Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter SeventyWyott

Chapter Seventy

Wyott

I woke up this morning and was able to get myself out of bed. To put myself into the bath, to dress, and to want to leave the house.

And it wasn’t for a meeting, as I’d forced myself to attend upon Evaline’s return. It wasn’t even to go talk to Sage, or Kovarrin, or anything about helping me to go get my father.

It was to get back to my normal life.

There was nothing I could do to bring my father back to me, not right now at least. And I was sick of sitting and wallowing in the nothing. Of letting myself be numb like I knew Evaline had been when we lost Maddox.

Back then, I’d known it wasn’t good for her, but understood her need to remain unfeeling. Kovarrin’s words, when he and Maddox and I had been in his study, had shaken something inside of me. His fear for both his family and his brother. The tension that pulled him two ways, pulled me too.

On one end, I wanted to fight for my father. To get him back, and to be a family again.

But on the other, was Cora. Was the family we wanted to try to start together. Were Rasa and Kovarrin, Maddox and Evaline, and all of my friends.

I couldn’t risk the lives of the latter to save the former. I couldn’t risk my own life, not when Cora and I were trying to have a baby.

All I could do was follow the same advice I’d given to Maddox. To control what I could control. And today, that was the ability to leave the house.

Cora poked her head out of the kitchen as I came into the sitting room, dressed and ready to go.

“Hi,” she said, and when she saw me her eyes lit. “Oh, are you heading somewhere?”

I swallowed and nodded. “Yes. I realized that I needed to get back to it.” I shrugged. “I can come help at the marina, or go check in with Maddox and Evaline, or see how Sage is doing.”

Immediately, the tension in Cora’s shoulders seemed to ease, and a relieved smile lifted on her face.

“I’m happy to hear that,” she said softly, coming into the room fully. “Choose whatever makes you happiest, you can come to the marina but I understand if you want to see the others. I have plenty of help,” she said, taking both of my hands in hers.

And the look on her face, the fatigue that rested below her eyes, all at once, it hit me.

Despite what Kovarrin said—hoped—to be true about Vasier’s battle intentions, Cora didn’t stop feeling the need to go to work every day. She still worried about the war, and desperately wanted to prepare the vessels.

And the fact that she hadn’t been going, that she’d spent most days here with me tore me up inside. All at once, I realized that this entire time I’d been grieving my father’s turn, she’d been worried for her own people, for her ships. For what would happen if war came and the Navy was not equipped to protect the people of Rominia, because of her.

But really, it was because of me.

“I’m so sorry,” I croaked, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry, darling. I’ve been so caught up in my own shit that I never stopped to think about what this was doing to you.”

She gave me a smile and shook her head. “Don’t apologize. I should’ve told you sooner that I needed to spend more time down there. I knew you’d understand.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t want to add another thing to your plate.”

I bent and wrapped her up into my arms, pulling her to my chest. I thought of her intent behind keeping it from me, and how it matched my intent for never wanting to talk about my fear of Vasier, back when I hadn’t wanted to try for children.

“We have to start being honest with each other, always. Even if we don’t think the other one wants to hear it. It’s the only way to stop causing each other so much angst, and to make sure our future family doesn’t suffer because of it,” I whispered.

She nodded against my shoulder. “I promise.”

I turned my head to kiss hers, and smiled against her hair. “I promise.”

A knock sounded on the door and we both jumped from the startle. I pulled myself from her grasp and went to answer it.

Cora snorted behind me. “Looks like your decision has been made for you.”

Maddox cocked his head, a question in his eyes.

“What? I just wanted to come check in on you two,” he said, but his eyes were on me. “I have to go to the Blacksmith’s today, do you want to come?”

And I heard it, the way he held his breath as he awaited my answer. The tension between his brows as he prepared for rejection or for me to lash out, angry.

But I let myself smile. “That sounds perfect.”

I kissed Cora goodbye and walked down the street.

“Thank you for coming to check on me,” I said to Maddox, turning to look at him.

He nodded. “Of course. You’re my brother. I just didn’t want to come too soon, or too late. I wanted to give you space, but didn’t want you to think that I’d forgotten about you, just because I got Evaline back.”

I smiled at that, at the look on his face I’d seen a hundred times in our adventures growing up together.

Love.

