Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
“Maeve.”
“Maeve, can you hear me?”
Everything was dark, but I made out the sound of a familiar voice. A woman's voice.
“We only have a moment, so listen closely.”
I couldn't move or see anything. Listening was all I could do.
“The day will soon be here,” the breathy voice called out to me, just as a beam of light bisected the darkness encompassing me.
“The prophecy will soon be fulfilled. Prepare yourself. Prepare your loved ones. Merciless bloodshed is just among the horizon.”
Reality began to resurface as more light gradually pooled in.
“Do not fight the sacrifice. Do not fear it.” I recognized the soft voice as Blythe’s.
I felt my consciousness returning and realized that I was lying somewhere between the veil. Though hoarse, I found my voice. “I am no longer afraid of death.” If the sacrifice was catching up to me, I would let it.
“Nevertheless, it's not death you need to fear.”
I didn't get a chance to counter as beams of shimmering light dripped from the walls, replacing the darkness with a nothingness of white.
“I think she's waking up,” I heard a male voice from somewhere to my left.
“What did she say?” another person asked.
My senses were returning as I came to. I blinked once, but my eyes were too heavy to hold open. Floating in empty space, the tranquility of the silence washed over me. Nothing mattered in that moment. Not a thing. If this was what death was like, I would welcome it with open arms.
“Maeve?”
“Someone grab a wet cloth,” a frantic voice demanded one of the others.
Cool water dampened my skin, forcing my eyelids apart.
I held my gaze long enough to make out a blurred figure standing before me and some of my surroundings.
I was in my room—I think. Everything within my view spun and wavered, so it was hard to know for sure.
My arms left my sides, padding around on the surface I laid upon. My bed.
A groan of pain escaped me as I tried to sit up. My body was in pure agony. Every inch of it. My veins were on fire, granting me a sting of devastating pain with each pump of my heart. My finger quivered as I raised it to my forehead, trying to put pressure on the relentless throbbing.
“I don't know, guys, she's still pretty out of it. I did everything I could, but maybe we should bring her to the infirmary. There could be something else going on internally.”
I looked at the girl who was talking, recognizing her face as one of my friends.
“We could get her into the shower. The water might help her wake up.”
“Oh yeah, Sawyer, that's a great idea, you idiot. She can barely hold her head up. How is she supposed to stand in the shower?”
“Don't be an ass, Kohen,” the girl said.
Sawyer? Kohen? I knew them. And if they were here—
The thought of him motivated me enough to lift my head, holding it as steady as I could.
The blurriness faded away as I rubbed my eyes. My friends came into view, one by one. I focused on them. On him. And everything came back to me in a jarring revelation.
Sebastian crouched by my side, putting his head level with mine. “How do you feel?”
I tried to tell him that the pain made me wish I were dead, but without warning, horrific nausea overcame me. My hand found my mouth, and though I was nowhere near ready to be walking, I forced myself out of bed.
I didn't even make it a few feet before I heaved and vomited all over myself and the floor. My sudden burst of movement took all of my energy and I fell to my knees, hanging my head and trying my hardest to stay conscious.
“Oh shit,” someone cursed.
My vision dissipated again and the last thing I felt was two strong hands lifting my limp figure from the ground.
Water rushed over my injured skin. It felt like rain, but that couldn't be right. The liquid warmed my scalp, though it burned my skin elsewhere. A film of sleep clouded my eyes when I opened them to discover that the shower was what produced the drizzle.
My heart skipped—there was someone here with me. My body was relaxed, limp against theirs, the firmness of their hands around my waist keeping me upright. My breath clenched as I started to panic.
A deep male voice shushed to calm me. He kept one arm wrapped around me for support, while raising the other to stroke my wet hair.
I looked over my shoulder, my panic instantly ceasing to see that Sebastian was the one holding me. Unlike my own bare skin, he was fully clothed, his eyes dark and sunken in.
Despite how my legs wobbled, I turned in his arms, putting us face to face. I had to put a considerable amount of effort into raising my head to meet his gaze. My breasts pressed against the fabric of his shirt, but nothing about this moment was sensual. It was safe.
