Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Caius
The trip back to Garnet had taken longer than he had anticipated.
The residual weight of the blood runes that Queen Auraelia had placed around that room was still a heavy blanket over him, slowly draining his strength until that connection had been severed.
He’d underestimated the new queen. Never thought for a moment that she would get entangled in blood magic.
It didn’t matter that drawing blood runes was the most basic of skills when learning the art.
Her magic was strong, and he’d felt the weight of it settle upon his shoulders as soon as he’d manifested in that room.
His body ached. Between the draining effects of using his own magic, coupled with what Auraelia had done, and Davina’s injuries' impact on his own body, he was exhausted.
The frigid air beyond the Onyx mountains kissed his cheeks as his feet finally touched down on familiar territory, and the sound of snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked the rest of the way toward the imposing structure of Bloodstone Castle.
Having been carved straight from the mountainside, its tall walls were pitch black—a stark contrast against the glistening white powder that settled upon its spires and coated the ground around it.
Ground into the stone, however, were fragments of garnets.
Their color was so rich and deep that they were barely noticeable until the sun’s rays shone down and illuminated the gems, giving the illusion that blood dripped down the castle’s walls.
Caius inhaled the crisp air deep into his lungs. Let it lift the last fragments of magic from Auraelia’s runes from his skin and recharge the flurry of ice and snow that coursed through his veins, then let it carry him the rest of the way into the castle.
Sweltering heat slammed into him as soon as he stepped foot inside, beads of sweat instantly coating his brow.
Heads moved on a swivel around him, servants dipping into low bows before scurrying away to finish whatever task had been handed to them. It hadn’t always been this way. The people in their court used to be happy, laugh, and smile. But that wasn’t the case any longer. And he hated it.
Hated that they feared him just because of whom he was blood-bonded. Hated the fact that Davina had caused everyone in their court to turn against him, against them, in her tirade against her cousin. Torturing anyone who dared cross her.
It was madness.
Caius had just turned down the hall toward his room when a strangling grip squeezed around his heart, sucking the air from his lungs and causing his knees to buckle.
“Davina,” he ground out through clenched teeth. He staggered, letting the wall hold him up until his ability to breathe returned and his legs were stable once more. Once the effect had fully subsided, he pushed off and continued toward his room.
She could wait. He needed to change, needed to sleep so that he could regain the strength that she’d taken from him when she’d fallen at the hands of her cousin. He’d warned her not to attack Auraelia’s sleepy little city, but once again, she didn’t listen.
He got all of two steps down the hall when the sensation returned, stronger and more insistent than the previous.
“Fuck,” he groaned, clutching where his heart seemed to be trying to burst from his chest. Warm liquid trailed down his upper lip and he hastily swiped it away, his hand painted in the deep crimson that was his blood.
Pulling on his remaining strength, Caius let his magic bring him to the person he had once loved but had come to despise.
Davina was prone in her bed, her eyes heavy with exhaustion, and each of her arms wrapped in bandages from shoulder to fingertip.
Snow packs had been settled along the bandages, dripping steadily onto the floor beneath her bed.
He just looked at her for a moment, his heart squeezing in his chest for an entirely different reason now than it had mere moments ago.
She looked calm and almost like the girl he remembered from their youth.
The one who had pleaded with him to bind their lives together so they would never have to be apart.
Whose eyes shone with love and mirth every time she laughed or danced.
Who used to sneak out of the castle at night to stand beneath the flurries as they danced through the air and gazed up at the stars with hope in her heart.
But then her eyelids fluttered open, and her crimson gaze landed on him—hard and unmoving—and he remembered exactly why he’d chosen to turn to Auraelia. Why he’d decided that the possibility of death was more bearable than a life standing at Davina’s side.
The girl he once knew was gone.
Her heart had turned colder than the ice surrounding their home, and he was done.
“What do you want, Davina?” he asked, trying to keep the rage from his voice and the sneer from his lips.
Ice that didn’t bow to his will seized his heart, filling his veins. “Is that any way to speak to the lady of this court? To the future queen of all of Ixora?”
“My apologies, Your Majesty,” he ground out through the pain that sliced through him. It didn’t matter how often she used her magic against him; it never got her the results she wanted, which only hurt him more in the long run.
Davina released her grip over his blood and fixed him with a hard glare. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling for you for hours. You know how I hate using my magic against you, Caius. Why do you make me do it?”
“I didn’t realize I had any control over you, Davina.”
“Don’t be snide. Where were you?” Her voice was weak, like every word had been drug over hot coals, searing her vocal chords with the strain.
“I was checking the borders. After you attacked your cousin, I wanted to be sure that our people would be safe from retaliation.”
Davina let out a strangled laugh that quickly shifted into a cough. “Don’t be ridiculous, she’s weak. She doesn’t have it in her to attack another court.”
Silence hung heavy in the air, prickling at the back of his neck as he waited anxiously for what would happen next, never knowing which way her mood would swing.
Surprise struck him when her eyes softened a fraction as she stared at him, the stormy gray that looked so similar to her cousin’s seeping through the crimson. “Have you seen my mother?” she croaked.
He hadn’t, but he also didn’t need to.
Davina’s mother was dying, and the moment she found out, Davina forced her mother into a blood bond in an attempt to save her life.
But all that it had done was put her into a state of stasis.
Unable to do anything on her own and prolonging a life that was supposed to have ended long ago.
And if what their bond had done to him was in any way similar to what had been inflicted on her mother, there was no possibility in his mind that she was all right.
“I have. She’s dying, Davina.” The rage that he’d been so determined to keep locked down exploded from him like a geyser.
“You’re killing her—killing me!” he yelled, his lips pulling into a snarl as he took a few steps forward before thinking better of it.
He couldn’t get too close. Couldn’t risk her figuring out where he’d actually been.
“Two people you swore that you loved, that meant more to you than anything in this world, and you’re killing us! ”
Davina’s eyes shot wide, their coloring a red so deep it was almost black, as she glared at him.
Caius ripped his tunic from his body, revealing the proof of what he spoke.
“This is what you’re doing to us. We feel everything that you do.
Every joy, every pain, everything. Remember?
” He couldn’t stop the anger that lit every word.
He’d had it. He didn’t want to do this anymore. Couldn’t do this anymore.
“I didn’t do that, she did!”
“You attacked her fucking city, Davina! Murdered innocent people, innocent children! What did you think she was going to do? Roll over and let you take it? You need to stop this petty vendetta over something that happened before either of you were born. It’s not her fault that your grandfather chose her mother over yours. ”
“No.”
“No?”
“I will not stop until she bows to me or is dead beneath my boot. She doesn’t deserve to wear that crown.”
“And you think that you do?” Caius scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief as he stared down at a wide-eyed Davina. He would regret having this altercation with her, of that he was sure. She didn’t take kindly to anyone disagreeing with her, and they always paid for it dearly.
When Davina didn’t say anything, he turned on his heel and stalked toward the door, speaking loud enough that his voice would carry without having to turn his head. “I don’t know who you are anymore, Davina.”