“Not those,” Lyric said through coughs from her position on the bed. “That must be boiled.”
Cali stared in horror at the barren fireplace. “You wish me to light a fire?”
“You must.”
She’d never lit a fire in her life.
“Use the flint there. Strike it with steel. The sparks will take to the kindling and ignite.” Lyric’s voice was coming easier now. Soon, she would be able to help Cali with this task.
Cali crouched, uncertainty and urgency spearing through her at once. She struck once, twice, three times, but no such sparks ignited.
“It isn’t working.”
“You must do it harder. Faster. You can do this, Princess.”
Cali inhaled. She struck the steel hard. Sparks leapt to the kindling.
“Nurse it,” Lyric instructed. “Blow on the flames.”
Cali blew, and the flames took. She hurried to retrieve a pot hanging from above the window, filled it with water from the bucket beside Lyric’s pile of dishes needing to be washed, and hung it over the fire.
“Water takes a dreadfully long time to boil,” Cali said, tapping her foot.
Lyric fidgeted on the bed, pushing herself to sit up.
“What was it you gave me?” Lyric asked, nursing her head. She stared down at her arms, which were returning slowly to their normal caramel hue.
“The cure,” Cali said. “Can you finish from here?”
Lyric cradled her hands in amazement as more spots dissipated right before her eyes. “Where did you get a cure?”
“There isn’t time to explain. Can you finish what you need to from here, so you can help others?”
“Yes,” the woman said, sounding dazed.
Cali hurried for the door, but stopped when called.
“Princess? You’ve done well.”
She nodded to Lyric and escaped into the growing morning. If Lyric was this bad after only days, Darren was probably already dead.
Chapter 22
Cali ran through the streets, wishing she had time—or enough of the cure—to stop and help the men, women, and children who lay sick and dying in the gutters. But the palace glittered in the distance, its turrets and towers spearing toward the sky, a beacon to light her way.
Several times, she had to pause for breath. She wasn’t used to so much running. Still, she pushed through the pain in her lungs and the weakness in her legs, hurrying to the palace walls.
The guards stared at her in shock. She recognized them immediately, especially the man on the right with his dark hair and skin and kind eyes.
“Altese,” she cried.
“Princess?”
Cali nearly collided with him. “I’ve returned. I’m here,” she said, panting hard. “Please alert the king and queen; I need to speak with them immediately.”
“As you wish,” Altese said with a swift bow. He nodded to his fellow guard before dashing off inside.
Cali raced across the pavestones, making for, not the front entrance, but the servant’s in the back of the palace. It was the same door she’d taken days before when she’d left to find Lyric.
The door gave without any protest. The scent of death hung on the air, hinting of rotted cabbage, ammonium, and of lost and expired hopes.
Cali made her way down the familiar hall, stopping at Darren’s door.
It held two empty beds.
“No,” Cali said under her breath. She dashed over to stare at the blood stains on the pillow.
He couldn’t be gone. She’d done all she could. She—
Shuffling feet caught her attention. Cali turned just as a nurse in the hallway passed Darren’s open door. She retreated and followed the nurse into the infirmary.
There were too many vacancies in here as well. It was much emptier than it had been when she’d watched Hannah die in here.
“Please,” Cali called, weaving between the empty beds. Over the handkerchief tied around her mouth, the nurse regarded Cali. “Where is Dr. Bauer?”
The nurse wiped her hands on a separate cloth, leaving blood behind. “Delivering a baby, Your Highness. Vera, one of the maids, she’s having a baby any minute. Been in awful pain, she has.”
What a terrible time to be with child. It was a wonder the woman hadn’t caught the necrosis herself.
“Tell me. Did Darren Marcov make it? Where is he?”
Tiredness bagged beneath the nurse’s eyes, looking like bruises. Cali wondered when the last time the girl slept was. She wiped a tired hand across her forehead, removed the handkerchief, and pointed.
