Page 154 of A Cage of Crystal

No pulse.

He was…

Teryn.

The sound was felt more than heard. It sent a shudder through him, sent awareness through every inch of his ethera. From somewhere deep inside his soul, a heavy thud echoed.

He glanced at his body, saw Cora’s lips beside his ear. Tears trickled down her face. A single drop fell upon his cheek. Something buzzed against the same spot on his ethera.

Teryn.

Another echoing beat. A thud that hammered in his chest.

“There’s still so much more for us to do,” Cora whispered. “So much more I need to tell you. I’m not done with you yet. Do you hear me? You promised to court me. Remember? I won’t let you break that promise.”

A thud.

A pulse.

A breath.

“Come back to me, Teryn.”

A rushing intake of air.

61

Dawn broke over the horizon, and with it came a summer storm. Cora didn’t know if she had fate or magic to thank for the rain. She had prayed for it. Had sought the element of water with all her heart, begging every blade of grass to lend the meadow its dew, begging the clouds to converge if only for a day. Because rain was exactly what they needed.

Rain to stop the flames from devouring more of the tents, more of the meadow, more of the trees.

Rain to drench the earth where a mangled body had long since burned to ash, where two kings, two lords, and four animals had been laid to rest on a makeshift pyre of lantern oil and crushed wildflowers. It was the only dignity Cora and her companions could deliver those who’d died to become a Roizan. At least no one else would have to witness what had been done to them.

From under the shelter of a wide pine where the fire had yet to spread, Cora watched the downpour. Rain devoured the last remnants of the flames, leaving what had once been Cora’s favorite location scarred with scorch marks and the skeletons of half-eaten tents.

“This is the best I can do.” Larylis’ voice pulled her focus from the meadow. She glanced down at where he crouched beside Teryn. He’d constructed a pallet of canvas tied to two beams of wood—materials that had been salvaged from one of the unburned tents.

Her eyes lingered on Teryn’s slack face, his hollow cheekbones. It broke her heart to see him this way.

But at least he was alive.

He’d taken a breath in her arms, muttered something she couldn’t understand. Since then, his breathing had remained steady, his heartbeat strong. He needed medical attention and rest, but Cora had hope. She’d cling to it. Tether it to her heart and carry it herself if she must.

But she wasn’t alone. Larylis carried the hope with her, and she suspected Mareleau did too.

“Are you ready?” Larylis asked, glancing from Cora to Mareleau. The latter sat at the other side of the tree trunk, hugging her knees to her chest. Ann, Sera, and Breah hovered around her. Larylis had found the three ladies not long ago, when Cora and her companions carried Teryn under the tree to keep him out of the rain. They’d been hiding at the base of Cora’s favorite cliff, trembling, hardly able to say a word. Now they stared sightlessly ahead, arms linked as if desperate for the comfort of another’s flesh.

Larylis rounded the tree and kneeled before his wife. Placing a hand under her chin, he gently lifted her eyes to his. “We must get Teryn back to the castle. We can’t wait for your father’s retinue to find us.”

Mareleau flinched at the mention of her father, her eyes darting toward the charred field. “We’re all that’s left,” she whispered.

Cora’s chest tightened. While Cora had been able to smother her pain, tamping it down beneath a cool blanket of logic, Mareleau’s composure seemed to be clinging to frayed edges. But Mareleau was right. They were all that was left. Not just of the camp, though that was certainly true. Larylis had scouted the area and found no other survivors. He’d located the bodies of two guards in the meadow, both mutilated by the Roizan. In a nearby clearing, he’d found more signs of slaughter—claw marks in the earth, on trees. Blood. Bones. Empty saddles drenched in gore. When Morkai had created his Roizan, he must have let it feed on the witnesses, the councilmen, servants, and horses he’d brought on the hunt.

But Cora was certain Mareleau meant something else—that Cora, Mareleau, Larylis, and Teryn were all that was left to rule their kingdoms. Verdian was gone. Dimetreus too. King Arlous had been the first to perish, at Centerpointe Rock.

It was daunting to think that Menah, Selay, and Khero now lay in their hands.

Mareleau’s eyes were wide and haunted as she reached for Larylis, clinging to the bloodstained collar of his shirt. Cora had bound his wounds as best she could, but he’d need medical attention too. “What will we do?” Mareleau asked.

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