Chapter 45
Chapter
Forty-Five
SEBASTIAN
Pia and I manned the wards inside the castle. Well, she did. I paced back and forth through the corridor, torturing myself with every possible outcome if Kohen couldn’t find Maeve in time.
Fuck! I should have told her everything. She never would have done this if she had known the full story. If she had known all the facts. I stomped my boot on a shard of broken glass, crushing it under my weight and shattering it into microscopic shards.
Pia cleared her throat. “Seb?”
“What?” I huffed, grumbling under my breath and peering out a crack in the barricaded window as I paced. The sky was dark aside from various shades of lights exploding across the sky as the battle continued.
I should have been out there fighting for my kingdom instead of cowering away inside.
But in all honesty, I didn't give a shit about any of that anymore. All I cared about was her and making sure she was safe. Though she completely screwed me out of being able to do that. So instead, I’d continued to roam, trusting I’d hear good news from Kohen soon.
Pia advanced on me, placing her hand on my back to cease my marching. “Seb, she's okay. Maeve’s smart, and I'm sure Kohen’s found her by now.”
I shook my head, the shags of my dark hair brushing against my forehead. “No. You don't even know. You have no idea. You…you—” I couldn't finish what I was trying to say. The words caught on my tongue as if it were being cut from my mouth.
Pia’s eyebrows lowered. “What are you not telling me?”
I looked up at the ceiling as my eyes started to sting. I wouldn't cry. I was a soldier. And soldiers didn't fucking cry—not during battle.
As horrible as it was that I'd been hiding so much from Maeve, I'd been hiding the same information from Pia. And Sawyer. Kohen. Everyone.
I turned from Pia, tearing her arm off of me, though she knew me too well. She wouldn't let this go. And she shouldn't. She had a right to know. They all did.
Outside, explosions and death chanted, the violence shaking the room. Everything was falling apart right before my very eyes. “FUCK,” I blurted out, needing to release something.
Pia’s eyes widened as she watched me lose control. I ignored her, pretending she wasn't there, even as her voice wavered. “Sebastian…tell me what's going on. Now.”
I drew a deep breath into my lungs. “Pull yourself together,” I mumbled to myself on the exhale, but it was no use. I had to tell someone. Needed to get it off my chest. If I died in this war and this information got lost…
Every muscle in my body clenched as I turned back to Pia.
I released a hefty breath of stress, preparing to tell her as much as possible with the very limited time we had.
“My mother was a seer. And I only know this because I found her journal hidden in her closet a few years back. She wrote down her visions, the things she saw before they happened. She predicted this war—I’ve known it's been coming for years.
She also predicted Maeve—she didn't give a name, but she described her. I knew the minute I laid eyes on her at Jewel-Light that she was the one my mother wrote about.” My fingers ran through my hair before I continued.
“Most of her visions were loosely described, but some things she saw so clearly that when I read them, it was like I could see them, too.
I don't know if she just didn't see it all, or if she didn't want to write too much in the fear her journal got into the wrong hands.” I dipped my eyes from Pia’s gaze as I pulled the journal from my pocket.
I never went anywhere without it. Passing it to her, I tried to avoid the judgment in her eyes as she reluctantly took it and started to flip through the pages.
“She wrote a lot about this battle—said there were two possible outcomes, but didn't write many details about what they were.
She just said that one outcome involved someone crucial dying.
With the prophecy and sacrifice lingering in the air, I'm terrified that person is going to be Maeve. This whole time I’ve been trying to protect her from the truth and ensure that this is not the outcome that occurs, just in case it is her.
But now she's alone out there and I…I don't know what to do. I feel completely fucking useless,” I finished, out of breath from the sputtering confession.
Pia glanced at me, then pretty much ignored everything I said and immersed herself in the journal, her mouth going slack as she read.
“Did Aunt Cicily predict Jocelyn's death?” she asked, not moving her eyes from the journal.
“It says something about her son—you—having a feud with a friend over a loss?”
I nodded. “Yeah. There's that, too.”
Pia’s eyes were small, narrow slits when she lifted her gaze from the journal. I fully expected her to yell, but to my shock, she did the opposite. “Seb…How have you kept this in for so long?” Her voice was so calm, that I almost preferred her to yell.
