Chapter 50
Fifty
MANU
ELLNESARI, PRESENT DAY
I try to get up, but I haven’t recovered from my head bashing against the wall. All I manage to do is sit up. Uncle Raphael walks over, then drops into a crouch in front of me. “Hey, sweetheart. How do you feel?”
“Like ass.” I laugh, but tears are already forming in my eyes. “How are you here?”
He cups my cheek, catching a single tear that escaped my eye with his thumb. “It’s a long story. Ready to go home?”
My stomach coils tightly, and my heart is as heavy as ever. I look over my uncle’s shoulder toward Karl. King Ruel is tending to him, and my guess is that he’s using his healing abilities. “I’ve failed. I was supposed to kill Queen Maewe and break the curse. How did you break yours?”
“What Maewe did to me was different. But don’t fret. We’ll find a way. Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
With Uncle Raphael’s help, I get back on my feet. My skull feels like it’s splitting in two. I touch the back of my head where it throbs and sense the moisture.
“You’re bleeding,” Uncle Raphael says.
“Just a little.”
“I’m all done here. Let me see her.” King Ruel veers in my direction.
Uncle Raphael steps aside, then freezes as he stares at Adrian.
His jaw slackens and his eyes widen a fraction, as if he’s seeing a ghost. I watch him go through myriad emotions in the span of seconds.
He’s always kept his feelings bottled up, but right now, he’s wearing them all on his face.
Adrian is also staring at him like a deer caught in headlights.
“Adrian?” my uncle finally says. “How can it be?”
“I… Do I know you?” The man furrows his brow.
“Are my eyes deceiving me?” Uncle Raphael rasps. “I thought you were dead.”
“He was trapped in the Valley of Lost Souls for a very long time,” Karl answers. “His memories are mostly gone.”
There are tears in my uncle’s eyes now. I only ever remember seeing him cry once, after my mother died. It’s clear Adrian is someone important from his past.
Karl enters my line of vision, making me forget everyone else.
He takes a step toward me, then stops. His eyes glisten with yearning and regret.
It’s weighing on him as well that we lost the Magna Vis King Ruel needed to break our curse.
I want to scream and destroy things, but that wouldn’t do us any good.
King Ruel stops in front of me, blocking my view of Karl.
“This will only take a moment.” He touches my forehead, and his powers rush into me.
The throbbing pain in the back of my head slowly dissipates, along with all the other aches in my body that I had forgotten about. His healing touch takes but a minute.
“We thought we had the Magna Vis, but we lost it,” I blurt out, dipping my head. I don’t want to read the disappointment in his eyes. I have enough of my own to contend with.
“We’ll talk about that later. We must depart to Lynx at once. It isn’t safe for any of us here.”
King Ruel’s sister approaches. “The Vega army will be ready to march when you need us.”
“Thank you. But you need to watch your borders now.”
Queen Merissa raises her chin. “I’m not afraid of Maewe. Let her come.”
The Nightingales have caused too much pain to my family for me to ever warm up to them, but anyone who hates Queen Maewe as much as I do has my support. The enemy of my enemy is my friend never rang truer.
A massive wolf appears by my side, spooking me a little.
“Don’t worry, dear. Luna won’t hurt you,” Queen Endaya says. “Hold on to her, and she will take you to Lynx.”
“I thought we were going back to Salem.”
“Yes, but we must create a new portal, and I’d rather not do it here.”
I look in Karl’s direction again and see that he has a wolf next to him as well. Cheryl and Ronan are with Castiel, and it seems Selor will take Adrian with him. I grab a handful of Luna’s fur. “I’m ready.”
A total lie. I don’t think I will ever be ready to travel this way, although the trip with the wolf is less jarring than walking the wind with a Nightingale. I keep my eyes closed, opening them only once I feel solid ground beneath my feet again.
We arrive inside a beautiful apartment with mauve-colored wallpaper and sheer drapes framing the tall windows. A few couches are set in a U formation facing a big fireplace. It feels homey and safe, but I’m overwhelmed. My body is ready to give up. I trudge to a couch and collapse onto it.
The others arrive a few seconds later, but I only have eyes for Karl. He’s standing right there, just a few steps from me, but there’s a chasm between us, uncrossable. I can’t take the pain I see glistening in his eyes, so I cover mine and break down.
Someone drops into a crouch in front of me. Karl. I lean back, not daring to touch him. “You can’t.”
He takes my hands in his and holds my stare. “We cannot go on like this. I can’t watch you suffer for another second. I’d rather die than live unable to touch you.” He cups my cheek. “I love you.”
“If you die, I die.”
“Whoa,” Selor pipes up. “Someone drag the wolf away from the vampire before they pull a Romeo and Juliet in front of us.”
Uncle Raphael puts a hand on Karl’s shoulder. “If you both die, then Maewe wins.”
“She’s already won,” he grits out.
“No, she hasn’t,” King Ruel chimes in.
“You said only the ruler of Aquila could remove our curse. We don’t have the Magna Vis. It’s over,” I retort.
“I don’t sense the curse on you any longer. What happened before we arrived at the castle?”
