Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

SILAS

I'm not sure how much longer we can remain here before they catch up. I don't know where to take him or what to do with him. I can keep transporting him from safe haven to safe haven, but at the end of the day, they seem relentless. They want him for some reason.

But who is it that wants him? Whoever that was who sat on that throne wasn't the king. It was almost like he wasn't alive, but is that true? Was it something he did to himself to gain greater power or something someone else did to him? And it's probably what tainted Callisto. Pressing my hand against him now, I can no longer feel it. Did his own magic fend it off? Or has it given up on him?

Either way, it's good it's no longer touching him. As my hand brushes his pants, I notice something in a pocket and pull it out, looking down at the unique coin. Wasn't this what the old man gave him? But didn't Callisto hand it off to one of the king's men? Did he go back for it?

And better yet…

What's with the damn bird constantly watching us? It flew in yesterday and has stared down from the rafters ever since. Every time I look at it, it's staring right at Callisto, telling me there's something not quite natural about it. If I hadn't seen Callisto with it before the ceremony, I would have assumed it was tracking us and killed it on the spot.

Although who's to say the person on the other end of that bird is worth trusting?

Callisto is restless as he sleeps with his head on my lap, so I don't want to wake him. Instead, I reach over to my pack and pat it down until I find some parchment. I simply write: Who are you and why should I trust you? Then I roll it up and hold it out for the bird.

It stares at it for a long moment before swooping down. It lands right on Callisto's forehead. Callisto groans and his face scrunches a bit, but he doesn't wake. I slip the note into the pouch on its back, but when I reach for the other note in there, the bird pecks me with precision, eliciting blood from my hand. Pleased by the bloodshed, it flies off.

"Fucker," I mutter, wanting to know what'd been written in that letter.

"Hmm?" Callisto mumbles.

"Nothing," I say, and he immediately drifts back to sleep.

It isn't two hours later before the bird returns and flies back down to me. It lands on Callisto's head again, so I pull the letter out and unroll it. The parchment is blank until the damned bird pecks me again and rubs its beak, smeared with my blood, onto it. Letters appear then move, forming words before my eyes.

So we meet, god of death.

I hope you take good care of the fae. His fate rests in your hands, after all. You asked if you can trust me, but is there anyone you actually trust when death surrounds you?

My irritation spikes as I flip the parchment over and scribble a response.

I am not a god and you've given me nothing but nonsense. Who are you and what do you want?

All too soon the letter returns.

Bring Callisto to me and you can find out .

Clearly this person is nothing more than an irritant. I shoo the bird off without bothering to write a single thing back. I trust no one, especially someone who knows who I am. But how do they know who I am? Was it the blood the bird stole from me? Or do they have some way of knowing, like a seer?

I watch Titus settle on Callisto's chest, evidently concerned about his wellbeing.

"He's fine," I assure the white ball, but I'm honestly not positive about that. He's lost a lot of blood, and instead of being more active as the day goes on, he's become less. I slide a finger through his white hair that's stuck to his sweaty forehead. I fear I need a healer if he's going to pull through. But the king or whoever is driving him likely also knows he needs one and is probably watching all healers for any sight of him. But I have to do something. Do I follow the red bird… or do I go to those from my past?

I'm not sure where either path will lead, but I know lying here will get me nothing.

"Zepher, I need you to run a letter for me," I say as I grab my last piece of parchment and quickly write: I need a healing elixir. Please just give it to Zepher.

Hopefully, that'll keep anyone from coming with the elixir. It'd be best if I could find a healer, but they're so rare that only someone royal would have access to them, and I sure as fuck am not close to anyone in the high court or someone who'd be willing to lie to the king to help us.

Zepher takes it as I look toward the bird before deciding to not chance all of my luck on the people I'd sent Zepher to. I wave and the bird lands. Then I scribble on the parchment that I need elixir for Callisto and send it off with the hopes that someone will get something to me.

A clanging noise wakes me and when I open my eyes, I realize that Callisto is no longer on my lap. He's crawled over to Dandelion and is over there washing his wounds as the beast drinks.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I snarl.

He slowly looks over at me, like even turning his head is too much work. He really doesn't look well and I hope someone returns with elixir soon. "His wounds from these dreadful shackles are infected."

"It will eat you."

"He's too weak to," he says, face pale and head sweaty. He looks like he's over there shaking hands with death and worried about the damn beast. Of course he is. I haven't known him long, but he's already proven to be quite stubborn as he cares more for those around him than himself.

"You need to rest," I say. "I sent that weird bird off for elixir."

"He brought it back."

"You took it?" I ask, glad that someone brought us elixir so quickly. If I knew the bird was so proficient, I'd have asked for elixir much sooner.

Callisto grimaces.

Doubt sinks in as I stare at the man in disbelief. "Do not fucking tell me you gave it to that monster?" I hiss, but I don't even know why I bother to ask.

"I made him so ill with my poison," he says. "It's fine. I'm fine. I didn't need it as much as he did."

I swear… I'm going to rip my own hair out dealing with him. "You couldn't have… I don't know… cared about yourself first?"

