Chapter 13

ChapterThirteen

Iwake up foggy, everything blurring around me, but I keenly notice two things. I’m not dead and I no longer smell salt in the air. I no longer hear the whipping wind of the tornado or my mate screaming in pain within it. I’m warm, lying on a cold ground, but it’s warmer than the cavern. There is a storm outside, heavy rainfall splatters against a nearby window, and thunder booms above from the clouds. I’m not in there anymore… which means the god did what I asked. I know there will be a price, but I can worry about that later. For now, I just want to hold Emerson, hug my friends, and know we are all alive.

Slowly, I open my eyes like I’m coming out of a bad nightmare, and it takes a minute for the red wallpapered walls, tiled floor and burning fireplace nearby to come into view. In front of the fire, right in front of me, is a female I’ve never seen before. She has very long black hair, falling past her waist, and she’s completely naked, curled up into a ball, her hair covering up every part of her like a blanket, and her big wide eyes meet mine as she wakes up.

I know her.

It takes me a second to realize that I’ve seen those blue eyes before, every single day in my apartment for years. It takes me a minute to accept why she looks so familiar, how this is possible, as she sits up.

“Posy?” I question with a gasp, pulling myself up. She slowly touches her face, her arms, her hair falling around like a curtain into her lap as she lifts her hands and stares at them for a long time.

“I’m… I’m not a bat anymore,” she whispers to herself in disbelief. Like she can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. “How? How did you do this, Calliophe? You said you’d save me from the curse, but I never once thought you could do it. What happened?”

She blurts out her questions as I stare at her, remembering the sea god’s promise to save them all. When I asked him to save them, he released her from her curse. Of course he did. God, what price am I going to pay for this? “I made a deal with the sea god to save you all. He took it literally.”

She laughs, and it’s the first time I’ve heard her really laugh. I chuckle with her, unable to help myself as we both burst into fits of laughter. Of joy. Of happiness. Posy is free. We both stop laughing as lightning cracks outside a nearby window, and she frowns. “Where are we?”

“The Wyern court, I think,” I say, remembering the wallpaper, but I’ve not seen this part before. It’s a random wide corridor, and we’re alone as far as I can sense. I have to find Emerson and Lorenzo, Zurine and Felix. They are going to be so happy we are out of the Conquest, alive, even if we need to figure out what price the god took. I look back at Posy. Tears fall down her face as she smiles so brightly. I move a bit closer, just wanting to comfort her, but she flinches away from me. “Sorry. I—”

She pauses before she throws herself at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck, and I hug her back, not giving a damn that she’s naked. “I’m free. I’m actually free, Calli. I owe you everything, and I’m sorry I was a bitch to you. The rest of the world deserved it, but not you.”

I chuckle, holding her tightly. “You’re free. You can live a normal, mortal life.”

She looks about the same age as me, and I know I’m immortal, but I plan on making sure she has a long, happy life. She’s very beautiful, not that I didn’t expect her to be, but it was hard to tell when she was a bat. Her voice is exactly the same as it was when she was in bat form, and she’s really short by the looks of her legs. “I didn’t expect you to be so short, Posy.”

She frowns at me. “You’re short too, and my real name isn’t Posy. Well, it’s a nickname my mother used to call me, and I guess I told you it because it was nice to hear it again.”

My eyes soften as she leans back, wrapping her arms around herself. “And I need some clothes. My ass is freezing. Fuck, I have an ass now. That’s awesome.”

I laugh. “You have a life to live now that you’re mortal and—”

“I’m not exactly—” She pauses from interrupting me as we both hear heavy footsteps coming towards us. I turn, knowing those footsteps anywhere, and my face lights up in a bright smile when I see Emerson storming down the corridor straight towards me. He is dressed as he usually is, all black clothes and his silver crown nestled in his thick black hair. A black cloak moves behind him, the corridor dark with his power, which somehow I’ve grown to enjoy. The Wyern King in all his power. Goddess, I love him, and he is alive, unhurt. The bastard has to answer for the self-sacrificing shit he pulled, but not right now. Now, I want to be his mate and just love him. We can figure everything else out later. I climb to my feet and run at him, intending to jump into his arms. But as I get close, he grabs me roughly by my shoulders and slams me into the wall, holding his forearm against my neck. I gasp in pain, my eyes widening. He growls at me. “What the fuck are you doing here, and who are you? How did you get in here? Answer me, I am the Wyern King, and fae are banned from my court.”

“What?” I whisper with a gasp. He releases the pressure of his forearm on my throat, and his eyes search my face.

“What the fuck are you doing in my castle? If you are a spy for my bastard nephew, you’re dead,” he growls, his shadows dancing around our feet. “How are you bound to my court? I can feel the connection, and I never, ever would have fucking allowed this.”

