16. Vale

Chapter 16

Vale

T he light of the moon glinted off the silver blade poised to strike, the tip coated in the thick scarlet of my blood. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as a single drop splashed onto the pale coverlet, the fabric soaking up the blood like it was starved for it.

"Run," Rune shouted inside my head, his voice so much fainter than it had been before. "Run before I lose hold on him."

But I was nearly frozen, too. The shock of someone being here, of someone attacking me in the one place I'd thought I was safe, muddling my head. Or maybe it was what I'd been stabbed with. My blood sizzled and popped on the raised dagger as time seemed to slow to a crawl.

Lumentium.

The blade was poison, and I'd already been wounded. It was nothing like the rocks I'd used to hold, letting them gouge my palms to hold my power in. I could barely breathe through the pain, as the shock and agony stole my senses. And yet, despite the magic-killing effects of the metal, I still felt power rise in the air, bombarding my senses as my brain finally caught up.

My left arm was useless, but I managed to roll away, the covers tangling around my legs as I fell out of the bed. Then I understood. Rune was doing this, keeping my attacker still so I could run, and he was using magic to do it.

Landing in a heap on the freezing floor, I scrambled to standing, but my limbs were sluggish and slow, my thoughts fuzzy.

My attacker was shrouded in shadow, his head hidden by a black cloak. Thick gloves encased his hands, likely why he could wield the blade at all. So many in Festia were magic born, and that blade could and should hurt him just like it was hurting me.

"I'm losing my hold on him, my Queen. You have to run."

But I didn't know where I was supposed to run or what would happen if I didn't run fast enough. I tried calling on the power that rested underneath my skin, drawing on the gifts I'd been given by Rune as well.

As soon as Rune's power failed, he would come after me, I needed to fight, to hurt him before he hurt me.

Didn't I?

"No, my Queen. You have to run. Get to the dragons. They can protect you."

A fat lot of good they'd be, considering I had no idea where they were. Still, I took his advice, racing for the door of the bedchamber like my life depended on it.

The magic in the room seemed to snap against my skin, and the world sped up. My feet were no longer stuck in molasses, which I couldn't help but think was a very bad thing. Before I could get to the door, a hand closed over my injured shoulder, bringing me to my knees. He pressed his thumb into the gaping hole of my wound, and white-hot agony raced down my spine. A strangled scream wrenched from my throat, and I kicked out, connecting with his knee. The squelch of the joint dislocating was music to my ears as hot tears raced down my cheeks.

"Get up. You have to get up, my Queen."

Couldn't he tell I was trying?

Blood poured from the cut, soaking my nightgown, dripping down my arm, and I slipped in the puddle it made. Gasping, I managed to crawl forward before climbing to my feet. The door to the bedchamber slammed open, and I had a shining moment of hope for a split second. Then the looming figure yanked a dagger from the sheath at his hip.

He was on me in an instant, dagger raised, his steps so fast it was a blur. Blind fear and a spike of rage ignited in my belly, and a wave of light erupted from my wound as a scream raced up my throat. Power flew from me as if yanked by an unseen force, a bolt of magic tearing him in two.

Blood and viscera fell to the slick floor and my bile rose. My skin steamed in the cold room as exhaustion weakened my limbs, and I nearly fell in the puddle of what once was one of my attackers. But that power didn't quit, it still poured from the wound, turning the scarlet blood golden as it dripped from my fingers to the floor.

It boiled against the cold stone, bubbling and popping as if my whole body was on fire. I wanted to run—I should have run—but there was another man in the room. If I left, he could escape, and then we'd never know who he was or why he wanted to kill me in my bed.

Rune roared his protest, his words rattling my skull as his voice got so much stronger than it was before. "I'm coming to you. You must get to the balcony. Now."

But I needed to know. Lunging forward, I latched onto his thick hood, ripping it off his head, the light pouring from my still-bleeding wound illuminating his face. Dead, milky eyes stared right through me so at odds with his youthful face and full cheeks. He was just a boy, barely a man, and yet the person staring out of those eyes was ancient.

