Page 181 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Her attention bounced across the field, where bodies covered the spans of it. Some dead, others injured and being tended to by the male mage. The smell was overwhelming. The cries were so loud I was sure they’d follow me into my dreams. My parents, my uncle . . . I wasn’t ready to face that yet. I only wanted to tend to Teddy. That I could do. The rest could wait.
She took my hand and led me up.
“Your mom,” she said. “She was still alive when I put one of those invisible shields around her.”
That boulder that had nestled in my chest shifted. My mother was alive. Of course, she was alive, or else the bargain I’d made with Leanora would’ve held true, and Leanora would’ve died the moment she attacked. I’d been careful in how I’d worded it.
Once my parents are dead, you are done.
While I hadn’t said when they had to die, I’d made sure she had to leave our world when they did. Still, I hadn’t expected my uncle to kill my father. Hadn’t expected my mother to try to kill herself either.
Knowing Teddy was injured, I scooped her up and cradled her in my arms before I barreled toward my mother. Teddy dropped the shield when we reached her. Letting go of Teddy, I went to my knees beside my mother and took in her thready heartbeat. It was weak but still there.
Teddy knelt beside me and rested her hand on my arm as she sent her magic to me. I removed the dagger my mother had stabbed herself with and began mending her. While the dagger had penetrated her chest, she’d missed her heart, which was the only reason she was still alive. Alastor came beside me, and when he put his hand on my mother, I felt the flood of magic he sent to her.
After everything my family, my mother had done to his people, to his own mother, he still worked at healing her. This mage, this male, had suffered years of torture and abuse, yet he was still able to find a sense of grace. I wasn’t sure I was capable of such a thing.
My mother glowed with the array of colors that resembled his magic for two quick beats.
Her eyes fluttered open as her heartbeat strengthened. She groaned. When I went to help her up, she pushed me away. Her anguish barreled into me, leaving me shaken and scared.
“Let me die,” she croaked out, her words quivering.
“I can’t.”
I couldn’t lose her too. The thought of it was too much, too heavy. I shook my head, rejecting the notion and only wanting to keep my mom close.
“Your father.” Her sorrowful eyes clashed against mine.
I didn’t have to remind her he was gone. Didn’t have the words in me to say them anyway.
“You’re going to live,” I told her, taking in how quickly Alastor healed her. “You’re going to live, Mama.” I held on to her cold hand that suddenly seemed frail. “I need you to live.”
A tear fell from the corner of her eye and quickly disappeared into her dark hair. Again, I tried to urge her to sit, but she shook her head. Her pained cry pulsed through me, shattering the already broken pieces of my heart.
When Alastor finished tending to her, I picked her up and cradled her shaking body to me.
“Mother,” I begged through another one of her body-wracking sobs.
“Please, Elias.” She wrung her fingers through the fabric of my torn and bloody shirt.
“I can’t,” I whispered back.
My heart shuddered as hard as her limbs. It tore through me, ripping and mangling me to shreds.
I wasn’t sure where to take her so she could rest. Too much needed my attention in Niev, where I’d left fae in cells and the city in ruins. Even more needed my attention here, but I didn’t have a place of my own in this realm anymore.
After everything we’d all been through, I didn’t want to leave my people alone any more than I wanted to leave the humans to pick up the mess those in my realm had brought here. So I carried her through the field, casting my eyes down so I didn’t have to look at anyone, but not too low so that all I saw were the dead.
My mother’s cries carried over everything else. Her anguish was all-consuming. It was the only thing I felt.
I stopped suddenly, and when Teddy rested her hand onmy arm, I turned to her. To Everly, Ryenne, George, Donnie, Nate, Brenton, and Alastor. They were all there, offering quiet support.
“I don’t know what to do,” I told them.
The vulnerability of those words, of everything I felt, hit me. Teddy kissed my arm.
“Take your mom to Ry and Donnie’s,” Teddy said.
