Chapter 72 Lennox
LENNOX
I tore through the battlefield, my gaze hazy as I searched for only one soldier.
For the person who held the other half of my soul.
He couldn’t be dead.
No—I wouldn’t believe it. I refused to believe it. I scanned the field of broken bodies, hoping he wasn’t one of them.
I had finally gotten him, I couldn’t lose him.
My heart couldn’t take it.
I had prepared to die by his side in battle—I knew there was a possibility we might go together—but just him—I wasn’t ready for that.
I never would be.
“Lennox.” I turned toward the sound of my sister’s voice.
“Kara,” I all but sobbed. Her face was caked with dirt and blood, her leathers stained with the same, but otherwise, she appeared unharmed.
“What happened?” Her eyes went wide as she assessed me.
“Adreona.” I put my hand to my mouth—I couldn’t even say it. “Keziq—she did the spell.”
Kara’s shoulders caved in, her face crumpled.
“I have to find him, he has to be okay.”
She swallowed thickly. “Last I saw him, he was this way—he went looking for Luce. I was going to follow after him, but I got caught up helping fallen soldiers.” She led the way through the bodies, me at her side as we stepped over corpses.
I had no idea when the fighting had stopped—when both sides had retreated. But no living soldiers remained on the battlefield.
If Kara had helped the wounded they were no longer here.
Or they were a vampire, the life sucked from them now with Keziq’s spell complete.
We continued through the abandoned battlement—my eyes scanning every body in my periphery.
My magic pressed against my skin as emotions swelled in my chest.
I had to find him.
My legs wobbled when I spotted him. His dark hair was plastered to his face. A large cut crossed his cheek. His sword lay discarded at his side. His eyes were closed as he lay on the muddy ground.
I ran to him, falling to my knees at his side, my head falling to his chest as I threw my body over his. My body convulsed—everything felt numb.
Kara was calling my name, but I couldn’t hear it.
Luka was—
“Lennox.” I jolted as a hand flexed on my back.
“Luka?” I sat up, my eyes scanning Luka’s body—finding his eyes were no longer closed, but those blue pools I loved so much stared back at me.
He let his head fall back to the ground, scrubbing his hand over his face. “Fuck. That soldier got me good, smashed his head against mine like a fucking idiot. How long have I been out?” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I sobbed, deep and heavy—my chest convulsing.
Alive, by some string of fate, he was still alive.
Luka sat up, his brows pinching with concern. “Lennox, what’s wrong?” He pulled me into his lap as I continued to cry—the tears unstoppable.
“I thought you were dead!” I finally managed to get out.
“I just got knocked out. I’m okay.”
“No! You don’t understand.” I swallowed thickly, trying to calm my raging heart. “Keziq—she—she did the spell, Luka.”
“She what?”
“She did the spell, Luka; I watched her kill a vampire. I thought—I thought—”
“Fuck, Lennox.” He pulled me to his chest, his arms a strong band around me.
“I’m so sorry.”
“When I saw you laying there—”
“I’m here, I’m okay. I’m alive.”
I pushed myself off his chest. “But for how long? We don’t know what the spell did—what if it takes time—what if—”
“We need to summon Astria.” I had forgotten Kara still remained with us. “She’s the only person who could give us answers.”
“We’re in the middle of a fucking war,” I argued.
“Declan already pulled back the troops for today, we’ve retreated for the night. Wars aren’t won in a day, Lennox.”
“Fine.” I stood. “We need to find Declan and the others.”
I need to find Luce.
I needed to know what in the fuck went so terribly, horribly wrong.
We made our way back up the hill, toward our camp.
We took our time to check on the fallen soldiers—seeing if any of them were alive. And if any of them bore the same fate I witnessed with the vampire Keziq had conducted the spell was on.
Luckily, we had come across none.
When we finally reached the camp, the sun was starting to set. My stomach gnawed with hunger, and my body was weak with exhaustion.
It had been a long fucking day.
