Chapter 40 Rae
CHAPTER FORTY
RAE
It’s hard to admit how long I’ve stayed in my room.
As night fell and the dark deepened, dressed in the gown the king had sent, I sat, staring out of the window. Hiding from reality.
It’s embarrassing and cowardly.
What are my options? I can’t run away with Jai. He’s bound to this king who controls him through his bite, and me. And as for me, I’m bound to both of them.
I have to kill the king. So what if it kills me? I don’t care. Yesterday I wouldn’t have cared but… Jai.
Mars.
Won’t I have even one night with him, to pretend we have each other, that we can still have the future we wanted?
And then there’s the third trial. Trial by water. Panic edges my mind.
We will get through the third trial together, as we did the other two, but everything is different now. The sea queen is angry with me. She wants Jai dead, and probably me, too. As if the monsters of the sea aren’t bad enough… and without my magic, I’m almost as useless in the water as a human.
And Jai is hurt. Not being with him, the thought of having to spend the evening with the snake of a king, won’t let me breathe.
I need to find Jai. Make sure he’s okay. But how? The king has threatened to force me to his side. Unless…
Remi. I need a distraction.
A moment later, his voice brushes my mind. “Your favorite jester is here. What exactly do you need?”
Can you create a commotion that will draw the king’s attention? A prolonged commotion, if possible.
“What are you up to?”
None of your business.
“Does it involve tall, dark and moody?”
I snort. Remi, behave.
“Ah, but then how would I create trouble and commotion, as you requested?”
Hope flares. So… can you do it?
“Anything for you, Aethry.” A note of fondness. “I’ll lead the darakin in a massive attack against the palace.”
What? No, wait. Don’t put yourself in danger!
“Joking. It will be a small attack. Some seagulls may also be involved. Take care.”
Breathless, caught between laughter and fear, I gather my skirts and get up. I walk to the window, my heart thudding unevenly. Will this work?
My hair is loose, since Daria fled without dressing it and I had no idea what to do with it, or any desire to make myself pretty. My shoes are the low-heeled, sensible ones I found with my robe—not the dangerous-looking high-heeled contraptions that were obviously made to go with the gown.
I’m ready and yet I’m tired of the king’s mind games.
A knock comes to the door and I go to open it. Two guards are waiting outside,
“We are here to escort you to the king’s apartments.” A pause. “If you please.”
Time presses against me once more, loops around my neck like a noose, way too short.
“Let me check my hair,” I say, hiding the tremor in my voice and before they can refuse, I hurry back inside, casting about for something I could use as a weapon if the king touches me.
If I could end him tonight… I hesitated way too long with the wool over my eyes. But the room yields nothing I could hide on my person.
“My lady.” One of the guards clear his throat. “Shall we?”
I follow them without a word, the heavy fabric of the gown dragging on the floor, the heavy thoughts weighing my shoulders. We walk through the palace, marching past whispering, staring fae. They don’t snigger anymore, they don’t laugh and point, but just… stare.
I wouldn’t know why, except as I turn my head, I catch a glimpse of black moths fluttering about my shoulders.
Remi. Any news?
He doesn’t reply. But shouts from further ahead reach us a moment later. The fae aristocrats glance about, frowning.
My guards stop. “My lady, wait here. Let us check ahead, see what the matter is.”
“Of course.”
I keep my gaze down, ignoring everyone and everything, until I’m sure their steps have faded in the distance.
Then I turn around, trying to orient myself, heading toward the infirmary.
Enough of this hide and seek with the king, of him pulling the strings. I’ve found my soul mate and I need to be with him. I run down the passages, noting this parlor and that, dredging up vague memories of passing through this wing of the palace, turn a corner—
And crash into a wall.
No, not a wall. A tall, muscular man with a chest like steel. A tall, dark-haired man with black blooms on his pale cheeks.
“Phaethon,” I whisper.
“Fuck, look at you, beautiful,” he breathes, and I can’t help the sudden smile curling my lips.
It’s not Phaethon.
“Jai!” I gasp, and some of the tension leaves his face. His dark eyes brighten, filling with sparks, yet his face looks pale and his cheeks hollow. “You have to stop walking out of the infirmary against the healers’ orders. You have to rest and get better.”
“I’m all better for seeing you.” His hands cup my face, calluses scraping over my cheeks, and my eyes half-close in pleasure. The bond hums in my chest. In my heart. “I was told the king is expecting us.”