“So why do we need to go to see Otto?” I asked as we aimed for the shop.

Maddox explained the dagger and the new and improved barbed wire that she’d ordered.

“The burs pop off?” I asked, eyes wide as I looked over at him. “As in they’ll bury in the hand, and never heal?”

Maddox nodded, a knowing smile on his face.

I chuckled and turned to face the shop as the door came into view.

“That’s badass.”

Maddox snorted. “Isn’t it? It was Otto’s idea, remind me to never get on his bad side.”

A smile widened on my face as I clapped a hand on Maddox’s shoulder.

“I certainly never will, not with all the business I give him.”

I ignored the beat of pain that passed through my chest as I remembered that my father was the reason I’d grown to love weapons, and that he was miles away, and a Vasi.

I swallowed the pain and held the door open for Maddox.

We spent a while in the store. Shopping and bullshitting with Otto. I even had it in me to make a few sketches for new weapons I wanted. When we left we stopped for something to eat, and it felt good to just be out with my brother again. Not having to worry about my father, or war, or what may happen next. We spent a few more hours there, and finally headed back for the manor.

“Where’s Evaline?” I asked as we walked.

“She’s working with Sage to train the volunteer Sorcerers.”

I straightened. I felt guilty that they’d had to do so without me, I was the one the Sorcerer came to, after all. But a wave of relief washed over me then. At the fact that life had continued on.

When we crossed in front of the training center we turned for where we saw the Sorcerers practicing in the sand, but a shadow crossed overhead. My gaze snapped up and I saw it.

A raven, descending from the clouds, aimed right for the loft.

I looked to Maddox. I didn’t know what the status of ravens had been. Whether we’d regularly been receiving them after the Vasi left, or if the Vasi had killed too many of them.

But by the furrow in his brow, I knew he was worried.

And that worry only grew as we turned for the door to the loft, and another raven came down from the clouds.

We raced to their perch, and just as he pulled the scroll from the first raven, another flew in.

And as Maddox read the scrolls aloud, it became clear.

Three ravens.

For three kingdoms under attack.

By the time I’d run to get Cora, Dean and Sage had retrieved Charlotte, and Maddox and Evaline had reached Kovarrin and Rasa. Only a handful of minutes had passed and we were all sitting and standing in the war room, chests heaving. I didn’t know whether the rush in my breath was from effort or worry.

“What’s happened?” Kovarrin asked, wide eyes flicking around the room.

“Three ravens came in,” Maddox said, fists tightening from where they rested on the tabletop, just below Merwinan. “One for each Madierian Kingdom. The wards have all failed. Vasi are getting in and massacring civilians.”

Rasa’s face fell into her hands as she sat beside Kovarrin, and Cora’s hand on my forearm tightened.

“How many?” she asked, looking to me.

Maddox pulled the scrolls from his pocket and handed them to her.

“None of the kingdoms have a full count, but they sent word as soon as they started to find dead bodies.”

Cora picked up the paper and held it open, eyes rapidly moving over it. She shook her head.

“The numbers will only increase. We need to do something,” she said, her voice stern as she turned to Kovarrin.

“The wards failed,” Sage repeated quietly, then looked up and swung her eyes around the room. “Lauden sabotaged them.”

Kovarrin turned his angry gaze on her. “What do you know?” he snapped, and she shook her head.

Her mouth pinched and I could tell she wanted to snap back at him, but she couldn’t. Not after all she’d done.

“Only that he maintained the wards. When he and I came here from Mortithev originally, we stopped at Neomaeros and Merwinan. We didn’t go in, he said that Vasier told him to remake the wards. That it was a precaution to lock Vasi out. That if the wards were weakened from not being maintained, then any rogue and meandering Vasi might sneak in and the kingdoms would think someone had manipulated the wards and may have accused Lauden once he was Arch Sorcerer. He was only supposed to remake them, because he knew a secret way to create a ward that no one can break after you, unless they knew the exact spell you used.” She waved her hands toward the air around us. “It was how I remade his Vasi ward, here.”

“Why didn’t you fix the ward in Neomaeros when we were there?” Maddox asked her and she shook her head.

“I didn’t think about it, I…” she trailed off and shook her head, her face blanching as she let out a sad breath and fell lower in her seat. “I keep underestimating them. I’m sorry.”

