Chapter 45

UNA

"Your father is dead." Athelyn faced me with a concerned and surprised expression. "You did not receive my message?"

I'd known this already. Somehow, I'd known. "When?" I asked. Gollaya pressed his palm to the middle of my back beneath my wings in comfort.

"Not long after I left Northgall, actually. I sent word, but we heard nothing back."

Goll rubbed his palm up my spine and back down in a soothing stroke but said nothing.

Exhaling a deep breath, I said, "We've been traveling since your visit to N?kt Mir."

A lump thickened my throat, but the tears didn't come right away. Perhaps it was because I'd been mourning his imminent death for years, or perhaps because it had been so long since I'd actually spoken to the father I knew as a young girl. The one who'd do anything for me. Even rage a war against an entire realm of dark fae.

For whatever reason, I didn't crumble at this news. Father was dead, and I needed to mourn him. I needed to see his tomb, but I must see Baelynn first. "Where's my brother?"

"In his bedchamber." Athelyn clamped his jaw and whirled. He led us through the palace, what was once my home.

Soryn and Keffa followed close but at a respectful distance behind us. We'd left the majority of the Culled in the great hall where Hava had set about organizing the servants to bring drink and refreshment.

At first, everyone simply stared in awe and shock, for the last time the wraith fae had entered was to demand their war prize and take me away as their prisoner. However, it didn't take long before the servants quickly set about doing her bidding.

I felt the eyes of the Issosian guards and servants as we passed, all of them stopping where they were, staring in wonder, and dipping their heads in respect. I knew what they were thinking. Why would the Wraith King of Northgall let his concubine return to her former home to visit her brother? Why wasn't she bound in chains, high in the palace of black glass?

They did not know him. They did not know me either. Not anymore. But soon, the world would hear of us, the King and Queen of Northgall and Lumeria. Our union would change everything. I felt it in my soul. Just as I sensed this new magick coursing through my blood.

I'd been able to sense the black essence in Ferryn because the gods had been feeding me the opposite through the two god-touched texts I'd ingested. They'd given me a different kind of sight, one that now, with the power of all three inside me, allowed me to easily weigh what and who was good and evil.

I was no longer a moon fae. I was both light and dark, a creature somewhere in between the two. And I loved it. Our child would be, too. I pressed a palm to my belly as we walked the final few steps to my brother's bedchamber. Two Issosian guards stood at the door, one of them opening the door as soon as Athelyn nodded.

I was suddenly glad Gael had abandoned my brother. Athelyn had taken his role as steward with honor. Gael would not have done. I was sure of that.

Once inside, I rushed past Athelyn to my brother's bedside. The nursemaid dipped in a curtsy then hurried away. It was strange to see him laying so still in his bed. My brother had always been a male of action, of movement.

His eyes were closed. I sat on the edge of his bed and placed a hand on his arm. "Baelynn. Can you hear me?"

His face was a sickly pale, his beautiful white hair slick with sweat around his forehead and pointed ears. When he opened his eyes, I bit my lip to keep from making a sound. They were no longer a vibrant violet like mine but swallowed almost entirely with white. The plague had worked quickly on him.

"Una?" His brow furrowed. "I must be dreaming again."

"You are not," I assured him, taking his hand in mine and pressing a kiss to it before holding it to my cheek. "I'm here, brother."

His frown deepened in concern and confusion before his gaze slid over my shoulder where I could feel Goll standing. Soryn and Keffa had remained outside the bedchamber.

"You are truly here?" His face broke into a weak smile. "He allowed you to come say goodbye?"

My heart lurched at the thought of Baelynn being on death's doorstep. The disease had progressed so quickly through him, not like it had with our father. It seemed the mutation of the virus had increased in its aggression. Thank the gods, I now had the power to cure all those afflicted.

Baelynn's gaze returned to Goll. "Thank you for allowing her to come."

"I allowed nothing." Goll brushed my shoulder gently before letting his hand fall away. "As Queen of Northgall, she can do whatever she wants."

Baelynn was frowning again, his gaze flicking between us. "What is he talking about?" he asked me. "Queen?"

