.”
As I had expected, a guard waited for us at the end of Hyrax Hall. He turned when he heard my door open, frowning when Nessira and Dimitri stepped out with me.
Dimitri wasted no time.
He ran forward, his steps strangely light despite the speed with which he moved, and before Nessira and I could even process what was happening, he had spun under the guard’s intended blow. He covered the guard’s mouth with a hand, silencing him as he ran his sword clear through his stomach.
Nessira gasped, covering her own mouth as I stared wide-eyed at the rivulets of scarlet blood that dripped into a pool across the marble floor.
Blood on marble.
It had been everywhere on the day of the battle. It had stained the floors and the walls, making the white palace shine scarlet. Red was a truly awful color. It was the color of death, and it spread across the tile now just as easily as it had then.
A sharp tug on my fingers snapped me out of my thoughts as Nessira wrapped her hand in mine and began pulling me away. I tried not to look at the guard as I stepped over him. I didn’t want to see his face.
Casualties were a cost of war. I’d better get used to it.
Together, we hurried to the staircase that led to the foyer, stilling when we heard the unmistakable chatter of soldiers approaching.
Dimitri’s arm flew out, pushing Nessira and me back until we stumbled into a small closet at the top of the staircase. We huddled together, our bodies cramped in the tiny space as he shut the door, locking the three of us in. With wide eyes, he held a single finger over his mouth.
Nessira shifted her weight, accidentally bumping into my wrist and my eyes grew wide a second before Dimitri’s hand shot out to wrap around my mouth.
I bit down hard, vision blacking out against the pain that moved through my body in endless waves.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to breathe through it.
When I blinked open again, Nessira’s skin was surprisingly pale as she mouthed an apology.
Boots came up the stairs. A rhythmic thudding of them. An entire contingent of them.
“Prince Caldrius has requested his wife,” a voice said, and I was suddenly too aware of the metal bands on my wrists.
Oh no.
The three of us all shared panicked glances.
We’d just lost any advantage we might have had. When those soldiers went to fetch me and found my rooms empty, this entire castle would be looking for me. Including Caldrius and Hyrax.
“Go!” Dimitri ordered as the footsteps quieted.
He threw open the door and glanced behind us while holding it open for Nessira and me to make our escape. We sprinted down the winding staircase towards the grand foyer breathlessly.
My skirts were too long, too elaborate to move inefficiently.
The fabric snagged on the stairs and caught under our feet, leaving both Nessira and me tripping until Dimitri forced us to pause for a precious moment while he tore the overskirt off using a combination of his sword and his pure strength.
Then he was pushing us towards the door that led into the winter night air.
The three of us all hissed through our teeth as the biting temperature bit against our cheeks. A light dusting of snow, likely what would be the last of the winter months, already covered the ground and filled the star-strewn sky. We wouldn’t survive out here long if a storm were rolling in.
“Come on,” I pointed towards the tree line, urging my friends forward.
“Theadora.”
I froze, the name rooting me to my spot more forcefully than any magic could have.
I hadn’t known it was possible to layer my name with such emotion, but there it was.
Confusion. Disappointment. Anger.
All of that, laced inside a single word. A single word that sent a slice of apprehension running through me.
I turned and met the darkly suffocating gaze of my husband as the two guards at his side each rushed towards Nessira and Dimitri.