Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
Glass shatters as the storm tears through the chamber. Fenloris charges forward, and Ace steps between him and his intended target.
I scream as rain and wind whip through the room, papers exploding into the air like startled birds.
Blood blooms across Ace’s chest as he falls backward.
Vale catches him before his body can strike the cold stone. The blade clatters away as guards surge in, seizing Fenloris and wrenching him back.
“It should have been you!” Fenloris screams at Vale as they drag him from the room.
Vale looks at me, stunned and searching, Ace crumpled in his arms.
I rush to them, dropping to my knees and pressing my hands to the gaping wound. Blood spills through my fingers, hot and unstoppable.
Tears stream down my face as I watch Ace begin to fade.
“I couldn’t let him…” His voice catches—wet, wrong. “No one wants me as king,” he tries to laugh, but it breaks into a choking sputter of blood.
“No,” I sob. “Stay with me, Ace. Stay with us.”
I look up at Vale, desperate for an answer. He scans me quickly, his gaze catching on the thin cut at my throat before returning to Ace.
“I can’t stop the bleeding,” I cry.
Vale snaps out of his shock and shrugs off his waistcoat, careful not to jostle Ace as he bleeds out in his lap. I take it from him and press the cloth hard against the wound, all my strength focused on keeping Ace here.
Odrin pushes past the remaining guards in the doorway. Though his duty is to king and crown, he rushes to Ace—not because of succession, but because of love.
Vale orders him to fetch the healers. Seeing the king is secure, Odrin moves at once.
I catch Vale fighting back tears, fury still burning beneath the horror. If it had been anyone else— save myself, Soria, or Odrin—Fenloris would already be dead. I know it.
But it was Ace.
And the bleeding won’t stop.
Vale and I plead with him to fight. Ace’s head rolls back, his body frighteningly limp, his breathing ragged and shallow.
I don’t let up. I keep pressure on the wound, even as the storm outside begins to fade.
Rain still drifts through the shattered windows, gentler now, as if the world itself is weeping with me.
The healers arrive swiftly—but not swiftly enough. They exchange grim looks, murmuring that the wound is far too severe for a single strike. They insist on moving him to their wards, where urgent work must be done.
I beg to go with them. To stay. To keep my hands on him.
They refuse. Odrin insists Vale and I move somewhere secure.
Unable to follow at Ace’s side, I steel myself the only way I know how. I drop to my knees in the wreckage, heedless of shattered glass and lingering rain. I dig through soaked parchment and splintered wood until my fingers close around cold metal.
I do not ease until the seal lies in Odrin’s own hands.
My body trembles as we are ushered through the corridors. Sound dulls. The world contracts to the echo of our footsteps and the copper scent clinging to my skin.
When the chamber door closes behind us, a full battalion stationed outside, I begin to pace frantically.
My gown is soaked through with blood, as are Vale’s shirt and trousers.
He begins to remove the shirt—the one thing still within his control.
He knows me well enough to understand I will come to his arms when I am ready.
But not yet.
Now I am nothing but fury and fear too feral to be contained.
He tosses the ruined garment aside and moves to the basin, washing the blood from his abdomen where he clutched Ace.
Despite the cloth offered by some faceless guard who ushered me here, my hands remain stained red.
I do not wipe away my tears. To smear Ace’s blood across my face would shatter me completely.
I begin to slow only when Vale wrings out the cloth, water running pink into the shallow bowl.
“He’s in the best hands possible,” he says, his voice quiet but hopeful. “They’ll come to us as soon as there’s word.”
The ache in his voice breaks the spell holding me apart. If anything can stop me from drowning in my own despair, it is the sight of someone I love in need.
Vale doesn’t need to be comforted. We will bear this pain together. But what he does need—what he has always needed—is to know I am cared for.
I force the tide of emotion back as best I can and join him at the basin. He pours water over my hands, wiping gently with the cloth, though the red still lingers in every crease of my skin, every line of my knuckles.
At last my gaze drops to the gown.
Fear churns in my stomach. No one can survive losing that much blood.
Without warning, I begin to claw at the fabric, ripping it away from my body. I need it off.
Now.
Vale steps forward to help, but my movements are wild, frantic. When the gown finally falls away, blood still stains my skin, and I collapse to my knees.
He wraps a robe around me, then his arms, sheltering me though the danger has already passed. I sob until my chest aches, gasping through the senselessness of it all.
“Ace is fighting for his life,” I choke, “and for what? Power?”
Vale only shakes his head as the questions spill free. I know he must have a thousand of his own—charging in only to find a member of his own council with a blade at my throat.
“How did you find me?” I ask at last. “How did you know?”
He is quiet for a long moment.
“I heard you,” he says finally. “Or felt you. I’m not sure.” His arms tighten around me. “But it was as clear as the night of the solstice. You were in danger. No force on this earth could have kept me from you. I didn’t have to search. I knew.”
A shiver runs through me. Whatever magic calls to me, whatever forces I answer, I pray they spare Ace.
“All of these gifts,” I whisper. “All these blessings—and I couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
I break apart in his arms.
“I know, love,” Vale murmurs. “I know.”