Chapter 20 Garrett #4
Relief passes through the cage. Even Rainer seems to breathe more easily. Black veins still stain his skin, and his face remains gray, but their spread has slowed. The medicine might be buying him time, nothing more.
A sharp cry tears from Lucien.
Panic seizes me. I lunge toward him before I even understand what is happening, but the suppressing enchantments make my legs buckle beneath me.
Lucien’s body folds in on itself. The dark cloth falls away as his bones shift and fur races across his skin. Within seconds, the elf is gone and the great wolf lies trembling beside Shade.
“Lucien?” Shade reaches for him, alarm breaking through his usual calm.
Rhianelle turns from Landon and gathers Lucien into her arms. Tears slide down her face as she strokes his fur, trying to soothe the tremors running through him.
“I’ll find a way to help you,” she whispers, burying her fingers in his fur. “I promise.”
Lucien presses his face against her shoulder, a low, broken sound rumbling in his chest.
Rhianelle Wiolant is my queen. I have never wanted to hurt her. Not once, not even during the Archon trial. Yet in that moment, some ugly, selfish part of me wants to pull her away just so I can reach Lucien first.
“Wolf.” My voice breaks on the familiar codename. “Lucien, it’s me.”
Lucien does not come to me. He remains beside Shade and Rhianelle, pressed against them while I stand only a few feet away.
Being invisible to him leaves something raw and aching in my chest, but there is no time to stand here bleeding from it. I force myself to turn away and search the living cage for a weakness, some break in the woven branches that might offer us a way out.
Svenn’s betrayal returns to me with enough force to hollow out my chest. I cannot imagine what Rhianelle must feel.
She has not spoken his name since we were taken.
Nothing in her expression reveals whether his betrayal has reached her at all.
Perhaps she has simply buried it beneath the need to save Landon and Rainer.
I look around the cage. Lucien lies beside Shade. Rainer is poisoned. Rhianelle can barely hold herself upright. Landon has lost an arm and still drifts in and out of consciousness.
We’re broken.
We’re beaten.
The branches beside me suddenly peel apart.
Thormein stands on the other side.
“Cedwyn—Thormein.” I surge toward him, but the suppressing enchantments drain the strength from my limbs before I can reach the cage wall. “You treacherous bastard.”
He does not even look at me. His attention settles on Rhianelle, and he studies her for a long moment.
“Are you all right, Cedwyn?” she asks.
I stare at my queen.
He betrayed us, trapped us inside this cage, and delivered us to Lilith. Yet she is asking whether he is all right.
Only then do I notice how pale the Aeonian has become. His skin has taken on the brittle appearance of old marble.
“I have not taken a sacrifice in a very long time,” Thormein says. “An Aeonian must consume the essence of living souls to survive. Without it, this parasitic body decays.”
He pushes back his sleeve. Cracks of dark light spread beneath his skin, splitting his flesh from wrist to elbow.
“I grew tired of feeding upon others, so I fled the other five. Before they died, they would sometimes give me a portion of their gathered essence when I performed some task for them. Now they are gone, and there is no one left to sustain me.”
“Lilith promised you another way,” Rhianelle says.
“She promised I would never need to take another life. She said I could live as others do, without feeding, without stealing years from innocent souls.” His expression hardens. “I want one chance to be something other than a parasite.”
“You know she is lying,” Rhianelle says gently. “She does not grant wishes. She twists them until the gift becomes another kind of prison. Be careful, Cedwyn.”
Fucking hell… What is wrong with my queen? This creature betrayed her, and she is still trying to protect him.
Thormein looks away. “It was pleasant being at your side. Serving as your scribe was the most peaceful part of my existence. I need you to know that I never betrayed a single piece of information to the Fae King. I performed my duties faithfully.”
“You were a good scribe,” Rhianelle says with a smile.
“I regret betraying you,” he says quietly. “But I want a normal life. I have resisted taking living essence for so long that I am dying for it.”
“I always suspected you carried a burden you could not speak of,” Rhianelle says. “I only wish you had trusted me with it.”
Thormein’s expression shifts. “How long have you known?”
“Since you sent the Ashmedai after me in the human world.” There is no anger in her voice, only sadness.
Something moves behind his ancient eyes. “You knew all along?”
Rhianelle nods.
“Yet you still took me into your service. You allowed me to become your squire and your scribe,” he mutters.
“I believed you could change,” Rhianelle says.
A small, almost genuine smile touches the Aeonian’s mouth. It vanishes quickly.
His sleeve falls back into place, concealing the fractures beneath it. “I apologize for this, but Lilith has finally decided what to do with you.”
Lilith has wasted no time. We have been imprisoned for barely an hour.
The wooden carriage begins to move again. The wheels turn beneath us, carrying the living cage back through the palace.
When the doors of the throne room open, Svenn is no longer in chains.
He stands beside Lilith as though he has always belonged there. I stare at him with enough hatred to burn through bone.
Lilith laughs when she sees us.
“Look at you, little queen.” She rests one hand possessively on Svenn’s shoulder. “I knew Arescaine would come to his senses eventually.”
Rhianelle ignores her. Even as the cage settles in the center of the chamber, she keeps one hand pressed over Landon’s chest, feeding what little magic remains into him.
Lilith’s smile tightens at the slight.
Ruthven notices.
“Our lady is speaking to you,” he snaps.
Rhianelle does not look up.
Ruthven crosses to the cage in a sudden blur. He slams one hand against the wooden bars, hard enough to make the whole prison shudder. Rhianelle flinches, but she keeps her hand pressed over Landon’s chest and refuses to give him her eyes.
Ruthven smiles.
The vampire’s gaze cuts to Thormein. “Open it.”
For the first time since he revealed himself, uncertainty crosses Thormein’s face. His eyes flick toward Rhianelle, then toward Lilith. The enchantress says nothing. She only watches him.
Thormein’s jaw tightens. With a small motion of his hand, the branches pull apart just enough to create an opening.
Ruthven reaches through the gap and seizes Rhianelle’s arm. He drags her into the throne room before any of us can stop him.