“I'm sorry, but you weren't waking up and you had gotten sick. I needed to get you clean.” His voice was almost silent as he spoke. “I made sure everyone else left before I brought you in here. It's just us,” he assured me.
I forced my lips to crack a faint smile, appreciating that he was so concerned about preserving my dignity. “You don't need to apologize,” I rasped, attempting to find my voice. The words made my throat ache, as if my insides were dry and scraped.
His top clung to him, the soaked fabric caressing my cheek as I leaned into his chest. He supported most of my weight. If he were to let go, I would collapse.
“How do you feel?” he asked, his voice gruff.
“Not great,” I admitted. My veins no longer burned, indicating that the magic suppressant had worked its way out of my system. But my limbs ached and my face felt exactly how I’d expect it to.
Sebastian placed a kiss on the top of my head. I didn't look, but I heard him sniffle. “I thought you were going to die,” he breathed into my hair.
Sadness overwhelmed me as I recalled the details of what happened, remembering everything up until him and Sawyer showed up. I hated that Sebastian had to see me like that—bordering life and death. If the shoe were on the other foot, I would have been a complete wreck.
“So did I.” The words came out so quietly that I was not sure if he heard them over the trickling water. “But I didn't.”
Water dripped off his lips as he blew out a deep breath. “No. You didn't.” His hand slid from my hair, down to the middle of my back where he clasped it with his other. I looked up into his face. He looked so somber. Broken.
“I’m okay,” I assured him and myself, the statement not feeling true until I said it out loud.
“Thank the gods.” Sebastian held onto me tightly, as if he was worried I'd slip from his grasp if he let go.
I welcomed the comfort and stretched my arms out to embrace him back, my heart swollen with love for him.
“What do you remember?” His chin rested on top of my head, water dribbling down the front of his face and on to mine as he waited for an answer.
“Mostly everything until I blacked out. Then I remember waking up in my bed, but only for a moment.” I racked my brain, trying to recall all of the details. “I had a strange dream, too, while I was out. I think it may have been another vision.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
His voice lowered. “You were muttering right before you woke up—something about death.”
“Yeah…that was it.”
Heartbeats passed before either of us spoke again.
Pulling my chest from his, I stared up at him.
“Lucan found my journal entries. Calvin had been breaking into my room. He read them all,” I blurted out.
“When we found him in your father’s study, he was planning to plant information on me.
He was going to give away how weak my magic makes me in hopes that King Hawthorne would hand me over to Draemor. ”
Sebastian's jaw ticked, and I could tell that he was fighting his anger in order to keep me calm.
“We should probably get out. Get you dressed and fed. Then we can talk about this.” He reached around me to turn the water off, and I shivered with the sudden lack of heat.
He wrapped me in a towel, warm from the humidity of the washroom, then he scooped me in his arms. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror when he walked by, and a gasp escaped me.
Bruises and scabs covered a good portion of my skin.
The pad of my finger grazed my forehead, recalling how it felt to have my face scraped against concrete.
“It looks way better than it was.” Sebastian noticed my shock. “Pia healed most of it.”
Fuck. I looked worse?
Sebastian carried me to my bed, placing me gently down on it. I pulled the towel tightly around myself, using it as a replacement for the warmth of his body.
“Give me two minutes. I'm going to run down to my room and change into some dry clothes, then I’ll be right back.” His eyes shot me a warning. “Don't try and get up.”
My eyes rolled back in my head at his bossiness in a moment like this, but in this situation, he was probably right. I was far too weak to walk.
His clothes left a trail of water as he left, and while I waited for him to return, I took inventory of my injuries. Moving the towel to see my knees, my mouth clamped shut to see black and purple from where Calvin slammed me down onto them.
I palmed my elbow, wincing at the scab that had replaced the exposed bone. I’d no doubt have a scar there—just like Sebastian. I almost smirked at the thought of our matching scar tissue, but the stories behind them were nothing to smile about.
