A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

50. Karus

Chapter 50

Karus

Blotting Pompeii’s forehead with a cool rag, I hummed something soothing while he tried to keep his eyes open.

I’d woken him from his sleep, knowing he needed to eat, and helped him to his washing room to relieve himself. He needed full support, leaning on me the entire way there and back, his steps shuffling along the soft rugs on the cold stone floor.

When back in bed, he’d had another fit of coughing, black sludge dripping from his mouth. My stomach churned and my heart raced, innately aware that time was limited.

“Pompeii,” I whispered lightly, “I promise you can sleep soon, but you must eat something.” I held a spoonful of light broth to his lips. He opened them slightly to take it in, most of it dribbling down his chin.

I sighed, frustrated at how helpless I felt. I hadn’t done it directly, but this illness came from me. Rev would argue it came from him and we’d both demand to take blame from each other, but I grew those trees in Viridis. I’d grown the new form of Blight and this was my power infecting my friend.

A knock came at the door, and I set the bowl of broth aside calling, “Who is it?”

“It’s Mychael. I—I have something that might tempt your Overseer to eat.”

Curious, I opened the door slightly, scolding, “You shouldn’t be here. You can’t come in. I won’t risk it.”

He chuckled sheepishly in an apologetic grin and held out a bowl for me to take. “I made this. It’s the only thing my companion could keep down when the Black Fever infected her.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t much help in the library and Lia let me into her kitchens to make it.”

“Well, that’s a miracle,” I admitted, taking the bowl and sniffing its contents. The savory scent of chicken in broth met my nose along with something sharp and sour.

“Ginger?” I asked.

“And lemon. Hopefully it can ease his nausea as it did hers. It usually takes hours to make, but did you know that Lia?—”

“Can quicken cooking times,” I finished, nodding and wanting him to leave to not risk infection. “Yes. Thank you, Mychael. This is incredibly thoughtful.” I smiled up at him as he towered over me with a good five inches.

He inclined his head, backing away. “You’re welcome. Glad to be of some use.”

“I’ll see you in the library when I’m done here.” I began to close the door before adding, “Has the Baron returned with Philius?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. Should I check on them next?”

“No. Baron Revich has the situation under control, I assure you. Philius needs a good lesson on his role in Felgren and Revich is the one to teach it.”

“So we saw. Remind me to never question the Baron’s power.”

“That’s the thing, Mychael,” I responded, closing the door, “You’ll never need one.”

An hour later, Revich came through the library door, Philius behind him looking completely worn.

We all looked up from our books. I sat at the desk while Talon, Ilyenna, Rell, and Renn lay in varying degrees of comfort over the chairs and couches in the room. Mychael was up on the ladder, reaching for books on the very top of the shelves.

I raised a brow, waiting for Revich to speak.

“Have you found anything?” he asked, ignoring the pressing question of what happened in the forest.

Ilyenna rose and handed him a book marked with a page about Viridis and how the conduit author suspected it lived.

He opened the book and skimmed the page. “We knew this already, but thank you, Ilyenna. Good work.”

They turned back to their books while Philius joined them, taking one bound in red cloth from Mychael who offered it.

Revich came to the desk and bent forward, his hands palming the surface. “Nothing?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“And Pompeii?”

I closed my book, placing a strip of cloth on the page I had gotten to and sighed. “Mostly the same. Though, more full now, since Mychael made him some soup.”

He turned to glance back at the former guard. “He made soup?”

I nodded with a grin. “Yes. And Lia even helped him.”

He laughed shaking his head. “Well, that’s a miracle.”

“That’s what I said,” I whispered, leaning on my elbow, chin resting in my hand.

His eyes flickered across my face, landing on my lips. I flushed, sitting back, taken by the sudden heat from him.

“Wood.” He rapped his knuckles on the desk between us, and I swallowed—previously tired and hungry, now wanting something completely different to distract me from what plagued my heart.

He reached into his vest pocket, bringing his flask of styris tea to his lips, taking a long pull before handing it to me, my arm already reaching across the desk for it.

He turned around and addressed his channelers. “Thank you for your steadfast research. You all deserve a rest. We’ll meet on the Fortress steps in one hour. Get something to eat from the kitchens and relax.”

They left, Philius saying something to Mychael to make him laugh, patting at his back heartily as they walked out of the room together.

