Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
MAEVE
Something was wrong…I knew it deep within my bones. They were back much too soon.
Pia and I sat watching from the front steps of the palace as their horses broke through the edge of the evergreen forest and trotted towards the stables. A horse without a rider ran alongside Kade’s steed, the reins attached to its saddle horn.
I held my breath as I scanned for a limp body draped over one of the horses, but there wasn’t one.
When I confirmed that only three of the four men had returned, I wasted no time jumping to my feet.
I sprinted across the ivory stone pathway and into the grass.
I met them where they tread and practically crashed into Sawyer’s body to slow my feet.
My emotions swallowed me whole as I took inventory of who returned and then realized who was missing.
“Where is he?” I rasped out as I consumed their sorrow-filled expressions up close.
Sawyer's arm fell to his side, his Draemornian helmet clutched in his fist. “Let’s go inside. We can talk—”
“Oh gods.” My hand smacked my chest, trying to conceal the pounding of my heart as it tried to break through my flesh.
“Maeve—”
“Is he dead?” My voice shuddered and cracked as I forced the sickening words to form. He couldn’t be dead. No. No. No.
Alleviation engulfed me when Kohen shook his sweaty hair out. “He’s not dead. Neither of them are dead.”
Pia finally met us, out of breath from attempting to catch up, her height making her strides much shorter than mine. Kohen pulled her into a hug, locking his hands behind her back as she nestled her face into the crook of his neck.
“I’m so glad you're okay,” she lovingly whispered. When she pulled away, her jaw compressed. “Where's Seb?”
“We will explain everything, but inside. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we are exhausted and haven't slept in days.” Kade clipped his words and brushed past us, his heavy footsteps threatening to crack the stone he walked upon.
I freed Sawyer’s hands by taking his helmet then trailed along beside him, matching his fatigued pace. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t know.”
My insides clenched and twisted, wringing my panic out like a wet towel. “But he’s alive?”
“Last time Kohen saw him, yes.”
Thank the gods.
I was going to need a hell of an elaboration, but the solemness of Sawyer’s face forced me to ask, “Are you okay?”
He pushed out a twinged breath, steering his weary gaze down at me. “We didn’t stick to the plan. We split up and we shouldn’t have. I would have stayed instead of him.”
My brow arched. I caught his arm and stopped his footsteps. “What are you talking about?”
“Seb and Kohen were caught trying to break into Beaumont’s office.
They were going to wait there for him to return and then kill him.
” He tried to shake out his sticky, dirty-blond hair, but it clung to the sweat on his forehead like honey.
“Kohen created a distraction, but Beaumont recognized him. His guards seized him and Seb.”
My head rocked slowly to the side, my braid falling off my shoulder as confusion muddled my thoughts.
“But…but Kohen got away?” Kohen got free and Sebastian didn’t? That didn't make sense. Sebastian had gotten out of situations way worse.
“Let’s go inside and sit down,” Sawyer urged once more, and I knew right there and then that there was something he wasn’t telling me.
My heart pounded the entire way to the common room where the guys filled us in on the absolute shit show that went down in Draemor. I quite literally thought I would pass out as I paced around the room, my good arm cradling the fragmented one.
When they had finished explaining, my unease disguised itself as anger—
And I exploded.
“What's with that idiot sacrificing himself for me? First, he goes to Craterra to keep me safe, and now he doesn’t even fight back to try to get out of Draemor? No offense to you, Kohen—I’m glad you’re safe. But what the fuck?”
“It wasn’t much of a fight, Maeve,” Kohen countered in Sebastian’s defense. “I have no doubt that he would have killed us both on the spot if we didn’t comply.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Delani asked, slumping forward in her chair.
“We’re going to give him what he wants, obviously.
” I ceased my pacing to turn to Pia. “I’m leaving tonight to go back to Draemor.
I don’t care if it's a half-assed job, heal my arm.” The demand flew out of me almost as an ultimatum, as if her refusal to fulfill the request would result in something terrible.
“I return and suddenly you have a sense of humor?” Sawyer treaded towards me. He cupped his hands over my shoulders and pushed me down into a chair. “Sit down. Your pacing is stressing me out.”
“Before Beaumont let me go, Seb gave very clear instructions to not return with you,” Kohen deadpanned.
“Who cares. He’ll get over it,” I snapped.
“I promised,” Kohen clarified with a shrug.
“I. Don’t. Care.”
A scowl took up a lasting residence on my face.
