Page 62 of Fae Reckoning

A sudden, electrifying current surged through my body. Every hair had to be trying to free itself from my braid to stand on end. Saffron whined before Pru utteredshhhhs in comfort. Everyone was watching, expecting me to save the day when I hadn’t been able to save anyone, barely even myself, since arriving in Embermere.

The energy coursing through me picked up, buzzing like a hive of industrious bees. I clenched my teeth against its intensity. Then pure, blazing fire racedalong my skin. It stole my breath, then my scream. I couldn’t move. Just endure. Hope I’d get to the other side of this, whatever the fuck it was.

The words traveled on flame. Eternally ancient, they touched my very essence.

I struggled to hold on as my skin felt like it would soon melt from my bones.

If Einar’s voice sounded like a deep river continually tumbling with a strong current, the land did so too, only thick with nectar, flowing languidly.

My breath arrived in a dizzying rush as the burn faded. The tingles from before remained.

My eyes jerked open. My body unfurled, rising to my feet. When I wobbled, Rush was there to catch me.

His hands clasped my face. “Are you alright?” I looked back at him but saw only a blur of moonlight and silver. “El.” His hands squeezed, his face drew closer, so that his breath skimmed my flushed forehead. “By the Ethers, El, what happened? Are you okay? Did the map hurt you?”

I blinked. Blinked again. His face came into crisp focus, before it blurred again.

“My love,” he whispered.

After two tries, I got my mouth to ask, “The map?” As if the earth itself were lodged in my throat, my question was a croaking creak of bark.

“It burned bright as the first time,” Rush said, “then faded.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath and widened my eyes.

“You saved them,” Rush mumbled against my lips with adoration. “All but the one who’d already traveled to the Etherlands. Everyone else is alive. They even opened their eyes.”

“That’s … that’s … amazing,” I mumbled. “What … what about all the others? The ones … I was connected to … through the map?”

Rush didn’t answer. Sorrow dimmed his eyes.

They were beyond my reach now.

20.HERE WAS MY QUEEN

RUSH

Whatever happened when the map surged and then faded from Elowyn’s body left her eyes glassy and her face slack. I didn’t fucking like it. I asked for details but she wasn’t ready to share. Uncommonly quiet, she went with me to examine the captive fae, all awake now except for the one male for whom Elowyn’s intervention had arrived too late. We’d moved his body off to one side of the clearing to later honor his passage to the Etherlands.

Though blessedly awake now, the fae were too weak to do much but lie where they’d been. Ramana was the strongest of them all, thanks to her bond to West, we guessed, and even she remained slumped across his lap and chest. It was just as well. I doubted West was willing to let her go even for a moment. My friend’s face was all amazed shock and stark relief. He barely glanced away from her, as if afraid he’d discover it was all a dream and she wasn’t there at all.

It was much how I felt toward Elowyn. Since reuniting with her, I wanted nothing more than to sequester myself somewhere with her and never let her go, to prove to myself that what we shared was real and I’d been blessed by the Ethers with the greatest gift of my life. I needed to touch her all over, to be inside her so deep that I could go no deeper, to reclaim the connection between us, body and essence, her heartbeat pressed to mine, her breath commingling with my own, her heat enveloping me and making us one.

With the dragonling clinging to her back, Elowyn knelt beside a pair of females, who blinked sluggishly up at her. Pru and Larissa sat to either side of them, the females’ heads in their laps. Reed had discovered old meals in sacks inside the cabin, and my sister and the goblin attempted to feed the former captives some gruel. Without any notion of how long it might have been since they’d last eaten, they offered them only a few bites, just enough to help them begin recuperating their strength.

Thank the Ethers, Larissa had shed the tablecloths and now wore a simple frock. Perhaps she’d found it inside the cabin, or maybe Pru had produced it for her as she’d dressed Xeno, who also thank fuck was back to being clothed. Larissa’s skin, however, was wan and pasty. Would this existence be cruel enough to return one sister to me only to snatch away another? Larissa needed Braque’s treatments once a month or she grew very ill. The reason she’d come to the palace in the first place was for her monthly ministration.How long did she have before the sickness overcame her? How long before there would be no stopping the disease from ravaging her body?

“Do we know who they are?” Elowyn was asking Larissa and Pru.

While Pru answered, Larissa gazed up at me. I heard Pru say, “No, Mis—Elowyn. I don’t recognize them, and neither does Lady Larissa.” But all I could think was that my little sister’s smile was sad, as if she too realized how limited her time was. How my decision to refuse the queen—and therefore Braque’s treatments—had condemned her to a slow, agonizing death.

“No, Rush,” she whispered, drawing Elowyn’s attention, which immediately grew sharper. “It’s not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just … what is. I’ve made peace with it. Please don’t blame yourself.”

I took in her somber stare and tried to memorize every aspect of it in case our days together were numbered.

“You had to say no,” Larissa added, referring to when I’d told the queen neither my sister nor I wouldentertainher, sealing Larissa’s fate.

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