Revich watched each of them leave, Renn shutting the door behind her before he turned his gaze back to me.

I took an air of indifference, though my body was aching, begging for him to take me, right there on that desk and distract both of us from our frustrations and worries.

I stacked my pile of books and stood, holding back a smirk at his piercing gaze as I didn’t meet it. I sighed heavily, unbuttoning the top two buttons of my vest and moving to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, hands in his pockets, watching me.

“Who, me?” I replied, backing up to the door. “I’m doing as you requested, Baron Revich.” I bit my bottom lip, just for him. “I’m going to our rooms to relax.” I let my voice fall, soft and sultry.

He followed, taking my hand and throwing the door open, pulling me toward our place of rest.

My lips grazed Rev’s jaw, freshly shaven since this morning, and I slipped my leg over his stomach, claiming what was mine. His breath still quick, his heart still pounding, I absolutely adored knowing I did this to him.

I pressed my cheek to his chest, listening to his racing heart steady as he brushed his hands over my hair.

I followed the definition of his muscles, my fingers rising and dipping over each one lightly.

“That tickles,” he rumbled, jerking slightly as my fingers brushed his side.

I gasped, raising my head. “The great Baron of Felgren is ticklish ?”

“Yes.”

I shifted and pressed my mouth to his, coaxing his tongue to come back out and play with other parts of me.

He reached up to take my face in his hands, accepting my challenge to continue. “You’re not done, are you?”

I shook my head silently, pulling myself up over his stomach, sliding my body along his skin.

A knock came at our door, and I cursed.

Rev kept his eyes on me, holding my hips and sliding my body back down his stomach. “What is it?” he grumbled, watching my face light up in pleasure as I slipped forward again.

“I’m sorry to disturb you.” I recognized Jesslyn’s muffled voice, one of Lia’s kitchen aides. “But Moira has returned and is refusing to leave the kitchens until she speaks to Karus.” She paused and I glanced down to Revich in frustration. “She says it’s about the Growers? She won’t elaborate—you know how she gets.”

I slipped back down his body one more time, wishing I could stay there and take my pleasure one slide at a time, knowing I couldn’t.

“Thank you, Jesslyn. We’ll be right there,” I called, hopping off of Rev and off the bed, my mood souring as I pulled on my undergarments and skirt, huffing to the wardrobe to pull a new shirt from a hook.

Rev sidled up behind me before I could put one on and wrapped his arms around my breasts, pulling my back to his chest.

He was still naked, a fact I knew from how hard he was against my backside.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered at my neck, finding the curve of my jaw with his lips.

“You’re not helping,” I chided, grabbing my shirt and turning to hand him his.

The moment I did, he kissed me fully. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” he replied, pulling slowly from my lips and leaving me dazed.

He took his clean shirt from my hands, slipping it over his shoulders and helped my arms into mine.

What a woman I had turned out to be.

Completely taken, no real sense of direction when he did this to me. A creature of his bidding, I’d do whatever he wanted in those moments where I saw only him.

I blinked rapidly, finding some strand of strength to recover. I cleared my throat as he buttoned my shirt so painstakingly slowly, grazing longer than he needed over the curve of my breasts. “Are you planning on being absent from this conversation with Moira?”

“Yes,” he admitted, finishing the last button, one further down from where I usually buttoned my shirt.

“Don’t you want to know what she has to say?”

“Of course. And you’ll tell me.” He walked back to the side of the bed where his pants had been tossed aside with little regard for potential wrinkles, and I watched blatantly. “I need to check on Pompeii. And then meet the channelers on the steps, just as I asked.”

Tucking his shirt into his black pants, he donned his black vest, finishing the last few buttons and kissing me one more time. “Join us when you’re done?”

I blinked again, clearing my senses and nodding. He took my hand, bringing the inside of my wrist to his lips, kissing it softly and pulling me along to our boots which had been flung across the room minutes earlier. We pulled them on and left our rooms, me regaining my dignity and Rev, watching me try, his upturned lips not at all helping.

I rolled my shoulders and entered the kitchens with Rev behind me.

“—without asking first, Moira. You know the rules of my kitchen and you will follow them.”

Lia glared down at Moira with her fists tucked into her hips in a clear attempt to scold the unscoldable.

Baring her sharp teeth, Moira retorted, “I was hungry! You try sitting still and listening to your elders blabber on for days before getting to the important stuff!”

