Page 76 of The Broken Elf King
Raife held a hand over her head and squinted as if he were reading a complicated text. He frowned, and then nodded as if understanding something.
“What is it?” I asked.
Raife looked at my aunt instead of me. “Your seizures are caused by a growth in your brain. As the growth gets bigger, it damages the surrounding tissue.”
My heart felt like it had stopped beating. In all our tests and all of our machines here in Nightfall, we hadn’t figured that out. “A mystery illness” they called it. Seizure disorder of “unknown cause,” they’d said. They drugged her instead of finding the root cause, and now in ten seconds Raife had figured it all out.
“Please tell me you can fix it.” I knelt beside him and took her hand.
Raife gazed at me with a smile, and then at my aunt. “I can. It will take a few sessions at the infirmary in Archmere. The goal is to slowly shrink the mass. If we do it too quickly, it can disturb things and cause another seizure. With the mass gone, you should get full facial movement back immediately.”
I’d been watching my aunt this entire time, stony faced, in shock, but at Raife’s words she burst into tears and then pulled him in for a hug.
“Bless you, child,” she whispered and I smiled.
Watching my auntie call the king of the elves a child brought me great joy. And to my surprise, Raife reached around and returned her hug.
When they pulled back, my aunt looked back at me. “You got married without me?” She picked up my hand and inspected the ring. Raife had given it back to me so that the palace staff didn’t ask questions if I was seen without it.
I glanced at Raife and he nodded. I’d told him that I could lie to anyone in the realm but I wouldn’t lie to my aunt, so she would be the only person we would tell.
“It’s fake. In order for Raife to get what he wanted from his council and to pay off my debt. In five years, we will file for a dissolution,” I told her.
She frowned, looking from Raife to me. “Oh,” was all she said, dropping the ring back down.
“Naturally, no one knows that, so I would appreciate your discretion,” Raife added.
My aunt nodded. “As long as you treat her with respect and kindness, I don’t care what kind of little arrangement you two have going on.”
I squeezed her hand, grateful she was taking this well and knowing one hundred percent that she was lying when she said she didn’t care. She wanted me to marry for love—she’d always told me so—but she was trying to be agreeable. Raife sensed the lie too, because he made the face he always did when he knew someone was lying. Like he smelled something distasteful.
“Shall we get out of the place?” I asked my aunt.
She stood, looking around her room. “How long should I pack for?”
Raife and I shared another look. The war on Nightfall was his thing, and I didn’t want to spill the beans and jeopardize the mission in any way.
Raife cleared his throat. “It would be my honor if you would come live at the palace with Kailani and I for the foreseeable future.”
My heart warmed at the way he’d worded it. My aunt seemed surprised at that, her mouth popping open, and then she looked at me as if needing confirmation.
“Auntie, you can’t come back. You can only pack one bag,” I told her, hoping she understood I would never ask this if it wasn’t important. Life or death.
She swallowed hard, seeming to understand that it would be unsafe to come back, and unsafe meant war.
My aunt nodded. “Doesn’t matter. Stuff doesn’t make a home. Family does.”
My heart pinched at that.
Over the next ten minutes she packed her bag, bringing items that surprised me. All of her silver, which made sense, but not a single piece of clothing, I guessed because she could make more; she was an expert seamstress. She brought her favorite tea mug, a bunch of my baby pictures, and pictures with my mom and her growing up, all of her jewelry, and a bag of her favorite cookies.
“Ready.” She beamed, always in a chipper mood, and I tried not to react to the fact that half of her face wasn’t moving. Raife gave me a sweet smile, letting me know he would heal her and all would be well, and then we moved to the front door. I gave my aunt a quick rundown of the escape route, knowing that lowering her down the ladder and into the tunnel would take the longest time and we’d be the most exposed.
“The guards patrol right in front of the tavern. It’s a bit longer route but we should pass the industrial complex instead,” my aunt offered after I told her we were confronted with a guard on our way here.
Raife looked to me to take the lead and I nodded. It was a good idea. The industrial complex was only busy in the daytime, and rarely had but one guard at night. I used to sneak over there as a teen and shoot at glass bottle targets with friends with our rock launchers we made in school.
“Let’s do it,” I agreed.
