27. Amick
Amick
“She found him where the sea kissed the sky, atop the rail of his weathered ship.
Salt lashed her face as she drove her blade toward his heart, but Tresor merely stepped aside.
The world vanished beneath her feet. One hand caught the front of her shirt before the ocean could claim her, leaving her suspended above the crashing waves.
“His fingers remained steady despite the fury blazing in her eyes. ‘Well,’ he said, peering over the edge as though she were an especially troublesome shell he’d found upon the shore.
‘You’ve certainly made your feelings known, treasure.
’ She bared her teeth. ‘Let me go.’ His smile was impossibly soft. ‘I already did.’”
A small huff interrupts my reading, and I cast my eyes toward the noise.
“Are—” A round of coughs tears from Creed’s throat as he pushes himself up.
I pass him the glass of water from his bedside table and wait patiently as he chugs the entire thing in a few gulps. His head lies against his headboard as he takes multiple deep breaths.
“Are you seriously reading Doren’s little love story to me?”
“Well, nothing else has roused you awake, so I figured maybe some light reading would work.”
“Never knew romance was a part of your pleasure reads.”
I arch a brow as I close the book.
“You can find knowledge from any written words. I’ve found the genre to be quite helpful these last few months.”
A breathy chuckle escapes him as he blinks and squints around at his empty room.
“How long?” he asks.
“Twelve hours.”
A curse slips from his lips as he runs a hand down his face.
“Where’s Thayla? Is she okay? What happened after I passed out?”
My lips tighten.
“Passed out? Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Don’t, Amick.” He sighs.
“Don’t tell me to don’t, Creed,” I say, tossing the book on the bed and leaning forward in the chair I moved to his bedside.
I rest my elbows on my knees as we hold each other’s stares. For someone who just slept twelve straight hours, he woke in a foul mood.
He caves first with another long breath.
“I’m sorry,” he mutters.
“I don’t need your meaningless apologies. I need you to be more careful.”
“Gods. Waking up and being lectured is exactly what I wanted.”
“I’m not lecturing.”
The snap and crack in my voice have both of us falling still. I roll my shoulders out and stare at my tangled fingers.
“That was…” I trail off, attempting and failing to shove all these reckless emotions down deep inside of me.
“I had to place a spoon in front of your nose to see your breaths. I could barely hear your heartbeat with my ear pressed to your chest. Do you know how petrifying it was to watch you lie here so still?”
His throat bobs as he gulps, and I shut my eyes for a fleeting second.
Watching Mellcom snatch Thayla through our father’s Veil and seeing Creed lie on the ground like a corpse will be two images that haunt me for the rest of my life.
Terrifying fear that she would never come out of that corrupt cloud had all logic leaving my mind. I slaughtered with no regard and allowed a foreign side of myself to rise to the surface. Even in my angriest moments, I can think straight.
Not then. There was no reasoning with myself whatsoever.
The moment she burst through that gray wall, screeching for us to run, reality came back to me.
I was able to control myself until the Veilatara allowed us to see Creed.
As I laid my ear to his chest, I vowed that if I didn’t find a heartbeat, the task of us saving this realm would be nullified. I’d do everything in my power to destroy not only our father, but the Valories as well.
Luckily, he’s very much alive and figuring out how to destroy our creator while keeping the realm safe isn’t something I have to do.
Today.
I may not say it, but I can’t explain how relieved I am to see his angry gray eyes stare back at me.
Too bad I can’t provide him with the opportunity to leisurely come to completely.
“Thayla is lying in her bed. We finally convinced her to take a nap before we go. I doubt she’s actually sleeping, but I haven’t gone and checked on her, Kyzen, and Riven in about five hours.”
“Before we go where? What happened?”
“A lot,” I mutter. “Nothing realm ending. Kira took some damage, which might buy us a little time. Val starshot the Binding from the Abandon when he got to all of us, so luckily the mission wasn’t for nothing.
He also revealed that all the other Bindings are hidden within the rocky formation at the hot spring.
Derivius and Meridamus are stalking around Valveilious, listening for whispers. And Mellcom is our biological brother.”
His mouth parts as his face falls blank. I’m not sure why he’s shaking his head back and forth as if I’d tell him a lie.
“The fuck he is. What the hell are you talking about?” he asks.
“Biologically, he is. Though blood doesn’t much matter to me.”
I don’t waste another breath on pointless small talk and tell him everything that was said while he was out.
