Chapter Fifty-Two Riela
Chapter Fifty-Two
Riela
Surely even Koru wasn’t foolish enough to destroy the antidote for the poison that was coating his own sword—was he?
From what I’d seen, it could go either way, and that was troubling. But Garrick’s reaction told me that touching the rose
would definitely go poorly for me, so I shook my head. “I don’t have to prove myself to you. I already answered your question.”
“Careful, human. There’s only enough antidote for one, and who do you think will get it if both you and the Silver King get
stabbed?”
She darted forward again, but Vastien was there. He twisted his sword around hers, nearly disarming her. She jumped back with
a curse.
Her lip lifted into a sneer. “Maybe you aren’t his daughter. No child of the Blood King would be so weak as to allow others
to fight their battles.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” I replied, unruffled. The jab didn’t hurt because what did she expect? I was human, or at
least had been raised as one. Even a weak Etheri was more than a match for me, and that was before one added in magic.
“So why don’t you run home and tell him that?” I asked with a syrupy sweet smile.
She lunged for me, and I instinctively raised my dagger in a desperate attempt to counter her, but Vastien jerked me sideways.
I stumbled, then hit my knees. He wrenched me upright, his sword flashing. He deflected Shar’s blade mere moments before it
would’ve sliced into my neck.
Rather than retreating, he dragged me forward, and his blade sank deep into her side. She gasped and flung her hand at us. Blood and magic arced through the air, carrying a wave of sparkling crimson thorns.
Vastien spun, hunching over me as his armor absorbed the impact. He started to turn back, then grunted in pain before lurching
sideways.
Shar was kneeling on the ground, blood painting her lips, but the end of her poisoned sword was red with new blood. She bared
her teeth at me.
Garrick roared in pain, then moonlight magic detonated. My head snapped his way, and my breath froze in my chest. Koru’s headless body slumped to the ground, but his sword remained
where it was, driven straight through Garrick’s torso.
Red blood dripped over the oily poison.
Shar laughed manically. “Time to decide, human. Touch the rose and you can save one of them. Or do nothing and they’ll both
die.”
“Riela, don’t,” Vastien ordered, but his voice was hoarse with pain. “Bria can make more.”
“Can she do it in an hour?” Shar asked sweetly. “Because you’ll find the necessary ingredients are either missing or turned
to stone, and the courtyard is charmed against interference.” She waved a hand at the stone surrounding us with another wet
laugh. “I never thought I’d see the day that the King of Stone lived up to his name at last only to doom himself in the same
stroke.”
Garrick took one step toward us before sinking to his knees with a groan. He wrenched the sword from his flesh, but his magic
was barely visible. He’d spent too much breaking Koru’s borrowed power.
I swallowed my fear and glared at Shar. “Swear to me that what you hold is the true antidote to the poison that afflicts Garrick
and Vastien and that it hasn’t been tampered with in any way.”
I scrambled to think of any other dangers. “Swear that it will heal the poison without any other effects. And swear that you
will give it to me whole and unbroken, without a fight. Swear it on your life, Etheri, and I will touch the rose.”
“Clever human,” she cackled. She tossed the vial away, and it shattered on the stone before I could even attempt to catch it. “But not clever enough.”
She flung the rose at me, and it lengthened into a vine full of thorns. Vastien swung for it with a grunt of pain, but the
vine moved as if it were alive, curving around the strike, as fast as a viper.
It wrapped around my left arm and the thorns bit in, drawing blood.
Fiery agony whited out everything except the pain. It felt like my skin was being peeled away one layer at a time. Scarlet
magic poured into my veins, and I wasn’t strong enough to stop it. It writhed through me, foreign and horrible, and I bent
over to retch it up.
I lost my breakfast instead.
The magic dug deeper, clawing for my soul, but I wrenched it back with desperate strength. It would not control me. The comforting
blue of my magic rose like a wave and pushed the foreign magic back into my arm. I couldn’t purge it, but I could contain
it.
I gritted my teeth as the scarlet magic thrashed for a moment longer before settling with a last stab of mind-numbing torment.
The vine withered into dust.
I clawed at the sleeve of my dress, yanking it up my arm, uncaring that I was dragging Vastien’s arm along with mine. I expected
a raw wound, but my flesh was smooth and solid.
And a bramble of inky roses climbed my inner arm from wrist to elbow, glistening crimson under my skin.
Shar snorted. “Not as weak as I expected,” she murmured. “You have two weeks, human, before the vine reaches your heart. Present
yourself in the Blood Court and King Roseguard will remove the curse. Or refuse and die horribly. The choice is yours.”
Vastien’s sword was at her neck, but she raised her chin with a malicious smile. “And I wasn’t lying about the deathflower
antidote. There is none, not a single drop in the entire castle. Koru destroyed it all—I checked.”
