I sighed. “I expected to feel bad having taken a life, but I don’t. I really don’t.”
“You might eventually,” Owen offered. “You might not. Either way, no one in this room looks at you any differently. You defended an innocent man.”
I looked toward the window, the calm and serene forest I knew that laid below it. “How many more innocent men like Theodore have to die?”
“None,” Krew promised, voice rough. “We let our magic recoup, and my father is now without his sword. We confirm the sword has our mother’s magic and we make our move soon. In a few days.”
Keir gave a nod as he moved to unsheathe the sword. It didn’t hum or have purple tendrils of magic winding around the blade like I’d always expected, but then again, I knew nothing about objects containing siphoned magic. “I suspect he was just wanting to get a feel for how powerful the two of you are together. Out of sheer luck, your magic never combined so he remains somewhat clueless. But the mind games he played tonight are too far even for him.” Keir paused while looking at the sword. “Anyone could have accidentally gotten a glass shard lodged in their body and bled out. He is not stable. And the longer he stays on that throne, the more bloodshed there will be.”
Krew’s eyes were on mine as he promised, “The only blood which needs shed is his.”
* * *
I slept verylittle that night except maybe an hour or two. Krew had helped me into the bath before we finally went to bed, so I was clean, yet all I saw was blood.
Owen and I headed down to the forest in the morning. I couldn’t sit around and just relive the night before, asking myself if I should’ve used my magic sooner. If Krew and I combined our magic in front of the king, would we have saved Theodore and been able to kill the king? Would all this already be over if only we’d been just a few seconds faster, smarter?
“So that’s new,” Owen offered.
A third wolf was waiting for us at the forest.
I slowed and looked at Rafe. “I am not sure I feel up to running today, boys. Boys and girl, that is,” I amended while looking at the timid gray wolf with beautiful blue eyes. “But I do want to try to walk it, if you will all be so kind as to walk with me.”
Rafe reached over and pressed his nose under my hand as if he had heard every word. As if he somehow knew what had gone on in the castle last night or at the very least, saw that I was struggling today.
So we took off. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Krew might have been correct about needing to take a few days to recoup our magic. I didn’t feel the pull to use my magic like I did most mornings, as I had used a lot of magic the night before between chucking the guard at the wall and killing him, and then trying and failing to put up the dome around Theodore. Owen and I needed to discuss that. He had held onto hope my protective domes could be used to keep us safe from the king just before we killed him. But in that moment in the ballroom, it had taken seconds and the king had just shattered it.
Like it was nothing.
I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to use the domes at all.
Rafe walked closer to me than normal, as did Shadow on my other side. Meanwhile the new gray wolf kept her distance but followed along with us, constantly looking through the trees for any threat to burst through at any moment.
We walked toward the lake instead of along the path because I had decided spur of the moment I wished to see the clear lake, if only to be reminded that things were changing.
I didn’t wish to scare the new wolf off, but I couldn’t take seeing the deadened trees either. I had been healing one tree a day around the lake, but this morning I couldn’t bring myself to only do one. I knew I was supposed to be recouping my magic, but I also had a few days to do so.
So I did one. Then another. And another.
I watched the wolves while my magic poured out, hoping that it wouldn’t scare them off, and it didn’t. They looked as if it was a common, everyday occurrence. And it was. I did this most days, just never this close to them.
I kept pouring my magic into the trees, visualizing them healed and healthy. I hated that whatever this healing entity was in my magic couldn’t have helped Theodore. Was I too late? Was he just too far gone by that point?
My magic could heal, but Theodore had also been brutally stabbed in the back too.
Feeling the tears back with a vengeance, I closed my eyes and continued to send my magic.
I stood there, breathing deeply and letting the magic flow from my fingers and send that jolt of energy racing across my blood. I was still not okay about the night before. About being partially responsible for Theodore’s death. About the fact that Krew had left early this morning to personally take Theodore’s body and deliver it to Nerede today while dropping off the sword along the way.
He’d offered to take me with him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go. I was Nerede’s princess. I had vowed to serve my subjects justly. And while some royals might not take that vow seriously, I did. There was nothing just about last night. I had failed my people on my very first night on the job.
So I took the coward’s way out. I was avoiding them. I was avoiding seeing the faces and tears of the people who I had let down so thoroughly.
“Jorah,” Owen snapped.
I opened my eyes and saw that my silver magic wrapping around those three tree trunks were not only making a growing circle of green grass around them, but they were also... oh gods, the trunks looked like they were alsogrowing.
I immediately shut down my magic. “I’m so sorry. I had meant to do three, feeling the need to use my magic to at least do some sort of good after last night, but I had no idea I was—” I cut off, shaking my head and looking up at the trees. “Were they actually growing?”