I nodded and sniffed to delay the tears coming. "It is true, brother."

Then he did something I didn't expect at all. He laughed. "Now I know I'm not dreaming. Only my headstrong sister could walk into Northgall a prisoner and make herself a queen."

I laughed with him, for he'd always said I was too headstrong for my own good, and my stubbornness would get me into trouble one day.

"I've come to help you, Baelynn."

"How?"

I gusted out a breath on a laugh. "That story is too long to tell right now. I simply need you to lie still."

"I can hardly do anything else, sister."

His sarcasm didn't suit him. He had always been the hopeful one, the one determined to find a way out of any situation. He had been sure we'd somehow win the war up until the moment they were in Issos and at our gates. Even then, he tried to convince me not to sign the treaty.

Smiling at him, I pressed both my palms to the linen shirt covering his chest. I didn't need to say any words of magick to summon it forward. It was always there now, brimming to the surface. I was bursting with healing magick.

Without a word, it flowed down my arms, through my fingers, and into Baelynn. He gasped, his mouth opening wide as he arched his neck, his eyes sliding closed. He pressed a hand over one of mine. An ethereal glow of green flowed from my fingertips into his body.

When I knew it was enough—I don't know how I knew, but I did—I removed my hands. He opened his eyes, both shining bright like purple gems.

"By the gods, Una. You can make miracles happen."

"No, brother. It is the gods' work, but I can heal all those sick with the plague."

I knew that was my purpose. And as the new Queen of Northgall, it would be the wife of the wraith king who healed both the light and the dark fae. Not the Princess of Issos. Somehow, I knew that was what Goddess Elska wanted. A fae in between light and dark to heal the sick, to wipe the lands clean of this plague. To start anew.

He struggled to sit up and get out of bed, not because he seemed weak but because the nurse had tucked him so thoroughly beneath the covers. I stood quickly, and Goll helped him to stand.

"Thank you," he said gratefully, then opened his arms to me.

I fell into his embrace, sighing with relief. We hugged for a moment, and then I heard him say again, "Thank you."

I pulled out of his hold, prepared to tell him there was no need to thank me. It was why I'd come and why I'd be journeying across Lumeria and then through Northgall to heal everyone of this terrible sickness. But he wasn't looking at me. He wasn't thanking me. He was staring at my husband.

Goll dipped his head in reply and then said, "I'll give you time alone and wait outside." He brushed his hand on my back, then left quietly.

"Baelynn?"

My brother turned back to me, having watched Goll leave with that frown on his face.

"How was father in the end?" I asked.

His expression softened with sadness. "The night he died, he did say your name."

"Oh, Baelynn." My heart plummeted that I hadn't been there to say my own goodbye.

"I lied to him," he said with a quirk of his lips. "I told him you were well married to a fine house and living happily away from Issos."

I smiled. "That wasn't a lie."

He blinked quickly, worry wrinkling his brow. "It wasn't?"

I shook my head. "I am very happy."

"Thank the gods." He embraced me again. "I'm sorry you weren't here in the end. But he went peacefully."

For a moment, I wondered if I could've helped him since he'd been so far gone from the disease. It had robbed him almost entirely of his speech and his ability to even walk long ago. I suppose I'd find out how well my healing magick worked as I sought out other victims.

But then I had the sad feeling that the gods didn't want my father to live, didn't want me to heal him. My father had loved me, but he had also sent Vaylamorganalyn away when she'd only told him the truth in her vision. She'd been sent to her death in the dungeons when another king had rejected her vision as well.

Vayla had been touched by the gods to deliver her message. For that, she'd been outcast and killed. And now both of those kings were dead. I couldn't help but know—and sadly agree—that there was justice in that.

My husband and king would not ignore the gods. Just as I would not. We would embrace their guidance as we stepped onto this new path together.

I gripped my brother on his upper arms so I could look at him and wrinkled my nose. "You need a bath."

"Pardon me for being so unkempt, sister, but I thought I was on my deathbed up until a few moments ago." He smiled, some color returning to his face.