Somehow, Declan must have known we were making our way back. He met us at the entrance to the camp.
He stood like an impenetrable force at the gate, his wings sagged behind him, like they, too, were exhausted after today. But his expression—it wasn’t his typical quiet Declan expression; this one was different. My stomach sank. “What’s wrong?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“I should ask the same thing to you. Where have you been? I was about ready to send out a group to look for you.” Although his words were pointed they lacked conviction.
“What happened Declan?” Kara asked softly.
His wings sagged further behind him.
“It’s Caterina.”
We followed at Declan’s heels, rushing into Caterina’s tent.
A ruby-haired healer knelt at Caterina’s side. My aunt’s eyes were closed, but there was a luminescent glow to her skin. She lay eerily still.
“What happened? Where’s Luce?” The rest of our group had gathered here with us, Endora stood at Caterina’s bedside, her hands clasped over her partners. Zienna perched herself against the dresser next to Nico, but Luciana was nowhere to be seen.
“She left shortly after the healer arrived.”
Nico’s voice was soft as he spoke. “When Luce was doing the spell, she passed out—the magic took too much. When she passed out, that’s when the spell failed.
When she woke, she tried again right away—but the magic she was using—it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It consumed her. It was unnatural.”
I shivered. “She wouldn’t stop—” He took a deep breath. “Caterina tried to stop her—she pushed Luce aside, but the magic didn’t stop—it went into Caterina instead.”
Fuck. I should have stopped her. I shouldn’t have allowed her to continue to use ichor magic when we didn’t know what would happen if she used to much. I should have made her stop when she showed me that mark on her arm.
“Will she wake up?” Kara croaked out.
The healers lips formed a thin line. “It’s hard to tell. She appears fine—when I try to heal her—my magic finds nothing to heal.” My stomach sank. “The only ailment I can find is the mark on her arm.”
The healer lifted Caterina’s arm, the dark mark pulsed as it slithered up her arm—the mark identical to the one Luce bore, like rotted roots of a tree embedding themselves in her skin.
“We warn against using Ichor magic for a reason…” The healer shook her head.
“I’ll leave you with her. I’ll be right next door and will continue to check on her. ”
“Thank you.” I turned my attention back to Nico as the healer began collecting her things. “What was Luce’s reaction?”
“She hasn’t said much of anything.”
“We need to find her.” I had a strong sense of how she was feeling. She needed us now more than anything.
“Wait.” Declan’s voice was firm. “You need to tell us what happened with Adreona, some of the soldiers said you ran into her and Keziq.”
“We did, and I will tell you everything, but Luce needs to hear it too.”
“I’m here.” Luce appeared at the door. Her hands were stained red, her black clothes speckled with the same substance. Her hair was wild, her face pale—her eyes sunken.
“Luce.” I reached for her.
She stepped out of my reach. “I’m fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest and steeled her shoulders. “Tell us what happened with Adreona and Keziq.”
Later, we’d talk about this later. Even if she didn’t want to, I’d make her.
“Keziq did the spell—”
“How?” Luce whipped her gaze to Luka. “If she did the spell how is Luka still alive? Are you sure that’s what she was doing?”
I pushed down my irritation. “Yes, she was able to complete it. I watched her kill a vampire.”
“How do you know the spell was successful? Luka is still standing. She might have only killed him.”
“I saw his fangs recede before he bled from his eye sockets. I assumed the spell worked before he fell dead at her feet.”
“But we don’t know that the spell was successful,” Nico argued.
“So, how can we find out? We can’t just ask Keziq to do the spell again so we can see if it’s true. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“That’s why we came back here. We need to summon Astria,” Kara added.
“She’s the only one who can give us answers,” I added, swinging my gaze to Luce.
She held out her hands and shook her head. “I’m all out of magic—so you’ll have to do it on your own.”
“Kara and I can—I did it myself once, the two of us should be no problem.”
“Then let’s go.” I needed to have words with my least favorite Goddess.