CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE #2
“How long was I unconscious for?” I didn’t care who answered.
The question was a helpless attempt at focusing on anything else.
Anything to stop me from delving too deep into the fact that the air was clear of smoke and ash.
Kodhan’s magic was still tucked safely away.
And yet every sensitive part of me ached with molten heat. Entirely my own.
Theia answered first. “It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how long.
His magic did affect me, but only to a certain extent.
When one is familiar with the act of entering someone else’s mind, it becomes blaringly clear when something—or someone—doesn’t belong in their own.
” She paced the length of the small room.
“I had to play along for at least a little while, lest it become obvious that my magic counteracted his.” Pausing, she tilted her head as she shrugged.
“I’d say no more than an hour, at most.”
“We’re lucky it wasn’t a minute more.” Brannon added grimly.
Kodhan stiffened behind me. “I—” He halted, swallowing. “We almost lost you. You would’ve died if Theia hadn’t pulled you out when she did.”
My chest tightened, though nowhere near as tight as it was moments ago. “Thank you for saving me.” I made sure to meet both Brannon and Theia’s gazes. Then laid a tentative hand atop Kodhan’s. “All of you.”
Again, I almost added, but bit my tongue.
Distant screams wormed their way through the thin crack underneath the door. People were still trapped in their nightmares, it seemed. Or some had decided to prey upon others in their weakened states. Either situation was a possibility. Neither led to anything good.
“Actually, you would’ve made it out on your own. If I hadn’t been there, the courage it took you to drive that blade downwards triggered the magic that would have awoken you without my help.” Theia then added softly, mouth quirking to the side, “I just thought you should know.”
But she’d chosen to save me anyway. From what bringing that knife down would’ve done to my soul, nightmare or otherwise.
The weight of her actions was a tangible thing, pressing in on my very being. A feeling I’d buried in an unmarked grave, years ago.
Kodhan’s hold on me became an anchor. A reminder that I wasn’t still in that wretched warehouse, coated in my parents’ blood.
I should have known. Right then and there in Maverick’s study, when he’d told me the number of rebels vying against the crown was enough. These were not trials at all. They were punishment.
“So typical of him,” I whispered aloud, earning hesitant looks from the others.
What are you going to do about them?
The same thing I always do.
This mockery of Courage was proof of it. There were no spectators, for stars’ sake. He just wanted everyone here to suffer before sending their souls to the Hearth of Song.
Everyone here…
A wave of realization crashed into me with the force of a thousand winds. One that had me feeling like a complete fool for not thinking of it sooner.
Kodhan’s vow suddenly meant so much more.
The signs were all there. Had been there since the start. The pieces were beginning to slide into place.
I almost wished they’d disappear. The picture they were painting was not one I wanted to face.
I went deathly still, as though looking down at the tip of a hunter’s arrow. But instead of a sharp point, I was met with three people who had continuously saved me when I had done nothing to earn their protection.
Brannon noticed immediately, meeting my steely gaze with his own. He didn’t seem to like what lay in my expression. “What is it?” He took a shadow of a step closer to Theia. Thinking I wouldn’t notice. Oh, but I did.
He might as well have punched me square in the stomach.
“Tell me something.” Kodhan’s breath fanned the side of my neck. I fought hard against the urge to squirm. “You never exactly told us why he brought you into his study. Surely, it wasn’t only to heal your leg.” His knee knocked against mine in emphasis.
Damn him. Damn him for catching onto things so quickly. For reading into my thoughts like he was the one with mind-magic instead of Theia. Or perhaps she had read my thoughts.
Stars above.
I abruptly shoved out of his arms and stood, crossing to the opposite side of the room in an instant. Clenched my stuttering heart with a mighty fist, leaving nothing but smoke and shadow in its wake.
“You’re traitors.”
Silence. The final piece slid into place. Sealed the truth.
“Clever, aren’t you, little viper?” Kodhan’s eyes held nothing as he pushed off the ground. Not even a flicker of surprise.
“You’re the reason why this year’s trials are twisted. A sick form of punishment for the lot of you.”
A slow nod was his only response.
The others didn’t oppose him. They watched me with the same expressionless eyes.
For once in my miserable existence, I was devastated to be right.
Wetness coated my lashes, bringing with it an incurable sting behind my eyelids. That was why Maverick placed his bets on me winning. The real competition, the people chock full of magic and power, were never bound to win in the first place.
A fissure in my chest cracked wide open, gaping and ready to devour me whole. “What have you done?” I rasped. Though to who, exactly, the question was meant for, I wasn’t entirely sure.
“Eloise… we can explain,” Theia offered, but Kodhan held up a hand.
“Let her work it out.” His gaze was piercing now. That desperation was back.
Rebels were known to be conniving, and merciless.
They wrought so much chaos across Aedreath in name alone.
Stole innocent lives out of spite. But the three people before me were nothing of the sort.
Even Kodhan, brazen and heartless as he could be, especially in his father’s name, didn’t carry the shadow of a rebel.
I’d seen many of them—seen them at play or begging for forgiveness at Maverick’s feet.
The three people who’d been doting on me moments before couldn’t possibly be traitors to the crown.
“We haven’t acted out against the king. At least, not in the way that you think.” Theia took a careful step towards me. Slow, like I was some caged, rabid animal she needed to be weary of.
“Theia,” Brannon warned. I must have looked as wounded as I felt, because he winced. “This isn’t about trust, Eloise.”
I hated how easy it was to rebuild the armor around the places they’d managed to worm their way through. “Why not? I certainly haven’t done anything to deserve it.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It doesn’t have to be like anything at all. These are the Starlight Trials. Only the strongest make it out alive—”
Kodhan’s voice rose above my own. “We have not acted out directly against the king. But my father has. And we have helped him.”
My lips parted in shock. It was the one part of me I failed to wrangle into submission.
He nodded, a sharp dip of his chin, ignoring the looks his friends shot him. I couldn’t decipher them, not when I was trapped in his prison of jade. He crossed his arms over his chest. And there went that muscle in his jaw.
The King’s General—his Second—a traitor to the crown. If Kodhan’s features hadn’t been filled with such conviction, I would’ve thought he was lying.
“If what you said about Courage is true, it would make sense—why the three of us were so quickly chosen, and without question. He must know about my father’s real motives. Or at least suspect them.”
“How could he possibly get away with being a traitor to the crown? The damned thing is nearly around his own…” I choked back a laugh as the answer revealed itself, as clear as the colored sky.
“Keep your enemies close,” Kodhan taunted, edging closer to me. His lips twisted into a cruel smirk. “But keep the crown closer.”
His sly comments against Maverick. The way his mood seemed to darken entirely when talking about him. All because of this.
And I’d failed to realize it sooner. Abysmally.
Theia’s head whipped towards the door. “Someone’s coming.”
We’d said too much. The walls were made of stone, but even those with the highest affinity for earth magic could coax it to sing.
Before any of us had the chance to move, the door slammed inwards, courtesy of a tidal wave that surged towards our feet, flooding the entirety of the room.