Chapter 28 #2
I gritted my teeth and held on through it. Slowly, so slowly, the forces began retreating. If I could only buy time for them to get to their position. For her to get home. All of this would be worth it. I held on and on and on, the pillar of light chasing away my foes, until I knew nothing else.
As I drifted back to consciousness, I felt a presence beside me, the green and burgundy colors swirling behind my eyelids mixing with gold. Freya. And behind that, the golden presence and scent of ocean I associated with Griff cooled my scorched channels.
When I finally opened my eyes, I only saw Freya. Her normally cheery expression was missing. This wasn’t even Healer Freya. She was scared. For me.
“You’re awake,” she said with a breathy sigh. “Corff be praised.”
I made some sort of sound, but that was all I could manage. I hurt. Everywhere. Like I was burnt to a crisp from the inside out. I was tucked into a bed that had to be in the healing wing and had bandages over most of my body.
“Yes,” Freya said in response to my look. “It’s as bad as you think it is.”
Well, shit.
“You came close,” she whispered. “Too close. The power would have burned you, consumed you. If Griff hadn’t—” She cut off, pressing her hand to her forehead.
Speaking of Griff, where was he? I started to ask, only to be distracted by voices outside the room.
“What are you trying to prove?” It was astonishing that someone that angry could shout in a whisper.
Andrei. “Are you that obsessed with keeping power that you’d risk your only family member’s life?
You honestly think the crown will come back to you after all these years?
Especially if you cause the death of the person who is supposed to be wearing it?
” There was a pause, and then Andrei continued, “You actually want her dead. I never would have believed it.”
“No, I don’t.” We heard the vehement response. Zachariah.
“But you don’t actually care if it happens.”
There was a muffled response, then, “I don’t know you anymore, do I?” Then the slamming of a door.
A few seconds later, Andrei came in, his color heightened, fighting to keep his composure. “Report.”
Freya and I looked at each other in astonishment at the barked word. Andrei never spoke that sharply.
Freya quickly composed herself and gave him a rundown of my symptoms. It didn’t sound horrible to me, considering the last people who’d attempted this had died. Of course they had succeeded where I failed, but I wasn’t going to dwell on that now. Not when every breath I took hurt.
As Freya talked, Andrei’s expression eased. “Thank you, Freya,” he said in something more akin to his normal tone. She smiled brightly as he turned his attention to me, his piercing eyes appearing to see right through me. “Can you give me a minute with the Orlaith here?” he asked her.
I startled at the use of my title. People rarely referred to me as the prophecy did. The Golden Princess.
She scampered out as he dragged a chair over and sat heavily. His hand covered mine, where it was wrapped in bandages. A cooling touch sank through, healing the skin beneath. I sighed in relief.
“If you hadn’t used up all of your power making this attempt, I could have taught you how to do this for yourself.”
I glanced up, startled by the sharp tone.
His face softened at my expression. “I’m sorry, child. It’s not you I’m angry at.” He placed a hand on my chest, and that same coolness permeated my bones, calming and healing my coursing blood.
“Andrei…” I hesitated, not sure how to ask my question.
“I don’t know why he treats you like this,” he said quietly.
“I would have thought that after Violet, he would have learned.” He paused.
“He’s not the man I fell in love with, all those years ago.
Losing Violet, losing your parents, changed him.
And I had so many hopes that having you back would cause him to return to the man he was.
He was devastated when Rose took you. We both were.
With no word if either of you still lived. ”
I didn’t voice what I truly thought—that he simply didn’t want to give up his power, especially to an outsider. He didn’t understand that I really didn’t want this power.
“He wasn’t always power-hungry,” Andrei was saying. I wondered, not for the first time, if Andrei didn’t have a bit of his mind channel.
“What do I do?” Maybe it was the fact that I was exhausted, hurting, and had no idea where to go from here, but I just wanted Andrei to tell me what my next step was. How to handle my grandfather.
He moved his hand from where it laid on my chest to my arm, running it down from my shoulder to wrist, the cooling healing sensation following in its wake. “I wish I could tell you.” He repeated the treatment on my other arm, the aches easing.
“Andrei…” I lapsed into silence, feeling embarrassed that the one thing I truly cared about at this moment was where my Champion was and why he wasn’t with me. He had stood on that cliff next to me the whole time, supporting me. I knew he’d been here too, but why wasn’t he here when I awoke?
“What is it?”
“Where’s Griff?” I asked in a small voice.
“He’s resting,” Andrei said.
Something about how Andrei said it, how he hesitated over the word, sent alarm bells ringing through me. I lunged forward, my body on fire, only to fall back again. “Is he—” I was terrified that he’d been injured again, or that I hadn’t healed him like I thought I did.
“He’s fine,” Andrei assured me, shoving pillows behind my back. “Just exhausted and completely drained. He’ll be his normal self once he sleeps for a bit. And trust me, he wasn’t pleased with me. Didn’t want to leave your side.”
A warm glow that had nothing to do with Andrei’s healing settled inside me.
Andrei finished curing the worst of my burns and with a gentle pat on my shoulder, he left me alone.