“He’s there, Your Highness.”
In the bed, near the corner. He was as still as a nail. Cali wanted to shove the beds aside, to make a clear path to him. But as it was, she had to weave her way through. A soiled sheet draped from the side of one bed. Other sheets were piled along the way as well. The disarray, the lack of cleanliness, the utter stench in here was frightening.
“Darren,” Cali whispered, hoping he’d hear. Hoping it would give him hope.
She pulled the phial from her skirt pocket, readying its cork with agitated fingers just as her foot caught the frame of a bed.
The floor rose toward her. Cali splayed out her hands to keep her nose from battling stone. Something slipped from her grip as she crashed down hard enough to shock her knees and send a sting of pain behind her eyes.
The phial went flying, the same way her pouch of glitz foil had before it had slipped into the sea. She clenched, wincing as the glass hit the stone floor and shattered.
“No!”
Cali dove in its direction. The precious liquid pooled on the stones, seeping into the cracks between them. “No,” she breathed again. Not now. Not after all she’d gone through to return.
Snatching a scrap of fabric from a nearby bed, she wiped up as much of the liquid as she could manage, returning to Darren’s side.
The spots had nearly overtaken him—they were all the way into his eyes. Foam dripped from his lips, and his hands were shriveled on both ends. A sickening image of Hannah looking so much the same flashed before Cali’s vision.
He had minutes. Maybe not even that.
“Hang on, Darren. Hang on.”
Cali wrung the cloth over his mouth, hoping a few drops might escape, praying it would be enough. After several excruciating seconds, several small, translucent drops left the fabric, landing in his gaping mouth.
“Please work,” she prayed, kneeling at his bedside. “Please.”
A hand on her shoulder startled her. Cali glanced up at the nurse before passing the cloth back to her. “You should take some for yourself. It isn’t much, but it won’t be long before the spots overtake you as well.”
“You’re sure about this?” the young nurse asked.
“Positive. At least try.”
Licking her dry lips, the young nurse squeezed the rag over an empty cup, managing to milk a few final splatters free. She hurriedly swallowed its contents.
Cali sat on the bed across from Darren’s, watching him. Waiting.
Sunlight crept higher in the windows, adding more of a goldenrod cast across the empty beds. Cali thought of Soraya, of Bae, wondering if the captain had discovered she was missing yet. She wondered if they’d made it very far. Her own venture to the boundary four years before had taken several days. Were they close to it yet?
Her stomach twisted at the thought. She’d left Soraya behind. But she had to. And she hoped Soraya would come to forgive her if they made it out of this predicament.
Minutes passed. Maybe an hour. Maybe more. Darren’s body began to still. The nurse wiped foam from his lips every few minutes or so, until it stopped dripping out altogether.
“There,” the nurse exclaimed. “Do you see that?”
Darren’s breathing began to slow into a settled rhythm, and the nurse drew down the sheet and opened the top buttons of his drenched shirt. The spots had faded from his throat, his chest, his arms. She placed a few fingers at his throat.
“It’s steady, my lady. It is steady. Whatever you gave him is working!”
She hugged Cali, and Cali hugged her just as thoroughly. Darren’s head lolled to the side. He looked at her for the first time in days. His eyes were clear, brown, and completely exhausted. But they were restored to their normal shade.
“Cali,” he breathed, exhaling her name.
Cali knelt by the bed, taking his hand in hers, pressing it to her cheek. “You’re alive,” she said. “I told you I would find a way to save you.”
If only she could tell Bae. If only she could thank him, one last time.
She wasn’t sure what would happen to him now. Perhaps the captain would discover it was his son who’d released her from his ship. Or perhaps Captain Kelsey would never know. That was why Bae had waited until after dark, until the cacophony of celebration would drown out his actions.
Would he help Soraya as well? He hadn’t said as much. But Cali knew she couldn’t wait. She couldn’t shake the fear in Soraya’s eyes, or the way she hadn’t been able to stop crying while being carted to the ship.
