33
Raiden
Chandeliers flared to life as Zephyr stormed through the cavernous infirmary, his indigo cloak billowing behind him with every long stride.
For once, his infamously long white hair was braided and twisted into a tight knot at the back of his head.
Bodies spilled from the open glass doorway, filled to the brim with healers, and Raiden stumbled at the wail emitting from the heart of the crowd.
“No! You’re not leaving me!”
Raiden’s mind screamed at Kora’s anguish.
At her sobbing tears as he shouldered through the throng, discovering her body hunched over Erick’s.
Pale lips turned blue as she shook him. Glistening wet tears splashed from her blazing eyes, her shoulder-length hair tousled from sleep, and a silk robe was all she wore.
Raiden stopped dead as he took her in. Even in grief, she was breathtaking. Her pure passion for life, for those she loved, seeped through with every shining tear. And they truly were shining, a subtle blue glow that bathed her a cool sombre hue.
“Erick!”
Raiden hesitantly approached her. The healers stood, observing in pained silence as Kora cried heart-wrecking waves of grief. They could do no more, Erick’s heart was no longer beating, his lungs no longer breathing.
Raiden had taken it away.
Even Sirona’s eyes welled briefly before she blinked, her face becoming the muted epitome of a healer’s calm grace.
“Clear the room,” Zephyr ordered. “He needs to be disposed of.”
“Don’t you fucking touch him!” Kora rounded, her stare furious.
Raiden paused as her eyes and fingertips shone, her emotions channelling her powers that’d been brewing for over a week.
Because he told her to rest. Because he wanted her power to grow.
“Lay a finger on him and I will drown you where you stand, Your Majesty.”
“Threatening a king? Sounds like treason to me.” Zephyr smiled garishly and Raiden balked. But as Zephyr’s eyes landed on Erick’s body, his smile vanished, his complexion paling. His dark eyes frosted, his fingers curling as they did when his father had to control his anger.
They had been close, once. Zephyr, Erick, and Davy. Raiden remembered it well, those months had been one of the few times Zephyr had been . . . happy. He hadn’t chastised Raiden as much, hadn’t been so harsh or silver-tongued. Hadn’t looked upon his eldest son with such disgust and resentment.
But Erick had betrayed Zephyr, too. Not just with the ambush, or taking Kordelia, he had betrayed Zephyr’s trust and friendship.
And they’d lost Davy in the process.
“We had a deal, did we not?” Kora’s head cocked, her features feral.
It was enough to spring life into Raiden.
He tried to summon his power, desperate to tether his gift back to Erick’s collapsing lungs, but it didn’t budge.
Not a single current of wind responded as his well of power shut off, rendering him useless.
“He died of natural causes. No one killed him,” Zephyr stated, his voice catching at the end. He cleared his throat. “Our deal still stands. You are to deliver Barron’s head to me on a spit for all I care. As long as he’s dead.”
“Scared to face him yourself?” Kora taunted.
Raiden had killed Erick. He’d given Kora false hope, made her believe he would survive, when really Raiden had delayed the inevitable. This would break her. All her progress now obsolete, the tide of grief ready to take her under to its deep trenches once again.
Zephyr paused in silence, raking his stare over Kora. “Say your goodbyes, Kora Cadell.”
Her face instantly crumpled, as though such a thing was unbearable.
It hit Raiden in that moment just how much she’d bonded to Erick Cadell.
How much he’d meant to Kora, and that she’d lived an entire decade with him, experiencing a life he’d only witnessed in flashes with a blind desperation to tear her from it.
“I’ll handle it,” Raiden spoke roughly to his father. “Leave it with me.”
Fleeting approval crossed Zephyr’s face. He approached Kora, but her protective growl was fierce enough for Raiden’s spine to heat. “I . . .” Zephyr paused. “Erick . . .”
Kora glowered. “You don’t know him. Don’t speak to him.”
Raiden’s jaw ground, his skin prickling, his heart thudding as Zephyr tensed. She would never know, not really. She would never remember. Raiden would go as far as saying Erick and Zephyr had been best friends. A rare friendship his father had refused to replace.
“Goodbye, Cadell.” He nodded to Raiden. “Sort it tonight.” And left the room without another word.