She grabbed Vastien’s blade with her bare hand, then lunged to the side and flung something at the dais. It shattered on impact and the world wrenched sideways.
The three of us—Garrick, Vastien, and I—went down in a tangle of limbs and fur and blood. We were back in Edea. Why were we back?
Garrick groaned, and I pushed myself up enough to look at him. His skin was flushed red and burning hot. How long had it been
since he’d been poisoned? “Please tell me you have deathflower antidote here,” I demanded.
He forced his bleary eyes to focus on me. “Not here. But there should be a cache in the restricted library. There was a hundred
years ago, at least.”
“Shar said Koru destroyed it all.”
“Koru can’t access the restricted library.”
I sighed in relief and sliced the dagger across my palm. I slapped my bleeding hand on the dais, then reached for the door.
Nothing happened.
I pushed harder, but the door didn’t open. No, no, no. Tears blurred my vision as I rubbed my bleeding hand on the white stone
as if I could dig my way to Lohka.
“What’s wrong?” Garrick asked, his words starting to slur.
“Something is blocking the door.”
“Fucking Feylan,” he muttered with a sigh.
“Do you have the ingredients? Can I make the antidote here?”
Garrick’s fingers wrapped around mine, then he frowned at my bleeding hand. His magic pulsed, but the wound didn’t completely
close. “It’s okay,” he murmured, his eyes closing.
“That’s not an answer!”
But it was. If I didn’t get us to the restricted library, then Garrick and Vastien would die.
No.
I refused.
Clear, cold calm pushed back the panic and pain. Distantly, I recognized this feeling. I’d been in this same place when I’d saved my village from a wall of water. I hadn’t failed then, and I wouldn’t fail now.
Even if it killed me.
Garrick had an entire court who depended on him, and two best friends who loved him, even when he scowled and grumbled at
them. And while things were far from settled between us, it was my turn to save him. He was worth it.
I slammed my magic into the doorway, but it was still bound, and it wasn’t enough. I needed more power. Garrick’s magic was
already dangerously low, but even so, his power was vast compared to mine.
I drew his moonlit magic with a thought and the forest bloomed into a kaleidoscope of color. I pulled Vastien’s magic, too,
then reached farther, pulling from the creatures in the woods, the castle, anything I could reach.
Scarlet magic swelled in the distance, and I reached for it, too, yanking it to me with vicious force. A familiar scream rent
the air, and under the calm, it felt like my skin was splitting, but I kept pulling magic to me. I would have one shot, and
I had to make it count.
Something inside me fractured and tore, and more scarlet magic joined the mix, unknown, and yet as familiar as the blue I
was used to. My magic turned violet and surged higher.
The castle shivered as I drew its magic, and deeper in the forest, the scarlet magic grew thorns and retreated like a frightened
rabbit. I focused elsewhere, pulling magic from the land itself, ripping it away until I was so brimming with power that my
control balanced on the edge of a blade.
I burned like a supernova, glowing like a sun in a well of darkness.
I slammed all of that power and all of my will into the dais. The binding resisted, but I would not be deterred. I would be going to Lohka, and I would be taking Garrick and Vastien with me, even if I had to create a whole new door myself.
The silver inlays glowed moonlit lavender as I poured more power into the door.
The world shifted. Exhaustion clawed at me, but I wasn’t done, not yet.
I lifted my head, but Shar was no longer here. I wiped away the protection charms Koru and Shar had erected, burning them
to cinders, then I shouted for Bria, using a precious drop of my remaining magic to try to send the plea directly to her.
She appeared, clad in armor, pale and bleeding. Her eyes widened to an impossible size as she took me in.
“Deathflower antidote,” I demanded, forcing my mouth to work. “Restricted library. Two doses. Garrick and Vastien.”
My borrowed power was nearly gone now, and I clenched my hands, unsure if I had fixed the door or if I still needed to act
as an anchor.
“Now, hurry,” I whispered. Darkness was edging in, but I fought it even as my eyes closed. I couldn’t feel my body, couldn’t
feel anything but cold and pain and deep, aching emptiness.
Bria’s light steps approached rapidly, and I dragged my eyes back open. Was she a traitor after all?
She took my hand, and Garrick’s, holding them with one of hers, then she reached for Vastien, and we blinked into the restricted
library. “Hold on,” she ordered.
I would’ve laughed, if I’d had the ability.
She ran, her armor clinking. She was mumbling to herself or to me, I didn’t know, but I heard distant banging sounds, then
her steps returned. I was too tired to open my eyes.
“Got it,” she murmured. A stopper popped, then another, and she blew out a sigh. “Are you hurt?”
“Magic,” I slurred. “Too much. Help them.”
“I will,” she promised.
Darkness rose with vicious teeth and excruciating pain, and I knew no more.