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“Delphine,” he said again, and the sound of his voice broke my heart.
But I didn’t go to him. I couldn’t.
Instead I did what Ignatius hadn’t bothered to do. I forced myself to pick a path through the stones, approaching each body and checking they were really dead, although the effort seemed futile.
Ignatius and his two brutish guards were there, but so was Kendry, the pale eyes which marked her as an outsider closed for the last time. And so was Grey’s grandmother, her body looking frail and old now that the vitality of life was gone, the spark of calculation forever extinguished from her eyes.
Ambrose lay beside Augustine, as if the two brothers had been united only in their final moment of life, and Barnabas lay on the other side of the room. He appeared to have been fleeing for the door, but he’d never made it.
All the Constantines were here except one. Somewhere, dimly, I had enough feeling left to be grateful Nik hadn’t killed Costas in his blind, unthinking rage.
As if summoned by my thoughts, Costas’s voice sounded from the garden, calling for us.
I moved woodenly toward the window where I had entered, stepping outside.
“Nik! Delphine! You’re still here!” Costas slid to a halt at the sight of me. Leaning over his knees, he sucked in gasping breaths. “I thought you might be gone.”
“Gone?” I asked, too dazed to try to make sense of his words.
“With Grey.”
That got my attention.
“I found Nik and sent him after you, but he raced off too fast for me to follow. Before I caught up, Grey appeared, running like hounds were chasing him. He went straight into the party and collected all his people. My father and uncle would have stopped him, but Grandmother said to let him be. Knowing Nik would rescue you, I thought I should follow and see where they were going. I couldn’t believe it when he walked them straight down to the harbor, loaded them onto the boat, and just set sail.”
He regained his breath enough to walk toward us. “I thought you might have somehow gotten onboard as—” A sharp intake of breath cut off his words as he finally came close enough to see through the window into the room beyond.
His face paled, his eyes jumping from the horror in the room to my blood-stained gown and finally to Nik’s bloodied hands and sword. After a long, awful moment, his eyes turned back to his grandmother.
“What…” He stumbled back a step. “What happened?”
He couldn’t take his eyes off Nik, his face displaying the same emotions that were tearing me apart. Is that how I looked, with those haunted, terrified eyes?
No wonder Nik kept looking at me with that heartbroken expression.
“Did you…I…My family…” Costas couldn’t seem to finish a sentence, his thoughts fragmenting before my eyes. “It’s over,” he finally mumbled. “It’s all over.”
What’s all over?I wanted to ask, but even before I formed the words, I knew the answer. Everything. Everything was over. It had all been obliterated past hope of fixing.
Costas must have come to the same conclusion because he sent one last wide-eyed look at me before turning and fleeing the way he’d come.
“Costas!” I took several steps after him, but he had already far outstripped me. The direction of his flight told me he was heading back to the harbor. Was there another boat there? A small one, perhaps, able to be crewed by one—as long as that one had both the necessary power to direct his course and knowledge of the route. A person such as the only Constantine with an elements affinity.
Somehow there was room for fresh horror. Costas had said Grey had already sailed, which meant Costas was the only one left on the island who knew the passage through the rocks. Was he abandoning us alone here?
The enormity of it crashed over me. For an overwhelming moment, I wanted to flee as well. Not toward the harbor or a boat or anything logical—just away. I wanted to leave this shattered mess behind and escape.
But even as I thought it, Ida stepped through the gate, staring at the abandoned garden with confusion. Her eyes found me, and our gazes locked, her confusion deepening when she saw my state.
Not all of Grey’s people had left. Not someone like Ida who had only ever wanted a fresh start and a new life. Her he had left behind. I thought of Lumi and Fergus in the marketplace with their bright curiosity so at odds with the adults around them.
I was the only remaining strong healer on an island full of people who might fall sick or injure themselves at any moment. People who had always been led by healers and didn’t know how to think for themselves.
I couldn’t run away. Amara had taught me I had a responsibility to use my power to help people, and there was no clearer need than this. In Eldrida I had promised to respect my own limits, but I had also promised myself that in exchange, I would never refuse to give when I did have something left.
I wanted to find a way back to the safety of Amara and Hayes and our friends, but someone had to help these people rebuild from this destruction. And I was the only someone left.
“Delphine,” Nik’s tortured voice hit my already shredded heart, shattering it even further.