“You’ll do no such thing!” Kora snarled, a burst of charged energy flaring from her. Raiden froze. She was on the precipice of coming back to life after Blake’s destruction, his own relationship with her tentatively thawing from whatever strange avoidance she possessed towards him.
“Easy, Huntress.”
“Get out of my head.”
Raiden blinked as Kora stared him down, her features twisting into something beyond feral. A primal instinct clearly propelled her, and he frowned as darkness shrouded her, the faintest of wisps brushing over her skin.
“You just spoke into my mind.”
“No, I didn’t.” Kora wiped at the glowing tears leaking from her eyes, and her lip wobbled as she faced Erick. She gently took his palms, placing them across his stomach as she stroked his peppered hair from his shut eyes. Her tears splashed onto his pale skin, her shoulders hunching with each sob.
“Kora! I heard—” Aryn rounded into the room, his cheeks flushed, and a ring of gold surrounded his hazel eyes.
He choked at Kora weeping over Erick’s body.
Rushing into Aryn’s arms, he crushed her into his chest, his stare wide at Erick’s unbreathing chest. Raiden smothered the pang of jealously as he hung back by the spare cot, feeling as useful as a spoon.
“I’m so sorry,” Aryn whispered, his hands tightening on Kora’s shoulders. “What happened?”
“They said he stopped breathing.” Kora bit her lip. “Just like that . . . gone.”
Aryn’s stare swivelled to Raiden. “Just like that.”
Gold leaked into his irises, and for the first time in a while, fear sank into Raiden’s back. A chill swept in as Aryn guided Kora to Erick and they sat either side of him. Aryn placed one hand on Erick’s, and Kora did the same.
A family. One that Raiden could only watch from the outside.
“I hope he’s with Agatha now,” she spoke faintly. “He protected her for me, and I owe him so much.”
Who was Agatha? But Raiden didn’t dare to ask the question.
“He always put his life before yours,” Aryn replied. “Kora, he nearly tore that castle apart when Barron put you in the dungeons. He’d destroy Umbra to get to you.”
The tension in Raiden’s chest exploded. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to no one as he let Kora grieve. Before he had to move the body.
Kora wiped her nose. “I’m cursed by Death.”
Aryn glanced at her in surprise. “I highly doubt that. You’ve had a second chance at life.”
A bitter laugh emanated from Kora’s lips and Raiden’s hair prickled. It sounded eerily like Kordelia’s, and if he closed his eyes, he would’ve thought she were in the room. “A second chance of hell. A second chance of everyone dying around me, and it always being my fault.”
“This isn’t your fault.” Raiden neared, determined to burn the darkness hovering nearby, threatening to steal her away.
“No?” Kora stood, glaring at him. “If I hadn’t lost my nerve in Mossfell, I could’ve saved him! If I was stronger, I could’ve—” She stopped herself. “He could be alive right now. No, he will be alive.”
With a frustrated sigh, Kora flexed her hands, peering at them. Raiden watched her curiously as her tears stopped and she steeled herself. Wrapping her arms around Erick’s limp shoulders, she exhaled a singular sharp breath, her face scrunched in concentration.
In the dark of the night, a surprising pulse of light bloomed from Kora’s chest. Her eyes snapped open as it trickled down onto Erick’s body, bathing him in a white glow.
“I hope this works.” She stepped back and Aryn appeared behind her, supporting her as Raiden gaped.
“What?” Aryn whispered.
The light settled into Erick’s body like a second skin, and within mere moments, he sucked in a breath, his pallor warming as his fingers twitched.
“Kora,” Aryn warned, his hands clenching her arms. She glanced between the two males, her cheeks heating. “What did you just do?”
Raiden’s world spun as Erick continued breathing—in fact better than before. Strong and steady, and some of his lighter bruises had disappeared completely, the wound to his head advancing its healing, the stitches popping out of his skin.
“What the fuck!” Sirona screeched, appearing in the doorway as she dropped a tray holding a maroon burial robe.
“I . . . I can . . .” Kora’s relief was intoxicating, barrelling down the open bond. Raiden swayed, nearing her as she shone, brighter than the stars in the sky.
“That’s not possible!” Sirona yelled, backing away. “You cannot be! You . . . you’re . . .”
“I . . .” Kora’s panicked gaze met Raiden’s as the white light settled back into her own body.
“You’re one of the divine,” Raiden whispered.