Chapter 29
DRUSTAN
Vanessa’s eyes were glassy.
I worried that she was losing focus as she weakly whispered, “I will.” I’d been longing to hear a form of consent from her for months, and yet, when I finally did, her body immediately fell limp in my arms.
No, no, no, no.
“Audrey!” I roared. Vanessa didn’t move.
Didn’t even flinch. The sensation of black tar burning throughout my core continued to spread to every one of my limbs.
Rage and agony were battling for their spotlight within me.
Finally, my cousin was there, dropping to her knees as she swatted my hand away from the wound.
I didn’t remove my father’s knife, terrified that it would cause Vanessa to bleed out even more. Expediting her demise.
The squelching of my father’s body behind me ignited conflicting emotions. Peace and relief, because the halfling was currently ending him once and for all. Anger and rage, because I wasn’t the one to end the sorry excuse of a male for myself.
“She’s still there,” Caelena muttered, her eyes looking distant as she reached for Vanessa’s consciousness.
Then my sister was there, dropping to her knees next to us, silently slapping her bloody hands onto Vanessa’s body. I could feel the heat from the halfling’s healing touch coursing throughout my mate’s mangled body.
The ash that surrounded all of us landed on her cheeks, and I used my thumb to brush it off. Revealing my mate’s flawless freckles.
The city’s fire control bureau had arrived and was currently putting out all the flames. Drones, capturing all the footage of the battle, flew overhead. Undoubtedly reporting the story to news stations all over Hyvenmere.
But none of those details mattered. Vanessa groaned, and the three of us watched as Vanessa’s core twitched. Blood still drained from her stomach.
“He hit an artery,” Audrey muttered, inhaling a deep breath before channeling more healing into her touch.
“You’re taking too long,” I scolded, holding Vanessa tighter to my chest. “You need to heal her faster.” I leaned down, resting my nose in the dark curls falling around her head. Her floral scent filled my senses, bringing a brief hint of ease into my muscles.
I was struggling not to shake as I held her unconscious body in my arms.
“I’m drained,” Audrey groaned. “It’s going to work—just be patient,” I growled in annoyance at her. She clenched her teeth and growled back at me, while continuing to heal Vanessa.
Finally, Caelena wrapped her fingers around my father’s blade and yanked it out, making Vanessa release a soft cry from the pain of the open wound. However, Vanessa’s bleeding started to slow.
“Shh,” I cooed into her hair. Tears streamed down my cheeks. That was too close. My father almost killed my mate. Part of me wished that the halfling could heal him after she was finished with my mate, just so I could kill him again myself.
I could picture the feeling of my hands ripping his limbs from his body after sinking my claws deep into his throat.
Unable to sound one single cry as I plucked him apart.
Slowly. Torturously. His fearful and angry expression would be enough to soothe me into a peaceful slumber every night for the rest of my days.
“You’re holding her too tight, Dru,” Caelena scolded.
Dru. What Vanessa called me. The nickname she gave to my human identity. The nickname that I pretended was for my real name every time I stepped foot in her realm. The real me. I loosened my grip just enough to allow the halfling to keep working.
Against my stomach, Vanessa’s ribs expanded on a deep inhale. Healing. My half-sibling was right, it was working. It was just taking far too long.
“Aud!” The fae prince’s shrill voice made me frown as he dropped to his knees, landing on the other side of my mate’s body, next to the halfling, “Get your hands off—”
I snarled at the fae. A feral sound of pure threat. Hanging onto what was left of my sanity was difficult enough without the fae wailing and trying to take my mate from me.
He halted his sentence and stared at all of us with wide eyes.
I frowned at the halfling and her mate, as I realized how good they looked.
“Did you heal him first?” I snapped at my sibling.
She leaned back on her haunches, wiping the sweat from her brow. I refrained from yelling at her to get back to work simply because Vanessa was breathing more steadily in my hold.
“Just enough.” The halfling waved behind me.
