Page 68 of The Oracle of Dusk

The servants rushed to obey. That done, he placed Aurora inside, his hand cupping the back of her head, submerging all but her face. She gasped, her eyes fluttering open. Her gaze was unfocused, drifting across the room until she lit on him. Tears welled in her eyes, and whatever she said next, it was in a language he’d never heard.

“You won’t die, Aurora.”

Her frantic, unintelligible pleading hurt a part of him he rarely allowed anyone entry to. Had Tisander’s final moments been like this? His mind ripped apart by fever, reducing him to animalistic fear? Damn it. She was not Tisander. And he was no longer that sixteen-year-old child. He was the fucking king of Aureum, whose wild magic was as powerful as they came!

“You willnotdie. I won’t allow it, you understand?”

He recognised one of the next words she spoke. Drakon. Her beast. Her eyes glazed over with terror.

“You’re safe here, Aurora,” he assured her, speaking like he would to a frightened animal. If she was too far gone to understand his words, hopefully he could convey the meaning with his tone.

She gasped again, her eyes going wide, her hand to her chest. Between one blink and the next, her fever was an inferno. His magic flared inside him. A death knell. The ice had almost completely melted and his hand burned as if it had been submerged in frigid water for a full hour. Aurora was limp in his grasp, her eyes shut, her breathing barely perceptible. He panicked, flooding her with his magic again. The fever had wreaked havoc with her body, taking her to the very brink, but how? He’d been by her side the whole time, keeping her safe.

Had he gone into that dark abyss again without realising it? Was Justice punishing him anew? The diamond-like mark still lingered on the back of his hand—proof of Her wrath.

Theron shook his head. He couldn’t afford to divide his attention.

“Get me more ice!” he commanded, switching the hand that held her head above water.

As more ice arrived, he healed organ after organ on the brink of collapse.

“Goddesses help me, if I have to force your heart to keep beating, I will!” he threatened her.

For the next hour, he was forced to do just that.

But as the night wore on, the worst of her fever abated. And he would thank the Triad for it once he had the strength. Theron had never drained himself like this before, pouring every drop of his magic into her and then finding reserves he’d never known existed. He pulled her from the tub, confident that what lay ahead was a simple illness. She was still feverish, but her life and her health were no longer in jeopardy. If people could catch this wretched plague more than once in their lives, he’d have thought himself in the throes of it, for he was delirious with fatigue.

“Dry her off, change her clothes and bring her back here,” he told the attendant at his door.

The attendant took her gingerly from his arms. Theron watched them take her to her room and then collapsed on his bed. He woke to the attendant entering with Aurora in their arms.

“Where would you like me to put her?”

“On the bed, at my side.”

He wanted to keep an eye on her as best he could. How the fever affected the average Trisian was well known, but not how it would affect a foreigner like her. If she neared death, his magic would alert him, even in sleep. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep her alive.

As he adjusted himself to her presence at his side, she opened her eyes once more.

“Theron?”

“Sleep, Aurora. I’ll keep you safe.”

Aurora was asleep again in moments.

She trusted him.

It should have been gratifying, but it only unsettled him. She shouldn’t have trusted him so easily. He hadn’t lied to Hyllus when he’d said he was not a good man. Good men were ruled by the best parts of their hearts, after all. Theron had every intention of discovering her secrets. Of using every scrap of knowledge she possessed for his benefit. And if seduction proved the quickest path, as he suspected it did, he would pluck her heartstrings without remorse, use her body for his pleasure and discard her the moment she had nothing left to give. Anything and everything she had of value he would shamelessly take from her, so long as it benefitted Aureum or his throne. It was nothing less than the duty he’d been given the moment his brother had died. A good king ruled with his head and abandoned his heart.

That had never bothered him before.

So why did it trouble him now?

Chapter 14

“Aurora.Wakeup.”

Aurora groaned, pulling the covers over her aching head. Merciful Triad, she felt like she’d been hit by a runaway carriage. Then had her head filled with angry bees for good measure. Then run over a second time. The sun was barely more than a hint on the horizon. No one who didn’t have to be awake at this hour bothered to leave the comfort of their beds. Even soaked with sweat and feeling miserable, the bed was far preferable to surrendering to an early start.

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