7. Jaxus
SEVEN
JAXUS
K iera returned to the cells laden with books and other articles, along with a heavy-looking bag slung across her body.
How she’d managed to get it all down here, I didn’t ask. A tension built between us and I didn’t know how to resolve it. She wasn’t like any fae I’d ever known. I knew questioning her abilities wouldn’t help my cause, so I accepted she was more than capable of determining her own limits.
For now.
“How was your father?” I asked.
“Concerned,” she admitted. “But he trusts me. He’ll cover my duties while I examine our guest. I’ve left him researching necromancy.”
She hefted a stack of books into my waiting arms gratefully, and we approached the cell together.
“How has he been?” She asked.
“Quiet.” After we left the cell, he took some time to settle down from his rage, but the thrashing stopped, and I’d heard very little since. “Every time I looked in, he was glaring with those creepy white eyes, though.” I shuddered.
Up close, they were more unsettling than I’d even imagined, and I was not excited about Kiera going in there, but I had the sense not to voice it after her last outburst.
“It’s a classic sign of antemortem, or as most know it, the undead state. But once turned into that state, they usually serve the purpose for which they were created, and then they are returned back to the soil by the necromancer who summoned them. It’s been many years since necromancy was a common practice, but in my understanding, when kept alive too long, they fall apart from decomposition, like this one is starting to do.”
“So someone is controlling him—it?” I wasn’t sure what to call the damned thing.
“I don’t know. With Octavian dead, perhaps they are stuck here unable to return to death.”
She moved over to a table against the cell wall and turned her back on the creature in a move I didn’t know whether to berate or admire. Either way, I bit my tongue and vowed to myself she would not be in this room unguarded at any time. I would have her back so that she could focus on work. Then, once this was over, we would be discussing her training at length. She had to learn to stop only thinking like a healer. She would need better situational awareness in the field.
I put the books down for her and scanned the titles, one eye always on the undead.
“So, is that our main avenue of research?”
She eyed me. “Our?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do I need to remind you of our discussion in the library a mere hour ago? I’m at your disposal. I still remember how to read. My muscles didn’t push my brain out of my head while you were gone.”
“Very well,” she snapped, barely concealing a half-smirk. She slapped a book into my chest and I caught it. “Necromancy, its effects, the magic involved. Anything you can find.” She instructed.
I nodded, smiling. “Anything else?”
“Only if you see something you think could be relevant.”
“And what will you be doing?” I glanced at the table as she unpacked her bag of healing tools.
“I’m going to do a quarantine ward on him first.”
“You really think this could spread?”
Kiera looked at the table, too. Our guest had been writhing in his restraints with renewed energy since we entered the room, and I could not fathom how Kiera would get close enough to examine him without being in immediate danger.
“I don’t. Not really. But I consulted Father, and we agreed to treat him like a containment risk for now, which will allow me to perform some basic tests. The magic will protect me from physical contact or contamination.”
I must have looked skeptical.
“Think of it as a magical protective field around the patient. I will be able to examine him as if I were wearing thick protective clothing and gloves. Nothing he carries and nothing he does will penetrate the magic while the field is in place.”
“Sounds wise.” I agreed, relieved that such a precaution existed. “Although, might you consider wearing thick protective clothing and gloves as well?” I hedged.
She chuckled but ignored my suggestion.
“Kiera?” I asked before she could begin.
“Yes?”
“You said this is not a common practice any longer. Was it ever?” I searched my memory for what Nyx had given me on the kingdoms, but I couldn’t recall a kingdom. It was magic we simply didn’t have in Kerani. She frowned. “It was thought to have died out as a magic. We haven’t seen evidence of it in a long time, but it comes from the Eleventh Kingdom.”
I connected the number with the map Nyx had given me. The Volcano Kingdom. “And it’s taboo?”
“Not really,” she paused thoughtfully. “I mean, it probably would be if it was known as a current practice in this day and age. It’s thought of as an old practice and no longer a concern.”
“No one suspected Octavian?”
She shook her head. “No. He never let on.”
“His ryder never said?” I couldn’t imagine not knowing after a meld.
“His ryder died many years ago.” A crease formed in her brow.
I hated how many unanswered questions we were left with.
She busied herself arranging crystals at the feet of the table legs and consulting a dusty looking healing text for symbols, then etching on the floor with the burnt end of some bark she lit. I kept watch on the undead.
He did not seem to acknowledge her activities or become more distressed when she neared him. He was merely triggered by our presence in general.
She completed her ritual and declared him contained. Then, she set about testing different methods to sedate him so that she could get to work.
