Page 66 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
Right as my next blade impaled it between the eyes.
I didn’t know how I’d used Noctis’s power through the Blood Tie. But I didn’t care at that moment. I replayed the memory in my mind as I dragged Noctis through the forest, trying to feel the energy in my veins. Not because I cared to feel the power but because Ineededto save him.
Noctis’s heavy body became difficult to maneuver, and I begged for his power to flow through me just so I could get him to help on the breeze quicker. If the gods allowed that one favor, I could live the rest of my life powerless in reciprocation.
His skin felt on the distant edge of a lonely winter, but his heart still faintly beat, reminding me that he fought against his demise. When my body physically protested pulling him through the brush of the forest floor, I checked his breathing, waiting for the color to rush back to his face. It didn’t. Then, I continued trying to get him to someone—to safety outside the canopies of the trees.
My own body followed suit with him, each step weighted down in lethargy.
The villages illuminated the night sky, casting a soft glow that sprinkled across the land like stars. In different circumstances, I would have been mesmerized by nature's beauty in the Aetherkin Bound. I would have envied the peace that emanated there. Instead, I pushed myself harder to drag my unconscious Blood Tie into that same peace, knowing it would stir up an uncommon amount of disarray.
I was so close. But I was also so close to just falling over and decaying in the foliage alongside Noctis.
We finally reached the edge of the cobblestone road, and I screamed for help, roaring in the empty air. Begged for anyone to save him. Tears streamed down my face. My body trembled with exhaustion, every muscle fighting against me, yet I clawed desperately at his lifeless form, dragging him inch by inch through the dark. My breath came in ragged gasps, my hands slick with sweat and blood—his or mine, I couldn’t tell.
I couldn’t leave him.
Out of the silence, a hand closed around my wrist. I froze. The touch was firm, deliberate. My heart stuttered. For a moment, the night held its breath with me.
“Let me.” Finnegan whispered softly, and Noctis’s body rose by magic, hovering slightly above the ground.
I nodded, nearly falling to my knees in a plea of desperation.
“I came to check on you both, but I didn’t expect to find this.”
“Save him,” I begged, the words leaving in a breathy whisper.
Finnegan turned and stalked toward the center of the village, Noctis’s body trailing behind. I pushed myself to keep up, but the surge of relief shook my already wobbling knees.
He stopped before a cozy cabin, smoke billowing from the chimney, and walked right in. I always seemed to find charm during maelstrom, dismissing all opportunities to enjoy. I barely noticed the other council members sitting in the couches of the living area, keeping my eyes glued to the route Noctis drifted on air.
Finnegan meticulously lowered the god to the room’s floor, and Bru and Lucine jumped into action. Their game of cards would have to wait. It took seconds for the councilwomanto kneel before him with a healing potion, prying open his mouth and gently pouring the swirling contents between his lips.
I fell to his side, grasping my hands in my lap. I felt helpless watching the council work on Noctis.
“He speaks so highly of you all, and now, I see why,” I whispered instead.
Lucine met my devastated gaze as she began wrapping the god’s cut arm, and the woman’s features softened with pity.
“We would be nothing without Noctis. He is more than the realm’s god to us.”
There was so much truth to that statement. I witnessed it through the streets earlier that day in every bow, every tear, and every inhabitant praising his name.
His pain didn’t just reach me. It settled in my bones like an ache I could never outrun as if my body decided it belongs to him just as much as it belongs to me. His joy filled spaces in me I didn’t know were ever empty. When he smiled, it was as if the world tilted in the right direction again.
In that moment, it became undeniable. Whatever I lost—whatever parts of me were gone—he wasn’t one of them.
“I think he is for me as well,” I admitted softly.
Lucine chuckled. “We will make sure not to spill that secret to him.”
Noctis shifted, and I gasped, frantically searching his face.
“What secret?” he croaked, the words getting caught in his throat.
We laughed, breathless and shaky, as if the sound could hold back tears—caught between the flicker of something genuinely funny and the wild, aching relief of watching Noctis stir awake.
The night involved catering to the god, purely against his commands, ensuring his full healing. I rested before the fireplace,staring at the wood as the embers popped off its surface. The sight mesmerized me, but every time the flame cracked and spurted, I flinched in response.
