Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
RAE
As I hurry through the palace, the push-and-tug sensation eases, allowing me the first full breath I’ve drawn since the king appeared in front of me. I stop, struggling to fill my lungs, sucking on sweet air.
What had that been? What was it all about?
Was Jai’s arrival a coincidence?
Setting off again, I look around to orient myself and look for the way to my room, assuming that’s still my room and that I wasn’t assigned a different one this time.
Assuming I did have a room assigned to me, that the telchin and the fae didn’t expect to have a palace free of human contestants this time around.
Well, tough.
We’re here.
At least speaking for Jai and myself. I have no idea about the others.
Maybe that’s why instead of my room, my feet somehow lead me back to the infirmary.
Jai isn’t here, he’s with the king, and I left the infirmary furious and yelling at him. But if anyone else survived, they should be here.
It’s that faint hope that leads my steps, and yet when I see a familiar woman seated on the bench outside, it’s a jolt.
“Mera!” I breathe.
“Look who the drak dragged in.” Mera smirks at me. “Didn’t expect to find me alive, did you?”
I lift my little finger at her. A childish insult to hide the relief. “What are you doing here? Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious. You?”
“I’m good. Just a few scratches.”
“Impressive.” She gives me a long look from under her lashes. “So… you’re here for Athdara, aren’t you?”
I shake my head.
“Good, because he left. The healers are still sulking.”
“Why?”
“He wasn’t supposed to leave yet. The healers were in the middle of a heated debate, trying to decide which draught would be strong enough to knock him out. So he announced he had things to do and places to be and just… up and left.” She shrugs. “He was limping like a one-legged weasel.”
I sit down beside her, fighting a grin. “Was he?”
“And asking about you. Said he had to go find you. It was quite funny.”
Warmth fills my chest. “I’ll bet.”
“Will you explain what happened?” She’s fighting a grin of her own. “The mute who has returned in Athdara’s company, not a mute anymore.”
“Yeah, about that. Sorry to disappoint,” I quip and I’m rewarded with a real laugh.
“Too late for that. Consider me disappointed.”
It startles a snort out of me.
“Now,” she says, “that mark on your hand…”
I hide it behind my back. “How did you make it here? I tried looking for survivors but couldn’t see any of you. Did you ride a drak?”
“Are you fucking with me? Not everyone is a dragon rider like you lot.”
“Then, how?”
Her smile falls. “Axwick managed to grab two darakins.”
“A darakin can’t lift a human!”
“You’re right, they can’t. But two together were strong enough to lift me to the lowest terrace of the palace.”
“And Axwick…”
She looks away. “He’s gone.”
A pang goes through me, though I barely knew the man. “You didn’t use the key from the top of the tower. How did the fae let you live?”
“No idea.” She shrugs. “Maybe the rules aren’t rules. Maybe all we have to do is survive.”
They deceived us? That sounds like a very fae-like thing to do. “And Amaryll?”
Another shrug. “I really don’t know. I haven’t seen her.”
It doesn’t matter, I tell myself. I shouldn’t care. Amaryll pushed me away and took the key, didn’t care in the end whether I’d lived or died.
Like Jai had said, “Those other humans haven’t helped you. You owe them nothing.”
And yet… I’m here for them. On their behalf.
There are only three of us left. Or maybe four. Out of twenty-four humans.
Again, it doesn’t matter. What should matter is my mission, the reason I came here in the first place. Instead, I’m torn between wanting the king to tell me he still loves me—seriously, Rae?—and Jai to touch me.
If I’m not careful, I might forget I’m not supposed to care, say to the hells with it and go looking for the two-souled general.
Why did he want to talk to the king? Was he reporting in? About what, the trial? The dragons? Me?
“What are you really doing here?” Mera asks, cutting my thoughts short. “Volunteering in the trials, then running around with Athdara and the king?”
“Why do you ask? I thought you had made up your mind about me being a traitor.” I sit straighter, ignoring the various aches. “You seemed fairly convinced.”
“Hm…” She tips her head back and gives me a look. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“What makes you say that?”
“A hunch.”
I sigh.
“You’re too extraordinary for a human,” she goes on.
“So are you,” I counter. “After all, you somehow convinced two darakins to lift you to the palace terrace. How did you do that?”
She shrugs, nonchalant. As if it’s something anyone could do.
“You survived the second trial,” I go on, “when I’m pretty sure none of us was supposed to.”
She nods. “Yeah. I’m a bastard.”
I blink. “Come again?”
Her mouth trembles in a smile. “I’m half-fae. A by-blow. A fae lord slept with my mother and here I am. I don’t look like a fae.” She pulls her hair back, showing me a perfectly round ear. “But I have some of their magic.”