We worked until the sun began to rise, but deep in the belly of the palace grounds, we did not see the light dawning. I scanned texts while she conducted tests on her subject. To me, it looked like she spent hours circling and studying him from a safe distance, but I didn’t question it as long as the term ‘safe distance’ was applicable. I tried not to disturb her, but whenever she moved to the work table and noted something in her journal, I would tell her about anything I’d found.
We passed the night this way in companionable study. It was something, if not the conversation I’d hoped to be having. At least we were together. I’d never impress our bond on her if she kept running away, so I would take what I could get.
I eventually convinced her to go to bed when we heard the temple bells ring for the dawn worship of the Goddess the priests attended daily. We secured the cell and she set wards like those they used in the healer’s wing to alert if there was an emergency. If the undead were to take some kind of turn, or the cell was forced, she would be alerted.
I managed to catch a couple of hours of sleep on a cot I dragged out of another cell, so when Nyx relieved me after his morning meetings I was still somewhat functioning, but it was going to be a tough day.
I couldn’t look any worse than Nyx.
“Did you sleep at all?” I asked, studying the dark smudges under his eyes.
He shrugged.
I was becoming concerned. He had rapidly devolved in such a short time from being high on love, despite his grief, to not thinking clearly and making some questionable decisions that even his mate disagreed with. Where was the disconnect? I was having trouble seeing what was triggering it.
I hated to think it could be the hope that if we could somehow resurrect this undead fae, he might somehow find and do the same for Kol. I had to hope he knew that wasn’t possible. Even if it was possible to return a long-dead being from death, he had to know that wasn’t an option for Kol. I was there. He was at the heart of the fire and the explosion of the Dragon’s Bane stockpile. Kol was gone. He was not an undead soldier in a force set against the Twelve Kingdoms. He was dust on the wind and I prayed to the Goddess his peace came instantly.
“Did you sleep?” he asked.
“A little,” I replied. “We worked through the night. ”
“We?” Nyx asked, a slight shift in his mood from melancholy to intrigue.
“I researched while she worked,” I said casually.
“Sounds cozy.” He smirked.
“It was something. I’ll take it.”
Nyx patted my back. “Hang in there, friend. She’ll come around.”
“At least she isn’t running away anymore.” I rubbed my temple. A headache was forming from lack of sleep. “I just feel with this new distraction, we’ll never get around to having the conversation we need to have.”
“It’ll happen. Perhaps the distraction is a good thing. You’re able to get close without triggering her flight response now.”
I chuckled. “Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe,” he assured. “You can’t deny nature’s course. The Goddess has made you to be bonded. She will come around eventually.”
“How long did it take you?” I demanded, knowing the answer. Everyone knew. I just wanted to remind him how similar our situations were on some levels.
“Touché,” he conceded. “But hey, listen, at least Kiera knows who she is, what she is, and what it means to become what she now needs to be. You’re not starting from a blank slate like I was. This is a blessing from the Goddess. However much of a shock it is to her, Kiera knows that.”
I shook my head. “Thanks, I’ll just remember to count the Goddess’ blessings every time she successfully puts off the inevitable.”
“That’s the spirit,” he grinned.
It gave me hope. His lightness was still there somewhere. It just seemed to slip deeper and deeper inside him by the day. I would have to watch closely to ensure I didn’t miss the signs it was disappearing for good.
I left him guarding the cell, pleased in the knowledge that Kiera had warded it and he couldn’t go in without her there to grant him access.
I returned to my chambers, longingly glancing at my bed before heading to bathe and ready myself for the day ahead.
Nyx had excused me from the morning briefing by telling the King I was familiarizing myself with the kingdoms in the library. But now I had to go to further meetings in his place since he’d made his own excuses about training Zaria in some more advanced maneuvers.
I had the feeling life was about to become a series of trading places with Nyx and covering each other until this foray into undead experimentation was over. I was not excited for it.
When I arrived at the meeting regarding border security for the lands bordering the Second Kingdom, I took a seat on the far side of the room. I’d taken to sitting in places where I was not in the King’s direct sight line, as it was becoming clear to me that he regarded me with growing suspicion. Though perhaps suspicion was the wrong term. Interest, maybe? Whatever the case, I could not afford to be the subject of any real level of scrutiny. My backstory was flimsy and my knowledge of the current affairs of the kingdoms was woefully inadequate, even for a fae supposedly living away from the rest of society.
I had an in-depth education on the history of the kingdoms but when it came to the present day, I was as good as clueless in many ways. I was getting by, but I did not want attention to be drawn my way if it could be helped. It raised too many questions about why Nyx thought me capable of such a high rank in the King’s army.