Page 91 of The Ballad of a Bard

Heartache’s talisman.

“I must have figured it out, must have done the correct things in order for it to have worked. He hasn’t been back in the Empire since he left, eight years ago. There’s no other reason as to why he’d come back now, out of all things.” She cast her hazel eyes towards him, desperation and hope rife in green and gold. “Right?”

“I don’t see why not. He’s always been a fickle Saint.” West uttered. “But let’s get home, and see if your theory holds any water. I’m assuming that you were in the palace when you tried to call on him?”

Crimson nodded. “In the apartments.”

“Which means that the summoning call will be linked there. I’m not sure how long it holds, since it’s different for every Saint, but he should be lurking around the castle somewhere.” He explained as they steered towards the east, making for the port. Itwould take them a couple days to turn back, but if the winds were good then they could make it home in no time.

“If I called on it here, if I asked him to stay in the Empire, would it link him there? Or would he be bound to find us here?” She asked, spinning the heart charm as the chain wrapped around her finger.

“You’d have to be very specific with your wording, your phrases. It’s one of the tricky little things attached to every talisman. Yes, you have the ability to summon a Saint if you have it. But you have to be precise, otherwise it could end up in a disaster.”

She held the pendant to her chest, tucking her bottom lip into her mouth, under her teeth as she thought over what to say, how to correctly utter whatever she wanted to say. Then she lowered her lips to the glass pendant and spoke against it.

“Please, Heartache. Stay.” It was a ghost of a voice, the barest of whispers but he heard it all the same. “Stay, until we can come find you.”

And within his own head, within his own heart, West took her hand in his, locking their fingers together as she glanced up at him. He offered a smile back down and said, “For both of us.”

Forty Two

He could sense the flaring disappointment off of her from a mile away like a radiant comet that shot by, even if she tried to hide it from him. She wasn’t very good at it, but he couldn’t find fault. She’d been alone for most of her years, with no one to guide her in the excellent skill of protecting her feelings from the plain sight of others. He’dmasteredit over the eons that he’d been alive, but it wasn’t really something to brag about.

Crimson stared, lost in thought or lost in the churning sea, he wasn’t sure. And the irony of her approaching him before they departed wasn’t lost. Because he’d been in nearly the same spot, the same bland expression on his face, he was sure of that. And as he watched her, found every breathtaking detail about her, he hated Heartache even more.

Not for granting him a life, immortal or not, because he was thankful for existing. He couldn’t even be mad at the fact that he’d live forever because if he hadn’t, then he never would have mether.West lived a thousand years, experienced a hundred differentlives but it was all moot compared to this one. He’d lived, but he’d never truly enjoyed any of it until now.

West knew that Cobalt had a part to play in that.

He cared for the boy like he was his own son, his own brother and whether it was one or the other that took precedence, he was more than glad to have the child in this version of his life. He knew that it was mostly due to the beautiful girl however, the one that laced her fingers together over the barnacle-encrusted railing of the ship that took them home.

Back to Tazali.

Back to Heartache.

Crimson had not expressed any disappointment in the fact that her father hadn’t been found, but she hadn’t given up on hope either. He knew it stemmed from those long years of taking care of her brother like her own child, wondering if he would live or not. He couldn’t imagine the weight that bore on her from day after day of contemplating if he would make it or not.

West prayed every day that he did.

She didn’t deserve any of this unfairness.

That might have been horrible of him to say since he’d witnessed tons of people stuck with their shitty lives, but it was different with her. No matter what she’d been shoved into, pushed towards or thrusted around, she’d been brave.

She shouldn’t have had to be.

And that was the part that triggered him most of all. It didn’t matter if she was eighteen or twenty-eight, her father should not have left her after she’d recently dealt with her mother’s death. West considered himself well acquainted with Connor, to the point where he could most likely speak on his behalf and say something similar.

But this- it was a delicate situation.

One that was far more below the surface like an iceberg bobbing in the ocean, more than what met the eye as most of it was hidden from plain sight. Facts that they were slowly uncovering together.

He refused to leave her side until it was over.

She had enough people abandoning her.

West wouldn’t be one of them.

There was still a hovering thought that he couldn’t shake as the ship sailed through the clear waters. If he’d been created from Heartache, even if the smallest strand, and she’d come from his matter as well, did that connect them in some way that was more than just owning Saint blood? Then he thought about Muse and how even if a drop of power from the original immortal created them, that they were still born of their own items, their own magic.

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