Page 30 of The War of Wings
But there was no storm to be found now, not in the sky nor in my chest. Only a few wispy gray clouds above us.
“Petra?” Cal asked tentatively as my eyes opened once again.
“Looks like I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
Chapter 12
Petra
Night had long since fallen. My palm had been slashed over and over again by my blade. My heart had been slashed over and over again by the bodies I saw laying in the streets of Eserene. People who’d fallen at the hands of Occulti. People who’d been caught in the fire blasted from the drivas’ jaws. And people who’d survived the battle only to die before I arrived to heal them.
If only I’d been strong enough to conjure a fucking storm and heal them all at once.
“Don’t look at them, Petra,” Cal murmured in my ear for the hundredth time tonight, gently guiding me away from two bodies strewn over the sidewalk, their hands joined between them.
“I need to,” I answered quietly, giving them my full attention. They deserved that much. I hoped they were safely inside the walls of Soren’s castle. I hoped they knew I wascoming to save them. Had they lost faith in those final moments? Had they questioned their decision to follow me?
Cal’s steady presence at my side was the only thing that kept me from crumbling to the cobblestones and beating my fists until they were bloodied. I was so angry. So, so fucking angry, and so tired. My feet dragged, but I was going to make it through the entire city tonight if it killed me.
On a street corner in the middle of what once had been Ockhull, I set my sights on the last of the injured. I’d whittled down the words from a long-winded spiel to just the facts — it wasn’t Noros, it was Malosym and the Occulti. I prepared to comfort the man who lay alone and weeping in the street, readying myself to once again answer thewhyand thehowhe was sure to ask as I healed him.
As the man rolled to face us, his eyes caught in a sliver of moonlight, and Cal went still beside me. That startling shade of blue stared back at us, swimming with tears.
Kauvras curled in on himself, around a large wound in the center of his abdomen. It couldn’t have been too deep or else he wouldn’t have survived this long, but the cobblestones beneath him were stained red nonetheless.
I sliced through my palm again, gently laying it across his cheek. A greatwhooshof breath left his lips as the wound on his stomach pulled together and he stilled, his eyes fluttering closed for a brief moment before they opened again and landed on his son.
Carefully, Kauvras pushed to sit up, gingerly touching the scar that now marred his belly, visible through the tear in his leather. Then he shifted his weight, arranging one knee beneath him as he crossed a fist over his chest. “Daughter of Katia. I swear fealty to you as the one true ruler of this realm.” He raised his head then, but his eyes remained low. “Please accept my most sincere apology for the way I behaved in our previous interactions. I do not look to make excuses for my actions, butplease know I was…” He swallowed hard. “I was not in control of myself, your Majesty, you must understand.”
I nodded. “Malosym had your blood, therefore he had control over you.”
“Yes, your Majesty. He made me…crazed. You must know I had no idea of his true identity. I’d called him a friend for so long. I simply thought he craved power.”
“As so many men do,” I murmured, nodding again.
Kauvras’ presence was just as commanding as he had been before, with his broad shoulders and tall frame. But the absence of Malosym’s control had made room for something else — a steady calmness.
“For our previous interactions against me, you are forgiven,” I said carefully. “But I’m not the one you need to apologize to, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
Pain contorted Kauvras’ features, so much so that had he not been staring at his son, I’d think to check his back for a dagger. “I…” he breathed, his chest heaving.
“We’ll discuss this later,” Cal clipped, averting his eyes from his father back to mine. He gave a small nod, urging me forward. “We’re facing far more pressing issues.”
“Of course,” Kauvras agreed. “Thank you, your Majesty, for healing me.”
I dipped my chin, turning to Cal. His brows were furrowed, a silent battle waging behind his eyes. “Let’s get to camp,” I said, and his face softened with relief as he turned away from his father.
???
A soldier pointed me in the direction of the correct tent, and I shouldered my way inside, Cal and Kauvras trailing silently behind me. Generals and lieutenants huddled over a map, but the moment I entered, every person in the tent hit a knee, a fist over their chest. “Daughter of Katia.”
With a deep breath, I nodded. “Thank you all. You may rise.”
Two dozen expectant faces stared back at me, some I recognized from Oxblood Outpost back in Taitha, though I couldn’t remember any names. Cal settled at my side, Kauvras fading into the crowd of faces. Nell and Whit stood among them, proud smiles on their tired faces.
Finally, my eyes landed on Commander Summercut. I beamed at him, warm relief like salve on a wound. “Glad to see you alive, Commander.”
“Not as glad as I am to see you alive, your Majesty. But, and please don’t take offense, I think what I was most glad to see was the fact that Katia’s beasts are not only a thing of legends.” A murmur of agreement sounded around the tent’s interior.
