The Wolf Crown (The Wolf Kings #2) (MLM)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE.

                Jack opened his eyes to the canopy of his gold bed. He hadn't slept, it was impossible, but where he'd looked moments ago to find moonlight pouring into his bedroom, there was now early morning sunlight instead.

It was almost insulting.

How dare the day pretend to be anything bright and good with what had happened. For a moment as the exhaustion and grief weighed him down, Jack imagined that maybe he had slept without realizing it and Violet's death had been nothing but a horrible nightmare.

But it was real, and his friend was gone. Jack, for the first time in his life, cursed his sharp mind as he had wanted nothing but to forget, to fall numb to the horrors that had played out before him.

Instead, he remembered too vividly the way Quartz had fluttered down silently to the ground amidst cries and sobs, closed Violet's eyes, and picked her up in his arms. The way his black eyes had glittered with something more than fairy magic as he pressed their foreheads together and whispered something in a language Jack didn't understand.

He remembered the way Violet's entire body had glistened like a million stars shining, and then those stars had risen to the sky to shine, probably next to Moebius, the two of them always watched and protected by the moon. He remembered Quartz's face hardening as he'd turned to his struggling father who glared at Quartz like he hated him and spat at his feet and demanded Quartz kill him then.

"You will not die like her," Quartz had not screamed or cried or been vicious. His voice instead had been quiet and unattached and it had frightened Jack more. "You will not be so lucky."

He remembered, most of all, approaching Quartz afterwards. After Marie had quietly talked to Tiberius about coming by over the next few days to discuss what was to come next. Lavender and Philomena crying in each other's arms until Poppy came to quietly pull them in against her and let them cry on her shoulders. Mira didn't cry, but she let Harley go, except then he didn't seem to want to go anymore, and the two of them stared at Violet's blood on the grass until Everett gently ushered them off to bed.

Wyatt looked grim and said nothing, and Graham wordlessly ruffled his hair, his expression just as sad. Ender expressed his sorrow to Marie for their loss, his elf guards helping Winnie and Liam who were moving amongst the grieving witches, trying to comfort where they could.

Only Quartz seemed to have any sense of real focus as he directed the fairies on caging King Elm away until they made it back to Cosmic Grove where he would personally handle him.

Jack was an arm's length away when he stopped. "The Seer's prophecy," he said hoarsely. "This was it, wasn't it? She told you Violet would die."

Quartz gave no indication that he'd heard him at first, then he bowed his head and said, "'Your prophecy, princeling, is bittersweet. You will win a crown, but you will lose your love in the process. That is your future.'"

Jack hadn't known what to say to that. It had explained a lot, but he hadn't cared. None of the answers brought Violet back.

"Thank you, Jack," Quartz had suddenly said.

"For what?"

Quartz exhaled shakily, revealing the nerves he wouldn't show on his face, and when he looked up, something in his mask fractured. "For being the friend she needed when I couldn't."

As Jack felt Tiberius's warm hand on his back now, he shut his eyes and a tear rolled down the bridge of his nose before he turned his face into his pillow to wipe it away. He turned over in bed and found his fiancé staring up at the gold canopy, his expression distant. Jack remembered that Violet had almost been Tiberius's sister-in-law at one point.