I leaned over him. His eyes were closed, but they moved beneath his eyelids and a fine layer of sweat shone on his skin. Jax stopped beside me, brushing his hair—pale pink today—from his eyes. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked.
Jax ran his gaze over his friend and he cursed. Then he bent and hoisted Fergus to sitting. With a quick glance at me, he said, “We need to get him inside. Grab his other arm and help me get him up.”
I took Fergus’ arm and with Jax, got him on his feet. Fergus was a dead weight and my knees almost buckled. “What’s happened to him?” I asked again. He’d seemed fine at the Seelie prison, but once we climbed on Obsidian’s back, it was as if all his energy disappeared.
“Hurry,” growled Jax, as we dragged Fergus up the steps in front of the pool.
I was lagging. Jax was quicker, carrying Fergus’ weight more easily than I could. We moved a little faster once we reached the concrete tiles beside the pool, but I was nowhere near as strong as Jax. Plus, I’d barely eaten since I left this place. “Can’t you magic him to his rooms?”
Jax’s laugh was harsh. “You’ve been spending too much time in the prince’s company.”
“Meaning?” Sweat dripped down my back. I’d forgotten how humid this place was.
“I don’t have enough magic to get Fergus to his rooms. No one here does.” He swiped his hair away from his face.
“But you can fix whatever’s wrong with him?” I hadn’t been worried about Fergus. I’d thought there were plenty of fae here who could heal him. Until I heard the urgency in Jax’s tone.
Jax pressed his lips together, not bothering to answer. Using his shoulder, he opened the door into the lounge room.
A chill went through me. Someone must know how to help Fergus.
We dragged him through the lounge and up a flight of stairs to what must be Fergus’ rooms—they occupied the entire level—before depositing him on his stomach onto the four-poster bed. Jax drew in his breath as he stared at Fergus’ back. Sand stuck to blood and sweat, covering half his back. Where there was no sand, his back was black with dried blood. The places where the suppressors had been looked inflamed, though it was difficult to tell while the wound was dirty. Jax stared down at him, his hands in his hair, his face desolate.
“Is there anyone who can help him?” I pushed. Because standing around looking at him would not make him better.
The door to Fergus’ chamber burst open and a girl ran in. She was tall and leggy, with a tiny waist and cropped auburn hair. Her eyes fell on Fergus and she stopped short. “He’s back. I thought I felt his presence. What happened to him?”
Jax shrugged and drew a hand through his magenta hair. “Rhiannon, I’m guessing.” He looked at me for confirmation.
I nodded.
The girl drew her lips together.
I had no time for their dramatics. I took Jax’s elbow and turned him to face me. He seemed in shock. If he couldn’t organize the island healer to come to Fergus, then I would do it. “Where is the healer? Tell me and I’ll get him. Or her.”
Jax shook his head, watching the way Fergus’ shoulder blades rose and fell with each shallow breath. Fergus groaned and Jax winced. “The healer can’t help him. He’s a prince. For wounds this bad, he needs someone with stronger magic than him. He needs…”
“The king,” I finished. He needed one of the royal family. “Then let’s take him to Unseelie. On Obsidian.” Or maybe Jax could use his own horse.
Jax’s eyes didn’t leave his friend. “He’s like this because he’s out of magic. The Wild Hunt magic, the magic that allows the horses to fly, is tied to him as leader. No one’s going anywhere on the horses unless he recovers.” He glanced at me. “You’re lucky you two made it home.”
“His magic makes you all fly? Maybe you should make the rest of the Hunt stop. Won’t that make him better?” There had to be some way to help him.
Jax shook his head. “Not exactly. A kernel of his magic makes the rest of the Hunt strong enough to do all we need to. His magic gets us started so we can do the rest. But there’s no kernel there now, and no one’s going anywhere. Unless you’re talking about taking a rowboat back to the mainland.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. All he did was send a blast of magic at some guards. Then he called Obsidian and we flew her here. How can he be out of magic?” I’d seen Fergus do far more than that and still have plenty left over.
