Chained Soul by Eva Chase
10
Corwin
I’ve always been an early riser, and that tendency has only deepened while my worries for Talia dog me. The sun is barely painting the horizon gold when I cross from the palace of Heart’s Cadence to the border castle to check on her. When I stop outside her bedroom, I can tell from the muted impressions through our bond and the rasp of subdued breaths filtering through the door that both she and Whitt, who stayed by her side tonight, are still sleeping.
I have no interest in waking her from her much-needed respite, but I don’t find I can sit calmly in the common rooms or my own bedroom waiting for her to awake. My restless feet carry me back through the halls and out the door to wander in the briskly cool breeze that dances across the icy plain. Not even the melody that breeze summons in the diamond walls of my own palace soothe my nerves.
A couple of healers arrived last night and tried a few spells on Talia, and she hasn’t lapsed into the same pained state that took her yesterday morning so far. But it might have been days from the curse being triggered until she first showed symptoms. Who knows how it’ll pace itself? The healers couldn’t discern those kinds of details in their examination of my mate.
A few more, the most skilled fae in the healing arts from across all the domains of the Mists, will be arriving throughout the day as the messengers we sent reach them. Heart willing, we won’t even need them. But after everything I’ve seen from the Murk and their wretched king at this point, I’m not feeling particularly optimistic.
Our best chance may lie in the rat who came bearing the warning. A rat Talia has softened to more than I’m sure I like. She cares so deeply and is willing to forgive so much, my kind-hearted love. It worked to my benefit when she and I barely knew each other, but now…
There was a flicker of something deeper than gratitude in her after he checked her curse. And I may not be the most experienced in romantic relationships out of all fae kind, but his response to her strikes me as more devoted than simple compassion.
If he ends up hurting her…
As I shake that thought away, one of my colleagues who’s perhaps even less successful in her personal relationships than I’ve been soars into view. I recognize Laoni from the turquoise tint to her feathers and the quality of her movement before she lands, transforming into her usual form an instant later.
She swipes her hand over her thick hair that’s a lighter shade of the same hue as her feathers and tips her head in acknowledgment. “I thought… I’d see how you’re faring, with the new developments.”
I’d informed my fellow arch-lords of Madoc’s claim about the curse shortly after I heard it, of course, and of the fact that it appeared to be taking hold the first time I forced myself to leave my mate’s side after her fit. Talia’s fate affects the entire fae world. I can’t help wishing just this once that I could set aside my duties as ruler and focus only on her, though.
“It’s distressing, of course,” I say to Laoni, who’s probably inspecting me for signs of my mother’s sort of grief-stricken deterioration as we speak. “But we’re tackling the problem every way we know how, quickly and decisively. If there’s a solution within our grasp, we’ll find it.”
If there’s not… I’m not thinking about that yet.
Laoni rubs her mouth. For a moment, she just gazes off across the glittering landscape alongside me as if we’re contemplating the same topic together. I haven’t typically seen her this pensive. I’m not sure whether to be relieved or concerned by her new demeanor.
“I’m sorry you’re having to face yet another threat to your mate,” she says finally, without looking at me. “I can only imagine how difficult it must be to have her right there and yet not be sure of how to save her.”
I blink at her, taken aback by the unexpected condolences. Of all the fae I might encounter, Laoni is the last I’d have expected to express any sympathy. She’s spent most of the few months since Talia joined us doing everything she can to undermine my mate and our union.
But things have changed. Talia became Laoni’s savior as well as that of so many of our people. Just a few days ago, she delivered her cure to my fellow arch-lord a second time—at Laoni’s palace, keeping it secret as Laoni prefers.
And perhaps my colleague can imagine how I feel better than she might have before. She lost someone in a much more final way—someone she wasn’t there to save.
“The rats have a lot to answer for,” I say tentatively, knowing how she reacted to Talia’s gentle overtures on this subject. “Including one of your long-time guards, I know.”
Laoni keeps her gaze fixed on the distant mountains, but I’ve worked alongside her long enough to know from the flex of the muscles in her broad neck that the remark affects her. She lets out a huff, and her voice turns just a little ragged. “We should have exterminated all those vermin ages ago before it could get to this point.”
She still won’t acknowledge the feelings she held for Kesral or even the childhood friendship they once shared. What did her father say to her, how did he push her over the years, for her to get to the point where she’d distance herself so much from a man she cared about deeply, simply because one of his birth parents was human?
I hardly think she’d answer that question, so I speak to the actual words she said. “I believe we were slaughtering as many of them as we encountered. It does get difficult to interfere much with those living in the human world without exposing ourselves to mortals more than is wise.”
“We should have cut them all down before they fled there from the Mists.” Her expression hardens. “We may need to make some compromises on our typical rules about exposure. I want to see that king of theirs, his Heart, and everyone who stands with him torn to shreds.”
The furious vehemence in her voice resonates with my own inner turmoil. A picture flashes through my head of a horde of ravens descending on the swarming rats, slicing through them with our talons, tossing them into their false Heart until it suffocates with their bodies.
The thought brings a twinge of satisfaction into my chest, but it’s a sickly sensation that turns my stomach as well. If Talia were awake and aware of me, she’d recoil from the images. I know she hates what Orion stands for and she wouldn’t regret seeing him fall, but she doesn’t want this to turn into a full-out war on either side if she can help it.
After the blood she’s already seen spilled, her parents’ and her brother’s, and how much she’s had to give of herself, I can’t say I blame her.