I’m in shock, unable to move or take in what this means. This can’t be real. It can’t be.

“I’m not a spy. I’m Calliophe, Emerson,” I whisper, hot tears falling down my cheeks. He leans closer, frowning at me, at my tears.

He suddenly lets me go, stepping back. “Lorenzo! Get your ass here now! Fae are not welcome in the castle, and this one has somehow sworn into the court. If you want to fuck fae, go into the city for fuck’s sake!”

Lorenzo comes running down the corridor, looking between me and Posy, suddenly shooting his head back to Posy and freezing in shock. She’s staring at Lorenzo with something unreadable but hostile in her expression as he comes to a halt a few feet away from us all. He can’t stop staring at Posy, his eyes widening before he slowly falls to his knees. “I didn’t invite them here or bring them. But she’s my mate. This mortal is mine.”

“Like fuck I am,” Posy snarls, looking at me in confusion. “Why don’t they remember us?”

“I don’t know,” I whisper, betraying my heartbreak with those three words. I don’t look away from Emerson, even as the shock of Posy and Lorenzo being mates settles in, as Posy continues to tell Lorenzo where to shove the idea of them being mates. Emerson looks right through me with hate and disgust, like he feels for most fae. I’m just another fae to him. He doesn’t know who I am. He doesn’t remember me. He doesn’t have a clue who I am.

I thought being turned into fae and losing my mortal self was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I thought I couldn’t survive anything else like that. But now I don’t feel like I can even breathe with this. I feel like I’m drowning in a bad dream, unable to stop the water from filling my lungs and pulling me under. I’m drowning in pain as the person I am completely in love with looks at me like I’m his enemy. My fated mate doesn’t remember me. That was the price for saving him, for saving them all. His memories. All of their memories. Lorenzo doesn’t know me either.

Emerson looks away from me to Lorenzo. “I don’t give a fuck who brought them here, but return them to their city while I figure out how she is in my court.”

“No,” Lorenzo snaps. “She is my mate and—”

Emerson looks at Posy. “She can’t be your mate. She’s mortal.”

“She’s my mate,” Lorenzo growls at him.

“I don’t give a shit. Take them out of here. This castle needs to be locked down. I’m having trouble remembering what recently occurred. Everything seems a blur,” Emerson snaps.

“I was coming to see you for the same thing. I just woke up in my bed, and everything makes little sense,” Lorenzo tells him. They both look at us with suspicion.

“It’s because a god took your memories,” I whisper, still in shock. “Emerson, listen to me. I’m your mate. Look at me. I’m your fated mate. We were entered into the Conquest of the Sea, and the god took your memories in exchange for saving your life. I love you—”

“Shut up, fae,” he growls at me, cutting me deep. “You’re no mate of mine. How would I ever take a fae as a mate?”

His look cuts far deeper than any dagger has ever done as he makes it clear he isn’t interested in anything I’ve got to say. He looks at Lorenzo. “Take them back to the city. That’s an order, brother.”

“They aren’t going anywhere,” Solandis’s voice echoes to us as she flies down the corridor, landing at Emerson’s side in fighting leathers, tucking her wings in tight. “No one’s leaving this castle, as Ethereal City is burning down and filled with monsters. An army of them is bleeding out of the Rift, and they are going to attack us all.”

Louie. He is coming with his army. He said he would. Oh goddess, my city is burning.

I fall to my knees, burying my head in my hands as they carry on talking. “We are saving refugees, fae, mortal, and any supernatural that can get out of the city. I’ve sent in a thousand of our army to help, and others are searching the mountains for survivors that made it that far.”

“I remember leaving you in charge of the city. But where did we go?” Emerson questions. I sense him looking at me, but I can’t focus on anything other than the pain in my chest, the hopelessness I feel.

I’ve lost Emerson.

I’ve lost the city I’ve grown up in.

Nearly all my friends don’t remember me, and Louie… goddess, Louie is some kind of monster king.

Lorenzo clears his throat. “How many are dead in the city?”

“They’ve killed thousands,” Solandis quietly answers. Devastation in her voice tells me how bad it is without even imagining it. “I wouldn’t be able to give a real number. Some of them made it to the pirate ships, but the Siren King sank every ship.”

Sickness rises in my throat. Goddess, no.

Emerson’s voice is firm. “Save any children, females, and males you can. As for these two, take them to the dungeons. As far as we know, they took our memories and they are our enemies.”

I feel weak, hopeless, and lost as I’m dragged away from Emerson.

I open my eyes one more time, meeting his purple gaze as he watches me being dragged away by his guards, Posy fighting her guard like a hellcat. “I’m not your enemy.”

He crosses his arms, and I see nothing but the cold, emotionless Wyern King in his expression. “That is to be decided, fae.”