“How long after you…” He glanced at Fergus’ shoulder blades and almost choked on the words. “… removed the suppressors, did he use his magic and call for Obsidian?”
“Straight away.”
Jax closed his eyes and drew in a breath. “The suppressors that Rhiannon uses stop Fergus accessing most of his magic. There are two permanent drains on his magic—the wards on this island and the Wild Hunt.”
The girl came over to stand next to Jax, running a reassuring hand from his shoulder to elbow. “We have things in place to stop these spells using his magic should Fergus find himself … in trouble. The wards were no longer his problem because we had fae working in groups of twenty to keep them up.”
“And,” added Jax, “the Wild Hunt only affects his magic if we go out. So, we’ve been out only one time since he went missing. And that was to try to locate him.” He shook his head. “But the minute the suppressors are released, the ward spells find him and take the magic they need. The Hunt spells, too. Usually, it’s fine. But if he uses his magic on other things, too…” Like attacking guards or flying his horse.
The girl shook her head and cursed. “Fergus knows he needs to rest for at least an hour after the suppressors come off.”
I swallowed. He might have known, but he hadn’t told me. “The queen’s guards were coming. He had no choice.”
Fergus groaned.
Jax’s face hardened. “There was a choice. Fergus chose to die.”
“D-die?” No. He hadn’t chosen that. He’d chosen to escape. “Where’s the rowboat?” I’d take him to the king myself. If that’s what he needed to live, then I’d do it.
Two more fae burst into the chamber, their gasps filling the air when they saw Fergus.
Jax shook his head. “There’s no time. It would take you hours to row to the mainland. Then hours to get to the castle. Fergus might last two more, if he’s lucky.”
The new fae pushed past me to sit beside Fergus on his bed. One picked up his hand, tears on her cheeks. She spoke, but I couldn’t hear over the rushing in my ears. Two hours? Why had he told me he could get us out of there? He should have said he couldn’t and we could have searched for another way.
“Who can help him, then?” I stared between Jax, the girl, and Fergus’ wounded back.
Jax shook his head. “The king. The Princess. No one that is on the island at present.”
I looked around the chamber, as if that would show me the answer. It was opulent and princely. The four-poster bed backed onto a black wall, a bedside table and lamp on either side of it. A fluffy gray rug covered the wooden floor, and an entire wall of windows opened onto a huge balcony looking out over the pool, across the beach and out to the ocean.
I saw myself reflected in the glass. My hair was dirty and matted—I didn’t even have my hair clip any longer to tie it back. The dress I’d worn to the queen’s dinner was ripped and gray, but it served as a reminder. “What about me? I’m a…” I’d never said the words before. “Princess.”
Jax eyed me warily. Not because he didn’t believe me—Fergus must have told him who he thought I was before he left—but for some other reason. “In name perhaps, but as I recall, you have no magic, let alone magic strong enough to heal a prince.”
Fergus’ body shuddered, gooseflesh forming on his skin even though it was too warm in his chamber. We had to do something to save him. If I was the only one here who might be able to do it, then I would try. I lifted my chin, my voice firm in an attempt to make him believe. “I have magi
c now. It’s the reason we escaped.” I didn’t mention that I had used it only one time since the ceiling of our cells caved in. Or that I had no clue how to make my magic help Fergus. I hoped it was an intuitive thing. Like how I’d wanted the guards in the cells to go away, and the ceiling had caved in, making it happen.
Jax watched Fergus a moment, and then, with a glance at the girl, gave a slow nod, before taking a step away from the bed. “Very well. We have nothing to lose. Let’s go.” He clapped his hands and indicated to the doorway. The girl and the two other fae walked out without another word. Jax shut the door behind them and stood watching from the back of the room.
Had I really just begged to save Fergus with my magic? Magic I didn’t have the faintest idea how to use?
I stood to one side of the bed, sucked in a deep breath and clasped my injured hands together. I just had to think about what I wanted. That was all. I could do this. I was a princess, and I was powerful. Fergus had said so.
