43. Aquamarine Beryl
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
I cringe at the liquid notes that rouse me from sleep. My whole body hurts. But when my eyes peel open, I gasp.
Morning light filters through the dusty window, casting a golden hue on the swirling particles in the air. The manor is quiet, and the black mists have completely retreated. Stacked logs make up the walls and ceiling beams.
As I scan the space, my eyes lock onto the body swaying gently from the ceiling. My arm shifts away from his space around my belly, and for the first time, a small flick of heat sparks deep within. A tangible life force reaches out to me. Time seems to stand still as my heart races with dread, every detail of the room etched into my mind with haunting clarity. And then I see him.
Mikal.
My hand falls.
Chains are wrapped around his shoulders, connecting to one of the beams overhead. His scraggly dark hair covers his face, and his unnaturally long human limbs stretch out from a bloody, malnourished form.
“Mikal?” I ask, my voice breaking.
He doesn’t stir.
Por los dioses?1.
I push myself up, ignoring every protest of my body. I stumble forward at his feet and look up to see the faint rise and fall of his chest. I reach out and touch his filthy, bare foot.
Fear presses down on me with urgency. We’re too vulnerable, too much can go wrong.
“I’m going to get you down,” I say, tears already spilling over my cheeks. I look around frantically to see something, anything, that would help me get him down.
A sound stirs from the shadowed section of the room.
As my head twists, I see the plush chair in the corner, filled up by the massive, dark presence of Rholker.
I freeze.
He watches me with his crimson eyes.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Though, I must admit, it’s moving to see you on your knees,” he says slowly.
Each unearthly intonation of his voice sends a chill up my spine.
“How long has he been here?”
He doesn’t move. “Since the day after you returned home to Zlosa.”
The sound of Zlosa being referred to as my home coats my tongue with a bitter taste.
“You’ve left him chained up for two months?!” Rage heats my skin, causing the glow to expand. I’m going to tear him apart.
He raises an eyebrow. “No. He wasn’t always hanging. Sometimes we chained him there.” His veiny hand gestures to the other corner of the room, where bloody tools are laying next to a table.
Bile rises in my throat, and I quickly turn back, touching the cold skin of my brother. A part of me is glad that he isn’t awake. How can I help undo such pain?
“He’s half-giant. He could’ve survived worse,” Rholker says casually.
My chest heaves. I fear touching him and hurting him further by pulling on his body. I just need to get him down.
“The Six tended to him, as well. Kept him alive. Healed the worst of his wounds,” he says again.
I grit my teeth. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because…” he trails off. “I suppose because it pleases you. Despite all you’ve done to me, I still wish to grant you a kindness.”
I push myself to my feet, feeling the glow of my chest increase. I haven’t rested, and the magic Teo gave me is fading, but somehow, I still have enough adrenaline to do this.
“Kindness?” I say, my voice unrecognizable. “You aren’t even fully mortal, are you? What do you know of kindness?”
He stands, and the shadows bend with him. “I know enough. My father denied the power that the human witches offered him, only conceded to small bits and pieces here and there when it was useful, especially when making you fear the Enduares. I did this to stabilize my kingdom. You gave me no other choice when you ruined everything the night of my coronation.”
My fists ball.
“How did I ruin everything? You married Fektir’s daughter. They placed the holy crown upon your head. You were fine.” I spit the last words.
He cocks his head to the side, and the motion is so unnatural as if he had broken his neck. “Fine? You started a fight at my coronation, turned the ogres against us, and effectively ruined my credibility. You took thirty-three slaves with you and killed twenty warriors. We tried to squash the rebellion—poisoning the men’s food, burning slave pens… executions. None of it worked. In the eyes of the court, if I could not keep you in line, then I wasn’t fit to rule. You are the reason I lost everything.”
He lets out a bitter laugh. “And worse yet, I went down this path for you. Because I wanted you.”
My mind swims.
Were the hearts of men really so fickle as to burn the world over a woman?
I open my mouth, but he holds up a charred, grey hand.
