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The Healers gave instructions on the latest ointments we were supposed to try. Something cooling for Killian, and another one that warmed the skin for me.
I doubted these would work when nothing else had.
Still, I nodded my agreement and promised I’d follow the instructions. My mother leaned in when they left and rested her hand on mine.
“Finn gave me an update,” she said brightly. “The new Queen hatched and she’s causing a ruckus in his beloved Sanctuary, but she doesn’t seem to be touched with corruption.”
I chuckled as relief dampened my pain. “I’d pay good money to see that.”
It was unusual for a wyvern to be born without its rider, but the Lost Queens were a breed of their own.
And like the dragons of Vyorin, not all of them had masters.
I wasn’t sure where that left us, though.
I felt Solstice soaring through the skies above. She continued to guard the campus and scouted for any signs of corruption that went past the campus barrier.
Luckily, Topaz paired off with her so they took turns. Otherwise I imagined Solstice would fly herself into exhaustion.
She felt guilty for losing me in the Malice Realm, but that wasn’t her fault.
And she’d brought me home. That’s all that mattered.
I told her as much with a push of emotion through our bond and was rewarded with an image in return. She pictured us flying in one of our favorite realms, a place without land—only skies and sunlight.
I smiled. Soon, girl. We’ll fly together soon.
My mother squeezed my hand as her baby dragon twisted around her neck. Eclipse had started to form diamond-like scales sprinkled all over her body that made her look like a living piece of royal jewelry.
“Tell me again about my brother,” she asked. “Tell me about my baby brother, Bastion.”
My heart ached for her. I’d told her of the encounter hundreds of times now, enough to have memorized the words.
Everything he’d said was true.
Bastion was her little brother and she used to sing him to sleep before they were separated. The bracelet he gave me was a piece of his immortality.
As I’d guessed, he was a vampire.
Although he’d been turned at a young age, he hadn’t been born as one. It had been under order of the hidden Avalon families to turn the males as a means of protection.
Vampirism meant death—even if they still roamed the realms. They wouldn’t be alive anymore to be used.
That had been the theory, anyway. Corruption had found a way around that tricky technicality.
It caused my mother intense grief to speak of it. She’d never expected to see her brother again or the other males in her family. And the fact that the precaution hadn’t even worked made it worse.
Because her brother’s death had been for nothing.
I didn’t ask of her father, or any of the other males in our family. The pain in her eyes when we spoke of Bastion was already too much for both of us to bear.
Turning my wrist, I watched how the bracelet glistened. It didn’t hurt anymore, but the tongs had dug into my skin and blotches of blood dabbed around the edges.
It released a soft glow, the only indication that it was feeding me power.
So why wasn’t I fully healing?
None of this made any sense.