She pulled the buttered roll closer to her chest, hoarding the doughy treat with a tight grip.

“Moira!” I called, stepping down into the kitchen, feeling Rev’s hand brush my back as he turned to the right, headed to the servant’s corridor.

“Karus!” She didn’t drop her roll, but instead flew to my face, knocking her forehead to mine.

I laughed, giving an apologetic look at Lia who huffed and resumed her work, once again wrist deep in dough.

I pulled a plate from the shelves and placed it on the small table near one of the few windows in the Fortress and gestured for Moira to sit while I grabbed some food from the communal tray.

Lia had strict rules in her kitchen about any passerby looking for something to eat. She kept us well-fed and always had fresh fruit and cheese on a tray that we could take from at any time.

What she didn’t allow was the grazing of food she was currently preparing for a main meal, which was exactly what Moira had taken from—the basket of rolls and butter nowhere near the communal tray.

I bit into a yellow pear, catching the juice as it ran down my chin. “Tell me everything, my friend. Where have you been for an entire week ?”

She stuffed her face with no concern for manners or pleasantry, bits of bread covering her cheeks, her long sage fingers greased with butter as she chewed loudly.

I ate almost as ferociously, rising to make a plate for Revich when he returned from Pompeii.

“Well,” she started, licking her fingers and eyeing the bread basket Lia had moved closer to where she worked. “The Growers want to help you take back Viridis.”

I choked on a piece of cheese. “What!” I gasped. “The Growers in Felgren can help with that? How? And why would they want to?”

She eyed my strawberries and I held one out to her. She folded her legs underneath her and began to pick off each tiny seed. I laughed having forgotten that little quirk of hers.

“We had a meeting with the elders. This season, they asked me to attend and I figured it had something to do with all of this,”—she gestured around to the inside of the Fortress—“but I had forgotten how long and boring those meetings are. The Growers speak so slowly, I slept most of the time, but then,”— she bit into the now seedless strawberry and chewed—“they spoke of the Blight. They’ve been trying to force it back, you know. Especially now that the sun stays in the sky longer each day. They said they haven’t been able to do much and want to try something new.”

“What do they want to try?” I waited for her to take another bite and chew.

“They want to experiment with pushing the Blight back and growing more forest at the same time. But they need your help. And they don’t want to try it on Felgren first. They’d rather risk your library than the forest.”

I thought for a moment, plucking at a piece of hard white cheese. “What exactly do they think could go wrong?”

She shrugged. “Something about growing too quickly permanently causing the soil to sterilize.”

“Sterilize? Moira, do you know what that means?”

“Never heard of it.”

“It means the soil would become barren. Unable to grow anything ever .”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, that’s why they want to try it in Viridis first, I suppose.”

“How do Growers…grow?”

“That’s what they do. They grow things. I’ve told you before, Karus, if you’d been listening—Growers keep the forest healthy and new. They vary in shape, size, and numbers depending on the season.” She eyed me with her large violet eyes. “And there are a lot of Growers this spring. More than we’ve ever recorded.”

I tucked that detail away to think about later. “So, let me get this straight. The Growers want to come to Viridis and attempt to regrow it while we use Simulair Solum to push the Blight back? They really think that could work?”

She shrugged, wiping strawberry juice across her yellow tulip skirt. “I guess so. I’ve told them about Viridis before. At least as much as you’ve told me. I’m still not convinced it’s really all you say it was.”

“Moira, there’s even more reason to do this. Pompeii is sick. And it’s from the Blight that grows in Viridis. We need to access those books to look for a way to make a cure. That’s how Heimlen made his cure for the Black Fever. The answer’s in there.”

“Pompeii is sick?” She scratched at the vines growing from her head like long strands of hair. “I kind of don’t mind him sometimes.”

I held back a laugh. “When can we meet with the Growers?”

“They’ve asked to meet tonight. Under the full moon. I’ll be there to interpret, but it will take some time. They’re slow talkers.”

Nodding quickly, I was already thinking about what Rev would say. “Thank you, Moira, my dear friend.”

She beamed, lifting her pointed chin, her sharp teeth startling to everyone but me. “Lia! Tell me that dough is for cinnamon buns!” She flew off the table, hovering over the cook’s shoulder and sniffing the air as Lia tried to swat her away.