I closed my eyes and imagined his magic refilling within him. I imagined the wounds healing on his back, his ankle getting better. It all happened in my mind’s eye. And this time, I felt the magic form as warmth crept into my palms, brushing up my arms to my shoulders.
Opening my eyes, I looked at Fergus. Magic centered inside me. I unclasped my hands.
A magenta flash shot from them and across the chamber. Jax jumped to one side, and it just missed him as it surged into that black wall he had been leaning against. At the same moment, my ears popped with rising pressure and the windows—the entire wall of windows—sucked into the chamber and shattered, the glass falling like rain around the room.
Pieces, big and small, lodged in Fergus’ back.
I stepped toward Fergus, but Jax, with blood dripping from cuts caused by falling glass, beat me to him. He glared at me, yelled words I didn’t hear and pointed at the door.
It took a moment to realize he was yelling at me. Pointing for me to leave.
I stared at the mess I’d caused. At Fergus, now cut and bleeding on his bed. The glass shards lying across the floor. The hole in the wall. How stupid was I? To think I could suddenly use magic just because I had it.
I turned on my heel and ran.
I didn’t know where I was going, just that I had to get away from that room. I sprinted down the stairs and outside, running along the crushed shell path Fergus had walked me along the first day he brought me here. Some residents strolled toward me. Their wide-eyed stares told me I looked a fright. I veered off and into the lush woods that grew off the path, coming to a stop when I couldn’t breathe anymore.
Prince Fergus Blackwood was about to die. All because he’d helped me escape the Seelie Queen.
Worse, I’d almost killed him and his best friend using magic I had no business using.
As I bent over, catching my breath, my eyes snagged on a pygmy root at my feet. I might not be able to save Fergus with magic, but I was a healer. I could make him comfortable. Maybe I could even prolong his life enough for someone to come here and help him. Like his sister.
I pulled out handfuls of pygmy root, careful not to touch the poisonous flowers on the top of the stems and ignoring the pain in the wounds on my hands as I did so. After hunting around the area for a few minutes, I turned up two blooms of ash flower which would help his fever, though it was marginal if two blooms would be enough. I also picked a handful of round green berries from a small-leafed plant and shoved them in my pocket.
I ran back into Fergus’ home and into my chamber, grabbing up towels and a basin, then sprinted up the stairs to Fergus’ room.
Jax glared as I let myself in and stopped just inside the door. “I’m sorry.” Fergus’ chamber was quiet with only Jax in here, and I pitched my voice to match. “It was foolish of me to attempt that when I don’t know how to use my magic yet.” The broken glass was cleaned up and gone, the windows replaced. Magic, I guessed. Though that didn’t seem to extend to removing the jagged pieces from Fergus’ back, something Jax was half-heartedly doing with a small pair of tweezers.
Jax’s eyes slid from me back to Fergus. He remained silent.
I took a step toward him. “I … ah … I’m a much better healer than a princess.” I swallowed. This was so much harder than it had been in my head. I wouldn’t want me in here if I were Jax, yet I was desperate to convince him otherwise. “I can make him comfortable. Take away the pain, maybe even break the fever.”
His eyes remained on Fergus’ back and I took his silence for agreement. I went to the other side of the bed and placed my pile of towels and basin on the end, along with my selection of herbs. Sitting opposite Jax, with Fergus between us, I nodded at the tweezers in Jax’s hand. “I can do that. If you want me to.”
Jax stared at the tweezers like he’d forgotten they were there. He handed them to me along with the small bowl he was dropping the glass shards into, watching as if he’d tackle me should I attempt to use my magic again. He needn’t worry. That would not be happening any time soon.
My hands were stiff and sore from removing the suppressor from Fergus’ back. Somehow, I bent my fingers around the tweezers and pulled out a piece of glass. Jax had done a good job of removing much of the rest of the glass. “I take it you can’t do this by magic, either?”
He shook his head. “I’m not strong enough.”
“And the king or princess are really the only people who can save him?”
He nodded, his gaze moving to the newly glazed windows. “That’s why we use mortal weapons to fight each other.” His voice was quiet. I wasn’t even sure he knew he was speaking. “So we don’t die.”