Her cousin was completely alone. Her father was gone. She’d been hijacked to a ship and would soon be forced to use her power to take down a boundary that Cali was sure the sea witch wouldn’t be pleased to lose. Undine had cursed Bae just for trying to cross it. What would the witch do to Soraya for trying to destroy it?
“Darren.” Cali smoothed his damp hair away from his face. He closed his eyes, leaning into the gesture the way a dog would to the one petting it. “I’m glad you’re okay. But I have to go. There’s something I have to take care of.”
His hand tightened on hers. He opened his eyes. “Don’t leave me.”
The words emptied her out. They contained so much more than a plea for that moment. Not only were they a reflection of the command she’d given so long ago—her stupid, foolish command. But she knew the hopes he held for her. They’d been in the last letter he’d had Hannah sneak to Cali. He’d admitted if things were different, he would want her more than anyone else and he would kiss her the next chance he got.
Cali had thought she’d felt the same. She’d thought it was just her impending crown keeping her from him. But after being with Bae, after seeing another world completely, she knew it was more.
She loved Darren. She always would. He was her oldest friend, her first kiss, her unending comfort. But she couldn’t distinguish between that and the vehement, soul-surrendering feeling that had torn out pieces of her heart and left them behind in Lunae Lumen. She wasn’t sure what was happening.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He stroked her cheek with a weak hand. “For what?”
He had hopes and dreams of his own, and she no longer wanted to keep him from them. “You should go. Go see the world, sail, like you’ve always wanted. Don’t let my fears or insecurities hold you back.”
The corner of his mouth pulled up. It was a fatigued gesture, but reminiscent of the Darren she knew. The one who was well, who was full of life, and who had settled for staying with her when they both knew he could never really have her. “You’ve never been insecure a day in your life.”
“I am now,” she said, thinking of Soraya, of the calamity befalling her right that moment. But what could she do?
“It wasn’t just for you, you know,” he said, readjusting himself in the bed. Rolling to the side, he propped himself up on his elbow.
“What wasn’t?”
“Well, I suppose it was just for you. But I didn’t stay because you ordered me to. I stayed because I wanted to, Cali. When you said those things, when you told me to stay, I thought maybe I stood a chance.”
She closed her eyes. A tear slipped from her lashes. His words brought on their own sense of pain. They hinted at a promise she’d never meant to make. A promise they both knew could never happen.
She wasn’t even sure it was because of their status any longer. But she couldn’t explore that at the moment either.
She squeezed his hand. “Goodbye, Darren. I have to go.”
She’d done what she promised him she would. She’d saved his life. And right now, another friend needed her. Not just a friend—a cousin.
Chapter 23
Cali made her way up the carpeted main stairway, apprehension nearly tripping her with every step. She missed the vibrant colors of the Lunae Lumenian palace, the koi fish in their pond, and the other fish in their tanks along the halls. She missed the smells in the air, so much more magical than the suffocating, stark reek of bereavement everywhere Cali turned.
What if her mother and father had the disease as well? Cali had no more of Bae’s cure. She only prayed Lyric could manage to finish enough of her concoction to distribute it soon. For now, she had another matter to deal with.
Bypassing her own chambers, she marched to those down the hall belonging to her father. She wasn’t sure if the guards managed to get word to her parents yet, but this couldn’t wait.
Cali pounded a fist on her father’s door.
His muttered voice could be heard before he wrenched it open. Relief struck her at the sight of him. No spots infested his skin. He was the same as always, with his graying hair cut close to his scalp, his dignified manner and warm brown eyes.
“Father,” she said.
“Caliana!” He drew her into a warm embrace, and she hugged him back, a powerful sense of comfort and safety washing over her. “You’re here! I thought something had happened to you. I heard you were—well, never mind that now.”
“In Lunae Lumen?”