Grabbing the plate of food for Revich, I headed to Pompeii’s room to deliver the news. He met me in the hall, taking an apple and my hand.

“How is he?” I asked, rushing to match his swift stride.

“The same. Still sleeping.”

We passed through the kitchens and I eyed Moira now sitting at the bread basket, chewing on another roll. Seemed Lia had given in.

We entered the dining hall and Revich asked, “What was Moira’s news?”

“The Growers want to help us attempt to take back Viridis.”

“The Growers?” He stopped, pulling my hand to stop, too.

“Yes. They want to attempt to push the Blight back further in Felgren and grow new life where it stands, but they want to try it on Viridis first. They’re worried it could permanently sterilize the soil if they grow back what was recently diseased so quickly.”

“So Viridis is the experiment? What if its soil becomes sterile?”

I shook my head. “That’s all I know. They want to meet with us tonight. Moira will interpret.”

“Great,” he mumbled, heading to meet the channelers.

“We’ll at least listen. Their magic is powerful in Felgren. And Moira said there’s more of them this spring than there ever have been on record.”

A tug on our line. Revich watched me as I slowly realized why.

The winter I had been lost to myself, no memory of who I was or had been, was the worst winter in the history of Felgren. The longest, too. It had killed many of the trees, destroying whole rows of them. No wonder the Growers were en masse. They had work to do.

He resumed his fast pace through the foyer. “We’ll go tonight, but I don’t want to risk Viridis.”

“We need Viridis, Rev. Regardless if we accept their plan, we have to try to destroy the Blight there. And soon.”

He sighed and kissed my fingers clasped in his. “I know we do. Pompeii needs us. We’re running out of time.”

I loved the moon.

Silvery paths before us, she lit our way through the forest, a guiding light as we traversed the world she shone upon.

I followed Revich with Moira in front, her eyes reflecting in shades of blue, purple, and pink in the night. Revich gripped my hand tightly as if he’d lose me to the night if he ever let go.

We’d dressed in warm cloaks, but my cheeks still burned with the sharp chill of spring.

“We’re almost there,” Moira assured, flying backward in her tulip skirt and woven grass top, the cold having no effect on her skin. Her wings in the moonlight were glorious, sparkling things that caught my eye continuously as all the colors reflected in the soft glow.

Revich glanced back at me again, grinning. “Are you remembering, too?”

“What? The first time you led me out here and kissed me under the full moon?”

“Till dawn.”

My cheeks flushed and my body responded to his voice, low and deep. “I remember.”

We entered a clearing. A circlet of tall, skinny trees surrounded us. The soft glow of mushrooms sprouting from each of them gave the space an unearthly feel, their stems like fingers reaching out from the wood.

Moira flew to the center of the circle and landed on a boulder, cupping her mouth and emitting a high-pitched wail that had me gritting my teeth.

Revich looked to me with a single brow raised. I shrugged.

The movement began as soon as the ear-piercing call was over. Dark forms of creatures moved between the trees, coming to the center.

There were seven of them, each as unique as any human, some sporting the same mushroom-capped heads as the Grower I had met in the Blightress’s lands, some with tall, leafy stems sprouting from their tops.

Each of them was built like a cross between a human and a tree, legs and arms as branches, their long torsos like a trunk.

I glanced at Revich to see his reaction, finding he had none. He stood there, still, his frame hard as he watched with little expression. But I could feel it. Through our bond, I knew of his apprehension for this meeting.

A Grower with a smooth mushroom dome of soft white began to speak. The speech was little more than murmurs of the wind, the light sway of branches as they crossed each other in forced movement.

Moira listened with rapt attention, nodding occasionally, once bunching her shoulders up by her neck before letting them fall into a deep sigh.

Revich and I stood there for what felt like ten, twenty minutes before Moira turned to us, hands on her hips. “They want to see the spell. The one that produces the sun.”

Rev stepped forward, producing a ball of blue light over his palms.

“Not from you. They want to see the sun from the one who held it against the Blight.” She stared at me, hesitancy on her face.

“No,” Rev announced, focusing on the Growers. “It’s too dangerous. She can’t control its size, nor break it.”

I bit my lip, crossing my arms. I hated that he was right.

Of course, I’d be willing to do it anyway. Viridis and Pompeii’s life was worth the struggle and the danger the spell, but I waited to hear a response.

Moira turned back to the Growers, her screeching grating in the night.