I lean back. That’s news to me and would probably be news to everyone in the palace. “Air and earth magic?”
“What else?” She gives me a rueful smile. “Fat load of good it did me in the arena. I mean, okay,” she says as my brows lift, “it did help. The darakins at least were intrigued enough to help me, despite my lack of fire magic. But the water? Not my thing.”
“Understood.”
“Unlike you. You were swimming like a fish, like you belonged in the sea.” Her voice is hushed. “I saw you from the tower I was scaling. As if you were a mermaid or something.”
This time, I force a laugh and stand up. “I’m not a mermaid.” At least that much is true. “I’ve got to go.”
Take a bath. Eat something. Rest. My feet are killing me.
As I turn to leave, she says, “Hey… That guard… Tru? Wasn’t that his name? The blond one?”
“Yes. What about him?”
“I overheard him talking to another guard, saying…” She hesitates. “Saying that Athdara can’t be trusted to do the right thing and needs to be handled. Mind you, no idea what the right thing is supposed to be. Do you know anything about it?”
“Tru loves Athdara,” I say. “You must have misheard. Besides, Athdara is on their side. Handled, how?”
“I don’t know. That was all I heard.”
“He’s a friend.” That was what Tru had told me about Jai. And, “He has saved my life many times.”
Had Jai confided in Tru his thoughts of killing the king and stopping Phaethon?
With a small wave, I set out to find my room and bathe, eat, and rest. Distracted with Mera’s comment, I get lost a few times until I finally enter the right corridor and spot my door.
But guess who’s waiting there for me? The man who’s been living in my mind tithe-free since I boarded that barge in the swamps. The man I said I wouldn’t go after.
That’s right.
Jai.
“There you are,” he says quietly, giving me a flash of a smile.
He looks so beautiful and tired, so utterly and completely spent. So human, beaten up and bloodied but still fighting.
What is he fighting for?
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “Shouldn’t you be with the king?”
“I’ve seen the king.”
“And?”
“And you and I have to talk. Now is our chance.” He grimaces. “I’ve lost a lot of blood. At any moment Phaethon can take over.”
“You should be in bed. At the infirmary. Recovering from all that blood loss.”
“Then let’s.”
“Let’s what?”
“Get into bed. Together.”
My breath trips, and inexplicably I feel both hot all over and have this insane desire to laugh. “Jai…”
He reaches for my hand, takes it. His hold is firm. “Will you invite me inside?”
I suppress my laughter and ignore the heat igniting my blood. “Won’t you come inside, Jai?”
“Why, thank you.” He smiles down at me, that devastating boyish smile, dimple and all, and I find myself smiling back.
He lifts his other hand to touch my face, and his brow creases, smile fading.
“Look at you, you’re still in your wet clothes.
Haven’t you had a bath? Dinner? Have you just arrived here? ”
I nod and tug him into the room.
“How did this happen?” Now he’s frowning, dark brows knitting. “Before we talk, you need food and a bath.”
“So do you.”
“Fine.” Releasing me, he goes to the still open door and hollers, “Maid! We need a hot bath and some food in here.”
A snicker escapes me. “What are you doing?”
“You’re blue with cold, still wet, and look exhausted. You need someone to take care of you. Let me be the one to do it, let me…” He turns back toward me and stops. “Are you okay?”
A strange sting bothers my eyes. That offer, to look after me, is killing me.
“Rae…” His rough voice softens as he pads back to me. He rubs his hands up and down my arms. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I was with the king earlier,” I whisper, for lack of anything else to say.
“And the bastard didn’t call for someone to draw you a bath or dress you in dry clothes?”
“He was upset.”
“Upset?”
“I… sort of ignored him when we landed on the terrace. They were taking you away and I followed. I didn’t realize it was him and I didn’t think…” I bite my lip because it trembles. “I didn’t think of decorum. It was stupid of me.”
“Fuck, Rae.” Now both hands are on my face. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. No, of course not. He wouldn’t.”
“Are you sure?”
I nod. I have no breath left to speak. The way Jai is looking at me… like I’m precious, more precious than anything else in the world.
Shaken, I take a step back. The king’s words ring inside my head. And then Jai’s rejection. “I can’t do this.”
His hands fall to his sides. His mouth tightens. “Rae… we need to talk. I need to ask you something.”
“Me, too.”
He gives me a searching look. “Then ask.”
“I want you to be honest with me. Is what the king told me true?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more precise.” His dark brows knit. “What did he say?”
I draw a shaky breath. “That you killed my family.”
“Me? Why would I ever do such a thing?” His voice grows cold. “Is this because I refuse to open the gates and bring back the dead?”