The sun rose over the cliffside outside my window. “How long was I out?” I asked as soon as Sebastian reappeared in dry clothing.
He marched straight for my wardrobe, rummaging through it. “I dunno. Lost track of time. At least half a day,” he said, holding out a pair of lounge pants and a shirt. “Would have been longer if it weren't for Pia.”
“Yeah. Like, forever,” I quipped.
He glared at me.
“Is she okay? Pia? That must have taken a lot out of her.”
“She's resting now. We want to keep a close eye on you for a while in case there's anything internally she missed, but she thinks she fixed most of the damage.”
I raised my arms, letting him slide a shirt over my head ever so carefully. “Have you slept?”
“No.” He pulled my lounge pants over my knees, and I lifted my hips to assist him the rest of the way.
“You look exhausted. I’ll be fine if you want to go rest.”
“I’m not leaving you.” His tone left no room for discussion. He fell onto the mattress beside me, running his hands over his face.
“Is that normal? For a first year to be so talented with their magic?” I returned the conversation to Pia as I rested my head on his shoulder.
“She's definitely gifted if that's what you're asking. I’ve only seen healing magic that advanced by the infirmary menders. But they've had years of practice. Some of them have been healing since before the war.”
At the mention of battle, my mind went back to my most recent vision. Maybe when my head hit the pavement last night it knocked some sense into me, because everything started to add up.
It was all tied together. The visions of war. Beaumont’s retreat. Lucan's attack on me. All of it.
“Draemor is going to declare war any day now, despite what Beaumont told your father,” I spat out the words as the information clicked into place.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Beaumont lied when he pulled back his threats—he never had any intentions of following through, like we predicted. We weren’t giving him what he wanted, so he pretended not to care to get your father to drop the wards.
He used our naivety to give Draemor more time to prepare their attack.
” I shook my head. “That's why Lucan came after me—his last chance at taking me to Draemor before they declared war.”
Sebastian stared blankly at me, absorbing everything I blurted out. He turned his head slowly towards the window, and nodded. “Can't say I didn't see that coming, but how do you know this?”
“Lucan told me that he wanted me alive to be used during battle.” I hadn't asked Sebastian what happened to the king's advisor—I didn't need to. “And the vision I had when waking up—Blythe said to prepare for war soon. When word gets back to Beaumont that I refused his offer again, he’ll have no reason to hold back.”
“Shit.” Sebastian rolled off the bed and started pacing. “The conversation Sawyer overheard was just a ploy to get us away from you. Those probably weren't even our soldiers. Lucan wanted to try and persuade you to take the offer in private.”
“Draemor was going to attack Caelestis whether they had me or not. The only difference would be that I’d be the one doing the damage,” I added.
“It was so simple that I completely overlooked it. Fucking stupid. I know better,” Sebastian grumbled and put his back to me. “Did your vision give you any indication of when Draemor may attack?”
“No. She just said soon.”
He dropped to a crouch in front of me. “I have to inform my father.
He doesn't even know Lucan is dead yet, and it would be quite the shock if Draemornian soldiers come knocking on his door before I get the chance to tell him. We’ll get the wards back up and prepare our troops.
We don't want to waste a single second.”
He leaned forward, brushing his mouth lightly over mine. My split lip stung from his kiss, but I accepted the pain with passion.
“I'll have Sawyer stay with you while I’m gone,” he said after he pulled away.
My stomach dropped. Sawyer and I still weren't on good terms. “Oh no, that's okay. I'm just going to sleep, anyway.”
“I am not leaving you alone after this. That's not up for negotiation. I’ll try to be quick, and I'll bring you something to eat when I get back.”
“Can’t you stay for a little longer? Can we just lay here and pretend that everything is okay for a moment?” I pleaded, batting my heavy eyes.
Sebastian grinned apologetically, softening his presence. “I wish we could, baby. But I almost just lost you, and I will be damned if I waste a single second that could have been spent protecting you.”
I wanted to argue further, but dropped it and curled up in the comfort of my quilt. Sebastian left, then I closed my eyes and tried everything in my power to fall asleep before Sawyer arrived.