A few more minutes passed before she turned to us again. “They say it must be you. First of all, they don’t trust Barons,”—Moira eyed Revich with a sneer—“and second of all, we’ll have only one chance to try this because the effort will drain them for the rest of the season. It must be done right the first time, before summer begins.”

“I’ll do it,” I declared, stepping up beside Revich.

“She won’t,” he responded, still holding his light above his hands.

“Yes, I will,” I returned. “You can help me break it. As long as you’re there, I’ll be alright. You won’t let it grow too big. You won’t let me go too far.”

“No, Karus.” His light disappeared and he turned my shoulders to face him. “Here we are again, talking about what’s worth the risk. Viridis is not. They can use my magic or nothing.”

“And Pompeii’s life? Is that not worth the risk?”

“He—”

“Don’t I get to decide what risk I’m willing to take? Finding a way to save Pompeii outweighs the danger, Revich. This is my choice.”

“And your choices affect the both of us, remember? What if I can’t get to you? What if I can’t knock you down to break the spell? What then, Karus? What purpose is my life without the whole of you in it?”

“I’ll be fine.” My voice wavered. “You’ve saved me from this twice. You can do it a third time.” I addressed Moira once more. “Tell them I’ll do it. But not here. It’s draining and we need to get this done as soon as we possibly can. Can they come to the Fortress tomorrow at dawn?”

Moria glanced from me to Revich. He shook his head, and she scrunched her face in a grimace. “Karus, maybe?—”

“No. Not you, too. This choice is mine and I make it for Pompeii and Viridis. We have to try something and his time runs thin.”

Rev stepped in front of me, his back turned to the fae. “Do you know what you’re asking of me?”

My heart raced at the low timbre of his voice, spoken slowly, quietly, almost as if he hadn’t spoken at all and the words came through our bond only.

I swallowed my nerves and straightened my spine. “I do. And I’m sorry, but I still make this choice knowing. I make it for Pompeii. I make it for Viridis and the future we share training conduits together.” I reached out to touch his chest. “I make it for us.”

I gave him a weak smile, his anger and worry unchanging on his face as I stepped around him. “Moira, please tell the Growers we will meet them outside of the Fortress doors at first light. We’ll lead them to Viridis and get this over with.”

She nodded, placing her trust in me and turned back to the assembly. I waited for her to finish her speech, glancing back to Revich once to see he stood behind me, hands shoved in his pockets, his jaw flexing as he stared at me. His eyes were dark. Black. All of the iris void of color and for a moment, just one moment, I hesitated again.

I trusted him. I trusted him with my life, because what he said, I knew to be true. If he lost me again, he wouldn’t survive it, and yet I asked him to risk it with me.

I choked down the guilt heavy and solid in my stomach. There must be answers in Viridis. There must be a book we could use to find the cure, and though I knew many of them were ruined, I held the hand of hope that what we needed, Viridis would provide as it had before it was taken.

Moira finished and I watched the Growers, my eyes flicking to each one to show them I was not afraid. I wanted them to see that I believed this could work. That I held faith in them as well.

The leader gave what I assumed to be a nod, the movement jerky, head lowering and rising oddly.

“They’ll be there.” Moira’s eyes flicked behind me and her face fell.

I spoke before she could voice her own concern. “Not you, too, Moira. I need your support here.”

“Clairannia and Figuerah would not give it.”

I almost laughed, surprised at her insight. “But you?”

“I don’t like putting all my trust in him.” Her eyes flicked back to Revich.

“Then put your trust in me.”

She nodded, fluttered to me, and knocked her forehead on mine.

The Growers backed away slowly, disappearing into the circle of trees just as quietly as they came.

Moira bared her teeth in a smile. “I’ll see you at dawn.” She turned and followed them into the forest.

I rolled my shoulders, ready for the fight ahead of me and turned.

His dark eyes bored into mine, and I could no longer ignore the pain he held. The disappointment, the fear, the anger that hung heavy in the air around us.

We stood there, facing each other, yet another moment in time that seemed to still in our wordless conversations.

I finally spoke, “I can’t do this with you feeling like that. I can’t put everything into this task with what you’re feeling right now.”

“You’d have me lie, then?” he challenged.

“I’d have you trust me. I’d have you trust yourself.” I stepped closer, my chest at his. I longed for him to touch me as he always did when we shared so much of the same space in this world. “Please, Rev.” I blinked back tears. “I can’t do this without you.”