His brow drew into a puzzled line. “How did you hear that? Were you there?”
“It’s a long story, Father. Where is Mother?”
The slightest hesitation passed over him, but he glanced to the bed behind him, where her mother lay.
The last time Cali had seen her mother, she’d been disgusted by the sight of the necrosis blossoming over Cali. And now here she was, a victim to it herself.
“Mother!” Cali rushed to her bedside. The indicative signs of the necrosis resided in her cheekbones, the spots peppering her chest, arms, and throat, the heat rolling off her in sheets.
Her eyes were glazed over, unseeing. Gone was the hard woman who insisted Cali behave every inch the princess, the woman who’d prohibited her from running through the corridors with Darren. She was nothing more than a feeble shell, clinging on to its last shreds of life.
“How long has she been like this?”
“Almost since you left,” he said, pacing.
“You have to send for Lyric Reeves, Father. She lives in the Wheaton Sector, and she has a cure. I had some, but—”
“How do you know who Lyric Reeves is?”
His tone was decidedly perturbed. Cali knew of his skepticism regarding magic; he worried one who had such ability would put an unnecessary target on the people of Zara. She decided it was best not to give Daphne, her maid, away. “Never mind. It was Lyric who helped me across the boundary. She told me how to get the plants needed for a cure, and she’s brewing it now, Father!”
“She what? You were in Lunae Lumen after all?”
“I was. I heard you talking with Captain Kelsey, but you won’t have to rely on him for a cure anymore.”
Her father stormed to the door. Barked an order to the guard standing outside. “Send for Lyric Reeves at once. Find her and bring her to the palace.”
Cali hoped she hadn’t just made a dreadful mistake. Lyric had been living on the outskirts of Zara because of the king. He didn’t take well to those who held such ability—not when the gift of magic was one only bestowed by Undine herself. How had Lyric come by such abilities?
Her father began pacing. “Tell me everything,” he said.
So she did, as quickly as she could manage. Arriving in the palace, being mistaken for a servant, Captain Kelsey’s demands, and being forced to pretend to be Soraya.
“Undine’s wrath,” her father grumbled under his breath.
/> “Soraya and I were hiding in a room above King Emir’s council chamber the day you were speaking with him. The day he killed King Emir. Why didn’t you tell me I had an uncle in Lunae Lumen?”
He rubbed his forehead. “I would have told you, Cali. Once you were crowned princess.”
“Would you also have told me about the marriage tournaments? How you and mother never had one? You’re the reason I wasn’t born with magic like the other princesses are. Would you have told me I have a cousin?”
“Caliana—” His tone wasn’t sharp as she expected. “Your mother didn’t want a tournament marriage, not when I already had my own kingdom. Not when we already loved each other. We saw Undine’s marriage tournaments for what they were—she toys with people. She manipulates them with promises of power. We didn’t want to give in to such games.”
He cast a glance to Cali’s mother. In that moment, pain stripped away the age lining his eyes and mouth. Gray hair sank to deep mahogany, and she saw the younger version of her father, a version where he would have defied tradition and risked the fury of the sea witch to marry a princess without the witch’s blessing.
Cali wasn’t sure why she’d never noticed it before. Perhaps she’d been too absorbed in her own life. She’d been too bitter about the mundane tradition of it all. Perhaps she’d never seen her parents like this, with their walls down, worry pirouetting on her father’s shoulders.
She knew it now, though. She saw it in her father’s eyes, in the constriction of his throat, in the way the small muscle at the base of his jaw twitched. He loved her mother.
If that was the case, then the boundary’s erection had to have been fairly recent for them to be able to cross it. She knew her parents had struggled to conceive for many years before her birth. But she’d always thought the boundary to be ancient, when in reality, it was only around thirty to forty years old. Otherwise, how else would her parents have gotten across it?
A cold plunge dipped down the center of Cali’s chest. Her father had kept so much from her, that was true. But that wasn’t her main concern right now.
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