Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Sixty-OneEvaline

Chapter Sixty-One

Evaline

W e spent a while longer with Charlotte before helping Rasa prepare the food she was making for lunch, while we discussed what had happened.

We prepared freshly sliced fruits and vegetables, bread with butter, and skewered meats that I cooked with my Fire.

We took all the food to the war room, which I’d never seen before now but couldn’t help but compare to Vasier’s. They both had a table that portrayed a map of the landmasses, but while Vasier had bookshelves and a desk and a portrait of my mother , Kovarrin’s only had a fireplace, a table, and several chairs to sit down at. The few paintings on the wall were not of any person but of nature landscapes. I wondered if Kovarrin had them in here, to remind him of peaceful times while he was planning a war, whatever that happened to look like at the time.

Vasier’s war room was his study, while Kovarrin had separated the two. It was only another reminder of how completely Vasier had given himself over to his revenge, to this havoc he wanted to wreak on the Kova, no matter the cost.

I set the skewers on the table, and Maddox and Rasa set down the rest of the food.

Maddox’s spine straightened as the door opened and his father walked into the room. He walked toward me, and gave me a polite smile.

“Welcome back, Evaline. We’re happy to have you here, safe.”

I nodded and returned the stiff hug he gave me, and could feel the anger swell down the bond from Maddox.

My attention drew back to the door as Kovarrin pulled away, because Cora and Wyott walked in, and we all turned to him.

Cora’s eyes widened at the reaction, and he kept his downturned as he walked in behind her.

I rushed to Cora and collided into her with a hug. I felt Maddox move behind me, and heard him clap a hand on Wyott’s shoulder.

I kept one arm around Cora and reached for Wyott then. He gave me a small smile, even though it didn’t reach his eyes, and hugged me back.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to both Cora and Wyott, and noticed how he tensed. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen, Wyott.”

Maddox’s gaze settled on me at that, and I felt the way the heat of it swept over everywhere he looked. Wyott seemed to relax then, and I realized that he thought I was giving him my sympathy for his father.

I wanted to, I had sympathy for him, but I knew it was the absolute last thing he’d want to talk about now, so I didn’t dare bring it up.

“You said no deviations,” I said to Wyott, and he turned to me. “And I deviated. I deviated big time.”

Cora snorted at that, and Wyott finally cracked a smile.

He shook his head. “It’s okay.” Then he pulled back out of my grasp slightly to look at me. “At least we have you home. We have you both home,” he said, then looked to Maddox.

I could still see the tension in his shoulders, in his eyes, and knew it was pain. From the person who wasn’t here with him.

Cora cast Maddox a look, and when he nodded, she pulled me toward the table, until we sank down into two seats side by side. We sat just below Widow Maker Plains, and she turned to me, hands grasping at mine.

“How are you?” she asked softly, and I shrugged.

“I’m out of there, and I’m thankful for that,” I shook my head. “But a lot happened, a lot was revealed, and there’s a lot more to come. I just know he won’t stop at this one small defeat.”

Her eyes steeled, and I watched as the leader in her came forward, as the responsibility of her station settled on her shoulders and she wasn’t just Cora my friend, but Cora the Naval Commander who was being given new information.

“I’ll tell you all of it,” I assured her, squeezing her hands. “When everyone gets here.”

She nodded, and a part of that Commander slipped away, as she smiled and pulled me into her arms again.

“Thank the Gods you came back,” she whispered. “That you came back, and you’re still you.”

I nodded against her shoulder, smelled the saltwater on her hair, and smiled.

Charlotte walked in then, too, and Kovarrin straightened as Rasa greeted her, and Maddox and Wyott came down to sit on mine and Cora’s sides, respectively.

Finally, Dean entered, with Sage on his heels.

Kovarrin stood and shook his head.

“How could you bring her here?” he said, aghast, and pinned his eyes directly on me.

My head tilted back, astonished he’d wage that accusation at me, and me alone, but Maddox and Rasa were already turning toward him.

“I sent for her,” Rasa confessed, as Maddox cursed at his father.

“She’s just as needed in these conversations as all of us are,” Maddox said at my side.

I looked to Sage, and saw a flush on her cheeks.

