CHAPTER 32 #2
“Harland,” he rasped. More blood leaked from his mouth. “Can you…can you tell my wife…and boy that I…I’m sorry?”
“What for?”
“For not…coming home,” he said, shuddering. “And…tell them…that I love them. Please.”
I inhaled, my nostrils stinging. “What are their names?”
“Tamsin,” he said. “And…Corvin.”
“There is no need for me to tell Tamsin and Corvin that or apologize,” I said, placing my hands above his wound. “Because you will do so yourself.”
A tear snuck free at the corner of his eye. “But…”
“Shh,” I urged, knowing he couldn’t be awake for this. I summoned the essence, and when I spoke next, it filled my voice. “Close your eyes, Harland, and sleep.”
“Did you just use compulsion?” Hisa asked, surprised.
So was I.
The compulsion worked shockingly fast. The man’s eyes were shut, his jaw lax.
I didn’t even have to push very hard, likely because of how weak he was.
“I had to. The pain would’ve been a shock to his system, killing him before I could do anything,” I said.
“I need the wood removed. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes.” Hisa moved around Delano, her armor creaking softly as she lowered herself to the man’s other side. She gripped the wood, her eyes trained on me. “Say when you’re ready.”
Taking a breath, I cleared my mind and summoned the essence. It flared weakly, causing my heart to stutter, and then flooded my veins. “Now.”
The wet, sucking sound and the subsequent slithering squelch turned my stomach.
It was a sound I never wanted to hear again.
Eather rippled through my veins, flowing from me and into the man. There was another sound, like raw meat sliding across a slick surface, as his flesh began to repair itself. Gods, I wished my hearing had stopped working. I desperately tried to ignore what I was hearing.
It took a couple of minutes to heal Harland—that was how grievous his injury was. By the time his breathing evened out and fused, shiny pink skin appeared, and my hands were trembling. I glanced at his face, no longer seeing the tight lines of pain.
“That’s enough.”
I looked up as Hisa rose, using a linen Casteel had handed her to clean her hands. My gaze shifted to him, and the air stalled in my chest. The intensity in his stare was blade-sharp, unyielding, and absolute as he stared down at me.
Mouth suddenly dry, I rose. “There are more injured.”
Casteel took a step forward. “Tell me something, my Queen.”
I inched back a step as Delano stood, his head cocking.
Casteel reclaimed the small distance I’d gained. “What was the point of showing Kieran how to heal if you’re just going to continue doing it?”
I edged back again. “There are still so many—”
“I wasn’t done.”
I snapped my mouth shut, fully aware of the attention on us.
Eather pulsed behind Casteel’s pupils. “Despite being close to passing out?”
I lifted my chin and clasped my hands behind my back, hoping they’d stop shaking. “Are you done now?”
His tight smile was a warning.
“I’m not close to passing out,” I argued.
“You and I both know that is not true.” Casteel looked down at the wolven between us. “Isn’t that so, Delano?”
He nodded his big, traitorous head.
Casteel’s stare returned to mine. “You have done enough. Kieran will handle it from here.”
I’ve got it , Kieran said through the notam .
Frowning, I saw him at the end of the row, his eyes on us as he bent over a mortal.
“Aye. ’is Majesty is right,” came a rough voice from behind us—a mortal whose broken arms I’d healed a little while ago. “Ya done enough.”
“You don’t need to call him that,” I advised.
“And you don’t need to hurt yourself,” another voice said. This time, it was a guard. I rolled my eyes. “Let him take you back.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted.
“Ya almost passed out before you fixed up Harland,” a different mortal said, an older man with deep lines in his features. “I saw ya.” He coughed and winced. “Never thought I’d see a god pass out—”
“I wasn’t about to pass out.”
“She was,” Hisa argued, and my eyes widened on her. She cringed, a rare expression for her. “Sorry, but you need to rest.”
“Traitors,” I muttered. “I’m surrounded by traitors.”
Casteel smirked.
“My Queen.” He extended his hand.
I stared at his open palm as if it were a serpent. Don’t make me pick you up and carry you out of here.
My gaze flew to his.
Because I will.
Even though he didn’t speak out loud, the message in his tone was clear. There was no room for argument.
Shoulders loosening, I sighed. “Fine.”
Casteel wiggled his fingers.
Rolling my eyes, I smacked my hand onto his with enough force that a few of the older men—the ones less moved by being in the presence of gods and wolven—chuckled.
“Ain’t she a fiery one?” one of them muttered as Casteel tugged me to his chest.
Casteel gave them a half-smile. “You have no idea.”
