Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter One Hundred FourEvaline

Chapter One Hundred Four

Evaline

T he weeks that followed the Final War were long, but passed quickly. There was so much that needed to happen around the island. Between cleaning up the aftermath of the war and helping to dock the ships back in the marina and in the inland port since they weren’t needed for the foreseeable future, it seemed all the island’s citizens were lending a helping hand.

When I was able to pull myself from the cleanup, I went to see my friends. To check in on Aurora and Jacqueline and make sure that they, and the Kembertus children, were safe.

I’d been nearly trampled by their hugs, but couldn’t help but cry with relief at the sight of them in one place.

Aurora and Jacqueline decided to go back to Neomaeros to continue to set up their shop, and clean it up after the Vasi attack, but planned to wait until things had settled down on the island here. They wanted to give the children a chance to decide where they wanted to go and to see the island in a state of peace before deciding whether Rominia was where they wanted to stay.

I’d tried to tell them that they could go home, that I would take care of the children, but they stayed with them, they stayed with me.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” I promised Priscilla, hugging her tight as I prepared to leave the inn where they were all staying. Rasa tried to get the children to come stay at the manor, but they preferred to stay in the heart of the town, rather than on the coast.

I straightened and Aurora and Jacqueline both enveloped me in a hug, one on each side.

“Thank you for looking after them,” I said to both of them.

“Of course,” Jacqueline said when they pulled apart.

I noticed the mischievous twinkle in Aurora’s eyes then.

“What?” I asked, laughing.

She crossed her arms and smirked, tilting her head.

“I’m just trying not to be offended that you have not yet asked me to design your wedding dress,” she said, looking off into the distance to feign angst.

My smile stretched across my face as I fell to my knee and took her hand in mine.

“Aurora, will you please do me the honor of designing my wedding dress?”

She tossed a couple of twists over her shoulder. “I’ll see if I can fit it into my schedule.”

I stood as Jacqueline snickered beside us.

“We don’t even know when it’ll be,” I said, looking down the street, where I could see Maddox walking with Wyott and Cora. I turned back to my friends. “We wanted to do it quickly, right after he proposed.” I shrugged. “But then the war happened, and now isn’t the right time.” I took each of their hands. “But I promise that as soon as we’ve picked a date, I will make sure the two of you are available and can come celebrate a wedding that I truly want.”

They both smiled and nodded.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jacqueline said.

Aurora nodded. “A much better plan than the last.”

After I departed from them, I ran to catch up with Maddox, Wyott, and Cora.

Maddox smiled as I met his side and slid his arm around my shoulders, tugging me against him as we walked.

He’d gone to get them while I visited Aurora and Jacqueline and the children. Today was the first day that we were going to try to get both Broderick and Maeve to come back, to be Kova again.

We didn’t want to force my blood down their throats, we didn’t want to turn them into another being against their will, not again. So instead, we were going to do exactly what Wyott and the others had done to help Maddox.

They had their own Rominium chairs made, they were the only Vasi within the wards of the island, the others were on the far end of Rominia, setting up their own town there outside of the wards while they got used to smaller portions of blood and proved that they were ready for peace.

So far, it seemed they were telling the truth.

Construction had already broken ground on a facility for those who wanted to become Kova again, although since they were doing so willingly we didn’t need the Rominium chairs. They would stay in dorms while they went through the process at the same time, and the building was being placed right behind the training center.

Wyott had been to see his father, and I’d been to see Maeve, but each visit had been quick. They were mean, just as Maddox had been. We’d tried to share what the Gods had said, but they didn’t seem to believe us.

“Just remember that there’s a chance they’re in there, locked away like I was. That these words they say, they’re not coming from the people you once knew,” Maddox reminded us as we drew closer to the manor. I looked over at Wyott, to see he was looking over at me. I could see the fear in his eyes and knew he was afraid that his father was well and truly gone.

“Share the happy memories you had with them,” Maddox continued as we climbed the steps to the manor. “Even if it’s only a couple,” Maddox said, looking to me.

Guilt ripped through me again, at what little time I’d had with Maeve yet how I’d completely ruined her life.

“Mostly, remember that this is a long road. It’s not going to happen overnight,” he finished as we moved through the manor.

We stopped in front of the door to Wyott’s old room. We each stood at the door, our mates at our back, and looked down at the knob. Wyott and I looked at each other for a moment, took a deep breath, and he turned the handle, and we entered.

