Chapter 27 #2
Kole’s throat bobbed, and my aunt’s lips pursed. Her nostrils flared, and barely concealed hatred flowed from her toward Kole. “Let’s go downstairs.”
She made to clasp my arm, but I jerked away. “Go downstairs? Are you kidding me? I have the Stone, Gwen. I can save Timith!”
I pushed past her, not letting her deter me a third time, and hurried into their bedchambers. The second I did, I stopped short.
Pitch blackness surrounded me, and the feeling of imminent death followed.
“Oh Gods, I got here just in time.” Stale air filled my nose, and my magic activated.
My sensory eyesight made everything come into focus just as my mental magic reached out on its own accord.
A heartbeat responded, slow, but still beating, and a body lay in the bed under the covers.
My magic recognized the fairy as my uncle, but . . .
I cocked my head. “Uncle Timith?” I couldn’t see much of him since he was mostly covered, but when I stepped closer, and his face appeared, everything in me grew cold.
He looked like my uncle but different.
Pale skin, hollowed cheeks, and the tips of fangs appeared between his lips. Despite still looking fae, he reminded me of . . .
“Stars Above.” I launched myself toward the bed, but Kole was suddenly behind me, holding me back.
“Stop, Prim. We should go downstairs.”
I struggled against him. “What in the realm are you talking about? I need to save my uncle! He’s—” I gasped, barely able to breathe. “He looks kind of like . . .” Tears clouded my eyes, and I nearly gagged. “Oh Gods, Kole, is he becoming one of those things?”
“Yes, he is, or at least a different version of one. You can’t save him.”
I turned in his arms, my jaw dropping. “Of course, I can save him. I have the Stone! I will be granted any wish with it. Let me go.”
Regret filled his eyes, but he shook his head. “No.”
“No? Did you really just say no? I have the Wishing Stone, Kole. Anything is possible with it, even curing him. I can save him. I can.”
From the doorway, Aunt Gwen gave Kole another scathing look, but when she addressed me, her voice was thick with unshed tears. “It’s not safe anymore to be near him, Prim. They’re saying it’s advanced enough that he can infect us.”
“Infect us? But we’ve been around him ever since he fell ill, and neither of us have gotten sick. Stars and galaxies, I’m going to pull my hair out! Don’t you understand? I have the Stone. I can save him right now, even if he can make us sick.”
Gwen sucked in a breath, and tears shimmered in her eyes.
“I know you can, you beautiful, brilliant, and brave girl. But they won’t let you save him, Prim.
The Imperial Warriors have orders to take the Stone from you once you arrived safely back in Whiteolf.
They’re not going to let you keep it or cast your wish.
” A low growl came from Kole, but my aunt shot him a reproachful look.
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? That’s what you and the other warrior said earlier today. ”
Earlier today?
Numb shock bolted my feet to the floor. I glanced at Kole, my stomach falling . . .
Falling.
Falling.
“You were here today? That’s why it took you so long to get back?” Of course. That was why he hadn’t needed the address. He’d been here before.
Shaking, I could barely get my voice to work. I was going to be sick. I was going to vomit.
“You’re . . . you’re going to take the Stone from me, Kole? You’re going to steal it?”
Kole’s face was the portrait of steel. Hard. Smooth. And entirely unbreakable. But beneath his Shield, guilt burned. Heavy, hot, and unrelenting guilt.
And that was when it hit me.
He’d truly received orders when he’d left me.
His job had changed. It was no longer to track and kill the things in the Wood but instead to find me and steal the Wishing Stone that was rightfully mine.
“Kole?” The word came out choked, disbelieving. I thought back to our previous week together, the random encounters, the joy I’d felt in our budding friendship, the crazy attraction I felt toward him that I knew he felt too, and the fact that I’d so easily believed that I could trust him.
I’d trusted him completely. I’d even told him things I’d only told Ree before.
“No, no.” I shook my head rapidly. “Please tell me you wouldn’t do that, even if your commander told you to. Please don’t. I trusted you.”
Not one line on his face moved.
Not one breath lifted his chest.
“Oh my Gods. You’re truly going to take it from me,” I finally whispered. “I trusted you to help me, but you’re just following orders, no matter what those orders are. You don’t care if it’s me you’re stealing from.”
Before I could comprehend what was happening, the warrior took the Stone out of my hands. Kole pried it away from me so easily, taking it from me in a moment of weakness when I was still reeling over his betrayal.
As soon as the Stone left me, I gasped, realizing what he’d done. I reached for it, tried to take it back, tried to reclaim what was mine, but he held it out of reach.
“Give that back to me!” I snarled. “I need to save Timith!”
“We’re going downstairs, Primelle.” Kole’s voice was hard. Detached. As though it came from eons away. Guilt still burned beneath his Shield, yet he didn’t return the Stone.
And then he said something that would ring through my memories until the end of time.
“Your uncle can’t be saved.”