Chapter 14 David
DAVID
LOVELAND—THE PAST
Hopelessness tightened around David’s throat like a noose. His eyes stung, holding back the force of his own emotions.
He was frozen in deep thought, desperately trying to cling to some sliver of hope.
The silence settled around him with the weight of a thousand lives. He stood in the room his father left him in, staring out the glass windows toward Lovelorn Mountain. Their conversation rang over and over in his mind like the echo of a war horn.
“For Souls’ Sake, David!” The Lord of Loveland immediately rose, chair violently scraping back, wings splaying wide. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just barge in like this!”
David turned to the two other individuals in the room. Recognizably, his father’s advisors.
“Forgive me for my intrusion,” David said, ice prickling each word. “But it’s imperative I speak with my father. Alone.”
The two advisors exchanged a wary glance. Then bowed their heads toward the Lord and hurried out.
His father stared at him in utter disbelief.
“You’ve got some n—” he began.
“Nerve?” David cut in furiously. “I could say the same! Your chancellor informed me that my request”—Fingers sarcastically quoted midair—“to grant asylum to the Hallow Land Queen has been denied! I think there may have been some miscommunication. It wasn’t a request.”
David held his father’s gaze with a look of steel.
It had been several agonizing months since he’d last seen Maura. Months of not knowing what cruelties she’d have faced alone…what fragile state her mind or body were in now.
When she’d told him she was pregnant, it felt like the air had been ripped out of his lungs. Her hands trembled, wearing her mask of strength. He knew she was terrified. Beyond terrified, and there were no words he could say that would comfort.
Maura had refused every plan David came up with to get her out. She was adamant that this was the only way, that it was her fate.
Fuck the fates! It enraged him to no end.
She couldn’t just give in to the madness of it all.
But he was haunted by that look in her eyes.
As if she truly knew. It was clear she wouldn’t give in.
So, he begrudgingly agreed, fulfilling her promise—to stay away, out of danger.
But that didn’t stop David from sending the Cherubs to spy.
He had to do something to put his devastated mind at ease, to know her heart was still beating.
But time was running out and he refused to let her rot in the hands of the Skell King.
The Lord’s face flushed a molten red. “The only misunderstanding here, boy, is the part where you think you can give orders around here!” He stabbed an accusatory finger into David’s shoulder, causing him to stumble back a step.
“Ironically, I might add, as you’ve been pissing and moaning for decades about not wanting to assume your responsibilities! ”
Frowning, David opened his mouth to refute.
His father’s hand flew up, quickly interjecting.
“And as far as I’m concerned, whatever trouble the Hallow Land Queen has gotten herself into is not our concern.
Tensions are already high, having such a strained relationship with their kingdom.
” The Lord’s voice dropped, disapproving.
“What exactly do you think the Skell King would do if he found out Loveland was harboring his bride?”
A long, lethal beat passed. They both knew exactly what the Skell King would do.
“But he is abusing her!” David yelled, stepping forward. White knuckles fisted the hilt of his sword, as if ready for that very attack right now. “Any more and he will outright kill her! She is in need of a safe haven. Are you really so heartless that you’d turn a blind eye to such monstrosities?”
The Lord’s lips coldly pulled into a narrow line, mimicking the thin ice David was stomping on. Then slowly, his features softened.
Placing two hands on the table, the Lord let out a long breath, shoulders slumping.
“People may suffer every day in other lands, but they are not our responsibility. Just as we are not their responsibility.” He straightened as his eyes met David’s.
“The portals remain closed, as they’ve always been.
The well-being and safety of our people is priority.
Always. I will not put them at risk. A Lord would never put his people at risk!
” His voice hardened, enunciating the last words.
“Maybe you were right to delay your rule. You’re not ready.
” Auburn locks swayed under his rose-gold crown as he shook his head.
“Listen to yourself. Listen to what you are asking of our people!”
David dragged a heavy hand down his face.
“This isn’t about me. This is about doing the right thing!
” He looked down defeatedly, sorrow replacing his anger.
“You know damn well the Skell King is up to something.” David sighed, gazing out the window toward the Candela.
“You know the prophecy, Father.” Pausing.
“She’s pregnant. Due to give birth any day now. ”
A dark shadow crept over the Lord’s face, draining the pink from his cheeks. Eyebrows rose, cream-white wings pulling in tight behind his back.