Maeve sat on one side of the fireplace, and Broderick on the other, and they both straightened to attention immediately.

I looked to Broderick, tried to picture him as the loving father I’d heard described, but only saw a twisted look of hatred on his face. Then, I turned to Maeve and watched as her eyes filled with rage at the sight of me.

A long road, indeed.

A few days later, when Maddox had gone to spend time with his parents, I’d decided to go see mine.

I laid back into bed, focused on the Night, and slipped into it quickly. Since I’d become a Silver, my magic was even stronger.

It wasn’t the first time I’d come back to see them after my change, I’d even pulled them into Rominia with me some days. Despite how busy the cleanup was, I always tried to make time for them.

I’d gone too long without them, before, and never would again.

When I opened my eyes to the hum of the shadows, I stood in the home in Neomaeros that I’d shared with my father. They sat on the chaise, folded in each other’s arms, and when they saw me, their eyes lit.

“There she is,” my father said as my mother ran to pull me to the chaise, to squish me into the middle between them.

They wanted updates on everything, even though I knew sometimes they could peek in and check on me.

“How is Kovarrin doing?” my mother asked.

“He’s grieving,” I answered honestly. “But Rasa and Maddox are getting him through it.”

She loosed a deep breath. “Good.”

I looked between the both of them. “Still no sign of Vasier?”

My mother shook her head. “No, the Gods must’ve been telling the truth about Dusk. Although, I still haven’t been able to find out any more information about it.”

“What’s this?” my father asked, and I felt the dagger strapped to my forearm move.

I smiled and pulled it out. “I just got it, I wanted to show you. Otto did a masterful job on the braiding,” I said, handing my father the dagger with a braided handle made of Rominium.

His eyes lit as he spun it in his hands and we launched into a discussion about what I should order next, despite the fact that my fighting days seemed past me.

For the first time since before I’d left Kembertus, there was no one out in the world who wanted to abduct me or kill me.

At least I thought so—I hadn’t checked in on my aunt and uncle since we saved Kembertus.

I swallowed at the thought of them, and my father immediately noticed my discomfort.

“What’s wrong?”

I told them what happened in Kembertus that day, how ashamed I felt at telling them about Gabriehl in the way that I did.

“I’ve checked in on him,” my father said quietly, and I snapped my head to look at him.

“Really?”

I knew he meant Elijah. Just like Kovarrin and Vasier, my father held complicated feelings for his little brother after the way he’d ruled Kembertus, and for what Elijah had done to me.

My father nodded. “Therese left him. Ran away with a servant.”

I jolted forward, looking back at my father.

“Raymond?” I nearly shrieked.

He nodded. “Apparently they’d been having an affair for years, and after she lost Gabriehl, there was no reason to stay in the marriage.”

“Huh,” I mused as I thought back on all the lingering touches they’d shared throughout the two years I’d lived with them.

“Elijah is even harsher, now,” my father said, his voice tight. “He shouldn’t be ruling anyone, let alone a kingdom.”

The sadness that flashed over my father’s face reminded me that he was the true heir to Kembertus, that perhaps he felt some guilt for not being there for them, now.

I thought back to my time there. What had happened to me, what they’d forced me to do. Then I thought of Bassel, and then I thought of Vestaria.

I stood then and moved to pace across the room with my parents.

We’d spent so much time cleaning up Rominia in the last several weeks, that I hadn’t even thought about the Kromean Kingdoms and the way they were still being ruled.

“What is it, Evaline?” my mother asked, moving to sit on the edge of the chaise.

“I’m just thinking of the Kromean Kingdoms, of how they’re run by men who don’t deserve the responsibility.”

She nodded in my periphery. “The kingdoms of Brassillion were made in the First’s image. Kovarrin helped to mold the Madierian Kingdoms, and Vasier the Kromean. His hatred for women, for me,” she whispered the last part. “Reflects in the way they still are run to this day.”

My feet stopped below me, and I turned to them.

“But it doesn’t have to be,” I said.

My father cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

I shook my head. “I mean that there’s no Vasier anymore, no fear that he will retaliate if we step in to alter the way the kingdoms are run. I mean that someone needs to step in, to make the Kromean Kingdoms safe again. For all the humans, for Sorcerers. For women, and for girls.”