Chapter 63
Robin stumbled forward. She had no plan. But she would not do nothing.
To her right, the door to the tower burst open and Onric ran into the room, sword in hand.
He took in the situation and immediately threw himself at Gareth.
The deranged king accepted his new attacker with a gleeful smile. “I will enjoy watching every one of your family members die. You can stand in the way of my plans no longer. You cannot stop me. You cannot kill me.”
Ian slumped against the chest behind him. “Onric, leave,” he called out, breathless. “It is too dangerous.”
Robin ran behind Gareth and Onric to reach Ian, stepping nimbly across the glass beads that littered the floor.
Ian attempted to stand, digging the tip of his sword into the floor as he leaned his weight over it.
Robin steadied him with her arm, wanting to pull him right back down onto the chest.
Erich ran through the open door, his sword also in hand. Aden was behind him.
They both joined Onric.
But that was not all. Aizel and Ashlin backed into the room, carrying something heavy in front of them.
“Leave! All of you!” Ian yelled. “We cannot kill him.”
No one was listening.
Stepping further into the room, Aizel and Ashlin pulled along a stretcher. King Frederich lay on top of it. The other end of the stretcher was supported by Queen Cara and Isa.
They set the stretcher on the floor near the door.
“What are you doing?” Ian asked, his voice frantic. He walked toward them, stumbling slightly as he skirted the still-active skirmish between Gareth and his three brothers.
Aizel knelt beside King Frederich, sitting back on her ankles. “I am going to try to heal him the same way we just healed Robin.”
“It is the only harmony magic we know,” Ashlin said. “And we know it works. Maybe, we can create enough harmony in the room to dispel the chaos.”
Ian turned to look at Robin, hope and confusion warring across his face.
“It is a good plan,” Robin said. She did not feel the need to state that it was the only plan they had.
She turned toward Gareth, clutching at her dagger. As the only person in the room who was not a direct member of the family, she felt like the best contribution she could make would be to keep Gareth’s attention focused on her while the rest of them worked together to enhance Aizel’s harmony.
But she felt eyes on her, and she looked up to see Queen Cara moving around Frederich’s stretcher toward her.
Despite all of the exhaustion and pain that Robin had endured that day, it was not until that moment that tears stung the corners of her eyes, unbidden.
Cara subtly opened her arms from across the room.
Robin ran around Onric, Aden, and Erich—who were still doing fine with Gareth—and threw herself into the older woman’s arms.
When Robin’s entire life had been destroyed at the age of fourteen, this woman had quietly welcomed a scared and angry young girl into the sacred circle of her inner family.
At the time, Robin had not realized how significant that gesture had been. Cara had instantly been a loving presence, never inserting herself into a mother’s place, but always making sure that Robin was seen, cared for, and had the space she needed at the busy castle.
It was not until much later that Robin realized how generous the queen had been in those early days.
Cara had always fiercely protected a particular salon in which only members of the family were allowed to enter.
From the moment that Robin arrived at the castle—after her maid’s deception had been uncovered—she was welcomed into that inner sanctum despite the fact that her presence altered the family dynamic in the one space they had to themselves.
After Frederich had sent her back to Lockwood, the queen was the only one who sent her letters. Although, Robin now realized that the queen’s letters had likely been the only ones that Frederich had not blocked.
Robin leaned into the woman’s hug, grateful to have Cara back in her life.
But even the safety of the queen’s arms had to come to an end, as the sounds of the impact of sword against armor registered in Robin’s mind.
She stepped back from the queen.
Cara rejoined Frederich, dropping to her knees by his side and taking his hand in her own.
Aizel held her hands over Frederich’s chest in the same way that she had done over Robin’s shoulder.
Robin threw herself back into the fight, attacking Gareth’s bare skin with her dagger. It did not appear to do any damage, but it did split his attention from Onric, who was looking more than a little battered.
“Go,” Robin said through clenched teeth as she brought her dagger down against Gareth’s armored skin. “Your family needs you.”
Aden must have agreed with her, because he physically pushed Onric out of the fray.
“You too,” Aden shouted at Erich. “Help Aizel. Robin and I can handle this for a while.”