“Fuck if I know. And there's more. Maeve's power—”
I didn't get any further. We were interrupted by the sound of shattering glass as a projectile was thrown through the window, conveniently through the small barrier gap I had been utilizing earlier.
Whatever was thrown, struck Pia in the side of her face, knocking her to the floor with a thud.
She clutched the broken skin, but before either of us could react further, the cartridge exploded, releasing a powerful force of smoke and flame.
The whole room was ablaze within seconds.
Before I could reach her, Pia vanished from my view. I coughed and choked on the smoke while glittering flames danced around me, the contents of the room going up in smoke.
I called upon my magic, trying to counter the heat with ice, but there was too much fire, and too little of me. “Pia?” I barked, each breath I took causing my lungs to constrict and fill with black smoke.
While waiting for her response, I prayed to the gods that she was at least conscious. I was good at a lot of things. But I wasn't confident that I could find her amongst all the smoke.
“Pia?” My voice croaked, trying to be loud enough to overpower the crackling of burning wood. I scanned the room for any sign of her as I stumbled around, trying to devise a plan to save us.
“I'm okay.”
Thank fuck. Relief encased me as I made her voice out. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my cousin and another one of my friends' mates died on my watch. “Where are you?” I called back, wafting away a cloud of black smoke while pushing towards her voice.
“I’m heading towards your voice. Keep talking!”
“We have to get out of here!” I shouted back through the soot as I searched for any sign of an exit, landing on the broken window as our best option. Fuck. That was gonna hurt like a bitch. “The window!” I yelled to her as I fought my way through scorching furniture.
“Okay,” she gagged out as she approached me, her hand reaching for mine amidst the flame.
I guided us blindly through the havoc. My eyes burned from the heavy darkness of smoke, but I led us to our only chance at survival. “Draw your weapon,” I instructed. “We have no idea what's waiting for us out there.”
She dropped my hand to follow orders and I waited until her palm was in mine again to continue.
Broken glass crunched under our boots as we walked blindly towards the window, using the minuscule amount of starlight that shone through it despite the smoke. With each second we stayed in this room, the more my eyes and throat burned. It was too fucking hot.
I dropped Pia’s hand. “Drop to your knees. Crawl,” I called out, though my words were barely more than a gasp as my lungs begged for fresh air.
Head down, I made for the window, checking in with Pia every few seconds to make sure she was okay. When fresh air began to break through the smoke, I rose and used the sole of my boot to kick the window’s rough edges off, in hopes we could crawl through without shredding our skin.
I went first, peering outside to make sure no Draemornians were around before I lowered Pia out. My hip stung as it brushed against the jagged glass remains, tearing a hole in my pants. “Motherfucker,” I cursed, but disregarded the pain as I’d done plenty of times before, and carried on.
I tossed myself out of the window, reaching a hand up to grab Pia’s as she threw her own body over the ledge and onto the balcony. The smoke was so heavy that all of our enemies had cleared the area, which gave us the briefest of moments to center ourselves.
We both coughed and gasped for any ounce of fresh air, but smoke still pooled from the window, inching closer to us with each gust of wind. My gut churned. “We need to move.” My throat scratched out the warning, and as soon as we started our descent down the balcony stairs, I was proven right.
“Run!” I shrieked, dragging Pia down the steps with me, trying to avoid the chunks of stone that fell from the castle walls.
We dove onto the grassy area at the bottom of the staircase. I scrambled to pull myself up to sit, watching as the room we narrowly escaped collapsed into itself. The entirety of the space shot up in flames. Anything that could be destroyed by fire, was.
“Holy shit,” Pia retched, tucking her singed hair behind her ears.
My throat bobbed. At this rate, if we didn't stop them, it wouldn't be long before the Draemornians burned the entirety of the castle to the ground. “Holy shit is right.”
She nodded as she rose to her knees and hunched over. Smoke came from her lungs as she wheezed, trying to catch her breath. “That was too close.”
“Those fuckers must have gotten inside through one of the towers,” I gasped to her, still struggling to breathe.