“I’m drained because I needed to save my strength to finish off Ilia.
” A quick glance over my shoulder showed what was left of my father.
Perhaps the halfling and I truly were related, because the sight of my father’s dismembered state, even down to the loose fingers scattered on the stone, staining the ground with his blood, made me want to grin with joy.
I glanced back at the halfling, “You should remove his head, too. His corpse doesn’t deserve it.” I also couldn’t put it past the monster to find a way to recover from being dismembered, since he was able to figure out how to weaponize his sinndra on his own people.
Her red brows, so similar to my own, rose, “What?”
A whoosh and a thunk made us all flinch, before we looked back at where my father’s remains were.
Dozens of siren females—women, I corrected myself.
Vanessa would want me to refer to them as women—were continuing to tear my father’s body apart in rage.
The thunk that caught our attention was the sound of a small siren woman, a frail-looking thing, swinging his own sword through his neck.
Separating his head from what was left of his body.
Surrounding the scene, my father’s soldiers slowly lowered their masks as they stared wide-eyed at the sight of their people dismembering their king’s corpse before them.
Ash continued to fall from the air, and nothing but char scorched the courtyard. Flames were quietly dying down, and some soldiers who were caught in the flames were helping each other put out their clothing.
In the distance, I noticed Leon’s shitty sibling observing the chaos from a hill on the other side of the courtyard wall. How she and her unit escaped the battle with little to no injuries was beyond me, but when we made eye contact, I bared my teeth at her in a clear and undeniable threat.
Unsurprisingly, my father’s loyal crones turned on their heels and fled.
A problem to be dealt with later, then.
Vanessa gasped, and I whipped my head around to study her face. Her eyes still weren’t open. The halfling slumped, falling to her side on a pile of ash.
My mate was so brave. So brilliant. Willing to risk her life to burn my father’s empire to rubble. Cursing him with her last breaths.
I still needed to scold her for risking her life, but I figured I could wait to do that until she was fully recovered.
“She needs more.” The halfling breathed.
“But…she’ll live.” An irritated sob tore from my throat at her words, and with Vanessa’s mostly healed body still draped in my arms, I buried my head in her neck.
Grounding myself in my mate’s scent. The sound of her heart beating more steadily.
The heat of her blood pumping in her veins, trying to pick up where her friend left off.
Soaking in the euphoria of simply holding my mate like this.
“…We—” the halfling cleared her throat. The sound made my eyes flash open to stare at her. She jumped at my gaze, recognizing the danger in it. Good.
“We should take her,” she muttered, reaching her hands out toward my mate.
“I will kill you,” I muttered against my mate’s neck.
“Let them,” Caelena argued. “She’s fragile. She needs to properly rest and recover, Dru.” I glared at all of them, ignoring the flakes of ash falling on us.
“No,” I replied.
“We have work to do, you stubborn male,” Caelena grumbled. Another soldier ran to her side, waiting for orders. But she continued to scold me, “Our people need you. Us.” She glanced behind me again.
Keeping my mate safe in my hold, I followed her gaze. The flames had all died out. Sirens littering the courtyard spoke in quiet, reverent voices. Hundreds of gold eyes locked on us, as if they were waiting for something.
Everyone calmly rested in the aftermath.
The sound of our breathing filled the air, accompanying the soft melody from the gentle touch of ash flakes falling from the sky like snow.
Landing on us. The ground. The stone. A hymn of ashes cascading around all of our people. Penned by my mate’s determined hands.
A song conducted by nature herself, consecrated by Tynara’s desires being fulfilled. Hope bloomed in my chest that it wasn’t too late to turn things around.
For my people. For me. For my Vanessa.
“Let us take her,” The halfling’s tone was quieter, reserved. “…Please.” Her hands were still out, waiting for my compliance. Beside her, her mate glared at me. I refrained from rolling my eyes at him.