I dropped a piece of glass into the bowl. It tinkled against the other pieces.
“Can I do anything?” Jax asked.
I nodded to the basin on the end of the bed. “Can you fill that with water please? Once I’ve removed the glass, we’ll roll him over and give him some medicine. Then we’ll roll him back and I’ll clean him up.” Calmness washed over me. This was the sort of help I was used to giving people.
Jax took the basin without a word. The water ran in the bathroom and a moment later, he placed the basin next to me on the bed. “You know human medicine won’t work.” He sat heavily on the other side.
I caught the basin before it toppled over, placing it on the bedside table. “Because he’s a prince?”
“Because he’s fae.” There was an edge to Jax’s voice, like he thought I should know what he meant.
I glanced at him. “What do you mean?” Human medicine worked on me. Mother had given me ash flower once when a cut on my hand had become infected causing a fever. I’d given pygmy root to her plenty of times for her headaches.
“Why would we need human medicine? For almost everything, we can use magic.” He dropped his head into his hands.
I watched the gentle shaking of his shoulders for a moment, then gave Fergus’ back another once over. I’d removed all the glass. Where the suppressors had been, one side was inflamed, the other was fine, and his skin was hot and dry. He needed the herbs and a cold compress. If I mixed the pygmy root with the ash flower, he’d only have to swallow once to get the benefit of both.
With Jax’s help, I rolled Fergus over, placing pillows beneath his head and lower back so he wasn’t lying on his wounds. His eyelids fluttered. I pulled off the petals from the ash flower and broke off a small piece of pygmy root, holding them in one hand. “Fergus? I need you to swallow this. Can you do that?”
He nodded, and I placed them in his mouth.
Once they were gone, we rolled him back over. I cleaned his back and placed wet towels on his back for his fever and a compress on his forehead. He shivered, but his skin was hot. Too hot. I placed a towel on his forehead and cast a sidelong look at Jax. He’d moved from the bed to sit in a chair. His head was resting on the chair back and he watched every move I made. He seemed so certain Fergus would die. I hoped he was wrong.
I took one b
erry from my pocket, holding it up to the light coming through the window. Jax jumped to his feet and was around the bed in an instant. He smacked the berry from my hand. It bounced across the wooden floor, coming to a stop at the bathroom door. “You can’t give him that! It’s poison.”
I stared at the nightbalm berry lying on the floor. It was poisonous. Even the youngest of children were taught never to touch those little green berries. That one lying on the floor could kill Fergus, Jax and myself were we all to eat a piece.
Fergus groaned. I took the towel from his back, rinsed it with cool water and replaced it. He let out a deep sigh.
When I was eleven, not long after Father died, Mother and I were walking through the woods after a visit to a sick elderly man one town over. She’d heard a noise and pulled me off the trail where we found a woman lying on the ground, the skin on her back so badly burnt, there seemed to be none left. I hadn’t been able to watch, so Mother had sat me behind a tree while she did what she could for the woman. Only, I hadn’t been able to resist not watching, either, and I’d poked my head around the tree.
The woman told Mother she’d been tied to a post in her village for days with no one giving her food or water.
I’d expected Mother to put bandages on the woman, but she hadn’t. Instead, she held a nightbalm berry in her hand and gently squeezed it until the center popped out onto her palm, a skinless version of the round green berry. She pressed on it with her finger, then dipped that same finger in the juice that escaped before placing a drop on the woman’s lips.
It had seemed that as I watched, the woman recovered. The burns turned from open, weeping sores to red welts. In minutes—or so it had seemed—she was upright and on her way. As she left, waving a grateful goodbye, I caught a glance of her ears. Pointed.
When I asked Mother if the woman was fae, she denied it, said the woman was the same as the two of us. When I asked if she’d healed the woman with nightbalm, she told me I must need an early night because I was seeing things.
I’d taken what she said as true and had never thought of that day since. Not until I saw the nightbalm growing in the woods and recalled the deep burns on her back. Burns I was now certain had been caused by iron.
Kingdom of Yesterday's Lies (Royals of Faery Book 1) Page 18
