Chapter 48
Optimistic
Cora
Three full moon cycles had passed since Arabella had saved the majority of the Shadow Brigade and Darkmoor from a full-out battle. I understood quickly why vampires with magic over the dead were so feared when first discovered.
Lovel and Vega had both been with the soldiers Keres sent to the Court of Shadows. Vega’s magic wouldn’t work on the dead and it didn’t seem like Lovel put up much of a fight once he watched Arabella bring back the dead.
Maybe that magic didn’t exist where he was from. But, we’d found them when gathering our fallen soldiers from the street before the sun rose.
The courts weren’t known for having big burials, but Silvana and Raiden wanted their families to be able to say goodbye once more before their bodies ceased within the morning light.
Everyone had given Silvana and I voting power over what to do with Keres.
We’d decided to throw him into the same dungeon Cedar had been stuck in for all those nights beneath his castle.
I’d done one more bit of blood magic to ensure no one except Cedar himself could release Keres from his prison.
It felt fitting and Aunt Zima agreed. The male had been starving to death, the slowest and most painful way for a vampire to go.
He couldn’t even jump into the sun if needed.
I’d ensured his chain only went to the edge of where the sun filled.
He’d spent every day since watching it fill his space, only to leave once more.
“Are you ready?” Cedar asked from next to me.
I felt myself nod.
Silvana had decided to go home. She said she’d closed this chapter of her life the moment she watched me seal the door with blood magic. She was happy and was ready to leave it all in the past.
I couldn’t say the same though.
I needed this.
“Okay, what do I do?” His confidence flowed through the bond and a small smile grew as our eyes met.
“Just place your hand on the door.”
Nodding, he set his palm against the wood. A small pulse sprang out from his skin to the ends of the doorframe, and the lock slid open.
“Okay, let's do this,” he muttered with a breath.
Cedar walked in first, his hand now in mine as I walked in behind him. The cell was dark and it smelled horrid, but there he sat in the same corner I’d come to help Cedar in all those moons ago.
He was still alive, but only just barely.
Anwen said he didn’t have much longer before his threads would finally be cut.
Cedar and I stared down at him. His skin paler than parchment.
Dried blood sat along his mouth and nose.
His once midnight-colored hair was now the color of straw, dry and brittle.
His eyes slit open as he stared up at us, a rattle in his chest as he tried to inhale.
I stepped up to Cedar’s side and Keres's eyes dropped to my round belly. His mouth tried to move, but nothing came out of it.
Thank the Fates.
“You don’t have long,” I found myself saying, my voice stronger than I felt.
“But I wanted you to know that it was in leaving this place I found true happiness. All those years I was convinced I’d never leave these walls.
That this was where I’d meet my end beneath your hands, but I didn’t.
I made it out and in finding out the type of male you truly are, I found the type of female I truly am.
I found my power. You never owned a single piece of me and you never will. ”
Cedar’s hand squeezed my own before he cleared his throat.
“I told myself I’d give Cora this moment, but I want to say one thing before you perish. Her baby? She’s mine. Your line, and your father’s line, will pass with you.”
I looked over to see a genuine smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but smile in return.
Keres’s eyes widened, his fingers twitched as if he was trying to raise them, and he took his final breath.
We were finally entering the summer months in the Kostbare, which for the Court of Ice simply meant that the sun shined more and a little bit less snow fell from the sky. But we were finally leaving this horrid place. Hopefully not to return anytime soon.
Hands slid around my waist, resting atop my ever-growing stomach. His face buried in my hair and he let out a slow breath, slowly rocking side to side with me as if he were swaying to music only he could hear.
“Are you almost finished?” he whispered.
“I am, yes. The last of the books have been packed. Old court gowns burned. The rest of the females have been seen off. Morgan is home with her father. I’m beyond ready.”
His lips pressed against the side of my neck and I could feel him smile against my flesh. “That’s what I love to hear.”
Cedar and I had stayed behind with Aunt Zima, while Raiden, Silv, and Bastian went home after Keres's entombment. Paine stayed a while longer, Arabella joining us, to help Aunt Zima get things within her court set up.
Thankfully since my aunt had spent a great many years leading the rebellion against Keres, it hadn’t taken long at all for her to find a circle of people she trusted. The first moon cycle, she spent going out to different coven leaders, finding those she trusted, and removing those she didn’t.
It seemed when my aunt wasn’t helping those in need, she could be vicious.
It ran within our blood, she said. This entire time I thought it was my mother I inherited it from, but I was mistaken.
Aunt Zima was a great deal like Silvana and it gave me hope that the Court of Ice would begin to thrive once more.
We’d been able to rescue most of the females Keres had within his court.
It seemed only a few were truly loyal to the male, and the rest were like Silv and me.
Taken from our homes and held against our wills.
Aunt Zima had even been able to save some of their families, so they weren’t going home alone.
While others were choosing to relocate to one of the other three courts—this one holding too many tragic memories.
Those like me.
“Where do you think we’ll find Oren?” I questioned.
My mate shrugged. “Hopefully back within his own court, but I also know nothing is ever that easy. The coven leaders have been notified though and I’m sure we’ll find him before you know it.
Anwen and Allie both are within the threads, as they say.
So maybe they’ll find something useful. Only time and a generous gift of wisdom from Eirdis herself will help us at this point. No sense in worrying about it.”
I turned within his arms, my own looping around his neck. “How do you do that? Stay so calm and optimistic?”
His hands came to settle on my hips, his thumbs rubbing slowly back and forth on the sides of my stomach as he so often did.
“The Fates have blessed me twice over, Princess. How can I not be optimistic?”
Leaning down, my head rested against his chest. “The Fates have also handed you chaos and pain along the way. I wouldn’t fault you for having a harder time believing in the optimism.”
Cedar shrugged, the contentment in his face clear as he spoke.
“Some days I do. But I look into your eyes or at our growing little girl, and I can’t help but feel full.
I don’t believe the Fates would be so cruel as to do all of this to Oren and not bring him home.
Not seeing him happy and well. I could be wrong, of course, but I don’t wish to be, so why sit within those thoughts when I could work toward the future I wish to see instead? ”
I shook my head, still smiling. “Let’s go say goodbye, my raven.”
I wasn’t sure if Cedar was right about Oren, but I had hope. Anwen was set to begin teaching Allie how to navigate how to read the whispered words from the Fates, and Cedar and I were set to help Oren rebuild the Court of Wolves.
So while I didn’t expect the sea to be calm just yet, I knew it would be one day.