Chapter 44
Araes raced down the hallway, now washed in flames. The smoky haze of burning tapestries and melting candle wax scorched his throat as he shielded his face from a collapsing ceiling support beam. His heartbeat pounded through his ears and only one thought flashed in his mind.
Tethys.
Her bedchambers, although only a few paces down the hall, felt miles away as he leapt through flames. The floorboards groaned beneath his weight, but he didn’t have time to think twice before barreling over them.
His thoughts emptied as if a drain plug was pulled, and instinctual training took over. Araes, the man, ceased to exist. Araes, the soldier, the protector, the warrior, was all that remained.
Finally, he reached her doorway. The iron door handles sizzled against his palm as he pulled them.
White-hot agony sparked through his body, and fighting his reflexes, he ripped the doors open.
A heat wave blasted his brow, nearly sending him to the floor.
Smoke poured into the space like water in a dam break as he plowed into the room.
His heart cracked against its chest cavity, threatening to shred through his flesh at any moment.
“Tethys! Where’s the king?” he called, scanning the smoke.
“Araes? He left about an hour ago. What’s going on? What’s happened?” she cried, racing to meet him. She still wore her golden gown from the night’s events. Now, flames from the exterior hallway reflected in the glittering silk, staining it a deep shade of amber.
“We need to get out of here,” he cried, cradling the goddess in his arms. She wrapped her hands around his neck and tucked her nose into the collar of his tunic.
They started for the door, only for their escape to be interrupted by a loud crack of splintering wood.
Another support beam, now succumbed to the blazing fire, fell to the floor and blocked their exit.
“The balcony!” Tethys cried, panic rippling through her voice like a frightened bird call.
Araes leapt to the doors and slammed into them. They groaned against his weight, but didn’t budge.
“It’s locked, Goddess. Do you have the key?” Araes asked, frantic for another solution.
“What? No, that’s not possible. I’m the only one with access to this chamber,” she said. Her eyes flickered through the room like the flames that now ate their way up the walls.
“We’ve been betrayed,” Araes stated, his voice like ice in his throat.
“Never mind the key.” He set Tethys on her feet and kicked his bare foot against the glass door.
It was hot on the base of his heel, but he kicked again, feeling the material fracture against his force.
Tethys coughed and crept closer to him, the hem of her gown now dangerously close to the fire’s line.
Araes kicked once more and the glass shattered. The broken shards sliced his feet, drawing blood, but instinct had already taken over. He kicked the remaining shards away and reached for Tethys again.
The two dove into the cool night air, finding some relief from the searing heat within. Tendrils of flame danced behind his irises as he gazed upon the manor’s exterior. His stomach lurched. The eastern wing was entirely decimated.
“My home,” Tethys breathed. “What have they done?” Before she could collapse to the balcony floor, Araes pulled her into his arms. They weren’t safe from the fire yet.
“We have to jump, my queen,” he said, guiding her to the railing.
The night was quiet, save for the crackle of hungry flames.
Tethys nodded as Araes flipped a leg over the side.
He sucked in a breath and leapt from the burning building.
His stomach slammed into his throat and air rushed across his cheeks.
He lurched forward as his bare feet impacted with gravel, sending ripples of agony through his feet and up his ankles.
His lungs compressed at the pain, and he grit his teeth to keep from crying out.
“My queen, you must jump now!” he called, holding his arms out in preparation.
Tethys, without hesitation, straddled the railing and leapt into the night.
As she descended, time stilled. The curtain of golden curls glimmered in a washing of moonlight as they flew around her body, cocooning her.
She landed in Araes’s outstretched arms with a whoosh, coughing as she drew in the clean air.
“We should keep moving,” he said, tucking a curl behind her ear. She glanced back at the scorched building, a tear reflecting the scattering of stars overhead, and nodded.
They crept through the garden, keeping to the shadows, and found their way to the estate’s cliffside exit.
Walking in silence, Araes winced with each step.
They descended the hillside and trailed the fields of pampas grass marking the eastern cliffs.
Gravel transitioned to dewy grass, cooling the fresh gashes now throbbing through his muscles.
Only when the manor was merely a blazing amber blur on the horizon did they stop. Araes fell to a seat beneath an oak tree, watching the sway of its branches in the midnight ocean air.
“Are you burned?” he asked the goddess, now kneeling beside him. She stayed silent.
The cliffside breeze disguised her hushed sobs, but the rise and fall of her shoulders did not.
“Tethys?” He crawled to her side and braced against his knees. She sucked in a breath, swiftly wiping the flood of tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. His eyes softened and he pulled her into a gentle embrace.
“My home is gone,” she murmured through heart wrenching cries.
“I’m so sorry,” Araes whispered, brushing his lips across her brow. She tasted like ash and smoke.
“It’s gone. All of it,” she sobbed. “And the worst of it all, Araes, is that I wish you’d left me to burn with it.”
The night wrapped itself around them, allowing her a moment to succumb to her pain.
“It’s all my fault. The staff, the manor, everything in ruin, because of me. I could’ve saved them,” she whispered through shallow breaths. “Now, there’s nothing left.”
She was a queen, a goddess, an immortal being, but more importantly, she was a woman, lost in a world that inflicted cruelty in the most painful of forms. Unwavering loneliness. Frigid isolation.
Behind her beautiful facade, she was broken and now he feared she might never be whole again.
“I’m here,” he whispered. “I will always be here.”