Ian could barely stand. He wanted to join in the fight against Gareth, but his bruised and battered body would only get in the way.
He stumbled toward the rest of his family, though he felt he had little harmony to offer.
Dropping to the floor by his father’s side, he reached forward and placed a hand on his father’s chest. A flickering heartbeat told him that Frederich was still alive.
The hardest part of running from the castle had been abandoning his family while they sat with Frederich.
He had wondered daily—hourly, even—if his father was still breathing.
He’d had to live with the fact that his mother, Onric, Erich, and Ashlin were carrying the burden of sitting by Frederich’s side without him.
Despite the battle happening just a few steps away, Ian let himself have this one moment. To be next to his father, in the same room, to feel his father’s heartbeat and know that he still lived.
Beneath the harsh sounds of the skirmish, the pained grunts, the heavy footfalls, and the sickening impacts, Ian heard a new sound in the room.
Aizel had started to hum. He recognized the tune now, having heard it at the Majis campfire.
Ian’s first instinct was to keep his gaze lowered, to not intrude on this space that Aizel was creating.
But Ashlin had said they needed to work together to create harmony.
So he looked up, wanting to be united with his family.
He looked first to Aizel. Her eyes were closed as she focused her energy on Frederich. Her face was both peaceful and focused, as if she was letting herself get washed away in the music that had been a part of her life from her earliest memories.
Ashlin knelt beside Aizel. At first, it looked as if Ashlin were leaning against Aizel for support, but Ian noticed the way that Ashlin’s hand rested against Aizel’s shoulder, slowly moving her thumb in comforting circles. Ashlin was offering support in the way that only Ashlin could do.
Beside her, Onric breathed heavily, his head resting forward and his hand on Ashlin’s knee.
Onric, whose sturdy shoulders had carried every burden of the family and kingdom while Ian was in hiding.
Onric, who never faltered, never doubted.
Ian would give his brother the world, if he could, and Onric would deserve it.
He watched his brother thoughtfully for several more seconds.
Erich had collapsed on other side of Aizel.
His face was bruised, but the eyes that he turned back to Ian were still filled with hope.
Ian was glad that Erich had been at the castle to support Onric and their mother.
No one else could have done so with the same optimism.
He nodded at Erich. His younger brother smiled back.
Then Ian’s gaze moved on to Isa, the fiery scholar that had stolen Aden’s heart and broken his chaos curse.
Her eyes were on Aden, who was still fighting Gareth.
Ian did not sense fear in her gaze; instead she seemed to be sending determination to her husband, as though she trusted him to defend himself and she believed in him wholly.
If anyone in this room had a right to hope that harmony magic would break the chaos inside of Gareth, it was Isa. She had done it with Aden’s curse.
Ian followed her gaze to Aden. His younger brother, the third of the five Sirilians, was holding his own against Gareth’s onslaught.
Aden claimed that the curse had been fully broken, but Ian now understood why his quiet, scholarly brother was still taller and stronger than the rest of them.
And he was using that advantage to protect them all, in this moment, against Gareth.
Finally, Ian let his eyes land on Robin. She skillfully dodged another wide swinging punch from Gareth, then landed an attack with her dagger in return.
Ian knew, more clearly than drawing breath, that she belonged in that room with his family. She had always been one of them, even though she had only spent three seasons at the castle.
He knew in his heart that she was his family. She always would be. He wanted to ensure it with a vow. No matter how this moment ended, no matter how their future played out, she would always be his family. Nothing and no one could change that.
The thought sent his mind back to his father, and Ian looked down once again at Frederich.
He had not yet had a chance to confront his father about what had happened all those years ago with Robin.
Ian had been a young man at the time, and he should have been fully old enough to make his own decisions regarding friendships.
He understood that his father had been trying to protect him. To protect his loyal, young heart. To protect his growing mind from the confusion of asking too many questions.
He understood why his father had sent Robin away, even if he did not agree with the decision.
But now he’d had over ten years to grapple with it.
And, while his young mind had tried repeatedly to justify his father’s decision, it was from that moment that Ian had been able to separate himself from all of his father’s decisions.