We hadn’t spoken since we’d come back. We hadn’t talked about the betrayal, or what it meant that she helped to save me.

I still wasn’t completely sure how I felt about Sage. But I knew that if we were discussing Vasier, his battle strategy, what he’s done, or what he’s capable of, she needed to be here.

“She’s a traitor!” Kovarrin said, incredulous.

I snapped my head to him.

“No one is more assured of that than I am,” I snapped. “So believe me when I say that Sage does need to be here.”

Kovarrin leveled his gaze on me and shook his head.

“She betrayed my entire kingdom, my people. Gods know how much information she sent back to Vasier during her time here. You are not the only person she wronged.”

I scoffed. “No, but I am the person she delivered to Vasier’s hands, who was kept locked in a ward for weeks, who was bled out to see how strong my magic was, who was nearly turned into my mother .”

Maddox slipped his hand onto my back.

I shook my head. “It’s all over now, I just mean that if anyone should be against Sage being here, it’s me. And I demand her attendance.”

The next several hours were anything but a happy reunion. Sage and I revealed all that had happened in Mortithev, including Vasier’s attempt to turn my body over to my mother.

Kovarrin wasn’t happy, but the conversation quickly turned to Charlotte and her involvement. She still confessed she wouldn’t be any help since she didn’t know anything.

“There has to be something you heard,” Kovarrin pressed.

She shook her head, looking down the table at him.

“I assure you, there isn’t. I spent my days in silence, alone.”

Kovarrin shook his head, looked between Sage and Charlotte.

“I don’t know why we should trust you,” he said, then looked to me. “All three of you could be compelled right now, and we’d have no idea. A bomb, deep inside, waiting to go off.”

Maddox and I both held our breaths at what Kovarrin had said.

Cora sat forward, brow cocked as she looked to Kovarrin.

“Sage, we know she was compelled by Vasier,” she looked to Sage who sat beside Dean looking sick. “And I’m so sorry Sage, but we do need to keep an eye on that. Kovarrin’s right, we don’t know what he could’ve compelled you to do, now or in the future.”

Sage nodded and looked down at her hands that must’ve been pulled into her lap.

“She needs a guard,” Kovarrin snapped.

Dean looked to him, eyes tight. “I will watch over her.”

My brows furrowed at the intensity in Dean’s gaze, but my attention was drawn back to Cora as she looked to me.

“We don’t know what Vasier could’ve compelled you to do, either,” her eyes were sad as she said the words.

It was then I realized I hadn’t told any of them yet.

I looked to Maddox, then Kovarrin. “I can’t be compelled,” I shrugged. “At least I couldn’t be compelled by Vasier.”

Maddox looked down at me, a question in his eyes, but I felt the relief that swept down the bond.

“How do we know that’s the truth?” Kovarrin asked. “It could just be something you were made to say, after being compelled.”

I shook my head. “Because he tried to compel me after I tried to kill him. He told me I wasn’t allowed to use my magic, and I did. Several times. From the moment he said the compulsion, I saw the ripple in his eyes, I knew what he was doing, but none of it had any impact on me.” I turned to Sage. “Ask her, she was there.”

Sage nodded and looked around the table.

“It’s true. I was surprised when I found out, too.”

Maddox turned to me. “Can we test that?” he asked and I nodded. His eyes settled on mine, I saw the way they rippled. “Stand up.”

But just like Vasier, there was nothing.

“No,” I responded, and his smile showed relief.

Wyott leaned forward and looked over at me. “Did one of the Gods give you that gift?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure, my mother never mentioned it.”

Cora waved her hands, and leaned onto the table, again. “So Sage will be monitored, and Evaline can’t be compelled,” she said, then her eyes moved to Kovarrin. “How can you expect that Charlotte would’ve been compelled? She’s a Kova.”

Rasa and Kovarrin straightened then and I watched Maddox tense.

“We already know,” he said, looking to his parents. “Evaline and I, Charlotte. Maybe even Sage. We know because Vasier told Evaline. He can compel Kova and Vasi, and so can you.”

Kovarrin locked his jaw and looked to Maddox, but I heard Wyott gasp behind me, and turned to look at him.

His face was pale and he shook his head.

“Is that true?” he asked, anger seeping into his voice.

There was a moment of silence, and then Kovarrin nodded.

