Page 88 of The Rat King
Her nose wrinkled and disgust. Apparently, they were as unsavory in the daytime as they were at night. “Clothes?” I asked, hopefully.
“Oh, yes,” Sadie said, and fetched something out of the carriage. She handed me a bundle, and I slipped into the too big dress, grateful to be covered.
When I finished dressing, I saw Sadie and the boy were inspecting Samara and Nighval. I had no idea how we were going to get my large husband into the carriage. Hopefully, the three of us could do it. “How are you going to—” I started to voice my concerns aloud, but the boy’s hands began working as strain concentration sprouted across his features.
Sadie opened the carriage door as Nighval’s body hovered and drifted into it. Then Samara’s moved in a similar fashion. Once the two were inside and arranged in a somewhat dignified resting position, the boy approached me.
“I can take you to the witch’s home,” he said.
I shook my head. “No, we need to drop her off there and then I have to get the king back to Ravsted.” I could tell a protest was bubbling on his lips. “You must. This is an order from your queen.”
If his eyes had been wide earlier, now they were bugging out of his head. “Yes, Your Majesty,” he said.
He ushered me to the seat where he would drive the carriage. I assumed he didn’t have enough magic yet to operate it without the horse, as Nighval had, and the effort of getting the bodies into it seemed to have taxed him to his limit. I squeezed a slack-jawed Sadie’s arm as I passed. “Thank you,” I said.
The moment my butt hit the raised seat exhaustion flooded through me. I wouldn’t allow this young man to see me break down, so I kept the tears behind a fragile dam.
I would be strong because that was who I was now. If we could survive this, we could survive anything. I didn’t think after everything, Samara would mess with us again. Perhaps that was naïve, but I had hope. My love had been a few heartbeats away from leaving this plane and now his heart was beating strong, and we were on our way home.
Chapter 61
Avery
Twoheart-breakingmonthspassed,and he still hadn’t woken. We returned to Ravsted after nearly a week of me and the boy, whose name I learned was Luk, traded off driving and sleeping. I’d been nearly as panicked after a few days watching my comatose husband as I was as I watched him bleed out, but I held out hope the Council of Warlocks would know what to do. They hadn’t and seeing him like this wasn’t getting any easier to bear. In fact, it was becoming worse.
I had him, his body anyway. It was like some awful repeat of Khal Drogo, and I definitely wasn’t about to smother him with a pillow or walk into a fire and make baby dragons. I didn’t have any special eggs, magic, or anything else of value. Only this crown and this gaping hole in my chest where the man I sat vigil for day and night remained.
But I was a hopeless romantic and whatever waking sleep paralysis he was under had to end at some point, right? I’d tried kissing him, to no avail. I’d screamed at the ceiling, trying to call the healing power of the Goddess down. The warlocks pooled their power and sent a message across the planes to consult the witches. No solution. My aunt had even sent a note of condolence, but I was still so bitter at her and the witches for not helping Nighval originally, for sending me without telling me about the curse, and now for not having a solution, I’d skimmed it and thrown it into the fire.
My husband lay there, open eyes fixed blankly on the ceiling, heart beating, but not really there. Not the same.
Eshan stepped into the room, clearing his throat, and I tore my gaze away from my husband’s still body. “Avery, the council is waiting.” He approached, holding a hand out, which I took. He tugged me to my feet and clasped both of my shoulders, giving me a little shake. “You’re stronger than this, my queen.”
A tear snaked down my bare cheek. “Some days are harder than others.” I shook my head as more fell. The gentle man’s rough thumbs clasped my cheeks and brushed away the moisture.
“I know it’s not the same, but we miss him, too. Link and I grew up with him as a constant fixture in our lives. You couldn’t have a better friend than Nighval, outside of whenever he was in prince mode. He could be a real dickhead then.”
I huffed a laugh. Eshan and Link had been telling me about their adventurers throughout their youth. They’d been inseparable since they met, and they’d even learned to control their magic together. I thought of Luk and hoped he had a friend like that. When Nighval woke, I’d make sure he took the boy under his wing.
“I can only imagine,” I said.
He put his arm around my shoulder and urged me toward the door. “Come on. We’ll get through this together, and I promise you, we will figure out a way to get him back.”
I nodded, sniffing. I had to have faith and there was still work to do. Jetta stayed after the reception and if it weren’t for her, Link and Eshan, I’d have been lost. Even Leviticus didn’t seem unaffected watching me suffer and attempted to cheer me up from time to time, bless his heart.
It took all of my willpower to let Eshan guide me down the hall toward the conference room. He ushered me inside and sat me between him and Link, who reached over and gave me an assuring squeeze on the knee.
The council greeted me. Only a few of the older ones were brave enough to make eye contact. Leviticus, who I had invited back to the council in Nighval’s absence, leaned forward, reciting off the first item on the agenda. Then the next. More repairs, the state of the different provinces, requests for aid, disputes needing intervention from the crown, tax reports from the magistrates and a million other things I didn’t care about. It’s not that I wouldn’t care about it if my husband weren’t in some sort of frozen state like Han Solo in the other room.
My voice was weak, on this side of breaking when, as the meeting neared its end, I said, “And what of the fate of our king?”
The men on the council shifted uncomfortably, many of them averting their gaze. Jetta’s father, Hager Proudfoot, locked eyes with me in a show of bravery. Shaking his head, he said, “We haven’t found anything yet, Your Majesty.”
“But you are still looking?” I asked.
He looked away then. “We’re doing everything we can.”
I didn’t think he was lying, but I wasn’t sure they felt the same urgency I did. I rose from the table and my chair scraped loudly across the stones. I leaned over and slammed my fists on the table and impressed a demanding look at each one of them.
