Page 112 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
CHAPTER 84
When Tyghan walked into the treatment tent, Eris was sitting beside Madame Chastain’s body. He held her hand. She was covered in a blanket, up to her shoulders, that hid her fatal injuries. Her silver hair fell in soft waves around her face, and her expression was peaceful. She could have been sleeping.
It was still hard for Tyghan to believe she was dead. She was badly injured when he and Eris got her to Olivia, but the High Witch was powerful and strong, with an incredible will. Larger than life and bigger than death, he had always thought. She’d been a constant in his life since he was a child, and he couldn’t imagine anything overcoming her.
Tyghan’s eyes stung. Too much was happening too fast.
“He’s been like that for two hours,” Olivia whispered to him. “I healed the wound on his shoulder, but his heart . . .” She shook her head, her skin splotched from tears. Madame Chastain had been her mentor and friend. “Injured are still coming in. I need to get back to help Esmee.”
Tyghan nodded. “I’ll take care of him.”
He stepped over to Eris and squeezed his shoulder. Eris didn’t look up, continuing to skim his thumb over the back of Dahlia’s hand. “Five minutes,” he finally said. “She asked me for five minutes, and I wouldn’t give it to her. I clung to my hurt pride instead.”
“You couldn’t know—”
“I had five minutes to spare. Everyone has five minutes to spare for someone they love.” He leaned forward, holding her hand to his lips, and sobbed.
Tyghan’s lungs burned. He remembered Eris pulling him into his robes after his mother died, when it was too hard for him to be brave.When you can’t be strong, I’ll be strong for you.
He gently pulled Madame Chastain’s hand from Eris’s and laid it across her chest. “I promise, she will be taken care of properly, with all the honors she deserves.” He tugged on Eris’s arm, nudging him to his feet. “Come on, Counselor. Let’s go home.”
Once Eris was settled in his quarters back at the palace, Tyghan went to Julia’s room, where Bristol and her squad were staying. Bristol came to the door, but he wasn’t invited in. She came out into the hallway, a large bandage on her shoulder. Kormick could have killed her, even in her beast form. Time seemed to pause—a stubborn space slipping between them.Fuck space, he thought, and he gently nudged her into his arms. She melted into him. “I’m sorry,” he said.
She shook her head. “I can’t talk about what happened. Not now.” She pushed back to look into his face. “But I want a funeral for them. I want their bodies and a place where they can rest together.”
He nodded. “Of course. I’ll take care of it.”
Her expression hardened then, like she was bracing herself. “Did you see me?” she asked.
He knew what she meant. “Only as you flew back to the Mother Ring,” he answered.
Flew. The word hit him in his gut. The reality.
“What do you think?”
He had been frightened. Not of her, but for her. From the first time he saw the scales on her back, he had wondered. It wasn’t until he saw Bristol shift in the sky that his suspicions were confirmed. “I think you saved Danu. I think you’re the queen of Elphame.”
“That’s not what I meant. What do you think ofme?”
“I think you’re Bristol Keats, the woman I love.”
CHAPTER 85
Bristol climbed the hill to the isolated, windswept glade overlooking the sea. Far from the heart of Danu, Bristol’s parents were laid in a cradle of stones.
Unlike Logan’s and Leanna’s funerals in Bowskeep, where dozens crowded into a mortuary parlor, or Glennis’s funeral, where hundreds dotted the hills to pay their respects for a fallen knight, here there were exactly seven in attendance. Other than Bristol and her friends, only Tyghan was there. A hush of cold wind shivered through knee-deep grass.
The sight of their wrapped bodies lying on the stones gripped Bristol with finality.No more second chances. New truths would have to be shared with her sisters. The thought made her queasy. Instead of reciting the revered laws of the gods, or recalling history and valor, Bristol spoke about the lessons they taught their daughters, like perseverance, protection, and joy in the simplest moments: gathering stones for a campfire, strolling a museum gallery, dancing in the rain.
Bristol paused as images raced through her head, and it was always hands reaching out for them, her father, her mother, finding them, pulling them along, keeping them safe, loading them in the van for the next place and the next, hiding their worry, never giving up on their family.
“Never giving up,” Bristol whispered. “That’s what they taught us.”
She looked at their wrapped bodies, snug against each other, but she saw Mick’s sneering face hovering between them.You did this, Bristol. Remember that every day of your miserable reign. You should have left when you promised.She squeezed her eyes shut, blinking the horror away.
“Bri?” Rose said uncertainly. Bristol looked at her and nodded. Rose had plucked a handful of wildflowers along the way and she laid it between them.
Tyghan laid a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses beside her father and whispered some words Bristol couldn’t hear, but when he turned back, his eyes were red.
