Page 59 of Cages and Crowns
“I want him! Even now, Nithe, Iwanthim. He was the only home I had.” A tear trails down my cheek and his eyes follow it down. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He leans forward and presses his forehead against mine, bathing me in the scent of mint and bergamot. I shake my head, our foreheads rubbing.
“This is day one of a new life, little witch. Day one. You get to decide how the rest of the days are spent. You. Not Tobias. Not my father, or your brother, or me.You.” His hands slip from my face as he bends down to grab the parchment. He holds it out for me, and I hesitantly take it. “When you are ready, I’ll help you burn it. We all will.”
He climbs through the window and quickly leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. I stare at the white parchment in my hand, not even old enough to be yellowed by age. I unroll it, tears pooling in my eyes.
“King Tobias Rosenthal of Noterra and Queen Elaenor Rosenthal ofNoterra, bound together forever by a marriage approved by the gods.” I whisper, reading the words scrawled across the page.
Forever.
Even if I burn it, I’ll still be his.
No one bothered me for the rest of the day. I sat on the balcony, watching the sun go down. At some point someone brought a tray of food in, setting it on the table by the fireplace, but I don’t move from my spot. The air grows colder and colder as the darkness spreads, but still, I don’t move. Even when the ache of my wounds barrel into my mind until that is all I can think of. When all I can feel is pain, still, I don’t move. When exhaustion pulls at my mind and my eyelids grow heavy, I stay on the balcony.
I watch the stars fill the sky, moonlight spreading across the plains, setting everything in a silver glow.
Moonlight.
“Mama?” I whisper, hoping that wherever she is, she can hear me. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to go on this way, with these people.” I clear my throat, forcing the growing lump down. “Why did you keep him from me? Why did you never tell me I had a brother? Why!” I raise my voice, screaming into the night. “How could you do that? I don’t understand.” The tears fall freely and white clouds my vision. “No, no, no.” I whisper, shaking my head.
My limbs begin to vibrate as the aether spreads, turning my veins into a bright white, glowing through my skin. I can see the stars forming on my fingers. I force a deep, slow breath, but it doesn’t work. I pull myself up onto my feet, shaking my hands. Panic spreads just as quickly as the starlight as I try to get it to go away. But it doesn’t listen.
I don’t have control.
“Get off of me!” I yell as I shake them again. Sparks fling off my fingersand tears form. “Stop. Stop.Stop!” I repeat as I stare at my hands, almost completely white and glittering. My head feels light, my body dropping to an icy temperature. My feet go numb as I fall to my knees. “What is happening?” I whisper as I fall forward, my cheek slamming into the stone.
The last thing I see before my eyes go dark is a purple glow.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Bound
Her skin is ice-cold as I lay her on the bed. Her veins glow a brilliant shade of white, nearly making her skin translucent. It takes everything in me to not recoil as the starlight burns through my own flesh. I keep myself in a semi-stage of shifting, protecting my human skin, but it also means I have very little control. I fight against the urge to shift fully, panic fading into a numbing calm. The room is awash in bright light, coming from both of us. As my hands slip out from under her, the purple glow beneath my skin vanishes. I gently brush a pale lock from her forehead as Kassius and Enzo come in.
“What happened?” Kass’s voice is thick with anger and panic as he comes to kneel by the bed, his fingers brushing her forehead.
“She was yelling, I don’t know at who. I opened her door and saw hercollapse, stars flying everywhere.” He sighs and looks up at Enzo, who’s staring at her in a new way. Not the desperate love-sick way he used to look when he would think of her, but almost angry. Almosthateful.
“Get Master Lenus.” Kass snaps at his son. Enzo turns and quickly leaves without giving it a single thought.
“What’s happening?” I ask as I watch Kass’s eyes close for a moment.
“She’s been burrowing deeper and deeper into her aether since she erupted the first time. Her emotions are heightened, and she doesn’t have control right now. She’s too strong, too strong for only having magic in half of her blood. Her body can’t handle it, neither can her mind. Exhaustion, pain, confusion, all of it is eating away at her.” He stands, his hand briefly touching the crown sewn to her head.
“What do we do?” My voice wavers and I clear my throat. No, you can’t care right now. Youcan’t. She’s nothing. Just a young girl. That’s it.
“The deep sleep, until she’s well enough. We may not see wounds physically, but we don’t know whether or not she’s healed internally. We don’t know anything about her.” He glances up at me, a silent question.
“She’s injured. Her leg, we forgot about her leg. We cauterized it, but it was bad.” My voice is rushed. How could I forget? She’s been sitting in pain, sitting with her injuries for an entire day.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kass snaps, his hands clenching into fists at his side. He takes a slow deep breath before meeting my gaze again, as if he has to reign in his anger. This protection he has over her, it’s like she’s Mal. “It doesn’t matter. We need to put her in stasis until she can heal.”
“How can we force her into stasis? Isn’t that something that happens naturally?” The clinking of tools makes me look up as Master Lenus hobbles in, his right leg stiff.
“A few injections should keep her down for a couple days.” My eyes widen and I come around the side of the bed, stopping him before he sets his bag down.
“No. She just spent a year being drugged by her husband and you want to do it again?” My hand grips his shoulder, forcing him away from the bed.
“Ni, it’s for the best.” Kass says from behind.