He just sits there as he wipes at the half-dead beast that watches him with golden eyes that track Callisto with ease. "I'm fine."

"If I clean the thing up, will you go back to sleep?" I ask.

"I don't know," he says before laying his head right on the beast like he's going to nap on him. "Papa promised to give you a better life and instead I had to hurt you. You didn't mean to hurt me, you were just scared, weren't you?" he coos while using it as a damn pillow! I quickly hurry over as the thing has the balls to growl at me .

"I will behead you if you talk shit to me," I threaten as I gather Callisto up in my arms and hurry him back to the bed. "I can't believe you."

I quickly look for the bird, but of course it's gone.

"Did you send the bird away?"

"I don't remember," he mumbles before closing his eyes.

I glower at Dandelion, even though he wasn't the one who took the elixir from Callisto. Even so, I'm still irritated by it.

For half the day, I'm left waiting for the red bird to return, but it never does. Did it decide to take a fucking nap when I needed it the most? Or maybe he assumed that Callisto took the medicine and never fathomed he gave it all to some monster.

Hearing something, I still and turn to the door. I listen for a moment, but I can already tell who it is by the way I can hear birds singing wildly outside the barn. The door opens and Madden nearly skips in.

"Oh, my beautiful Silas, I have brought what you have requested," he says as he rushes in and grimaces when he sees Callisto. "I had a feeling it would be something like this. I couldn't fathom you getting hurt."

"You brought the elixir?" I ask.

"I did," he says as he pulls the vial out of his pants and holds it out to me with a beaming smile on his face. I take it before apprehensively staring at it and passing it back to him.

"Take a drink of it," I urge.

His smile falters a little before returning with a vengeance. "Oh, but you see, I am not sick. Only sickly in lust with you."

"Just a sip will do," I say as I take it from him and pull the cork out. "Go on."

"I mustn't. I am… not worthy."

"I'm not poisoning him," I growl.

Madden's smile falls to a scowl. "I've never seen you so unreasonable. Please, tell me why you should help the prince of that wretched kingdom?"

"The war is over, Madden. This man has done nothing. While the war went on, he was nothing more than a royal child sitting in his castle having no damn idea why it was fought."

He laughs. "You'd like me to believe the fae have done nothing? All they've done…"

I slam my hand over his mouth and listen carefully as my instincts tell me that something is wrong. "You sense that?"

Madden removes my hand with a huff. "I do not," he says before he closes his eyes, likely seeing what the birds outside are observing. "There's an army of undead rising out of the ground. I can see that there's a necromancer near and at least fifty living soldiers with them. You can handle it."

"Possibly, but from here, I can't tell who they are. You know I can do nothing against the undead. We have to run," I mutter. "Where is Zepher?"

"Last I saw, she was getting a belly rub from Naledi."

"You have to be fucking kidding me," I growl as I rush over to the stacked straw bales and start throwing them. "You're going to cover us back up."

"But then where will I go?" he whines.

"They're not looking for you, so you can go anywhere! Just… get out of here before you get mixed up in this shit. I am well aware that this is my issue that I've stuffed my nose right into. Just jump on whatever you rode here and hurry off."

"B-But the wild horse I rode here ran off!"

"Fine, take Banks," I say. "Zepher will meet us on the other side."

"You know your mule hates me."

"He will listen to you if I order him to. Now help."

"I'm helping! I'm helping!" he whines. "Just hand the prince over and wash your hands of it. They might even reward you handsomely. Silas, there's no sense in you getting hurt for a fae ."

I quickly pull up the wooden trapdoor that'd been hidden beneath the straw.

"What are you going to do with that ?" Madden asks as he points at the beast.

"Can you talk to it?"

"He doesn't seem interested in listening," he says as the beast growls at him just for looking its way.

"I'm not surprised. Fuck," I hiss as I rush over and release the chains on its legs. "I will kill you if you even look at me wrong. Get down in the hole."

I give him a shove to get him up, which he does after he snarls at me. He takes a moment to get his stiff legs working, but once he starts walking, he seems to pick up the pace and drops down into the hole with ease. Then I grab Banks's reins and set them in Madden's hands to make it clear that he's to go with Madden. Taking the smaller bag of essentials and my own sword off his saddle, I turn to Madden.

"Cover us," I say.

"I will! I will! But you owe me. You owe me so much, Silas. Like… naked owe."

"Fuck off. I'll… owe you something else. Something normal." I scoop the prince up when Madden throws something at me. Startled, I catch it and realize it's a different vial. "This is actually a healing elixir?"

He gives me a nonchalant shrug. "I brought it in case it was actually you or Banks who were hurt."

I stare at the man for a moment. "You promise me?"

"Sadly. You just like him because he's cute. But I am also cute," he pouts as he shoves me toward the hole. I drop down into it with Callisto in my arms and just like that, the hole is closed over. I hear the sound of the straw bales being stacked back on top as I turn to the darkness.

I can't see anything, but I can hear the clank of the shackles on Dandelion's legs as he walks, and I start after him.

"W-What's happening?" Callisto whispers as I use my teeth to pop open the vial. I sniff it before putting a touch on my own tongue. I don't taste or smell poison, though that doesn't mean it's not… but Madden would have to know I'd try it and he wouldn't chance my death… right?