“I’m not going. I had Remi create a distraction and came to find you.”
His frown lingers for a moment, then clears. The corners of his eyes crinkle. His mouth twitches. “Did you, now?”
“Yes. I want to be with you.”
His smile is wistful. “Gods, I wish I could just take you away from here. Fly away with you, go to the ends of the earth. Build you a tower there.”
Fly away from this accursed palace and its puppet master king, away from the arena and the intrigue, away from the sea queen. Be with Mars, at long last.
A second chance at happiness.
“But what about the world?” I whisper, and something in his gaze cracks.
The dream shatters and crumbles, and behind it rises a wall of fury and sorrow.
“This world failed you,” he says evenly. The sparks in his gaze fade, leaving behind a hardness I’m not used to seeing there. “As it failed me, too, fought me as I was trying to save it, but now… It’s probably too late. He put his mark on you and made himself invulnerable.”
“What’s wrong?” I whisper.
A harsh bark of laughter. “You should leave this place. Don’t let the king use me against you.”
I shake my head. “Not going anywhere without you.”
“Don’t let him use you against the world you hold so dear, then. I’m remembering… things. Some memories are coming back.”
Eagerly, I wait for more. “What have you remembered?”
“Broken fragments, but… I fell through a gate, after swallowing Phaethon during the battle before the Last Reversal, in the otherworld.”
“Mars,” I whisper. “Marsyas. One and the same.”
“Athdara Marsyas of the house of Dikerotes, the ancient king. The great king of old who took the Eosphor Phaethon, the bright one, inside him. Who fell through the gate into this world.”
Gods… “What else?”
“Little Thorn…” He grabs my hand and pulls me after him. “Let’s find a more private place to talk.”
Good idea. After all, Remi’s distraction can only last so long.
“They say the pillar is the backbone of a sleeping god.” We found a dusty little parlor and locked the door, and he sat in an armchair, hauling me in his lap.
His back has to be a mess but he shows no sign of discomfort.
“That nightgold is its essence, and every piece of it we find is a bone of a god that fell to the ground. Of a god, or a dragon, but who knows if they aren’t one and the same?
The theory goes that the sky has deposits of these bones, and as the Eosphors wander the firmament, they are dislodged and drop down to the ground. ”
“Isn’t that the same material your swords are made of?” Half-shadow, half-flame. “Where did you get them?”
“They are a part of me. Part of the shadows I command.” He hesitates. “You can see why such material is invaluable, and your parents… they were trading such bones with the fae.”
I sit up stiffly. “Impossible. I would know something like that.”
He watches me. Then he says, “They wouldn’t tell the fae where they collected the bones. There are areas where these skeletons amass, as they fall from the sky and the fae control those areas. Not the humans.”
“Is that why…?” I swallow hard. “Why they attacked us?”
A slight nod.
A sob catches in my throat.
“It was stupid of them to think they had the upper hand,” he says softly. “Putting the pieces together now, I realize that the fae sat back and watched, planning the attack. And by then, a strange boy had appeared out of nowhere in your town. It really turned our attention to you.”
A boy… “You?”
“The king said I’d fallen with the debris from the cracks in the sky.”
“He can’t know that.”
“It’s the only explanation. The same boy who called down a Great Dara. Who played with shadows. Who was fascinated with the sky and its inhabitants.”
Oh, Jai…
“So the king took me along and we razed your town to the ground. Everyone dead. And the king… the king killed you.” His voice cracks. “He killed you, makhair. He thought that was part of the prophecy. He raided your room.”
“The gowns,” I breathe. “All those gowns the king sent me, this gown I’m wearing… They used to be my gowns, didn’t they? He took them from my room.”
“Memento mori. A souvenir of the dead.”
“He knew who I was from the start,” I whisper. “After the first trial, when he sent me the first gown.”
“I told you. I failed you.”
“No.” I shake my head, pull the reins on my emotions. “It’s not your fault.”
“I should have been able to stop him, I should have…” The crease between his dark brows deepens. “How did I let that happen to my mate?”
“Did you know then already?” I whisper. “Did you know how you felt about me?”
His gaze softens. “A boy fell from the sky, and then he went and fell in love with a girl who changed him forever.” He kisses my forehead. “All my broken parts are yours, my love.”
“And they fit right against mine.”