Chapter 57
Rylee
“I should go back.” I breathe out the words. “Try again.”
Pierce settles me back down on the sofa in his palace chambers. “You have nothing left. You need rest.”
I blow out a breath. He’s not wrong. My mind feels like a bowl of mush, sweat dots my skin, and my muscles are trembling. The result of hours spent trying to reenter Baydel’s mind.
The prick is powerful. Now that he knows I’m coming, he blocks me at every turn. I broke through a few times only to get a glimpse of something before he shoved me out. I thought about killing him again.
Thought about it a lot.
He still breathes. For now.
“Drink this.” Axl hands me a cool glass, the liquid inside a light pink shade. “Ivy sent it,” he says. “One of her tonics.”
I nod, gulping down the contents. It loosens the ache in my muscles.
Ivy. She’s in my chambers with my sister and Layce, who’s been healed by Dalfon. I’ve only gone as far as checking on Layce, to hug her and feel her alive in my arms. I almost lost her. Because of Erin. Because of an attack she led.
That’s what kept me from going to see my sister.
Kept me from trying to talk to her.
I will. I’m just . . . I need time.
She’s the other piece to this puzzle. A vital one.
Once I rest, she’ll be the next one I question.
The thought makes acid churn in my gut. It shouldn’t be hard to talk to my sister. But I don’t know her anymore. At least not whoever she’s become.
“I brought food,” Kal says as he comes through the doors, a tray in his hands. “What would you like first? Bread? Chocolate? Fruit?”
I smile up at him as he sets the tray on the table in front of the couch.
Pierce settles on my left, Axl on my right. Kal crouches down to my eye level before me, hands on my knees. “Tell me, and I’ll fix it up for you.”
I swallow the emotion clogging my throat. The love fueling me, soothing my soul when everything seems upside down. They’re my constant. If Jax were here, it would be perfect.
“Thank you,” I say. “I don’t know what I’d do without all of you.”
“We’re here,” Kal says.
“Always,” Pierce adds.
“You’re going to be begging for space soon,” Axl says. “Cause I’m going to annoy the shit out of you with how attached I’m going to be.”
“You could never annoy me.” I laugh, shaking my head. “I wish Jax was here.”
“He has to be getting close,” Pierce says. “Keleshore is known for their slow decision-making process, but he’s been gone a great while.”
“Maybe he’s already on his way back,” Axl says.
“I saw Mirren a little while ago,” Kal says. “She was heading to mail your letter to Keleshore.”
Hope fills my chest. I demanded his return, in the nicest way possible. Maybe it will be enough. And once he’s home, we can start making the changes we need to.
With the capture of my sister and Baydel and the other kings, too .
. . we can finally put an end to the Faders.
Sure, we have his brother to contend with, the siphons of Erithmore, and whatever bargain Baydel made with him in the memory I saw, but now that we know what to watch for, there’s hope for an end to it all soon.
And then . . .
Then my mates take the thrones, and we get to live happily ever after.
Just like Axl always says.
“I love you all,” I say. “Have I told you that today?”
Axl grins. “I never hear it enough.”
Pierce squeezes my hand. “And we you.”
Kal smiles and turns, fixing me a plate. “I’m going to feed you, love.”
I chuckle, settling deeper into the couch. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I feel like we’re finally in control.
Mirren hurries through my open door, a package in her hand. Her urgency has all of us sitting up straighter. “Rylee.”
My blood runs cold. She never says my name like that. Not so serious, so . . . distraught?
“Mir?” I ask, eyes wide as she gets closer. “Are you crying?”
“This . . .” She holds the package, which I can now see is open, the brown paper torn to reveal an intricately carved wooden box the size of my hand. “It came for you. I opened it like I do all your packages to make sure it wasn’t something . . .” Her voice cracks. She’s shaking.
Everything slows around me as I shove off the couch, walking past Kal to stand before her. I take the small box from her hands. My heart barely beats as I open the lid.
“No.” The word is a cry, a plea, a promise.
“Rylee?” Axl is at my side, his words clipped as he sees the opened box. Kal and Pierce come, too, Kal holding me up when my knees buckle.
“No,” I say again, my entire being focused on the contents of the box.
A finger.
One with a tiny inked butterfly beneath the knuckle.
And a lone piece of parchment.
if you want him, come and get him, princess.
lest i send him to you in pieces.