Though we weren't together anymore, I still cared about Sebastian more than I did myself—more than I did most people in this world.
My stomach lurched as I recalled what I said to him when he told me there was another journal.
Together or not, if that was the last thing I got to say to him—
“We need to go back. Beaumont will kill him.” My chin began to quiver, so I clamped my teeth together. Not now. I wouldn't lose my composure quite yet.
“They won’t kill him.” Sawyer sounded unsure as he began his own pacing ritual, running a hand through still damp hair.
“Is that a risk you're willing to take?” I sneered, repeating his own words back to him.
His eyes narrowed on me in a testing glare. “For you, yes.”
I can’t lose you.
My lips sealed tightly together.
I wouldn't survive it.
“Where’s Archer?” Kade groaned into his palms before running them down his face to reveal an expression that exhibited nothing other than stress.
“He’s with Venay.” Pia sniffled into a handkerchief, using it then to gently dab the corner of her eye.
“She’s already back?” I returned to my feet. “When did she return?”
“This morning,” Delani answered almost silently.
“How did I miss this?”
“I suspect because you’ve been too worried about Hawthorne to pay attention.” Metal rattled as Kade unbuckled his chest plate, tossing the armor to the side of his chair. “Did she find any survivors?”
Pia nodded. “A few. They are questioning them now to make sure they can be trusted. Venay is using her weird blood, pulse tactic. I dunno. She only checked out a few of the villages though. Draemornian soldiers were everywhere.”
Looking for me, I assumed.
“She said everything that she saw was essentially just runes. A shell of a kingdom, she called it,” Delani added. “I think some smaller villages survived, but Craterra was for sure destroyed.”
That plan would have to be set on the back burner for now. Of course I wanted to help any Caelestians we could, but with that new information, it seemed unlikely there were many left to help.
Rationally, I knew that Caelestis’ situation was not entirely my fault—though I was undoubtedly a very large factor. Regardless, the self-accusation in my cerebrum could not be rerouted.
“I’ll head to the interrogation room to let Archer know we're back and tell him what happened. The rest of you should get some rest.” Kade rose, dragging a hand over the stubble on his chin before sauntering towards the exit.
“No. We can’t waste any time. We need to go back now. Please,” I begged at his departure, my eyes locking with Sawyer’s for all of a second. I couldn’t stand the thought of what Beaumont would do to Sebastian—the idea made my body feverish.
“We will,” Kohen assured me with a softened version of his eyes. “But we really need to think about this. There's no room to screw up. They will be waiting for us to return—not to mention we killed the Draemornian soldier that Beaumont sent back with us. That surely won't go over well.”
“We have to find a way to get in without being seen,” Sawyer explained. “We have some time, I think. Not a lot, but some. We need to really think about this.”
I sank back into my chair where I promptly shoved a finger into my mouth, my teeth chattering on the already splintered nail. “What do you think they will do to him?” My words were so subtle that I barely heard them myself.
“Don’t think about that, Maeve,” Pia advised, her eyes finally dry.
She and I both knew that was not a plausible request.
The practice mannequin in the arena already had enough of my wrath, but I persevered, pretending its rubber body was instead Beaumont’s.
“Stupid fucking prick,” I muttered under my breath, using my good arm to slash my dagger through the mannequin’s eyeball. “Godsdamn piece of shit asshole.”
I hadn’t felt anger like this in a long time. Being mad at Sebastian was one thing, but this was a whole other magnitude of pissed off. Anger and anxiety jumbled with terror equaled an outright unhinged Maeve.
“Mother. Fucking. Shitty. Excuse. Of. A. Person,” I growled through the bars of my teeth.
I ripped my blade free of the rubber eye socket with such force that I stumbled a few paces back. I fell flat on my ass, and instead of getting up, I chucked the dagger, hitting my makeshift Beaumont straight in the heart.
Out of breath, I laid down on the mat and deposited my hands on top of my stomach. I focused on my breathing, feeling the rise and fall of my palms whilst trying to control the rage inside of me. But my anger was too formidable. Too strong.
My fingertips developed a fine tingle. Shortly after, I got a whiff of something that smelt like burnt toast. A heart beat later, I jolted upright with a holler at the stench of singed cloth.
“What the—?” I fiddled with the hole I’d burned through my shirt and pawed the warmed flesh of my stomach in an attempt to cool the skin.
“In the midst of your anger, it seems you have accidentally called upon the stars.”