“I want to see those who’d harm us dead too,” I tell Laoni. “But I think we need to proceed with moderation. We once thought the Seelie were all villains, and clearly that isn’t the case. None of us has really had a conversation with one of the Murk in centuries. Madoc seems reasonable enough.”
Laoni scoffs. “Because it benefitted him to appear that way.”
“It’s because of him we have Talia back with us at all,” I remind her and myself at the same time.
“Well, some people can’t be brought back,” she mutters. Then her gaze flicks to me finally, with a hint of anxiety. “Your mate had some specific ideas about my associations with my staff that—”
Is she going to outright deny it even after she’s been calling for the blood of the ones who killed her old friend?
I shake my head before she can go on. “I know about the conversations you had. I make no judgments of you based on them. I’m still sorry that you’ve had to experience the loss. We need say no more about it.”
Laoni’s mouth tightens. I get the impression she feels she should thank me for how I’ve handled the situation but also doesn’t want to acknowledge there was anything to handle. She settles for sighing. “I will stick to the agreement we came to that we will question any Murk caught venturing into our territory or by the patrols in the human world. But only because I want to squeeze every clue I can out of them that might allow us to wipe them from existence.”
She takes off as a raven before I have a chance to answer her last proclamation. There wasn’t much I could have said in response anyway.
A sense of groggy movement passes through my awareness—Talia is emerging from sleep. I’m about to turn to go in and greet her for the morning, to take some small pleasure in the fact that she’s still well, when a carriage comes into view against the backdrop of the mountains. My heart sinks.
Of course, the other curses we face haven’t disappeared just because a new one has emerged.
I head over to meet the vehicle as soon as it reaches the plateau. Since Talia’s kidnapping, our brethren have been more frugal in how many flock-folk they send to accompany a curse victim. As the carriage slows, I make out just four figures—the man who’s the afflicted one from the bluish pallor of his face, a woman sitting close to him who appears to be his mate, a younger man with similar features who’s probably a son, and an older woman who’s directing the craft while the others are distracted by their loved one’s illness.
“I’m sorry to see you but glad you’ve made it here before the worst,” I tell them. “Make your way over to the area in front of the Heart, and Lady Talia will be out to perform the healing as soon as she’s able.”
My mate has already picked up on the activity, though her thoughts still feel a little muddled from the earliness of the hour. I’ll get dressed and come right down.
You’ll eat something first,I insist as I head to the border castle to make sure that happens. He isn’t going to freeze in the next hour. You need to look after yourself now more than ever.
I’ll eat a quick breakfast, Talia retorts. I definitely don’t need an hour. I’m not going to leave that man and his family in misery any longer than I have to.
By the time I reach the castle, I can hear her and Whitt chattering in the kitchen already. I find them digging into stuffed rolls that August prepared in advance alongside dinner last night. He wanted to be sure of Talia having a breakfast that met his stringent approval while he was overseeing some of the current patrols this morning.
I pick up one myself and can’t help savoring the crisp pastry as it melts in my mouth around the center of softened vegetables and fried meat in their tangy sauce. One reason not to mind my mate having three others: it’s somehow brought even better meals into my life. Not that I’d mention that to Charles and Beth, whose offerings are still quite impressive as well.
“Is everything all right?” Talia asks me, maybe picking up on the lingering uneasiness from my conversation with Laoni.
“Laoni came to speak to me briefly,” I say, deciding no more detail is needed. “She does tend to have a rather… chilling effect on my mood.”
Whitt guffaws and then coughs when he nearly chokes on his bite of roll. “I like your sense of humor when you choose to bring it out, my feathered friend.”
I half-heartedly glower at him, and Talia swats him. “You need to come up with some better nicknames for him. If ‘mite’ could become ‘mighty one,’ you’re obviously capable of it.”
Whitt smirks and tugs Talia close to press a kiss to the side of her neck. “You’re still my mite, no matter how mighty you become.”
“Well, your mite needs to go cure one of the curses I can tackle.” She leans over to kiss him quickly on the mouth and hops off her stool. “I’m ready. Let’s see to them.”
Whitt follows us across the icy landscape to the Heart where the four petitioners and their carriage are waiting. His keen eyes skim over the snowy plains, and I know he’s searching for any hint of rats or their illusions.
Talia smiles at the hunched man, bending a little to bring herself level with his face. “You’ll feel better soon. It barely takes any time at all.”
She drags in a breath and closes her eyes, raising her inner wall at the same time. She doesn’t like having me see the horrible memories she has to bring up to provoke her tears, ones I’ve witnessed through her before but that it pains me to be reminded of. I’d share them with her if she wanted, but I won’t demand it.
It takes a minute or so before the first tears streak down her cheeks. She swivels away from the cursed man to pretend to hide them, covers her eyes, and then turns back to him with damp fingers. As she strokes those fingers down the side of his face, the curse retreats like a light going on inside of him. His body starts to relax—
And Talia’s seizes up.
The pain lances through her so abruptly that I double over with it too. I stagger, throwing myself the few steps between us as Whitt also rushes to her side.
Her whole body is shaking, and I can feel why in the agony that radiates from her into me.
“What’s wrong?” the now-cured man asks, his voice rasping but steady, his eyes wide.
I wrap my arms around my mate, not knowing what to tell him. She’s sick too, no matter what those first healers did for her.
And we don’t know if there’s a single person in the world who can cure her the way she just cured him.
