Page 60 of Crown of Wrath

The familiar burn of the flames against my skin comes as easily as always, completely ignored from hundreds of years of training. Yes, there is pain, but it’s insignificant after the hundreds of thousands of burns I've had in the same place over all these years.

Maeve runs her fingers over the flames. I can see the blisters appearing on her hand, but she ignores them. “I will bear my pain without forcing it on you, Prince. You have carried enough for many lifetimes.” She lifts her hand and shows me the blisters, red and swollen, and I extinguish the flames as she puts her hand down. “I learned to embrace the pain, Cole. Just like you said. It’s nothing now. There’s only one pain I cannot bear.”

I rack my mind for what that could be, but I’m so caught off guard by her actions that I don’t know. I can’t begin to understand what all has changed about the woman I thought I understood completely. The silence lingers longer than I expect, and I realize she’s waiting for me to ask.

“What pain can’t you bear?” I ask. She smiles at me, and with her other hand, she runs her nails over my cheek again. “Losing you, Cole Cyrus. If I lose you, I’ll break, and there won’t be anyone who can bring me back.”

I blink. Me? There’s a knock at the door, and the shadows that have been roaming over my body, teasing me and making mymind fuzzy, move from me to her, clothing her in that beautiful midnight dress that doubles as armor. Except that this time, the dress isn’t covering very much.

It flows with every step, tempting me as her hips sway. “Our food is here, Cole.”

Who cares about food? She certainly didn’t seem to care a few moments ago, but what am I supposed to say?

She turns to look at me, a smirk on her face. “I told you I was hungry.”

Every sense in my body is on high alert, and when she opens the door, I can hear the gasp from the footman. Everyone knows who Maeve is, and they all know that she’s been sleeping for weeks. I’m sure that by the end of the day, everyone will have been informed that the Queen of the Fae has awoken.

The door closes behind Maeve, and she’s carrying a massive platter filled with meats and fruits and cheeses and even some fancy desserts. I’d thought that Maeve was just teasing me, but now that her eyes are on the food, I know I need to be patient because those eyes are ravenous. She hasn’t eaten in almost two months, and there’s no doubt in my mind that she’d murder someone if they got between her and that platter.

She sits down on a chair in the sitting room, putting the platter on the little table between the chairs, and glances up at me. “Are you hungry?” she asks.

I know the answer to this. “A little.” I pick up a piece of Dalen fruit and take a bite, enjoying the nuanced flavor, but mostly just watching Maeve as she devours the platter one piece of food at a time. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to really just watch her since she woke up.

She’s different. There’s a definite physical fragility to her. Her skin is tight against her bones, and all the muscle that she built through her life has been consumed during her seemingly endless sleep. Her movements are slower and far more decisive,probably because of her lack of energy. Her cheeks and eyes are sunken in. If all you saw was her body, you’d be terrified that she was on the brink of death. And she was. If she’d stayed asleep another two weeks, I don’t know if her body would have survived the starvation any longer.

But her eyes… They’re sharp. The emerald green she’s always had has changed. They’re not a different color, but there’s more light to them. They shine where they hadn’t before. She’s alive in a way that I can’t believe.

The shining Painted Crown on her forehead is brighter and golden tan where it was a muddy brown before. Something has changed inside her, and I don’t quite understand it. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand what happened in that never-ending sleep. Or maybe it’s just that this is how she would have been had every moment since she received the Painted Crown not been laced with tragedy.

I pick up a piece of dried sausage and take a bite. Other than the sound of us chewing, it’s silent, something that I’ve become very accustomed to, but looking at Maeve, I wonder what she’s used to. What was it like in her mind all this time? All alone. Surviving on just a promise from me… from the Shade.

I have so many questions, but what do I ask? Do I ask what she went through? Should I try to understand what she remembers? Or is it more important that I tell her what’s been happening outside her mental landscape?

She leans back and smiles. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that hungry before.” Her eyes are softer now that she’s eaten her fill. “My body’s falling apart, isn’t it?” she asks.

I shake my head. “It’s done exactly what you needed it to do. You survived. You’ll have plenty of time to rebuild it.”

She lifts a hand, and a crimson red crystal forms from nothing, slowly spinning above her fingertips, something I’ve never seenher do before. “There’s no time, Cole. You know that. How many villages have been destroyed while I’ve…healed?”

That’s not a question I want to answer. “Too many to count.”

“And do we know if Gethin has retrieved any of the relics?” The look on her face tells me she expects my answer.

“We suspect he has the Burning Brand.” The silence after my words is a far cry from the relaxed feeling only a few moments ago when she was eating. This is solid; it’s a thing to get through instead of enjoy.

She sighs, the gemstone above her fingers shifting and changing as it spins. “He most likely has at least one other relic. Is he still looking?”

My eyes don’t stray from the gemstone as it changes from red to a deep blue to a bright yellow. “There was another reported attack on another kingdom’s village just two days ago.”

She stares ahead of her at the wall behind me and nods her head slowly. “They’re still looking for at least one. The memories from my childhood were too blurry to recall the names and effects of each relic.” She looks up. “Has Lee come back yet? Is Vesta here?”

I shake my head. “No, Lee’s still hunting. A few weeks ago, she heard of a ruin that Vesta might have gone to, and she went there. We haven’t heard from her since then.”

Maeve stares past me and shakes her head. “I don’t have the time to rebuild my body into what it was.” Her eyes move to meet my gaze. “I’m going to need you to push me, Cole. Harder than you ever have before.”

I cock my head. “Why?”

The look in her eyes is one of happiness, even though her voice is sighing. “Because, Prince Cole, we’re going to have to take the fight to Gethin. It’s time that we take Draenyth back, and we can’t do that until I’m stronger.”

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