Chapter 42
Rafe
“Your Royal Highness, do you have a minute? Is that one of your Links?” One of the reporters yelled out to us. Skye ducked behind me, and I barely held back my chuckle.
I turned, blocking Skye with my body. I grabbed her shoulders, then pushed her to walk ahead of me while we made our way into the camp.
Thanks, her sweet voice drifted into my mind.
I was still in awe of how easily she could slip in and out undetected.
She could see anything she wanted in my thoughts and I’d never even know she was here.
To me, this was the best indicator of her character.
She was a good person, so she wasn’t in my mind uninvited.
If I were given such a skill, I’d be in everyone’s thoughts all the time. I was too nosy.
“I– Prince Rafael?!” A bald man squawked. “Oh, God. Uh, welcome! Please, let me get you something–”
“I don’t need anything,” I interrupted. The man wiped his sweaty bald head, his gaze going from anxious to curious as he took in Skye.
My Key was quite a sight. Her dark hair was pulled back into one tight French braid that trailed down her back. She was wearing a full-length long-sleeved shirt, but her leggings left little to the imagination.
Baldy eyed her, his curiosity turning a little lecherous as his gaze slid down Skye’s figure, and she wrinkled her nose at me when she noticed. Shadows pooled at our feet, slithering around Skye’s legs like a caress, and she looked back to the man.
“Take us to the Healer in charge,” she said.
Baldy raised his eyebrows before glancing at me, as if I had to give him permission to listen to her. Skye narrowed her eyes at me.
And as much as I liked seeing her a little pissed, I did not like her orders being ignored when she was right next to me, and clearly speaking with authority.
“Now,” I gritted out, painfully aware of the press not far from us, watching the entire interaction.
Baldy jumped as a shadow prodded at his leg.
“R-right away!” He squeaked before stumbling into a nearby tent.
Skye gave me a flat look, and I grinned, gesturing for her to walk ahead of me. She strode past me like she was a queen and I was just one of the lesser, following her with hopes of being noticed.
We’d left Wyatt and Zephyr at the front gates with Aiden, hoping he’d be able to keep the other two from tearing out each other’s throats. Thankfully, Wyatt and Zephyr were ignoring each other. I was glad to get some time alone with Skye, but this wasn’t the time or place for flirting.
The camp wasn’t in great shape.
We followed a dirt path that’d been formed over the past several days. Patches of grass lined the front of several canvas tents, not unlike what Wyatt and I had seen at the cult-y protest we’d attended last term. I couldn’t tell which tents belonged here, and which had been brought in by the Crown.
And that wasn’t good.
Baldy held a tent flap open, gesturing for Skye to go ahead. She gave me a look over her shoulder, then dipped inside, her braid swishing as her head turned back and forth.
The air inside the tent was stifling, thick, and humid.
Coughs and sniffles filled the air from every corner, and this wasn’t even a tent of survivors. This was the medical tent, where the health aides were staying. Doctors and nurses watched us warily, their eyes bloodshot and exhausted.
I counted three dozen of them in total. There were nearly four-hundred people here in this little commune, meaning there should’ve been about eleven people to each professional. Not the best ratio, but certainly not high enough for this level of exhaustion.
Not to mention, there were Palace Healers here, as well. That meant the doctors and nurses should’ve been treating nothing more than sprained ankles.
This is bad, Skye said.
I nodded even though she was facing away from me.
Let’s meet the Healers and then I’ll decide how to proceed.
Baldy led us out the other end of the tent, and we stopped in front of a tiny building that looked like a small storage shed.
“Ms. Holmes has been staying here,” Baldy said, taking another quick glance at Skye.
This time, she didn’t pretend not to notice.
My Key crossed her arms, giving the man a very intentional stare, and he began to sweat profusely.
He opened his mouth to speak, but Skye dismissed him, turning her back on him as she pulled open the door on her own.
Just as she slipped inside, she glanced back at me over her shoulder, and a gust of wind sent Baldy into the dirt.
I snorted, then laughed.
Baldy stood, sputtering something about how atrocious the weather was lately. I ignored him, dismissing him with a wave of my hand before I followed Skye into the…building Marion stayed in.
Once inside, there was barely enough room for the three of us to stand, it was so small.