Slowly, he bent his injured leg back the right way before pulling it under him. There was no emotion, no cry of pain, nothing. If his skin wasn't pink with strain, I would have thought he was a revenant back from the dead.

Black magic flickered around his head, weaving through his hair and twisting into his ears and nose. He didn't so much as flinch as it slithered like a snake into his mouth, and then a dark, husky laugh vibrated from his chest.

"There is nowhere safe for you, little Luxa," he rumbled, his voice as if a chorus of men were talking at the same time. "We will end you and your whole line."

Not a revenant, but something else. I had no idea what kind of black magic was in his blood, and I wanted no part of it.

His hand tightened on the blade, telling me it was high time I actually listened to Rune before it was too late. Instead of running through the scattered body parts to the door, I changed course, heading for the paned glass doors that led to a private balcony I hadn't inspected yet.

The door rattled as I slammed into it, my bloody fingers slipping on the lock as I tried to open the damn thing. Then those hard hands closed over my shoulders, and he drew me away only to lift me up and toss me through the glass.

Shards cut through my skin as I landed on the stone balcony, the bitter winter wind tearing into me worse than the glass. Air left my lungs, the sound died in my ears, and through it all, my heart thundered as light poured from every brand-new cut.

A dark cackle tipped from blackened lips, as he yanked me from the ground, his fist tangled in the front of my nightdress.

"Everyone said you were so tough, so powerful, so protected. But how much could you mean to the king if he left you unguarded?" His head tilted to the side as he brought the dagger to my throat, the poisoned metal burning me with every second it rested against my skin.

"The curse will remain unbroken. No Luxa will unchain the beast. You will die like all the witches before you, and when your sister comes of age, we'll kill her, too."

Time seemed to stop again, but this time I knew it wasn't Rune's magic at all.

The only people who knew about Nyrah were Kian and Xavier, and Rune couldn't tell anyone. I didn't think Kian or Xavier would betray me that way, so no one could know about her unless…

Someone from the castle talked to the guild. Nyrah was in danger. Rage mottled my vision, blinding me as a roar shook the very foundations of the castle. But that sound only echoed what was pouring from my own lungs. The glaring light poured from my skin as a dome of power shoved him back.

A coppery tang filled my mouth, but I didn't care. No one threatened my sister and lived.

No one.

"Stop, Vale," Rune snarled, his words punctuated by his very real and very close roar that rattled my chest.

I glanced at the nearby turret, not as fazed as I should have been that there was a giant red dragon perched on it not fifty feet away. Fire rose in his throat, and I fought off the urge to scream.

"Let me end him before you burn yourself to dust."

"Not before I can question him," I hissed, ignoring the blood dripping from my hands, my nose, the cuts in my legs. Pain tried and failed to make itself known, but all I cared about was finding out who sent this poor excuse for a puppet to kill me and what connection they had with the guild.

My would-be assassin's magic flickered against mine as he stared beyond me. The black surrounding his head sputtered as light returned to his eyes for a moment. The milky haze left his irises for a solid second as he stared at the dragon, his mouth agape.

Rune's roar thundered through the air, deafening me as my own magic flickered. The milky cast to my assassin's eyes clouded his vision once more, and he bared his blackened teeth at Rune. Then he turned on his heel and ran, darting through the broken doors.

I moved to follow—except every bit of strength I'd been relying on seemed to leave me at once. Glass cut into my palms as I fell to my knees, gasping as the air seemed to thicken in my lungs.

But for Nyrah, I would move forward.

Crawling, I trudged on, allowing the glass to slice into me if it meant that he wouldn't get away.

"Stop, my Queen. Please stop."

"I-I can't. He knows about Nyrah. I have to catch him."

I barely made it inside when the double doors to my quarters burst open, blue fiery magic coating the floor and the walls, stopping my assassin in his tracks.

Three figures darkened the door, as Kian, Xavier, and Freya stood in his path. Sighing in relief that was way more of a whimper than I would have liked, I fell to my hip on the cold tile, praying they got the answers I needed.

