Page 63 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
“Another coordinate?” she asked.
“That’s enough,” he answered quietly. He looked up at her and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have walked off—” He sighed, still wrestling with his words.
“You don’t have to explain, Tyghan. We’re all struggling. Especially with the death of a child.”
His voice changed then, thick with despair. “I am king and Knight Commander, and I can’t even protect innocents, much less all the troops under my command. While I was gone, I was thinking about what you asked me once—if I was a demigod. I am nothing. I am less than nothing if I can’t protect a child like Samuel.”
“All of us are given powers, Tyghan, from small to great. I’ve read your histories. Every great god from Dagda to Lugh had their failures and losses. You’re doing everything in your power. There is only so much one person—or demigod—can control. You can’t carry guilt about this. Take time to breathe and then get angry as fuck and move forward.”
He offered a grim smile. “You sound more like the Knight Commander than I do.”
“You can’t be Knight Commander twenty-four hours a day. You have to let your guard down sometimes. It’s okay to let others see you hurting.”
He shook his head. “That’s not a lesson I was taught.”
“But it’s never too late to learn.”
He pulled her into his arms, his face tucked in her hair. He smelled of meadow grass, sweat, and endless sorrow.
She stroked his back. “We’ll get through this.”
He nodded and held her tighter.
They walked back to where August waited for them, and Bristol reminded him, “Tomorrow is the wedding. Something positive. Maybe that’s the reset we all need.”
Tyghan’s head dropped, like another weight had hit him.The wedding.
He started to groan but then remembered his words to Kasta.Sometimes we have to remember what we’re living for.
And Melizan’s wedding was one of those things.
Kormick would not beat the life from them before the battle even began.
CHAPTER 46
Sprites swooped through the air, drunk with excitement and the heady scent of the flowers that were strung from one end of Sun Court to the highest reaches of Sky Pavilion. Garlands were everywhere. Even the normally dark and somber Jasper Court radiated with heavy swags of lavender peonies.
When Melizan arrived at Sun Court and saw the extravaganza, she screeched.
“What have you done, Ivy? I promised my brother it would be fifteen minutes! That’s all!”
Ivy laughed. “Don’t worry. This was his idea. He told me to do it up big. He wanted it to be special for you. His words.”
“No, you must have misunderstood. That’s impossible. I’m talking about Tyghan.”
Ivy patted her on the shoulder. “I know. He had a change of heart. Trust me. And he ordered food and drink for everyone—and everyoneiscoming.”
Melizan was struck silent, maybe for the first time in her life. Bristol had to be responsible for this change in him. Or had he been drunk when he came up with the idea? She scanned the grounds, the chairs set up for the binding ritual, the arbors of flowers, the flowing silk canopies, the dozens of banquet tables awaiting food—enough to feed the entire palace and half the city. Musicians were setting up on four different plazas. It was like the commencement for Beltane festivities.
“You’resureabout this?” Melizan asked again.
“Absolutely. Straight out of his mouth.”
Cully came up behind Ivy and openly slipped his arm around her. “I can vouch for that. More or less.”
Melizan blinked at the usually restrained couple. A lot of things had changed.
She felt a new sensation overtaking her, an annoying giddiness. She wasn’t feeling like herself at all. She soaked in all the elaborate preparations.Cosette will love this, she thought.She might even cry. And now her own eyes were feeling misty. What had her brother done? Was she even ready for this?