She nodded as she rose to her knees and hunched over. Smoke came from her lungs as she wheezed, trying to catch her breath. Her face was already swollen and purple from the hit she took. “Which group was stationed at the east tower?”
There was no time to get my response out before her wild eyes darted to me, gesturing to my leg. She rose up instantly. “Seb, you're bleeding. Like…a lot.”
I glanced down, my jaw tightening at the gash on my outer thigh.
It was deeper than I realized. The bleeding was heavy, almost black as it seeped into my pants.
I gulped as my adrenaline faded and I started to feel the burn of the wound.
“Yeah. I guess I am.” I shrugged the injury off.
There was no time to waste on flesh wounds.
She moved forward, hand extended and ready to heal me, but I stepped back.
“It's fine,” I lied, pressing a hand to the gouge. I winced as I felt the indescribable feel of busted muscle. “Don't bother. Preserve your energy. Better yet, use it on your own face.”
“It’s not fucking fine, Seb, you’re turning the grass red.”
Blood seeped between my fingers, but I cocked an eyebrow up. “Who cares about the damn grass, Pia?”
“I don't care about the grass. I just meant that you're bleeding a lot and it's not going to just stop on its own.”
I ripped another piece of my undershirt off and tied it around my leg. The makeshift bandage held for a moment, but soon enough the material started to drip red. “Gods dammit,” I muttered.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Sebastian. Can you not be stubborn for once in your life?”
My palm pressed harder on the wound. “I'm not being stubborn.” I really was—though I didn't know why.
She glared at me so intently, that I actually felt some fear from the girl.
“Pia. I'm fine. Let's go, we have to move.” I started to limp off, but she didn't follow.
“Here you go. Lying to me yet again,” she snarled.
I froze in place, my back towards her. There it was.
It was only a matter of time. Her acting fine about the journal had been a fluke, and why wouldn't she be angry about it? If she’d been hiding things from me for years, I'd be pissed, too.
I slowly rotated, facing her where she stood tapping her foot, arms crossed.
“I know it's not the time to get into this, but now that some of the shock is wearing off, I can feel how absolutely pissed I am at you for not telling me about this!” she yelled, chucking the journal to me.
Thank gods she kept it safe through all of that.
My teeth clenched as I bent down to pick it up, fresh blood spurting from my thigh. My body recoiled as I rose and stuffed it into my back pocket, and though I wanted to defend myself, I really couldn't, so I didn't bother trying.
“We have always told each other everything. Do you not trust me?” Pia asked, her tone reflecting her betrayal.
I shook my head. “Of course I do. I just…I don't know. The journal just felt like something special between just my mother and me. Like a secret her and I had together even though she’s gone. For a while none of her predictions were coming true anyway, at least none that I saw. But then Maeve showed up, and it all started piecing together.”
“Does she know?” Pia asked, her face softening at my confession.
I frowned, dropping my neck down in shame.
“No. I didn't plan on telling her when we first met. She hated me and I didn’t see the point anyways, because so far the only prediction that had come true was her even existing. But then things started happening—little pieces of my mother’s writing coming to life.
And then I fell for Maeve…hard. At that point though I was so deep into the mess that I felt like telling her would ruin everything.
” Saying the words aloud made me realize how much I really fucked up.
I'm sorry, I mouthed the two words that I found myself telling the women in my life all too often.
Pia sighed as she approached to pull me into a hug.
“That may just be one of the most pitiful stories I've ever heard.” She chuckled.
“I forgive you. Of course I do. But you are going to tell Maeve…or I will,” she threatened.
“But I think it would be best coming from you, seeing as you two are in love now.”
“I know. I just hope I even get the chance to tell her.” Even if she hated me for it—getting to tell Maeve would mean that she was alive, and that's what mattered the most. “I’ll tell Sawyer and Kohen, too. But Pia, there's one more thing from the journal that I really need to tell you.” There was a key piece to my mother’s predictions that she really should know.
She pulled away from me. “Not now. My brain has had enough for the hour. Just let me heal your damn leg,” she demanded.
I blew out a breath. This really shouldn't wait any longer, but I'd already ticked her off enough, so I nodded in agreement and gave her access to my wound.