They raised their weapons to strike, but before they could take his head or I could tell them to stop, the assassin plunged that poisoned dagger into his own throat and ripped it wide. He was dead before he hit the floor.

"No," I whimpered, sliding in my own blood as I collapsed on the glass-covered ground. A wet cough racked my body as a bitter pain settled into my very bones.

The world around me darkened, my light sputtering, dying. Shadows surrounded me as their shouts faded away to nothing.

My eyelids closed.

My breathing stopped.

My heart…

It was as if lightning was striking my chest.

White-hot fire dug its fingers into every part of me, through my middle, down my limbs, through my head. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out—or at least no sound I could hear. It felt as though I was under water, begging for air as I suffocated on the coppery blood in my mouth.

I wanted to open my eyes, wanted to yell at them to stop, but I was locked away inside my mind as pain ravaged me. The blackness fell away, and a faint flickering of firelight drew me from the darkness.

"We have got to stop meeting like this," Idris said, his dark chuckle mirthless as he knelt at my side on the floor. Glass was everywhere, and I was just as bloody as I'd been before, but this was different.

"Am I dreaming this time, or am I dead?"

Gentle hands pulled me from the cold ground, their warmth soothing as another wave of pain rocked through my body. I tried to relax into them, but it hurt too much.

"Neither, my brave one. At least not yet."

Understanding dawned. "They're trying to save me—trying to keep me alive. For you."

Because that was the only reason I was here, wasn't it? To survive, to endure, to break a curse when I didn't even know magic. To hide away in my corner of the castle waiting to be used like a weapon.

"Not for me. For you. They refused to watch you die, and I cannot blame them. You are too precious to lose."

And despite his warmth easing some of my pain, I still ripped my hand out of his. "Is that why you left me unprotected? Unguarded? Why you allowed someone to come into my room and try to kill me in my sleep?" My laugh was mirthless. "No wonder every Luxa dies as soon as they come here. You couldn't care about us if you tried."

"I didn ? —"

"How many of us were there?" I hissed, despair crawling up my chest. "A hundred? A thousand? Two hundred years and no one survived?"

"Fifty-one. Not including yourself." His golden eyes flashed with pain as he reached for me. "I remember all of their names. Every. One."

His warmth surrounded me as another wave of agony shuddered through me. "And you were not unprotected. Your guards were murdered, killed defending you with their last breath."

But where was he?

Where was Kian or Xavier or even Freya?

Why was I all alone?

"It's not their fault. They were trying to ease some of my jealousy by staying away from you."

And that made it worse. "You made them take me here and then abandon me? The only people I trusted to watch my back, and you rip them away, for what? If you wanted me so much, then where were you? Am I just a toy to you? Something you only want when someone else is playing with me?"

The ache in my chest had nothing to do with the healing, and everything to do with Idris.

"No, Vale. I didn't ask them to abandon you. I didn—" Firming his mouth, he plucked me off the cold ground, pulling me to his chest. Fiery warmth filled my body, easing the worst of the pain.

Some of my ire melted with the relief, but not all of it.

"I didn't expect you to affect me like you do." The admission thawed me more. "My magic—it reacts to you, and my mind is scrambling to keep up. In the council chambers, you were so easily hurt, and ? —"

He shook his head, those golden eyes pleading for forgiveness. "I didn't know if it was my magic changing you or if it was them. I just wanted you to heal. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I ? —"

I placed a calming hand over his mouth, gently shushing him as I rested my forehead against his. I had to stop thinking the worst of him. It was getting us nowhere.

"I misunderstood you. I'm sorry."

He pulled away, his face stricken. "No, Vale. I'm sorry. You-you're hurt because I could not protect you."

While that was true, I didn't believe it was his fault—not anymore.

"I will make this right. I swear to you."

His voice faded as the light from the moon fell away. Darkness surrounded me, but his warmth remained.

"You will be protected. I promise."

Sweet words.

But he could only live up to them if I survived.