Page 9 of Oath-Maker

There was still a battle to fight. A cure to be had. Words and oaths meant precious little right now in the grand scheme of things.

But they still mattered. Everything we did right now to fight against the Fallen did.

“Then so shall it be,” Lucius said as he moved the crown over my head. “To Alastia you swear this oath, and in return, Alastia swears this oath to you: loyalty to the Queen.”

“Loyalty to the Queen,” the court echoed, taking me off guard.

The queen. Hearing others say that—multipleothers and not just Lucius—sent a sweeping wave of emotion through me.

“And loyalty and service to the King,” Commander Garnet said next.

“Loyalty and service to the King,” the court replied in unison.

I glanced up at Lucius. He nodded and pulled me to stand beside him.

“Long may they reign,” Commander Garnet called out.

“Long may they reign.”

Long may they reign.

As I looked out on the court repeating the call, with more and more demons and paladins joining in every time, tears pricked my eyes.

I could only hope our reign proved long at this point. Because Lucius was beginning to sway unsteadily and I was starting to cry.

The weight of this responsibility slammed into me as though I’d fallen against stone from a tall height. I’d happened into the role of leading the Order for the few short months I had. But that hadn’t consisted of many people.

Alastia was an entire city, one sitting between the rest of the world and the Fallen’s desire to destroy it.

There would be no room for error or misjudgments.

We had to find a cure for Lucius.Soon.

CHAPTER5

The afternoon passed quickly.Tooquickly. Celebrations following the handfasting and coronation ceremonies were kept light and quick-paced, but it wasn’t solely because of the tear in the Veil this morning or Lucius’s obvious state of discomfort. The battle yesterday had taken its toll along with the future so clearly ahead of us. Lucius may have begun to secure Alastia again, but the only way to keep all of Serenia and beyond safe was to stop the Fallen.

But Lucius couldn’t even stop his own hands from shaking. By the time we’d finally gotten back to our chambers come sundown, I could tell Lucius had been just barely hanging on. I situated him on his bed and gestured for Commander Garnet to leave us. Only when we were alone did I reach for Lucius’s shirt.

His pale fingers wrapped around mine before I even had a single button undone. “Ayla.”

I looked up at him. “I’m going to heal you some more. I can tell the light sickness is getting to you.”

Lucius shook his head and lifted his other hand so he was now cupping mine. “Thank you for today. I know this was rushed.”

“It needed to be done. I see that now.”

He didn’t say anything for a few moments, but something heavy hung in the silence between us. Dread, maybe. Fear. A sense of time and everything we were slipping away every moment Lucius went without a cure for his light sickness.

“Let me heal you.” I pulled my hand from his loose grip and undid the buttons of his black shirt.

“It’s not doing much, Ayla,” he said with a hint of regret. “You’re a powerful paladin and healer, but light sickness is designed to kill demons.”

I ignored Lucius’s attempt to make me feel better about being not powerfulenoughto just rid him of the light sickness. Magic shimmered at my fingertips, this time tinged black with sparks of light, and I manipulated our mate bond into healing and the possibility of him fully recovering. If I couldn’t heal Lucius directly, maybe I could cheat the system and force him to recover with potentiality.

“I’m not letting you go,” I said as I worked my magic.Ourmagic. “I’m not giving up and letting you die to this, Lucius. You made this whole deal about us getting together because we’re mates, about us saving the world from the Fallen, so you don’t get to justgive upafter holding me hostage until I saw reason.”

Lucius chuckled darkly. “We saved Alastia once. You’ll do it again.”

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