“Enough talk. Now that you are here, it is time to make good on my promise,” he says, withdrawing his spear from the wall.
My eyes look between him and Mikal.
I stretch myself as widely as I can, protecting as much of my brother as possible. My awareness teases the lyre string, prepared to pull hard and release a light hot enough to roast the giant.
“If you want to kill him, you must kill me, too,” I say.
And your unborn child, a voice reminds.
I suck in a sharp breath. This is all wrong—I wasn’t supposed to do this alone. Even thinking about the death of my baby makes me want to tear out my own heart, but I am running out of options. Rholker must be stopped.
Rholker falters for a second. He looks between the two of us, clearly torn. And then, he tightens his grip on his weapon, black mist billowing behind him.
He holds the spear up and points it at my heart.
I swallow.
“Two birds with one spear then,” he murmurs, then he draws the weapon back.
My breath stops.
There was a large part of me that hadn’t believed he’d actually do it. Time slows as his arm cocks back fully, and I let out a gasping breath.
This isn’t just about me.
This is about my family.
My mother had taught me about love.
A love so ferocious it could tear the clouds from the sky and split the earth in two floods through me. The stone in my chest flares to life with the power of the gods.
I think of the cards, of the visions, the meeting with Endu.
My future has been set for a long time, and it does not involve dying.
“In the name of Endu, Grutabela,” I rasp through clenched teeth, feeling the cold metal of the spear pressing into my flesh, “and Ashra,” a searing pain pierces my chest as the spear makes contact, “I command you to stop.”
The spear drives deeper into me, and suddenly, a radiant light bursts forth from within my being. At the same time, terror courses through me like a raging river. My precious child flashes before my eyes.
I gaze down in horror as I see the weapon drive through my chest, shattering bones and rattling Mikals’s chains as it impales him, too. Blood burbles in my throat as I struggle to breathe. Rholker staggers away from me, his form wavering in my failing vision.
Before I can crumble to my knees, Mikal’s hanging body stops my path. I tug against his chains.
My sight blurs as an explosion of blinding light emanates from me. I feel and hear its sheer power causing sections of the manor to tremble and fall apart.
An overhead beam splits with a deafening crack.
“Fuck you, Rholker,” I spit.
The beam falls and impales Rholker mercilessly through the chest. His rib cage cracks and folds under the impact, and he instantly collapses with a muffled thud.
“Estela…” he chokes.
His red eyes widen in shock, staring at me as his life force fades away.
As I release a trembling breath, I fixate on the lifeless giant form before me, pain now starting to be replaced with numbness. In that moment of devastation, I can only think about how Teo should have been by my side. We were meant to face this together.
Grief consumes me like a relentless storm raging within my very being. Each tear that falls carries the weight of my shattered dreams, each sob echoing the crack of my bones. The oblivion that envelops me is suffocating.
The baby within me…
I can’t feel it.
Oh gods.
I strain to sense any flicker of Mikal”s heartbeat behind me. Silence.
My mouth opens as another sob tears apart my chest.
“Teo,” I whimper.
Death. Death. More death.
But I’m not fucking dead.
Yet.
The blood is leaking out around the spear and sliding down to my stomach. The heart in my rib cage struggles to beat, its squeezing lopsided and unsettlingly wet.
For a second, I swear, I can hear my mother’s dying screams the night Mikal was born. The stuttering breath and the panting words still ring in my ears.
This is for you. Take care of him.
But she came back to stay the king’s hand when he wanted to execute my brother and me. She appeared in a vision to give me a lepidolite stone and escape Rholker.
She died because she said she loved us, but she can’t stay away. Perhaps… she exists in the next life with regret. Perhaps she discovered that living for her children was more important than dying for us. What I had imagined as being selfless for Mikal and me was really… selfish for everyone else. Especially Teo.
And then, I understood one thing with stark clarity. It robs the final flickers of stabbing pain from rippling through me.
I don’t want to die for my brother or baby or mate.
I crave glowing crystals and intimate moments, luminescent pools and the smell of stone, cries and laughter and aging—but darkness is already creeping in, leaving behind the image of the card of death.