I gave his shoulders a squeeze and then walked toward the door. "I'll call up a bath for you."

"Then I'll take you to see Father."

I stopped at the door and turned to look at him, his expression having returned to the austere one I was so accustomed to.

"I'm sorry, Una. If you suffered anything because of me, because of my failures."

He still didn't understand or fully believe that I was right where I was supposed to be.

"I suffered nothing at the hands of King Goll. You can put your mind to rest."

He finally smiled, and I let him dress so I could say my final goodbye to Father.

I'd placed a cluster of primrose on my father's tomb and had been standing outside the family crypt behind the palace for quite some time. Goll stood behind me, silently waiting. Silently supporting.

I'd cried all my tears for my Papa and wiped them all with the handkerchief that was once Goll's mother's. My father was the one who started a war he shouldn't have but he'd done it out of love for his daughter. And perhaps some selfishness and prejudice of his own. He wasn't perfect. But he was my father, and I loved him.

Dusk had settled. The moon was full and bright, glistening off the high towers of the palace. It always seemed brighter here at Valla Lokkyr. Perhaps because this was where Lumera's most devoted worshipers lived.

The familiar sounds of evening in Issos surrounded me. A night lark called to its mate with a whirling cry. The chirp and buzz of the seekie flies echoed in the garden, their glowing blue lights blinking prettily. And in the near distance, the sounds of Issos itself—laughter outside a tavern, the neighing of a horse, the rattle of a cart on the cobblestone street.

"I'm sorry we didn't make it in time for your father," Goll said softly, stepping up beside me and taking my hand.

"I am, too. But I've accepted it." I looked up at him. "But that's not what I was thinking about."

He pulled me to face him, cupping my jaw gently. "Tell me."

I slid my hands beneath his heavy cloak and around his waist, pressing my body against his. "I was thinking how familiar everything is here at Valla Lokkyr, but also so foreign."

He brushed the pad of his thumb across my cheekbone. "You haven't been away that long."

"But everything has changed." I smiled, noting the intensity of his gaze. Always, those dragon eyes watched me with such care. Not with only the hunger of a mate but with tenderness, too. "I miss N?kt Mir," I admitted. "I'm ready to go home."

His mouth slid into a smile. My heart raced faster as he dipped his mouth toward mine.

"Home," he whispered against my lips. "I like hearing you call N?kt Mir ‘home.'"

"It is my home now," I confessed. "It reminds me of you. And wherever you are is my home."

At that, I held him tighter, pressing my body against his. He brushed his lips against the sliver of skin exposed above my cloak. "I can't imagine what I did to ever deserve you, but the gods better beware if they try to take you from me."

"Hush, Goll. They'll hear you and do something terrible."

He chuckled against my skin, tickling me. I laughed, too, then hummed with pleasure when his lips brushed softly, hotly up the column of my neck.

"One more day to visit with your brother, then we'll leave."

"Now you're concerned about me having quality time with my brother?" I pulled back to quirk a brow at him.

"Once I get you tucked away at home, you won't be leaving for quite some time."

The baby.

"And besides," he added soberly, "you still have some work to do before then."

"I do," I agreed, knowing we had a long road ahead before we'd be back in the comforts of N?kt Mir. The thought both invigorated and exhausted me.

But we still had tonight.

"Come," I told him, taking his hand and leading him back toward the palace. "I'd like to sleep with you in my old bedchamber."

"Will we be sleeping?"

I peered over my shoulder at him. "Not much."

He swept me up into his arms. "Point the way, my mizrah."

I loved it the most when he called me his mizrah now. A term I'd once thought equaled my enslavement was not that at all. Vix's Mizrah had been his most precious partner in life. That was what I was to Goll, and me to him.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I'd like to forget about everyone and everything else for a little while."

"I can help you forget," he rumbled in that lusciously dark voice of his, sending a tendril of heat straight to my core.

I lay my head on his chest, content that for tonight, we could tuck ourselves away from the world—from all that had happened and from all the responsibilities awaiting us. Tonight, it would be just us.