Page 113 of When Ashes Fall

I chuckled; she was very right about that. I’d noticed my stench on the second day of brewing, and occasionally, I’d catch a whiff of me and cringe.

“Let’s go to bed,” Lyra declared.

I glanced around to make sure everything was all set before scooping Gizzi up and cradling him against my chest. He squeaked before settling into sleep again.

Lyra studied him as I walked toward her. “He really is very smart,” she said. “He even knew how to help out.”

“He watches and learns.”

Lyra shifted her attention to me. Keen interest shimmered in her bloodshot eyes before she turned away. Together, we left the healer’s room and returned to the great hall.

The tree of unity had lost most of its leaves and all its flowers, but the leaves still clinging to its branches were perking up a little. It wouldn’t bloom again until next year, but it would survive.

“How many roses did we lose?” I asked Lyra.

I was too scared to voice the question before, but I had to know.

“Fifteen,” Lyra said sadly.

“Your parents?”

“They’re looking better already.” She rested her hand on my shoulder. “Thanks to you.”

A small smile tugged at my lips as she squeezed my shoulder. Her loyalty would always lie with Knox, but I considered her a friend. She’d probably hate me after I left here, but I hoped she remembered we shared a camaraderie before I betrayed them.

“I should have figured it out sooner,” I said.

“You couldn’t have known, and what matters is you figured it out before we lost everything.”

“I guess,” I muttered.

Without another word, we trudged up the stairs and on toward our separate rooms.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

Knox

The castle was eerily quiet when I returned. No sprites buzzed around, nothing fell on my head, and a spray of water or some other concoction didn’t hit me in the face.

The floral and sweet scent of Briar’s potions permeated the castle, but I still detected her underlying aroma of strawberries and eucalyptus intermingling with her concoctions. That scent was like coming home, and it eased some of the stress the dying plants and time away from her had created.

It had been three endless days since I’d been home, but the plants in the great hall were greener, the remaining leaves on the tree of unity had perked up, and color was returning to the roses. Everything still looked far weaker than it had before the gorman arrived, but life was returning.

Thanks to Briar.

Closing my eyes, I rubbed my temples as guilt tugged at me. I’d fucked up so bad that I didn’t know how to start fixing it.

Everything had unraveled so fast, and we’d been so busy hunting for gorman and spreading the protective barrier around the kingdom that I didn’t have time to process one very important fact… Briar never told her mother anything.

She never betrayed me.

Since taking her from the harem, she’d told me this repeatedly, but I’d refused to listen. I’d treated her terribly, locked her in the tower, and called her a liar.

Instead of believing my mate, I’d let the woman who separated us twist my mind against her. Was it because I’d wanted to believe Briar was as monstrous as I’d become?

That was a good possibility, because otherwise it meant I was broken while she was… who she’d always been. Thankfully, we didn’t sustain the same level of abuse for years on end, but her mother still treated her horribly… as did I. Yet she’d somehow retained the best parts of herself while I lost all of mine.

Shit.