Page 47 of Bright Blinding Ruin

“I… I can’t—” The last thing I remember before passing out is Frederick turning his body so that I fall into his chest instead of away from him, and then everything is black.

Chapter Eighteen

The first thing that greets me when I open my eyes is the high ceiling of the room they’ve made an impromptu hospital. I groan and sit up, and when I do, a blanket falls off me. No other bed is taken; it’s just me.

Well, it’s notjustme.

Beside my bed, Frederick sits in a wooden chair he must’ve brought from somewhere else. When I sit up, he darts into action, grabbing me by the shoulders and helping to steady me. “Easy, now,” he whispers, his eyebrows creased with concern.

“What… what happened?”

“You fell unconscious once we crossed into the city. I got there as quick as I could, Rey, once I heard the guards say they saw something golden flying toward the city. I didn’t know it was you. I thought… well, I assumed we were under attack.”

“It wasn’t me,” I whisper with a sigh. I stare hard into Frederick’s chest; he’s standing in front of me, his hands still holding onto my shoulders. It’s not the worst feeling. “That was Invictis.”

Frederick tenses when I say that. “Invictis? But why… if that was Invictis, why didn’t he—”

“Kill me?” I finish his question as he pulls away from me, probably figuring I’m steady enough to be able to sit up on my own without his help. “Kill all of you too, while he’s at it? I wondered that, too. He said he wanted me at my best. He wants to meet at the southern cliff just outside the city when I’m ready.”

He makes a thoughtful sound as he rubs his chin in thought. “Interesting. I would have assumed it would take the quickest route to end this—but nothing about these woes have beenquick. I believe it might see a challenge in you. Perhaps it enjoys it.”

I suddenly remember being stabbed with a magical blade of light, and I reach for the bottom hem of my bloody shirt and hoist it up. My body is still a little weak, but I feel better—and once I see my stomach, I understand why.

The wound is healed. Like, completely healed and scarred-over. It’s like it happened ages ago. The sight of the scar on my abdomen doesn’t make sense in my head. “How long was I out?”

“A little under a day,” Frederick answers me as he quickly averts his gaze from my lifted shirt. “You were covered in blood. We searched for wounds but we couldn’t find any.”

I lightly run my fingers over the new scar on my stomach, wondering if it was Invictis who healed me. If he’s a weapon, healing shouldn’t be something he’s capable of. There’s no way I healed that fast on my own, even with empress-level healing skills. It had to be magical.

With my legs hanging off the edge of the bed, I let go of my shirt, and Frederick is slow in bringing his stare back to me. “He almost killed me,” I whisper, remembering the feeling of that searing blade cutting into me. The sheer, sharp, hot agony that came with it.

“Well, I, for one, am glad Invictis failed.” Frederick smiles at me after that, acting sheepish, like he’s embarrassed or something. Or maybe he’s remembering that silly kiss.

Maybe… maybe that kiss wasn’t so silly after all.

Everything that happened comes flooding back to me, pushing down on me in that moment. My shoulders slump, and I can’t keep a clear field of vision. Everything blurs when I remember Krotas, my mom, and how I lost her. How Invictis took her from me.

“Rey?” Frederick falls to his knees before me, and he sets his hands on my legs gingerly. “Are you all right? What happened?”He sounds so earnest, like he really does care—which is almost ironic, given the fact that, not so long ago, I was certain he didn’t give a shit about me at all and only wanted to use me.

I’ve never been one to want to cling to anybody. I was never someone who needed to feel a man’s arms around me in order to be secure. But something takes hold of me right then, and it makes me move off the bed and throw my arms over his shoulders. It makes me fall into his lap and bury my face against him, hold onto him like he’s my lifeline.

“My mom,” I whisper against his neck, trying my damnedest to fight the tears that threaten to fall. “He killed my mom.”

Frederick is taken aback by my closeness at first; I can feel his shock in the way his entire body tenses up. But after a few seconds tick by, he wraps his arms around me and holds me close to him, our bodies entwined on the floor. “Your mother? But—”

“Krotas. Krotas was my mom. She was pregnant with me when this all started. She was alone when she gave birth to me. I saw the memory. She could open portals between worlds, Frederick. It’s how she met my dad. She thought she was doing the right thing by leaving me with my dad and severing the connection between our worlds. She didn’t think…” I squeeze my eyes shut and bury myself in the crook of his neck. “She didn’t know the piece of Invictis she was supposed to keep safe followed me there.”

Frederick is gentle when he pulls his head away from me to get a good look at me. “Krotas? You’re…” Whatever he was going to say, he doesn’t. The words die on his tongue, maybe because he’s looking at me in a new light.

I’m not a nobody. I never was a nobody. I’m the daughter of the empress of Magnysia, and if Invictis was never unleashed, odds are Frederick and I would have spent a lot of time together.

“Aurelia,” I whisper, not liking the sudden silence. “It’s what she named me.”

An incredulous, soft grin grows on his face when he repeats my full name, “Aurelia. Aurelia of Magnysia.” The way he’s looking at me is too intense, but I’m still on his lap, trapped between his legs, his hands resting on my sides now instead of my back.

We’re too close. This is… too intimate of a moment.

In an effort to try to break the intensity in the air, I say, “I saw your mom, right after she had you. I think… I think seeing you made Krotas want a child of her own. She lived for so long, but she never let herself love.”

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