His body tensed. “Is there nothing I can say? Nothing I can do? Give me any other option and I’ll take it. Ask anything of me but this and I’ll do it. You want a library filled with life and books? I’ll make one. You want a copse of birch trees and silk benches to read on? I’ll grow them. I’ll build them for you.”

I slid my hands over his chest, his body responding immediately as he pulled on my waist. “You know that’s not what this is about. You know our best bet at saving Pompeii is there.” I lowered my head, taking a breath. “This is a choice. This is a risk, Rev, and I am asking you to take it with me and save our friend’s life.”

“We don’t even know what book we need.” He gripped my waist tighter. “There must be other things we can try. There must be medicus conduits we can bring.”

“We don’t have time.”

“We haven’t heard from Clairannia.”

“All of the medicus conduits of Hyrithia could not cure the Black Fever, so what makes you think one medicus conduit has the answer?”

“She’s not just any medicus conduit, Karus. She heads them all in the Spire. Something else you’ve missed since you fell to this same spell seven years ago.”

His words stung, and I flinched at the harsh truth of them. “Then promise me you’ll break it. Promise me you’ll not let me get that far, and I’ll believe you. Tell the world you won’t let me lose myself again and I know you won’t because you keep your promises, Revich.” I gripped his vest, pulling him to me. “You won’t let me get lost again. Promise me.”

He closed his eyes and lowered his head. He drew a breath and whispered what I wanted to hear. “I promise.”

He kissed all of me that night.

Every curve, every space of sensitive skin came under his touch as if he was saying goodbye. As if he’d never touch me again.

As if I’d ever let that happen.

Clairannia’s letters were waiting for us when we returned that evening. The one addressed to Revich explained she did not have a solution to the illness, and continued to explain that the medicus conduits of Hyrithia still did not have an answer to how it was cured. They regularly studied those who had been inflicted and survived.

It was the letter addressed to me that tore my heart into more pieces.

“Karus, I can return to Felgren in two more months, but no sooner. I know you’ll figure this out. I know you’ll find a way to save Pompeii or at least keep him alive until I can come help you. My people need me here. There are rumors of strange occurrences in Hyrithia and I leave for the city in a few weeks, then I’ll come to you. I’m sure I can convince Figuerah to come, too. But promise me, Karus, that you will wait for us and stay safe. I’ll be on pins and needles awaiting your reply.

All my love,

Clairannia Lynns

P.S. When we arrive, we’re having that celebration, and don’t even think of planning it without me.”

I folded the letter again, setting it back on my bedside table. Revich slept in our bed, tossing in a fitful sleep.

“ Compaynen ,” I whispered, kissing his brow as the tension there settled and his breathing resumed at a steady pace.

I rose from our bed, pulling on a dark green robe over my nightgown. I paused at our door, looking back at him now sleeping peacefully. I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to do and do alone.

He needed rest.

I knew I did too, dawn just a few hours away, but I also knew rest would not come unless I had tried every option. Unless I had traversed every avenue I could think of to prevent what Revich so ardently feared.

I left quietly, my bare feet frozen across the black stone of the Fortress.

The kitchens were no longer warm and felt oddly foreign because of it. Holding my ball of green light above my hand, I rapped lightly on Pompeii’s door.

With no answer, I stepped inside, immediately calling to the fire to relight, adding a few more pieces of ash wood to the flames.

I sat at his side, feeling his forehead, now flushed, too warm to deny he was getting worse. I knew he’d been fighting. I knew his channeler magic was strong, and he had fought this illness for a week before faltering.

I also knew that time was slipping from our grasp faster than we were admitting to.

I knew I had one last choice to make before I felt there was no choice at all.

Whispering words and spells of restful sleep, I left, my legs leading me up the endless staircase, passing Heimlen’s study, passing the blank frame which had led to his rooms, passing the small alcove Rev and I had once used in our passion, just hours after we’d learned more about my connection to the Blight.

I reached the top of the staircase, hardly out of breath at all, and stepped into my old room.

I hadn’t returned since the day I had woken. I hadn’t returned since the day she spoke to me in my mind.

Little had changed, if anything at all.

My books were gone, now lining the shelves in the rooms Rev and I shared, my music box no longer on the vanity for me to ponder at its origins—I knew them.

