Page 92 of Rising Reign

Kingston laid a hand over my thigh, squeezing. “You took all the dark emotions from Red River and their mercenaries.”

Memories came back in flashes. Bastian slicing Locke’s throat and locking us behind wards. Admitting that he’d killed my mother. Telling me what he had planned for me.

“Rhys,” I whispered. “His voice was in my head. Telling me to use my empathic gifts.”

“Idiot,” Ender muttered.

Puck smacked his shoulder. “Well, he saved our asses twice, so maybe no name-calling.”

“What happened to Red River?” I asked.

Brix traced the shape of my tattoo through the blankets because he’d memorized every line. “It’s like you took all the badness from them. It left them to face what they’d done.”

“That’s the ultimate justice. Knowing all the harm you’ve caused and truly feeling it,” King rasped.

I looked at him. “Bastian?”

I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to hear. That he was dead? Jailed?

Kingston gripped my thigh tighter. “He’s gone, Wren. He’d done so much evil, his mind couldn’t process it. He had a heart attack.”

A phantom pressure bore down on my chest. The weight of so much heartache and pain. But as all my mates touched me, bringing their comfort, the pressure lifted as quickly as it came.

“Balance,” I whispered.

Locke’s brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”

“It’s something Hera told me. Our world needs balance, magic requires it. For balance to be restored, he needed to be taken.”

Locke’s lips brushed the side of my face. “We love you.”

“And I love you.” I looked around the room. “How’s everyone else?”

“Just fine,” Brix assured me.

“And being annoying,” Ender muttered. “They won’t leave until they’ve laid eyes on you.”

I laughed. “Too much peopling for you?”

“Far too much,” he griped.

My brow furrowed. “Rhys, you said he saved us twice. What was the other time?”

The room went completely quiet, and that dread returned to my belly.

“What happened?”

“He saved your life,” Kingston whispered.

I tried to search my mind for a memory of the time after I fell to the ground, but there was nothing. “How?” I asked.

Brix looked at Ender, who nodded. “Rhys gave you some of his blood.”

My frown deepened. I knew vampire blood had healing properties, but it wasn’t all that much stronger than the magic Hera could do. “Is Hera all right? Was she hurt?” It was the only reason I could think of for her not healing me.

Kingston shook his head. “She’s fine. But your injuries…they were more than she could handle.”

Ender gripped my foot through the blankets, his thumbs digging into the arch. “Rhys isn’t just a vampire. He’s a Nocturnae.”