Page 199 of Salt in the Seas
He was taking liberties with Enla’s visions, not having been able to see them for himself, not knowing what deaths she’d predicted. Perhaps by telling him their dire circumstances, she’d changed the outcome herself, sending him on this trajectory to stand up to their father. Perhaps this was the path that could change the outcome.
Because Gaeren had to believe there was at least one.
He refused to accept that death was in all of their immediate futures.
Gaeren was shoved to the side as healers came forward. Council members spread out in small clusters, gossiping and murmuring over the news Gaeren had just shared. His father, however, didn’t move. He studied Gaeren, and time stilled. How could his father, the king, be so unfeeling as to sit there and take in that announcement without any reaction?
“Please, Father,” he begged, “do the right thing.”
They stared at each other long enough that all hope fled Gaeren. How could he get Enla out of here to safety? He would not let this be the end for her. He would not let the sprite’s prediction be true.
“Leave us.” His father’s voice carried over the commotion. “All but Enla, Gaeren, and my wife.”
Tobias hesitated, but Gaeren’s mother shooed him out of the room. “There’s nothing we can do for her anyway.”
Gaeren frowned. It wasn’t like his mother to turn away a healer. She was docile enough to obey anything his father said unless it involved the healers. The only other time she’d refused them had been last winter, when they’d been sick before Gaeren had left to hunt down Aeliana.
When she’d been branded.
Dread pooled inside of him as the room emptied. He bent down to the makeshift bed the healers had put together from tables and cushions and reached for Enla. They needed to leave.
His mother’s hand shot out and gripped his wrist. “No, dear. She needs to stay here and rest.” Confidence in his mother’s words swept over him. A certainty that she was right and that all would be well if he simply let Enla rest. It hit him with such force that his starlock burned as his automatic defenses went up.
She was using her magic on him.
He pulled his hand away and shook his head to clear it, but the sensation that he agreed was far too strong.
Beneath his outward contentment, he sensed an inward turmoil trying to escape. He felt secure with his parents, like they would care for Enla and protect them both from the incoming danger, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t true.
And if anything, the opposing sensation caused a crack in the peace enveloping him. His starlock burned as he latched on to that dissonance and pulled it forward to the surface. He shook off his mother’s hand.
“Why are you doing this?” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to separate out the emotions, to discern what was real and what was fabricated by her magic. But it left him sluggish.
When he opened his eyes, his father stood before him, the rage on his face far more than a father disciplining his son. Even a somatic progeny who had often let his anger get the best of him during Gaeren’s childhood. This held a loathing that came from someone else.
“You’ve been branded again.” Gaeren’s ragged whisper held the weight of his defeat.
His father’s lip lifted in a sneer. “You always were slow to catch onto the ways of the world.” His father’s hand rose, and Gaeren flinched from years of habit.
Whether it was an act of mercy or efficiency, Gaeren’s mind went black before he felt the force of the blow.
CHAPTER 77
When Aeliana reachedthe swampy clearing she’d instructed Durriken to meet her in, she grew anxious at how empty it was. Scanning the skies for the dragon’s large frame revealed nothing. She closed her eyes and reached out along the string connecting them until she sensed his approach from both her place in the clearing and from his place in the sky.
The powerful beat of his wings gave her hope and confidence as he neared. But when her presence in his mind eventually allowed her a glimpse of herself waiting in the swamp, the strangeness of it made her hold on their tether snap. She stepped back with the force of it, and her vision cleared until she saw Durriken headed straight for her. Surprised by her own trust, she stood firm as he landed beside her, even though the air that rushed from his wings knocked her to her backside.
It dawned on her that this was the first time they’d seen each other since that night in the Myndren Mountains. All their experiences had been through the brand that connected them, and the magnificence of both his size and beauty left her startled. But they didn’t have time to relish their greeting.
You’re afraid.The deep rumble that met her mind held concern and curiosity.
“Mayvus is back.”
The growl that came held a fierceness that warmed Aeliana. She and Gaeren would not be facing Mayvus alone.
“We can’t go to the witches like we planned. Not now. She’ll be coming to the palace and going after my mother. Maybe the royal family.” She thought of the strange note Felk had carried from Orra. “Maybe me.”
Those last two words made Durriken stiffen.