“I’ve never used it on a Kova. I would never use it on a Kova. Not unless they were at risk of turning, or they were going to put the kingdom at risk. I would never cross that line.”

Rasa nodded at his side. “It’s true, he’s never used it.”

Wyott let out a breath. “Would you even know? He could’ve compelled you.”

Kovarrin’s angry eyes turned on Wyott.

“Of course I wouldn’t,” he snapped at Wyott, but Wyott was shaking his head, his eyes were focused on the table below us.

“What’s wrong?” Cora asked, her voice worried as she slipped her hands around his arm.

Sage spoke, soft and sad.

“He’s trying to figure out if Vasier compelled him. Back then.”

“I can’t…I can’t tell.” He looked to Sage. “You could tell?”

She nodded. “As soon as I found out he’d compelled me, and realized what he compelled me for, the memory was there, back in my mind. As clear as if it was never gone.”

Wyott shook his head.

“I only see it, over and over. They intentionally hid most of his body, so I couldn’t really tell what was happening. And then Vasier came over to me, and told me to tell Kovarrin that he’d killed—”

Wyott cut himself off as his wild eyes turned to Kovarrin.

“He didn’t compel me,” he said, nostrils flaring. “He didn’t compel me because he knew you could compel me, too. He knew that you’d be able to tell if I’d been compelled, just like we could tell Sage had been.”

Kovarrin raised his chin. “What are you trying to insinuate, Wyott?”

Wyott took a ragged breath.

“Did you suspect my father had not been dead this entire time? Did you have any idea that he was in Mortithev?”

Kovarrin shook his head, adamant.

“Of course not, Wyott. Before that day, I never realized that Vasier even knew how close Rick and I were, and I certainly didn’t think he’d turned him after you came home very convinced he was dead.”

There was a beat of silence, and then Wyott spoke.

“If you had known, would you have saved him?”

Kovarrin’s face fell a fraction, and Wyott got his answer. He laughed, dry and without humor, and slammed into the back of his chair. “You’re a coward.”

Kovarrin opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t want to hear how he was going to attempt to talk his way out of it. Not after what Maddox had told me of his inaction against everything else Vasier had done.

So I interjected first. “Charlotte, just until we can be sure you aren’t compelled, do you mind if there’s a guard with you?”

She shook her head. “Of course not, I understand.” Then she turned to Kovarrin. “I want to be a part of this kingdom again, of your forces again. Please, let me right the mistakes I’ve made in the past.”

Kovarrin gave her a long look, then sighed. “You can stay here, and train, if you have a personal guard at all times.”

“And my family? James?” she asked and I could hear the tremor in her voice, see the question in her eyes. She was so desperate to see them all, and feared what Kovarrin would say about hers, and James’, standing in Rominia.

“We can send a raven for him,” Rasa said, smiling at Charlotte. “And you can see your family, Kovarrin won’t tell them what has happened in the past.” She looked to Sage. “The mistakes we make in our lives don’t have to define us, not if we try to make them right.”

Sage’s face burned red, and I watched as Charlotte sighed a breath of relief before she swallowed hard. “Thank you,” she whispered.

There was a beat of silence, and I knew there was no time but now. I had to tell them all what was coming for us.

“Vasier has an army greater than ours. Many, many times greater than ours.”

The room fell silent at that as they all heard the news, except for Sage, Maddox, and I, who already knew.

Kovarrin and Cora hounded Sage and me with questions then. About the size of his army, about what weapons they had at their disposal, about where they planned to attack.

I told them about what I’d seen in the valley on the tour. Sage told them about all the humans Vasier turned, all the new cohorts of Vasi that were constantly cycling through the castle.

As for weapons and battlegrounds, I turned to Sage.

She shook her head. “He barely told me anything, he didn’t think I was worthy of being in those conversations.” She leaned forward. “What I know, is what I heard Vasi talking about around the castle, and some of the information Vasier taught me growing up. That they always fight at Widow Maker Plains, that it’s where all the battles have taken place before. And as for weapons, they have the same as you. Swords and daggers and such,” she shrugged. “I’ve seen archers practicing outside, sometimes. And I heard someone mention catapults, once.”

