Page 31 of Ember and Eclipse
“Obviously,” she said through gritted teeth. The room was spinning, the hunter just a dark blur in her vision.
He didn’t say anything else before he left.
But as she crawled into the bed, she only had a singular thought.
Devdan broke his own rule—he showedmercy.
Chapter XVIII
Twodayslater,Relwas just beginning to recover from her mystery illness. Leeda brought her what she called ‘the only cure you need’, which happened to be a brothy onion soup with fresh bread. She couldn’t bring herself to eat it, though.
She’d been surprised that no one seemed to have anything to say about a man walking out of the tavern with a knife sticking out of his thigh. Across stormy skies, she sent Silas her gratitude and her wishes for him to heal quickly. And her hope that he forgot about her or, at the very least, didn’t feel guilty. He’d tried, and that was more than she could say for anyone else.
He just wasn’t enough. It would take more than one person to bring the Wolf of Romul down. If she thought she could summon the God of War, she would choose him as her champion to pit against the Lunae. As it was, any god she prayed to was silent and absent.
By early evening, Leeda burst in and saw that the food still sat untouched. “Not even a bite? Maybe your husbandshouldhave a medicine woman come look at you.”
Rel groaned. She didn’t want anyone poking and prodding at her.
“Well, if you don’t feel better by tomorrow, I’ll call her myself,” Leeda said, hands fisted on hips. “As for right now, I’m just here to tidy up. I hate being on cleaning, but I have to cover down with the number of guests.”
Leeda gave them fresh water and towels and changed out the fragrant herbs, chatting away about business, crowded streets, and drunken fools. “Some of these foreigners really don’t know how to handle their spirits, and yet they’ll come back each night and drink cups on cups. Us Gavenites have stomachs and livers made of iron,” she said, slapping her abdomen to emphasize her point. “Anyway, I need to get back downstairs before Ceril has the babe down there while trying to control everything. Send your grumpy husband with anything else you may need.” She left in a twirl of her skirts, humming a tune offkey as she went.
Rel was fond of her. She was the type of woman who decided in a moment she was someone’s friend. Too bad there would be no exploring that possibility.
Her body still aching with fever, she groaned as she rolled onto her side slowly, but a purple-flowered sprig in the vase caught her attention.
Lavender.
She forced herself out of the bed. She had to get rid of it, had to—
Before she could act, the soft scent drifted to her. What should have been a calming aroma was an assault on her senses. The reaction was immediate, sending bile rushing up her throat. One would think that the smell of fire or cooking meat would have a similar effect, but no. Instead, it was the strong earthy, yet sweet scent of lavender that threw her back to her knees in that carpeted room on that fateful day two years ago.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she willed herself to be present, but…
Gold and crimson came into her vision first—the abstract design of the rug she knew all too well, the one Asear loved so much. Rel had spent enough hours with the fibers digging into her knees as she knelt, her blood staining the red, darkening it in some areas. Too many hours spent with her head bowed over it, staring at it.
When she tried to tune back in, to focus on where they were at in this macabre ceremony, she found it eerily quiet besides a soft crackling sound. And thatsmell… Shifting, she realized her arms were hanging loose, nothing holding her in place. The ties that usually bound her hands were gone. When she rose, shakily and slowly, and turned, it was apparent why. She wassurroundedby bodies. The closest were scorched beyond recognition, with tendrils of smoke still rising off them. It wasn’t until she saw them that she registered the sizzling and popping of still burning flesh.
She looked for the prince, and at first, she didn’t see him, but it was only because another blackened mass was over his, sunken and charred. What she could see of the prince’s neck and face was a red mess of peeling, burnt skin and tissue.
She stared at him. It took her mind long moments before she could translate what she was seeing. He was dead. And though a sense of grief, heavy and visceral, was present within her body, mingled with horror and despair, there was also something else.
His unmoving and marred form was like being given a key to a room of possibilities.
Dead.
But who had killed them and spared her?
Looking down at herself, she found her clothes were singed completely off. She felt no injury, not even the marks that Asear had carved into her. Reaching back with shaking fingers, she found the wounds rough from cauterization. The sudden and clear realization settled over her like ash.Shehad done this. Her magic had caused this ruination. She had killed the only living son of Imperator Ralen Othonos.
Reeling, she just managed to keep herself standing. She had to get out. She had to flee. But there was nowhere for her to go. Guards would seize her the moment she left the room. Except… Prince Asear didn’t keep guards in the hall when he was conducting his show of dominance. She lurched forward, but dizziness overtook her, and she stumbled instead over a seared body’s arm. The flesh slipped and squelched beneath her weight, with some parts crumbling away into black and crimson ash, smudging into the carpet.
Forcing herself upright again, she heaved, her empty stomach producing nothing. Spots of light filled her vision as she bent over, once again staring at that repulsive carpet. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, it was with sheer determination she made it to the door.
The hall was mercifully quiet.
She trailed the long corridor, half-dazed and depleted of energy. It ran open and unobscured from one end to the next. It was Asear’s domain—only those he chose to invite entered this floor. Her quarters, unfortunately, were located there. The trek down the hallway felt like it took too long. Surely, by then, an alarm should have been raised. Pushing herself into her room, the bed immediately called to her like a siren’s song. Instead, she stumbled toward her wardrobe.