I’m going to hurt you , I told him while smiling sweetly up at him.
In the best possible way , he replied, wrapping his arm around my waist. I gasped as he lifted me into his arms. The chuckles came again, stroking the essence in me. Clutching his shoulders, I glared at him.
“Hold on,” Casteel said with a wink.
Eather rose in him, and in the next breath, we were in our bedchamber.
“I really wish we hadn’t discussed that you could do that,” I muttered.
“I would’ve figured it out anyway.” Pivoting, he started walking.
The bathing chamber door swung open before us. “You can put me down.”
“I will.”
A light flicked on, casting the space in warm, buttery light. I was pretty sure he’d touched neither the door nor the light. And I was also pretty sure if I used the essence to turn on a light, I’d probably accidentally rip the whole switch from the wall.
He placed me on the tub ledge and then leaned over me, turning on the tap. Water poured from the faucet. His gaze returned to mine. “Stay there.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“What if I make you?” he countered, going where the towels were.
“I’d like to see you try.”
“I actually don’t.” He returned, dipping the hand towel under the water. “With as exhausted as you are, it wouldn’t be much fun.”
I snorted at that.
Casteel was quiet as he picked up my hand and washed away the blood that had dried there. He cleaned both as I watched him, his brows furrowed in concentration as he checked between my fingers.
“I know you’re annoyed with me,” he said once he’d finished. “But I’m not going to allow you to put yourself into stasis again.”
I started to deny that being a possibility, but when he looked pointedly at my trembling arms, I sighed.
“I know you want to help people,” he said, tossing the soiled linen into a basket before making quick work of the hooks on my vest. “I understand that it is an instinctual need. But you also have to look out for yourself.”
“I know,” I whispered, letting my forehead fall onto his shoulder, breathing in his scent. “Do you know how many were killed?” I asked.
“Other than those in the warehouse?” He peeled the vest aside and let it fall to the floor. “Malik said there were about twenty found among the debris. All mortal.”
I closed my eyes. “So far?”
“So far.” He curved his hand around the back of my head and gently pulled me back. His lips brushed my forehead. “Arms up.”
I wearily lifted them.
He tugged off the blouse that smelled of blood and…dead ceeren. “That is less than I expected.”
It was.
“Stand for me, my Queen.”
I dragged myself to my feet.
Casteel tugged my leggings and undergarments down. I placed a hand on his shoulder to steady myself as I stepped out of the dirty clothing.
Thank the gods I hadn’t kept the pretty tunic on.
“I don’t think you’ve ever removed my clothing so…clinically before.”
Casteel let out a low chuckle. “You think I don’t feel anything while undressing you?”
Before I could respond, he took my hand and pressed it to his groin. My breath caught as I felt him through his breeches. He was hard and thick, straining against my palm.
“Does that change your mind?” he asked.
“A little.”
“A little,” he scoffed, pulling my hand away. “That is the wrong word choice when your hand is on my cock.”
I laughed, and it sounded weird in the bathing chamber, especially after everything that had happened. But the laugh brought a faint smile to his lips and softened the harsher lines of his features.
“You’re going to get cleaned up. Then, I’m going to feed you,” he said, straightening. “And then you will sleep.”
“What happened to fucking?” I asked.
Casteel’s eyes flared to a bright amber. “The only thing I want more than that is for you to be healthy and strong.” He held on to me as I stepped into the tub. “The fucking can—and will —commence later.”
“Promises, promises,” I murmured, sinking into the warm water as he turned it off—
A slow rumble filled the chamber. The chandelier started to rock, the glow bouncing off the white walls.
The tremor ended fairly quickly, but my heart was still pounding. I pulled my knees to my chest and watched the swaying of the chandelier slow, suddenly cold despite the hot water.
“Hey.” Casteel’s voice was soft as he clasped the nape of my neck. “This one was weaker than the last.”
“It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
My chest constricted as I dragged my gaze from the chandelier to his face.
Words climbed their way up my throat, lodging there.
Just two words, but speaking them made it real.
Gave them life. They were two words I didn’t think someone in my position, responsible for not one but two kingdoms, should ever say.
I couldn’t.
Because I was brave.
I was fearless.
However, when I spoke, I didn’t sound brave or fearless. “The quakes?”
He lowered to his knees beside the tub, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I think I know what they mean,” I said. I didn’t want to say more.
But I had to.
“I think one of the Primals who helped us…” I swallowed. “I think one of them died.”
CASTEEL
I jolted awake, my sharp inhale piercing the silence of the bedchamber as the essence throbbed. My mind immediately went to Poppy.