Dammit, Madden… why are you difficult?

"I can't be poisoned," Callisto mutters, making me realize that he heard more than I realized.

"What?"

"Even if it is poison… I can't be poisoned… I'm made of poison," he says before reaching for the vial.

"I am not letting you touch this. You will fling it in that fucking monster's mouth," I growl as I set it against his lips while hoping that he's not lying to me. He swallows it as I wait.

"It was definitely poisoned," he says.

"Are you joking?"

Callisto gives me a soft chuckle. "I am. I just saw how handsome that man was and thought I'd never have a chance if I didn't make him out to be the bad guy."

"Don't worry about Madden," I mutter as I try to keep him as tucked against me as I can so he doesn't end up scraped on the walls. I really should have grabbed some kind of light source off Banks's saddlebag before sending him on his way, but juggling Callisto and keeping my hand ready for my sword is more than enough.

"What if I was an asshole?" Callisto murmurs from where he's tucked in my arms.

"I don't see how you could be," I say as I hurry down the path while wishing there was some kind of light source my eyes could get adjusted to.

"I might be. I might be worse than an asshole. I might be like… a huge asshole. Like… you might hate me asshole levels of asshole," he mumbles.

"I feel like you're just deliriously rambling at this point," I say as I heft him up higher.

"I could be like… pure evil."

"I've seen pure evil, and let me assure you that you're nowhere close to it," I promise him.

"It's really dark," he mutters. "I can't see your face."

"You don't need to see my face," I assure him as I slam my shoulder into the stone, but at least it wasn't his head. I could try to put him on my back, but the ceiling is so low that if he lifted his head, I think I'd smash his head on it.

"Yeah, but I want to see your face to tell if you're like ‘Wow yeah, I bet he really is an evil asshole' or something."

Callisto flails around for a bit before I hear something. I halt, startled by the noise before light suddenly blooms all around me. A peculiar vine has worked its way down the hidden tunnel with little flowers that let off a soft iridescent glow as they bloom. While it's not bright, I can now see where I'm going.

While I'm transfixed by the unusual and oddly beautiful light, he's staring at my shoulder. "You got hurt."

"I scraped it. It's fine."

"I'm sorry. Please put me down so I can walk and you won't get hurt." He looks extremely distraught over this.

"You are ridiculous," I decide as I keep walking. He's over here half dead, bloody, and concerned about my shoulder that can't have more than a scratch on it.

He murmurs something else about being put down because I'm "wounded" before dozing in my arms. Even if I did put him down, it's pretty clear he'd just nap on the cold, dark floor.

The tunnel is long enough that my arms start to ache from his weight, but I keep him held close, following Dandelion the entire time as Titus flutters anxiously around Callisto's head.

When Dandelion finally stops, I look up, thrilled to see we're at the end of the tunnel.

I have to slide past the creature to open the door, which isn't something I'm thrilled about doing. I hoist Callisto up as I pull the sword by my side free and aim it at the creature. Hopefully, he's smart enough to realize that means I will kill him if he even considers crossing me.

"Move over," I say as I try to push on him since he's taking up most of the path.

He growls and gnashes his fangs at me.

I glance down to make sure Callisto is still asleep before I step closer to him. "Do not test me. Do not think that I'm so dumb as to keep something around that I am not confident I can kill," I snarl.

He hesitates before lowering his head as the lights from the plants Callisto had brought out flicker before dimming. Dandelion keeps growling, but this time, he lowers himself to the ground and tucks his head away from me, letting me pass.

The lights return and I start past the beast.

"I don't know your level of intelligence, monster, and whether or not you can understand me, but I would think hard about your life. The only reason you are not currently being beaten, starved, and tortured is because of him. When I open that door, you are free to run, and I hope you do. Out there, though, you don't have him to pamper you, give you medicine, and clean your wounds. But by all means, the freedom is yours."

Setting Callisto down, I release the trapdoor and push it up before I pick Callisto up and gently guide him through. The jostling must wake him because when I crawl out, he looks over at me.

"Where are we?"

"Still on the run."

He points at the red bird waiting for us in the windowsill of the shed we're now in. "Follow the red bird."

"And where will the red bird lead us?"

"Somewhere safe," he murmurs, sounding drowsy.

"And you trust the man behind this bird, why?"

"Because he saved my life… and I owe him my life," he says.

"I have also saved your life," I inform him.

"Then I suppose I owe you too."

"Then who do you trust more? Because I do not overly like that red bird."

He's quiet for a moment before his eyes glance over at Dandelion who heaves himself out of the hole looking as healthy as can be. He seems to be doing significantly better, telling me that Callisto's poison has finally left him, pushed away by the medicine Callisto gave him.

"Dandelion!" he says, looking thrilled as he reaches out to him. "Baby, you're okay. Papa's so happy you're okay."

"You are ridiculous," I decide. "Fine. We'll follow the red bird, but don't make me regret it."

"Of course not," he says as I slip out of the shed. And when I leave the door open, Dandelion doesn't run.

The issue now is…

Where the fuck is Zepher?