Page 20 of Veil of Monsters

I manage a weak smile. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I feel weak. So weak. All I can do is lay my head on his shoulder. He tucks us in the surrounding blanket, laying us both down.

He holds me to him. “Rest. I’m not letting you go. Ever.”

I sleep on and off for hours until a healer comes to check on me and declares I will live and I’ve been very lucky. Emerson tells me my heart stopped a few times in the night, and he managed to make it beat again using his magic. I can tell he was scared for me. I was scared too. The only good side of this is once you have Faebane, you can’t catch it again. “How are you not sick after looking after me?”

Emerson strokes my arm. “I remember a royal healer telling me I was sick once as a very young child. Perhaps I have already had this and have a stronger immunity.”

I nibble on some biscuits that Zurine made for me. Apparently, they will help me get stronger, and thankfully, they taste like sugar. “Has there been any news of Louie and the army?”

“No,” Emerson answers. “But it is suspicious that he hasn’t made his move. His army is just outside the Junepit City, and I have given them warning to leave, but most have not. They won’t trust my warnings.”

“Idiots,” I mutter.

He smiles at me. “Part of me is tempted to attack him, even at sea, where he has control. He must die.”

I shake my head. “Louie is my responsibility, and I should be the one to end his life. It will destroy me to do it, but I have a feeling that death will be the only way to save him now.”

He kisses my forehead, breathing in my scent. “I will not let you destroy yourself for any male other than me.”

I change the subject because I can’t think about hurting Louie at all without feeling like I’m cutting up my own heart. “Why hasn’t Junepit evacuated the city just at the sight of Louie’s army?”

Emerson crosses his thick arms. “They’re not a city with a defense or a real leader. They’re weak. Weaker than they should be, and they’ll be easy to attack. That’s why he’s gone there. Goldway City has their own army defenses set up, and it will make them a harder fight. The leader of Goldway has locked down his city and is already preparing.” He looks out the window. “If Louie takes over Junepit, then that’s two of the biggest cities in this world he’ll have control of. He can imprison the millions of fae, mortals and others who live there, to turn into monsters for his army. Then he will be a bigger threat for both Goldway and us. The witches so far have sent no word on their side.”

“They have to side with us or the fae.”

Emerson raises an eyebrow. “Lorenzo is engaged to them, and we have an alliance, but they are not replying to anyone I’ve sent. I won’t send Lorenzo.”

“I have something I need to tell you,” I begin. “You’re the heir to the fae throne, but you swore not to take it from the Fae Prince. Your mother is gone and he is dead now, so it is yours. Do you want it?”

“That isn’t telling me something,” he muses, and he looks at me for more than a few seconds. In those seconds I see pain, from learning his mother is gone, but he doesn’t trust me enough to show anymore. I can’t tell him about how his mother was never a monster, not yet. “No, I’ve never wanted it.” It is his birthright, but I understand why he wouldn’t want to rule them. The fae lack many things to be desired, but he is looking after them. I suspect they already whisper about him being their king. Lying here and talking, this just feels like it’s normal between us. Like he remembers everything. Like he could trust me again, even though I know he doesn’t.

“The Fae King got a female fae pregnant,” I begin. “The baby will be your great-nephew or great-niece and an heir. If you don’t want the throne after all of this, maybe you could be his or her guardian and hold the throne until he or she comes of age?”

Emerson is quiet. “Is this your advice? To trust some fae that the baby is my nephew or niece and raise them to be a king or queen?”

I lean my head on his shoulder, pretending for just a little longer. “Yes, and there was a time there wouldn’t have been any suspicion in your voice.”

Emerson thankfully doesn’t reply. He just holds me closer, and I let myself pretend for a little longer in his arms. As soon as he is gone, Posy and I are going to Junepit City to get the demigod and to see the temple I dreamt of. We don’t have time to waste.

ChapterTwelve

PRINCESS NERELYTH MIST

“Yes, Junepit City is primed to fall, and then I will find Calliophe. Once I have what I need from her, I will kill her like you told me. I have followed your plan, even with the Siren Princess. An heir will come soon.”

I awaken in pain, the sound of Louie talking to himself echoing in my mind, but I can’t focus on what he is saying this time. The boat gently rocks along the sea, everything so calm and still except for the odd wave. My arms feel like he has broken some of the bones in them, not for the first time, and so much more of my body is screaming out at me in pain. Every night, he hurts me, and every night, I try to convince myself to hope for anything. I pray to the goddess in the stars, but she does not help me. She has condemned me to this fate, and I’m forgetting every day why I am fighting at all. I have no family left alive. Calliophe will soon die at Louie’s hand. Why fight? I have nothing. Felix is dead. My heart lurches in pain at the thought of him. I think of the final time I saw his body. I try to reach back further, to the good memories, but they are gone. The darkness has destroyed them.

I reach for the puddle of water on the boat, but my magic is still locked away and I cannot save myself. I’m not sure if I would save myself if I had my power. I’m more likely to drown myself in the sea, given half the chance. Wrapped in grey darkness, Louie talks to himself. The more he does this, the more I swear I can hear a voice reply from the shadows. It’s likely the blood loss, but I hear something now. “Destroy that city and then the final fae city. The Wyerns and Calliophe are to fall next.”

“This is the plan, my lord,” Louie answers. He sounds like a scared boy for a second.

The shadows reply in a voice that is old, male, and deadly. “Your fellow rulers are ready. I will send them to the last city to await you. Together, you will take down the rest of the world before I come back.”

Louie shakes in the shadows. Maybe they aren’t his powers at all. “Yes, my lord.”

The shadows vanish and I lie back, looking up at the stars that are not helping me anymore.

No one can save me.

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