“Your Royal Highness,” Marion Holmes looked stunned, then she dropped into a deep curtsy. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Marion,” I said lightly. “Why are the Healers being kept in such a tiny room? Are you all just taking turns sleeping?”
“I…” Marion’s blue eyes flicked over to Skye a bit curiously before looking back to me.
“This is my Key,” I explained. Marion glanced at Skye again, her eyebrows raised slightly, but then she cleared her throat. “I am the only Healer here.”
Skye had been taking in every detail of the tiny space with her sharp, silver gaze, and when Marion spoke, she spun around to look at me in shock.
“I see,” I said quietly, looking around the small room, if it could be called that.
There was a small cot in one corner, and a luggage rack with a small suitcase of her belongings.
I looked away from it quickly when I saw how messy it was.
An older woman like Marion would be humiliated if I saw her dirty clothes.
“We’re sorry to barge in on you this way,” Skye said.
“We didn’t realize…what is this room?” Her voice was somehow both gentle and authoritative, and Marion straightened up slightly.
She’d been plenty deferential toward me, but her attitude toward Skye was unexpected.
She wasn’t sure who she was, but Skye’s tone alone was enough to make Marion sit up, which is how the bald fuck outside should’ve responded.
“This is the resting place they gave me,” Marion said. “This was a commune, they didn’t have much to spare.”
Skye’s silver gaze flashed toward me, a barely perceptible anger burning there. “There wasn’t a larger tent made available to you?” she asked.
“No,” Marion said slowly, looking to me again.
“That’s unacceptable,” Skye said to me.
“I’ll fix it,” I said, looking to Marion. “What else do you need?”
“Help?” Marion replied slowly, then cleared her throat. “The Palace told me there were no other Healers available. They believed my skill was enough to handle the load, but I’m not as young as I once was.” Her face fell.
“Unacceptable,” Skye said again, this time under her breath.
I agreed, reaching out to Wyatt in my mind. Is Zephyr willing to help you heal some of these survivors? Marion is ragged.
Wyatt was silent for several seconds, and Skye looked at me with worry. Finally, he came back, replying firmly, He’ll help. Show us where to start.
Marion was watching Skye a little too closely. She looked between us, realizing we must have been speaking telepathically, but she didn’t dare call either of us out.
“The Prince has brought his personal Healers to assist,” Skye said. “They’re at the front gates. Is there anything else going on here you’d like to tell us?”
Marion fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “The people here are superstitious. Do not interrupt their prayers.”
Aiden met us outside the shed, having been called by Skye.
“This place is nuts,” he whispered, even though no one was around. “What are the odds a little commune gets wiped out with a random tsunami?”
“Yes, what are the odds?” Skye murmured.
The three of us made our way through the camp, and I heard more than one person murmuring about whether or not Aiden and Skye were members of my Chain.
I almost cringed.
My mother would have a fit if she was the last to meet my Link-mates and Skye.
Oh, well. Her fits were becoming more frequent, anyway.
Her only affinity was telepathy, and she was already pretty old for a Telepath.
It was a shame the old myth about fully connected Chains never getting sick wasn’t true, otherwise my mother would’ve been safe from the inevitable madness that came with telepathy as the only affinity.
I could see Aiden and Skye slow ahead of me in my peripheral vision. The shadows would catch me if I stumbled, so my eyes had been glued to my phone.
“What is it?” I asked.
I looked up in time to see Skye and Aiden moving toward an old water wheel dam that was out of operation.
Two men stood close to it, arguing back and forth over how to get it started back up.
There was limited electricity available in this area, and the dam being out of commission would only make it more scarce.
“Darling?” I called out, not liking Skye getting too far away from me even though she was the most dangerous person I knew.
She and Aiden stopped, speaking in hushed tones before Skye began asking one of the men questions. I reached them just in time to hear one of the men, an engineer, explaining that they couldn’t get the solar panels to work, and it was keeping the dam from running.
I ground my teeth. The Palace should’ve sent someone out here to do that, as well.
Every failure was another strike against my mother to these people, and she just didn’t care. I’d texted her hours ago that I was coming here and she’d read my message, but didn’t reply.
The engineers took off as soon as they saw my mood.
“Aiden,” Skye said gently, drawing my attention. “Do you think you could get these solar panels charged back up?”
“Uh, no?” Aiden replied, confused. “The sun charges them. I’m not the sun.”