My heart skips a beat, but I don’t dare to hope he’s right.
“What do you think? She tortured us.” I glare harder at the king.
“She killed Karl,” Cheryl speaks up, drawing my attention to her. She’s glued to Ronan’s side. I suppose one relationship was fixed on this trip, at least. “I felt it here.” She presses her palm against her chest.
“Just like when I felt you die,” Karl replies.
I gasp. “There was a moment, right before I entered the room, when I felt the sharpest pain in my heart, and I couldn’t feel our bond anymore.”
“Son of a bitch. Queen Maewe removed the curse herself by accident,” Selor blurts out, and hope spreads through me like wildfire.
“She’s too smart to make that kind of mistake,” Castiel interjects, halting my optimism.
“But she’s also an egomaniac,” Queen Endaya says. “In her thirst to inflict the most amount of pain, she lost sight of the consequences.”
“The curse was linked to Karl’s life force. He would have died if you’d ignored the rules, but upon killing Karl herself, even momentarily, Maewe removed the curse,” King Ruel concludes.
Karl and I look at each other. I still don’t dare to believe it’s true, but he doesn’t share my reservations.
He captures my face between his hands and kisses me as if we’re alone in the room.
A spike of fear squeezes my heart, but when nothing happens besides the mating bond getting stronger with each stroke of his tongue against mine, pure joy replaces the anguish.
I throw myself at him, and we end up on the floor with me on top of him.
“Get a room!” Selor calls out.
I ignore him. It’s only when my uncle clears his throat that I pull away from Karl. He keeps his hands on my thighs, though, and doesn’t let me slide off him.
“What? You can’t blame us. The curse kept us apart for centuries,” I say.
“Not while you were in the Valley of Lost Souls, though.” Adrian shrugs.
I give him a hard stare. “You have a big mouth.”
The way his eyes turn round and a blush spreads across his cheeks indicates he didn’t tell on us on purpose.
I catch my uncle staring at him again and notice that his features soften upon gazing at the human.
I’ve never seen Uncle Raphael take an interest in any female.
Could it be that Adrian was the one he wanted?
A door in the room opens, and a small child with dark curls and pink chubby cheeks comes running, smiling from ear to ear. She goes straight to Ronan, hugging his legs. “You’re back!”
“Yes, I’m back, sweetheart.” He releases his hold on Cheryl to pick up the little girl.
A Nightingale female follows the child, carrying a baby. Cheryl turns to the female, and her face splits into a radiant smile. “How is my precious little boy?” she coos as she takes the baby in her arms.
I get off Karl, and we both stand up. “Are those vampire children?” Karl asks.
“Yes.” Cheryl beams. “This is Rio, and the little girl is Ollie.”
“How is that possible? I thought vampires couldn’t procreate anymore.” Selor moves closer, curious.
“These children were born here in Ellnesari, where their mothers were fully exposed to Nightingale magic,” Queen Endaya explains.
“I didn’t realize there were vampires in Ellnesari,” I say.
“That’s also a long story,” Ronan replies. “One I’d be glad to share once we’re back home.”
“Yes, we must return at once,” Uncle Raphael says.
“What’s going to happen to that bitch Queen Maewe? Are we just going to let her get away with everything?” I ask.
“We cannot kill my wife before we transfer her powers to Vryenn,” King Ruel states. “Aquila will not survive the war against Cygnus and their allies if there isn’t a ruler who can wield the power of the land.”
Right, now he’s saying he’ll transfer the powers to Vryenn, but I bet if he has the chance, he’ll take them for himself. Unless doing so will earn the wrath of all the kingdoms led by females.
“Vivienne cannot come to Ellnesari yet. You know that,” Uncle Raphael interjects.
“Why can’t she come?” Karl asks.
“You’ll see,” he replies in his trademark enigmatic way.
“It’d be pointless anyway. We don’t have the Magna Vis,” I say. “We lost it, remember?”
“But we had it when we got out of the Valley of Lost Souls,” Karl replies.
“We think we had it. Maybe we didn’t.”
“It was the Magna Vis.” Adrian’s gaze seems to turn inward. “Now that I’m out of the Valley of Lost Souls and my mind isn’t shrouded by fog, I’m certain it was in my hand.”
“Then we can find it,” King Ruel says.
I don’t like the idea of him looking for the medallion. I still don’t trust him. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.
“How long have I been gone from the human world?” Adrian asks, looking frightened.
Uncle Raphael clenches his jaw for a couple of seconds before he replies, “Over six hundred years.”
My jaw drops. That was before Lucca and I were born. Who is Adrian really? And how did he get involved with my uncle?
“You’re coming back with us, right?” Karl asks him.
“I… I haven’t had time to think about it.”
“You’re more than welcome to remain here in Lynx,” Queen Endaya offers.
Adrian glances at Uncle Raphael for a moment, and his eyes seems to be searching for something… maybe his lost memories. After a moment, he says, “I’ll return to the human world.”
Uncle Raphael seems relieved, and I’m dying to ask him about the man. But I have to hold back my questions for now.
“Very well.” My uncle turns to King Ruel. “Send us home.”