“You can start with Asha, if you’d like. She has been moving less and less. She is strong though, so hopefully that will help.”
“Please tell your people to remove all the food and water they have been trying to feed the cetani,” he ordered. “We need all fresh food. All from a different source than you are used to using.”
“I’ll have it done at once,” she answered, walking over to one of the fae in the room. Within minutes they were carrying out all traces of meat and water.
My stomach lurched, but still, I stepped forward. “I’ll find Asha.” I moved into the nest and spotted her right away. She was the largest, but also, as I drew near, she moved her head to me and purred. “I told you I’d come back,” I said, doing my best to step around the beasts as I made my way to her.
I reached out and buried my hands into the fur around her thinning face. “She came to me,” I whispered to her. “She is the reason you will be saved. I am not the savior. She was. I need you to let us try to save you, Asha.” She dipped her head as if she understood, and I gestured for the healer to move closer. “That fae is going to enter the nests. You need to let him come. Can you do that?”
She purred again, and I knew that was going to be the only confirmation I would get. I looked into her distant eyes and could feel the well of pain within her. She was here but so very far gone. It felt just as it did with Efi the day I lost her. She had fallen sick, and shortly after, she was gone. It was not drawn out at all. Though painful, I barely had time to say goodbye.
“Your hand, my king,” the healer asked, pulling me from those sickening memories.
I held it out to him, and he dug through his satchel. He pulled out a small dagger and a few vials. “I’ll do my best to keep this as pain-free as I can.”
“Just do what you need to.”
He took my hand in his and drew the sharpened blade across my palm like it was a knife to silk. As the blood poured, I turned my hand over and let it fill vial after vial. When we were done, he wrapped my hand in cloth and tied it before I moved back to Asha.
“You’re not going to like this part, but you’ll do it anyway. Okay?”
She laid her massive head back on to the cetani beside her, and I took that as her answer. I nodded to the healer, and he stepped closer to her. She hissed like a cat, her open mouth every bit as terrifying as I remembered.
“You will let him, Asha,” I demanded, though I knew I didn’t have the right.
The healer stepped closer still, and I could see her breaths coming faster and faster, but she did not move again. He slowly reached a hand toward her face, and I stayed beside him, stroking her neck as he moved.
“Open,” I told her.
She did not move.
“Asha. You will die if you do not let him closer. Is that what you wish? Will you choose to leave all of your family behind?”
Her large golden eyes met mine, and my heart stopped. Was that the lesson I was to learn in all of this? I thought of all the times I’d laid on Efi’s Isle and wished for death to find me. Would I also choose to leave my family? I understood now.
“I will stay if you will,” I whispered to her. “If you choose it, so will I. We will stay and we will lead together, Asha. You will become mine, as you were Efi’s. I choose you. Live, my girl. Just live.”
She shifted her head closer to the healer and opened her maw until her dry, gray tongue was visible. He mixed my blood with a solution and forced several drops into her mouth. A deep shudder wracked her entire body as she threw her head back. I grabbed the healer’s arm and yanked him backward as she convulsed.
“What is happening?” I yelled, pulling him by the collar until his nose was even with mine.
“It is a spell, Your Grace. Give her a moment. The waters are s-spelled. That is all. It does not work like other poisons.” His body trembled in my grasp.
I stared him down until I saw her body go still out of the corner of my eye. I could tell he was just as panicked as she was when I released him. I darted to her, and for a moment she did not move. Did not even take a breath. But then, as if resurrected, she stood and roared to the heavens.
Chapter 21
ARA
“How much water can one person actually consume?” I asked Fen as he drank from the flowing river while holding me in place for nearly ten minutes. “You realize the more water you drink, the more bathroom breaks you’ll need, and I’m already annoyed with your tiny ass bladder.”
“You should drink more, it’s good for you.” He sat up, wiping his dripping stubble-covered chin.
The smile fell from my face as I felt the ground move below me. I jumped to my feet, pulling Fen. A thunderous booming and the ground shaking meant only one damn thing. We took off toward Lichen and Wren in a full sprint. He kept my pace easily. Danger emanated from him as he moved, his muscular body completely unaffected as we darted through the forest together. Adrenaline rushed me forward as Wren screamed for help. It was time to separate the fighters from the friends.
We made it to them seconds before Kai and Greeve. Weapons out, we stared up at the giant before us. With layers of animal skins sewed together for clothing, his bare feet were worn and bleeding and his long dark beard nearly touched the ground.
“Why the fuck is there a giant in the forest?” Fen asked. “Giants live in the mountains.”