“Even more reason,” he whispered each word as if they were dipped in poison. “If the Skell King is as power-hungry as we fear, he’d tear this very realm apart to claim his prized child.” The Lord turned to David. “I’m sorry. The answer is no.”
He laid a heavy hand on David’s shoulder, almost pitying, then disappeared from the room.
A strange glimmer pulled David’s lost thoughts back to the present. In the distance, the Loveland Candela stood tall next to the mountain, twinkling in the sun like an enormous golden candle, forever ablaze.
Hours passed. Agonizing ideas rolled through his head that only led to dead ends.
Little tuffs of smoke started to rise from Mount Lovelorn, accompanied by small spurts of rocks. To the side, the Candela flickered.
Did that just—? Impossible.
Suddenly, the doors burst open and two rose-golden armored Cherubs came fluttering in. It was the Cherub Army’s two Captains, Huck and Pudge.
Wide, worried eyes approached him, dropping a heavy stone of dread in his stomach.
“What’s happened?” he demanded.
It only took a second for them to communicate into his mind: Maura. Informants say she’s had the baby.
“Shit! Take me to her, now!”
Huck darted quickly, taking his hand. With a sudden flash, they rifted to Hallow Land.
The bedroom was silent. Too silent.
Curtains were drawn with only a shadowy sliver of light piercing through.
Every instinct had the hairs on David’s arms raising. Something was very wrong.
There was a faint sound. The sound of a slow, anguished breath.
Huck swiftly flew to the curtains and flung them open letting light flood in. As the room illuminated, so did the pale figure lying in the bed.
“Maura!” David rushed to kneel by her side, taking her hand in his.
“Heal her!” he demanded, eyes pleading to Huck and Pudge.
Pudge was already crouched next to her on the bed. Red curls fell over his brow as he leaned over, closing his eyes in concentration. Golden light spilled from his palm into Maura’s chest. A moment passed before the light started to flicker, but it snuffed out.
With crinkling eyes and rosy cheeks puffed, he growled in frustration as he placed both hands on her, trying again. The light blazed, reflecting off her skin, but just as before, the light was suddenly extinguished.
Tears streamed down his face as he looked up at David and Huck, motioning a small, grave shake of his head.
Huck covered his mouth, attempting to muffle his own sobs.
“No.” David’s voice was a broken whisper.
Her chest was shallowly rising and falling at a slow pace. Blood pooled down the side of her mouth and both ears.
As if consciousness was giving her a last wish, her eyelids twitched. Ever so slowly, they opened to slits.
“David,” she breathed.
“I’m here, Maura. I’m here.” He kissed her icy hand. “I’m so sorry, ma cherie. I’m—”
Hot tears dripped down his cheeks, chin trembling, as he tried to hold himself together. For her, he would try.
“You. . . were . . . right,” she labored.
“What do you mean?”
“About true—true love bonds. Existing.” Each word was pained, but her eyes were determined. “The moment I saw her. I knew. . . There’d be no greater love I’d ever feel.”
She coughed, another trickle of blood spilling past her lips as a single tear traveled down.
“She’s perfect,” she said with a ghost of a smile.
“Of course she is.” Gently brushing her hair back, David took a shaky breath in and gave a sad smile back. “We need to get you to a healer. I’m going to have to carry you, okay?”
Her head slowly lulled to the side and the corner of her mouth sadly pulled up.
“I’m dying, David. I’m—I’m not afraid.” She put a weak hand up before David could interrupt. “After I hid her, he had them give me tea. Quietus Leaf. Too late—by the time I realized. Protect—protect her, David. Carwynn.”
David’s face waned.
Quietus Leaf. Of course the demonic bastard would use an incurable poison. None of the Hallow Land people would question fowl play since it would be so convincingly disguised as childbirth mortality.
“Body and soul, I swear it. I will protect her.” He paused. “Where is she?”
Maura offered her hand, slowly opening it to reveal the small purple gemstone ring.
With tears still slipping free, David let out a quiet breath of relief as he picked it up.
“Honey,” he said, softly.
She had foreseen this. Had arranged for the Cherub Commander to hide the child away when the time came—the child she was certain would change the world.
Gazing down at the gemstone, David’s vision blurred, not just with grief, but with memory.
“You think she’s only a child,” Maura had whispered to him once, long before this night, when her belly had begun to swell. “But she’s more than that. The Soothseer told me a prophecy—her prophecy.”