Page 20 of Oath-Maker

We collapsed on the bed, gasping to regain our breath, and I curled against Lucius. If there was a way out of this besides giving myself up to the Guardian, we’d find it. If there was a way to win evenwhilegiving myself up, we would find it.

With all the potentiality our relationship brought, anything was possible.

We fell asleep watching the stars dance in the magical nighttime sky above Lucius’s bed.

I wished on one for good luck. We’d be needing it.

CHAPTER9

Our decision had been a good one, and rather final, until a few hours before sunrise. When I’d rolled over to wish Lucius a good morning, I’d found the flower’s effects worn off and Lucius as sick, if not more so, than before.

Lucius had shaken violently since, with sweat dotting his brow and a fever warming his body. In the span of a few hours, the light sickness had threatened him all over again—and it was taking him quicker now. I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d just given him the flower sooner if its effects would’ve actually lasted a full day. That maybe its magic had dimmed in the hours we’d ignored it.

“It’s going to be okay, Lucius.” I took his hand in mine and squeezed it to reassure him. We were in the throne room now, awaiting the celestial messenger as Lucius attempted to remain upright. I was convinced he was doing so out of sheer spite of everything Merek was and had become.

“They’ll be lucky if I don’t kill them on sight,” Lucius growled.

I didn’t blame him. Between this flower, Basara’s prophecy, and Merek’s lies—they’d all robbed us of the time we should’ve had. Even if this meeting turned into war, Lucius should have been lucid enough to handle whatever came next.

Instead, I was feeling increasingly like I’d be making a decision we both wouldn’t like.

I looked Lucius over again. He was doing a good job hiding it at the moment, but the court wasn’t here yet and neither was the Guardian’s messenger. “You shouldn’t be here for this.”

Lucius kept his gaze ahead on the double doors through which other people and demons would enter soon enough. “I need to be.”

“Lucius—”

“He lied,” Lucius snapped. “We can’t trust the Guardian, and we don’t know what they’re going to bring to us this time. I’m not leaving this to anyone else.”

I swallowed my first, equally irritated, response and settled for, “If we assume the flower’s magical abilities are tied to its freshness, the Guardian didn’t lie. We waited too long.”

Gods, it was hard not to use Merek’s name, but I knew that was the last thing Lucius would want to hear right now. At the end of the day, Merek had either been saved by the Fallen or brought back to life, and when that’d happened, he’d ceased being the Merek I’d known and loved. He was the Guardian now. A shinier puppet than he had been before.

Aren’t we all puppets in the end? Especially if Basara’s prophecy was to be believed.

The doors to the throne room opened, revealing us to the incoming court—and to the court, Lucius’s lesser state. To them, nothing had changed. But as Commander Garnet entered the space and took in the sight of Lucius, his demeanor darkened. He’d seen my mate better last night. Now…

Commander Garnet approached the thrones and dropped to one knee before us—not without casting Lucius a worried look. “The messenger from Lightport and the new celestial court has arrived.”

“Rise,” Lucius commanded, which was good because I was still caught by what the commander had said.

“New celestial court?” I asked. Lightport had been the base for the Paladins Order for decades, but it’d never been a full-on celestial court. The only celestial to make their presence known to us had been the Light, andthatwas only in the form of a single, ever-burning flame.

How much had changed in the last few days since I’d been gone? Or just since the battle for Alastia?

I shot a quick, questioning glance to Ian, hoping he’d heard the commander and understood. He was with Jessa to my left, not quite in the crowd of the court, but not standing on the dais, either.

Ian met my gaze and shook his head nearly imperceptibly. So he didn’t know, either. Within less than two days, the Guardian had appeared, swayed the entire Order to his side, attacked Alastia, and then set up a full court inside Serenia.

This was a power we could not easily fight. That’d never been more clear than in this moment.

And Lucius was barely sitting upright.

The crease forming along Ian’s brow betrayed his nonchalance. No doubt he could see me cracking, and for once, I was thankful to not have to hide it.

“Let them enter,” Lucius said to Commander Garnet. His words were firm, not shaky or giving away his condition, but unfortunately, the sweat dotting his brow already was. I wanted to squeeze Lucius’s hand again or embrace him and lead him out of here, but all of those actions would reveal the extent of Lucius’s weakness.

So instead, I braced myself to hear out the messenger. We knew what he was here for, but I was starting to wonder if there wasn’t more to the visit.

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