“Drustan,” Caelena regained my attention with her determined tone, “They know she’s yours.” She nodded toward the halfling and her mate, who both dipped their chins in understanding, albeit reluctantly. “Let them take her. Let her rest. One step at a time.”
I pressed my lips together. I loathed this. The thought of letting Vanessa go, of her friends taking her back to the human realm without me, felt wrong. So deeply, horribly wrong.
Staying in Hyvenmere to help rebuild my people’s trust was the logical solution, but one I only accepted with resentment. Slowly, reluctantly, I shifted my mate’s body into the arms of her most trusted person.
“If you hurt her,” I muttered, “I will kill you.” The fae curled his lips back, unhappy with the blatant threat I just gave his mate.
“The same goes for you, brother,” my sibling replied. We stared at each other for a brief moment before she accepted Vanessa’s body with a gentle hold of her own.
Perhaps the halfling—my sister—wouldn’t be so annoying after all.
“We’ll stay in touch,” Caelena addressed them. The fae prince and his mate both nodded, and the halfling sent me a glance as her mate draped her and Vanessa in his arms.
“She’ll be safe,” Audrey reassured me. “She’s just not like us. She needs more time to heal. Somewhere safe.”
“I’m aware,” I spat. I flinched at myself, remembering that my mate was now going to be in the care of this person. “Just—” I pinched the bridge of my nose, my lap and arms felt terribly cold with the loss of her warmth, “Help her get better.”
“We will.” My sibling bit her lip as she gave her mate a look I couldn’t identify. A look that felt like a secret conversation between the two. “…Whatever Vanessa wants.”
The fae pressed his lips together, nodding once, before they disappeared. Lyskifted back to the human realm. I frantically reached out toward the space they once occupied, even though it was useless. They were gone.
“She healed him too much,” I growled at my cousin. “If he was able to lyskift that easily.”
“She needed to stop Ilia.” Caelena flipped me off with her words. I knew, logically, that she was right. But the thought of my mate getting the last remaining dregs of my sibling’s gift irritated me beyond control. “…One step at a time.” Caelena wrapped her fingers around mine.
One step at a time. Clean up this mess. Rebuild with the people I wasn’t sure I could claim as my own. Invite those who had to flee back, without the threat of execution hanging over their heads, should they choose.
Get back to Vanessa.
She said she’d stay with me. I wasn’t above holding her last spoken words to me over her head.
I will. Her voice sounded wrong. Weak. Too close to death. Rage flooded my veins as my gaze landed on the…mush that was once my father. And to think some males in my realm thought that they were the superior sex. Winning back trust with my people needed to start with the fem—the women.
“You’re right,” Caelena spoke, locked into my thoughts. “First our people. Then we’ll figure out how to help you get your mate back. I promise.”
I nodded, squeezing her hand in acceptance.
I couldn’t force my expression into one of understanding.
Starving me for several days in a cell while being forced to injure myself seemed to do a number on me.
The fact that I thought I heard Vanessa’s voice above the cells my father kept me in was enough for me to call to that base instinct inside of me.
To tear out of my cell, to throw guards out of my way, destroying my home until I made it outside, where my heart knew she was waiting.
I wasn’t fast enough.
“I promise,” Caelena repeated. I nodded once; my eyes stuck on my father’s remains.
Of course, my cousin had her own reasons to return to the human realm as well.
That was all the assurance I needed to listen to her.
I straightened my shoulders and dropped my cousin’s hand to fold my arms across my chest.
I lingered back as my cousin started barking orders to set up a medical tent, while I focused on the remaining scent of Vanessa in my nose.
Clinging to it. Savoring it, already desperate to be close enough for her scent to fill my head again. But I couldn’t. She would want me to help my cousin, I realized. That was all I needed to get myself to follow Caelena’s lead.
And then, no matter what else happened, I was getting back to my mate.
Even if I had to beg her.
Get me back, I silently prayed to the old goddesses of my realm. No matter what happens, get me back to Vanessa.