My bed was neatly made, and my eyes flicked to the black stones that pressed together to make my ceiling. I remembered staring at them, confused at the emotions gifted to me by the rhyzolm, frustrated that I could not remember myself.

I moved the vanity chair to the slanted window, stepping on its seat and pulling the pin from the shutters. They swung open, and I caught them before they could rap against the stone and wake Philius, whose room shared a wall with mine.

I opened the glass pane and took a breath of the cool air, full of life and new beginnings of spring. My window faced north, the expanse of trees seemingly endless in the night sky, the full moon taking her slow decent to the horizon.

The Blightress was there. She was out there now, in her lands, plotting our downfall.

“ I need to ask you something. ” I stared out at the tops of the trees, finding the place within me which came from her, addressing it through our minds just as she predicted I would.

“ Little Sprout, I am so pleased to hear your voice. ”

I clenched my jaw and inhaled slowly, focusing on the jagged horizon. “ Can you cure what ails the Overseer of Felgren? ”

“ Is that who he is? My, my, I had no idea of his importance. ”

Venom seeped through my response. “ You did this, didn’t you. ”

“ Didn’t we both, my child? After all, I did not grow those trees in your precious sanctuary. ”

“ No, but you forced the Blight there in the first place. ” I paused, my eyes narrowing. “ How did you know those trees were what gave him this illness? ”

“ I know what the Blight knows. I see what it sees, feel what it feels. ”

I scoffed, “ Glad to know you suffered then, seven years ago. ”

Fuck. I was risking the small chance she’d help me with retorts like that.

I heard her laugh, just as beautiful, just as confident as what I’d heard before. “ Your short temper amuses me, so I will listen to your request. ”

I exhaled in relief. “ I’m asking you for the cure. I’m asking you to help me save his life. ”

There was a pause in our line, something I could feel, and I wondered if I’d lost her.

“ And in return? ”

“ What would you ask in return? ”

“ I would like to know you better, Little Sprout. I would like you to know me. One night each week. Hide it from your lover, I care not. One night where we speak, like this, and you hear me. I will listen to you, but you will also listen to me. ”

“ Done. ” That was no ask at all. I’d choose what to tell her and I’d listen to her story, which I decidedly did not care about, to save Pompeii.

“ I’ll hold you to it, then. If you refuse, if you change your mind, I’ll just come for you. ” Her tone grew with anger, “ I can easily take you, Karus. I can take all of Felgren, if I wish it. ”

“ Then why don’t you? ”

“ I do not believe we’ve come to the point where all other options of returning my power have faltered. I told you once, you do not know me. Let me show you who I am. ”

“ Fine. How do I cure Pompeii? ”

“ I do not know. ”

“ This conversation is over. ” Furious, I began to step off the chair, my heart racing in rage.

“ Karus, I can tell you where to find the cure Heimlen used. ”

I gave a grunt of exasperation. She still spoke in riddles.

“ I know he used the Blight, my Blight, to make the disease; therefore, I saw him create the cure. ”

“ How? How did he do it? ”

“ The answer lies in a book. I saw a glimpse of him reading from the text and practicing his magic to counter what he had created. I assume it’s what he used to produce the cure as I never saw him with any other text after that. ”

“ What book? Which one? ” I asked quickly, forgetting to dampen my tether.

“ Finding the Source: A Medicus Guide to the Art of Understanding Disease. ”

I huffed a sigh of relief. At least we’d know exactly what to look for if we could just get Viridis back.

“ It’s a rather lengthy title, and I doubt the writing is very enjoyable. ”

“ You…you read books? ”

“ Should we continue this chat, and I’ll list my favorites for you ?”

I huffed. I didn’t like her sounding human. I liked her right where she was, a monster. “ If this really is what we seek, I’ll keep to our deal. If not, I will close you out forever and destroy you. ”

“ What a delightful empty threat. I look forward to our talks, Little Sprout. ”

“Karus!” The door burst open and Revich stood there, breathless. He raced across the room, taking my hand into one of his, the other grabbing my waist.

He looked up at me, a wild fear in his eyes as he took in the chair I was standing on and where I was looking out into.

I searched briefly for any sign that the Blightress was still there in my mind and found that she had gone.

Good. I shut her out again completely and smiled down at my love.

“I know what we’re looking for. I know the book we need.”