“What about Correnti?” Charlotte asked, and the panic was evident in her voice.

Sage pursed her lips. “When Dean, Evaline, Lauden, and I went, he offered to maintain the wards.” She looked to Dean and Evaline. “None of us were with him while he was doing it, except for when I went to grab him to leave. But he didn’t say anything about the wards to me.”

Kovarrin leaned toward her. “And you expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with any of the wards? That you didn’t know this attack was coming.”

“Don’t you dare accuse her,” Evaline snapped back at Kovarrin. “If she said she doesn’t have anything to do with it, then she didn’t.”

He gave an incredulous laugh. “That’s what we thought about her first betrayal.”

Sage sank back into her chair, hands still wringing on the table, when Maddox shook his head.

“If Sage had anything to do with Vasier and helping him, she never would’ve helped get Evaline out. What would be accomplished from that?” He waved a hand toward Sage.

“Stop it,” I said, my voice low. “While you bicker about whether or not you believe her, people are dying. What are you going to do to fix this?” I asked, looking to the First.

He opened his mouth but didn’t speak.

Instead, a small voice across the table did.

“I can fix the wards,” Sage said softly. “And I can portal there to do it, it’s the fastest way.” She shrugged. “It’s the only way.”

“I’ll go with her,” Dean said, and immediately Maddox and Evaline were volunteering, too.

“Absolutely not,” Kovarrin said, shaking his head.

Maddox stood and looked down at his father. I wondered if Kovarrin’s confession, his fear for his family and his brother, was running through Maddox’s head just as it was mine.

“It’s time, Father. You can choose to stay here. But we cannot. We promised to protect the Madierian Kingdoms. It’s time to do so.”

Evaline turned to Sage. “How do the wards work? Once they’re in place, will they do anything to harm the Vasi who are caught inside?”

Realization flashed over Sage’s face and she tilted her head. “I’m not completely sure. I’ve never done it before where they’re already inside, and Lauden hadn’t either, not when I was around.”

Maddox looked to Dean. “We’ll ask some of the others if they’ll come too. If the Vasi inside aren’t affected by the wards, we’ll have to search the kingdoms and get them all out on our own.”

Dean nodded, standing, Sage right behind him.

“I don’t know how many people I can portal. Coming back from Mortithev, that was too many.” She wrung her hands. “But I will try to portal us all in smaller increments.”

“That’s less effort than pulling too many people through?” Dean asked, looking down at her. Concern etched his face.

She looked up at him, nodding. “Yes. To actually portal doesn’t require too much of my energy, hauling people through it does.”

Maddox nodded. “That’s fine, as long as you can get us all there.” He looked to his father.

Cora stood then. “I’ll stay and ready the ships. Get them all out and on the water. If Vasi are already on the mainland, we’ll need a way to ferry our soldiers there, too.”

I stood beside my mate. “I’ll stay here with Cora and help her prepare them.”

Charlotte jumped up, turning to Sage. “I need to come. If Correnti is exposed, then it means James is too.”

There was no time for Kovarrin to agree, or to forbid, as the rest of us made plans.

Even Rasa offered to help at the marina, but still, Kovarrin did not interject.

And that was it. We all had our assignments, and walked from the war room, leaving Kovarrin looking perplexed.

Once in the hallway, Cora and I turned to the others.

“Be safe, brother,” I said, pulling Maddox into a hug.

I didn’t volunteer to help them, this time. While I still hated the thought of Maddox on the mainland without me, I hated the thought of Cora here alone more.

“While we’re gone you need to alert the Sorcerers on the island,” Maddox said while we embraced. “See if there are any volunteers. If Vasier brought Sorcerers to lock us into the island, it stands to reason he’ll bring them to the front lines, too.”

“I’ll work on it.”

Evaline and Cora squeezed each other tight, promising to meet again.

I tried to ignore the pain that ripped through my gut at the last time they’d said those words, when Evaline had been put into immediate danger, and prayed to the Gods that this wouldn’t be a repeat.

I turned to Dean and Sage. “Be safe. Don’t worry about us here, the kingdoms need you more than we do.”

Then it was Evaline hugging me.

“There’s no time for me to warn them, will you tell Aurora and Jacqueline what’s happened?” she asked, and I nodded.

“Of course.”

“See you soon,” she promised, and I hoped she was right.