“Do we have any idea when he’ll make a move for the mainland?” Cora asked everyone at the table.

Kovarrin shook his head. “No, but I’ll send scouts out to Blush Bay, to monitor any movement from Mortithev.”

Dean shook his head. “No ravens can get through the Vasi outside. They have to be shooting them down, we haven’t received a single one since they arrived.”

Sage straightened in her chair. “I think I can help with that,” she said softly. “I couldn’t take the ward down in Mortithev, because it was different than any other I’d ever encountered,” she said, looking to me with shame. “But I know other wards, and Lauden taught me a lot about them. I can take this ward down, I’ll just need help.”

Most of us around the table nodded, but Kovarrin scoffed.

“You will not touch the wards, for all we know you’ll make them permanent.”

“For fuck’s sake, Father, what’s the alternative?” Maddox hissed, looking to Kovarrin. “We all waste away in here and die? Sage is the only Sorcerer who has offered to help, we need to take it, no matter what she’s done in the past.”

“Actually,” Wyott said, sitting forward. “I haven’t mentioned this yet, because everything started spiraling, but when I was in town, a Sorcerer came up to me. He said that there are some Sorcerers who want to learn to fight, who want to help in the war.” He turned to Sage. “I still don’t think they can help with the wards, he didn’t mention that, but would you two be willing to teach them how to use your magic to fight? Now that we know Vasier’s army is greater than ours, we need all the help we can get.”

He turned from Sage to me, and I nodded, feeling my magic strike out all around me.

“Of course.”

Sage nodded. “I’m not very good at using my magic to fight, though,” she said. “Or fighting period. Vasier never let me learn.”

Dean spoke softly beside her. “We can practice.”

“We will continue to prepare the Navy. You should prepare the ground forces,” Cora said.

Kovarrin swallowed and shook his head. “I will send my scouts, and we will see what happens. If we get word that Vasier is making a move, we will send the forces. But I won’t make a move, until then.”

Maddox threw his head back, and I wondered how many times they’d had this same conversation for Maddox to be this exasperated.

“This is exhausting,” Maddox ground out, then turned to his father. “If you won’t prepare them, or give them a heads up for fuck’s sake, then I will.”

He pushed up from his chair then, and I did the same. Cora and Wyott stood beside us, and Sage and Dean across. Rasa stood, too.

“Kovarrin, it’s time. I know you want to protect the people of Rominia, but it is time that those who volunteer to fight, are ready to,” she said to him, her voice soft but stern.

His hand curled into a fist and he looked up, aiming his retort at Maddox.

“I am the First. I say what we do, and when. And I am saying that there is no need to cause mass panic. There is no evidence that Vasier will wage a war against us.”

Maddox’s eyes widened, and his chin dropped at his father’s words. He threw a hand at the wall, in the direction of the coast.

“Tell that to all the Rominian’s who have died because the Vasi are already here.”

Kovarrin stood, his face red with anger. “I said what I said, and the final decision is that we will not make a move at this time.”

“Why?” Maddox shouted back at him at the same time that Cora shook her head.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” she shouted at Kovarrin, and finally, at the two of them coming at him at the same time, he lost it.

His eyes were wild with anger, his face was red with rage, and he slammed a fist down onto the table.

“Because we’re all safer here!” he roared. “The ward protects us, sure it may lock us in for now, but we’ll find a way around that. If we stay here, the ward protects us all.”

Rasa turned to him, her expression twisted in confusion.

“Kovarrin, if he cannot get in to us, he will only send more Vasi here to kill humans in our waters. He won’t stop, just because we’re safe in our sphere.”

He shook his head. “I said my decision was final.”

Maddox tilted his head at his father. “You’re afraid of him, and now we know that you have reason. And I get that. It’s fucking terrifying to know what he’s been planning, what he’s been preparing for.” He shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean we sit and watch as Vasier kills more humans, or what else he’d be willing to do if we didn’t leave this island.”

Maddox turned to walk away, placing his hand on my back to guide me out, but Kovarrin’s voice sounded behind us.

“If you do this, it is treason. I will have no other option than to arrest you, or banish you.”

Maddox didn’t turn around, I only felt the breath of his laugh on my head.

“Well, as Vasier has done successfully at every turn, I’m going to call your bluff.”