Page 144 of A Blightress of Wrath
BaronKarusreached the edge of the swirling blue dome, digging around her legs to see the ground.SaeurgedBorosfurther before jumping off his back, forcing her way through the long line of people, frozen and huddled as closely together as they could manage for warmth.Ifollowed, holding onto her belt as she made her way to her mother.
Myfuture was in front of me, andIwasn’t letting go.
Chapter61
Saelyn
Reachingmy mother’s side,Iwrapped my frozen arms around her waist.Sheheld her hands up to the blue shield that flickered in thin patterns of swirls across its surface.
Withouta word to me, she clutched my hands folded around her hip and pressed her forehead against the power my father wielded.
“Please,Rev,” she whispered, her breath leaving her lungs in a puffy cloud of white. “Letme in.”
Emeraldlight flowed from her fingers, easing in a languid haze across my father’s blue, becoming something muted and teal, folding over and over again until her hand fell through.Anopening, just her size, formed within the shield.
Herbreath shuttered, andIgasped at the comforting warmth that welcomed us, instantly melting the ice crystals on our hair and clothes.
Shefinally looked at me with eyes wide and green, glassy from the few simple tears that fell down her cheeks. “Itold you we’d save him.”Hergrin was wide, her cheeks blooming from pale white to a strawberry red. “Yourfather is here,Saelyn, and he’s waiting to meet you.”
Ipursed my lips and nodded, my chin shaking, my breath short as my mother took my hand and stepped forward onto a rocky shelf, lowering herself down into a hole and finding the step below.Shereached up for me, helping me follow her inside whileThevinslipped down right behind me.Ifelt the hand of him at my back, gripping the belt across my waist as if he wouldn’t dare tempt fate and let me out of his grasp.
Mymother didn’t hesitate or stop to help anyone behind us, instead beginning our descent down the jagged stairs carved from rock.Herlong fingers wound tightly through mine, andIhad to watch my step, keeping close to the cavern wall.WhenI’dfeltIfound my footing,Ilet myself observe the place my father had hidden himself for seventeen years of his life, waiting for the time to be right, waiting for my mother to find him with an army at her back.
Thecavern was vast, a shelter of black hewn rock, sharp and wet, dimly lit by the opening to the surface above us.Asingle glow of red let off a slow pulse at the bottom of the cave, too far down and too far toward the back for me to make out any figures.
Itwas the warmth that gave me hope.Itblew freely all around, encompassing the three of us as we carefully made our way down the stairs.Theheat was comforting, staggering even, as we neared the bottom, each wave of it pulsing along with the red light.
Mymother jumped the last few steps, letting go of my hand and picking up her skirts, racing across the black stone without falter.Shecalled my father’s name over and over until her voice broke in a raspy cry that shifted off the rock through the dark.Myheart splintered hearing the desperation in her last call before she reached the light, falling to the ground in sobs to destroy the silence.
Thevintook my hand and we ran.Hecaught me twice beforeIcould fall, the glow growing closer and closer.
Irealized what it was quickly enough, recognizing the shape of a human heart from the medicus books inViridis.Aslarge as a lumen’s head, it pulsed, suspended off the rocky floor next to a man who sat, leaning against a short rock wall.
Istopped, suddenly afraid to move closer.Afraidto see what so many years alone had done to my father who had loved me enough to leave me.
Mymother draped herself over him, sobbing and murmuring words over and over again.Helifted a trembling hand to her face, andIwanted to know why he didn’t hold her.Iwanted to demand that he take her into his arms and cry in joy that his companion had returned to his side to save him.Iopened my mouth to scream, suddenly overtaken with anger at what she had been through to get to this moment.
Thewords would not come.
Istepped closer in rising dread, my footfall deafening to my ears, my blood pulsing now in a wicked urging to keep moving, keep getting closer to the truth of what had happened to my father whileIlived my life inFelgren, blissfully unaware of his condition.
“Sae,”Thevinwarned softly.
Iknew why.
Athin line of blood dripped from the side of the beating heart, flowing across the dark rock, directly to my father’s withered hand, emaciated, but open, as if welcoming this lifeforce into his body.
Closerto the pulse,Ifelt the strain in my own chest, as if the small cut of her heart wounded me as well.Irubbed my chest in the ache, watching a bead of crimson slide down the flesh, falling to the ground in a splash and finding its way to his outstretched hand.Mynostrils flared and my breath shuddered.
Thiswas the heart of theBlightress.
Andthis was my father, draining it, wrapping it in the warmthIrecognized was a melding of a simulated sun and love, allowing her blood into his body where it had sunken his skin, keeping him alive, but unable to keep him fed.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