From the moment the Veilatara parted, revealing his prone body, to everything Thayla told us about what Mellcom said in the Veil.
Her intense and revealing moment with Meridamus and Val, and her demand to go see her mother.
I fill him in on everything.
“I’m sure this is all overwhelming to hear all at once, especially since you’re just waking up, and I am sorry for dumping everything on you, but we don’t have the luxury of waiting around.
I need to know if what you’re going to tell us about V is bad or good news.
I need to not only prepare myself but Thayla. ”
A shiver races across his skin and his lids drift shut. The way his chest expands brings me far more comfort than concern right now.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad, if I’m being honest, Amick. I didn’t even know entirely what I was doing. I did what V told me to do.”
My brows furrow.
“He told you not to let go of his soul?”
He hums.
Before he can explain any further, the rapid pattering of feet echoes behind me, and I peer over my shoulder through his open door.
“You’ve already let her know you’re awake?” I ask.
“Didn’t really have a choice. My soul’s being a little fucking needy right now.”
Understandable, I suppose.
“Creed,” Thayla breathes as she crawls onto his bed.
With a swift tug and shift of his hands, he positions her until she’s on his lap, with her cheek pressed to his heart. He doesn’t say anything as he presses his face into her hair and takes a deep breath.
Riven and Kyzen situate themselves on the edge of his bed. Their scowls are much fiercer than Thayla’s soft smile.
“Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Yeah,” Riven scoffs. “Fucking liar. I feel how lethargic your power still is.”
Thayla pushes herself up, using his chest as leverage, and the warning rumble of his name that leaves her lips has the three of us smirking.
“Fine. One of Vullie’s vials and some help from Riven, if he isn’t going to be a dick about it, will have me good as new.”
“That can be arranged,” she says, smiling sweetly over at Riven.
He rolls his eyes and reaches into his pants pocket. He pushes Thayla’s hand away as she holds it out for the vial.
“Oh no, if he wants it, he has to let me give it to him.”
“Riven,” Creed growls.
“You want to feel better or lie here like a sack of potatoes?”
Creed’s nostrils curl into a disgusted sneer, but Thayla bats her lashes a few times and he gives up his fight rather quickly.
Thank goodness.
I simply don’t have the patience for this.
Not only does Riven pour the vial into Creed’s mouth for him, but he also cuddles up beside him, claiming they need skin-to-skin contact for his Harmony to help him. Which we all know is a lie, but his pestering seems to be helping Creed’s foul mood.
Thayla’s smiling genuinely.
“Better? At least a little?” she asks.
“Yeah,” Creed says as he runs his fingers through her hair, then tucks the piece dangling across her forehead behind her ear.
They hold each other’s gazes for a heavy moment. Both want to say something, but neither wants to say something first.
“What—”
She starts, then instantly stops, and his gaze softens on her.
“When V…his…”
Creed’s words break as well. His face contorts as though speaking the truth will pain him. He takes a moment, bringing her hand to his lips, and kisses each knuckle.
“When you were holding him, and his body began to disappear, his soul hovered above you. He waited and watched you as you called your power forward.”
A shuddering breath falls from her trembling lips, and she tangles her fingers in his shirt.
“As his soul started floating up, he looked at me and said…”
“Said what?” she asks, low.
“Don’t let me go.”
I lean back in my chair, observing the multiple emotions that cross his face at one time. No one rushes him, but my heart continues to thud at an infuriating rate in my chest.
“I’ve never felt anything like it,” he finally says.
“It took nearly all the strength within me to hold his soul while something tried tirelessly to pull him up. I kept telling him I had to let go. His soul was beginning to shred and take too much damage, but he just kept repeating no. Ordering me not to give up.”
“And you didn’t give up,” Thayla whispers.
He shakes his head.
“I didn’t. I held on until that beam of light shot down from the sky. It swept through his soul and slammed it into the lighter-colored creature. It attached, but it was so—”
His eyes slam shut and he rubs his hand across his mouth.
“Damaged,” I mumble.
He nods.
“I threw everything I had left in me at him and tried to heal it back whole, but it wasn’t enough. I didn’t finish healing it before my power drained out of me and darkness took me under. I’m so sorry, Thayla. I tried. I gave it all I had. I fucked—”
“Hey, none of that,” she says, laying her finger to his lips. The slow tears flowing down her cheeks are heartbreaking to witness once again. “You did exactly what he told you to do.”
“I did, but at what cost? He’ll…”
“He’ll what?” I ask.