Page 124 of When Wishes Bleed

Tears pricked my eyes.

Tauren glanced up as the door opened, and I saw his face crumble when he saw me. Dropping his head with a trembling sigh, his dark hair and shoulders shook with every tear he tried to hold in.

With his free hand, he reached for me. I rushed to him and grasped him as tightly as I could, attempting to infuse every ounce of my love through my embrace. His arm wrapped around me and he fisted the fabric of the back of my dress. With every sob he let out, fissures spread through the wall I’d erected around my heart.

Annalina watched us with tears streaming down her face. “Thank you,” she mouthed. I nodded once, focusing again on Tauren.

I stayed for minutes, hours, holding the man I loved. Lucius’s breaths faded until they were shallow and spread far apart, and then, just after dusk, they stopped and the King faded away. His soul rose up into the room, regarding his loved ones. I whispered a blessing to him and urged him to follow the light. It would guide him to his next destination.

In all my years of dealing with death, I knew there was a moment of numb shock that hit each person after they lost a loved one. Even though they knew death was inevitable, in that moment it suddenly became real. The fact that their loved one was truly gone would pierce them like an arrow to the heart.

I was there the moment it hit Annalina. As if sensing the separation of her beloved’s spirit, she let out a wail that made the marrow nestled within my bones ache. I wished there was some way I could comfort her, but without speaking, Tauren went to her. He held his mother, rocking her until she calmed.

When she was exhausted and depleted, Annalina looked up and gingerly stood. “We need to admit the physician to prepare him for burial.” She squeezed Tauren’s hand tight and reached for me with trembling fingers. I walked around the bed to her and slid my hand into hers, and the three of us walked from the room.

Annalina might have been grieving, but she was still Queen, and it showed with the way she held her head up despite her tears. The way she straightened her back and put one foot in front of the other when I knew all she felt like doing was falling to her knees.

Tauren and I walked with her to a set of rooms she’d occupied temporarily during Lucius’s illness. When Tauren offered to stay with her, she shook her head dismissively and hugged her son.

“I need some time alone,” she said, her voice cracking.

Once she shut her door, Tauren turned to me, his chin quivering as he held back more tears. “I know it isn’t exactly proper, but would you come to my room? It’s private, and I just want–”

“Of course I will,” I answered.

We walked together to his room. He didn’t say a word; he tugged me toward the enormous bed, where we lay on the covers and eventually gave in to exhaustion together, falling asleep cradled within each other’s arms.

I woke before he did. It was hard to tell the exact time, as the sun was hidden behind the clouds, but I knew it was late afternoon. Tauren began to stir when I brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen across his eyelid.

When his golden eyes slowly opened, I saw the bloodshot veins that spoke of gallons of shed tears. “You stayed,” he rasped.

“I wouldn’t leave you,” I answered.

“You did, though.”

“I had to, then.” Maybe he didn’t understand, and maybe I should have explained my departure better, but I had a duty to my home and to find the witches still loyal to my mother’s cause, and he had a duty to spend every remaining minute with his father.

“I missed you,” he breathed, placing a sweet, chaste kiss on my forehead and wrapping his arms around me.

“I missed you, too,” I breathed, holding him tight.

“My father’s funeral will take place tomorrow. Will you stay for it and attend with me?”

I wanted to, but wasn’t sure if…

“What is it?” he asked.

“Am I welcome at his service? Witchcraft is considered evil by most religions.”

He smoothed the worry line between my eyes. “You are welcome anywhere in this kingdom, Sable. Nothing about you is evil. Everyone knows that now.”

“Then, yes. I’ll attend with you.”

He swallowed. “Do you need to return to your House?”

“Not yet,” I told him. I could only help so much with the rebuilding of Thirteen without a nature affinity, but even so, there was nowhere else I’d rather be than with him.

Someone knocked at the door. While Tauren went to answer it, I stood and walked to the window to see black pennants flapping on the rooftops. The Kingdom was already mourning its King.

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