Standing at Celestine's grave, the wind whistles through my hair and settles that familiar tightening in my core. I have to tell her. I have to tell Silas. I have to inform the people I love the most that they will not see the people they care about ever again. And the brutal fashion in which they revealed will have to be revealed, too.
The only thing giving me the courage to stand here and stare out at the ocean is Binx at my side. I'm not alone in this, and a sickly part of me hopes Dalis recognizes what the silence means. It won't be that easy, I'll have to tell her, anyway. But I don't want to. I spent days preparing myself for this, yet that provision wasn't enough. Not for this. Nothing will prepare me for this.
Sunlight twinkles like diamonds over the ocean's surface. It doesn't take long for Dalis to turn to me, staring at the side of my face. "How was the capital?" she asks. Not wanting to know outright but wishing to have some semblance of the truth handed to her.
I can tell her the capital was cold and dark, filled with familiar death and the reek of blood. It smelled of crime and the fighting pits were bathed in guts. I won't tell her that. All these little pieces of information are not what she cares to know, she focuses only on Mills. If I discovered anything about him while we were inside the castle.
Little did I know, it didn't take us getting inside the castle to know what happened to him. A shiver snakes up my spine at the reminder of where he is now, and possibly where the remainder is. Gone. Destroyed. Burnt to a crisp. His head is likely the only thing that remains. That is damaged beyond repair; the crows had a field day with a fresh meal.
"The capital was...the capital," I say blandly. "It was as cruel and heartless as it was the last time I saw it."
Dalis nose. She crosses her arms over her chest to protect herself from the cold breeze in the air. This never bothered Celestine, precisely why I chose this spot to bury her. She loved the ocean breeze; it was one of her favorite weather patterns, and often, she stood out here and spread her arms wide. She tipped her chin towards the sky and relished in the beauty of the salty wind encasing her.
Making her feel free.
She didn't have to travel very far to achieve the sense of freedom. I have been to this entire kingdom and back and still don't know what I'm searching for. Every instance I think I've found it, that comfort slips through my grasp and is replaced by a hollow, dark corner in my heart that I can't access without diving too deep into my fears.
"You know what I mean." Dalis's voice is edged with desperation. "Tell me if you saw anything."
I don't tear my eyes away from the ocean. I can't. I can't meet Dalis's eye and tell her what happened. It'll break me further than I've already shattered, and...I'm exhausted. My body wants to collapse, my mind begs to blow out like a candle, my power pushes me down and tells me to achieve this relief so I can use it in case I must.
"Roux, tell me." Dalis's voice cracks.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, and for a second, I hope Binx will say it so I don't have to. Mills is dead. The king spiked his heads on the gates, likely to unnerve us when we returned to rescue Silas; if we'd ever come at all.
No. How can I say that?
"Mills," I begin, licking my dry lips. I rock back and forth on my heels.
"Roux, if you don't spit it out." Her eyes are already glossed with tears.
It rips apart my last shred of sanity, but I say it. "Mills didn't make it," I blurt.
YOU ARE READING
Conquering The Unbroken
Fantasy[Book 4 of the Grounding the Storm series] Roux is back in the safe hands of those that care for her most. With a ticking clock over their heads, the rebellion forms into the operation Bren dreamed it would be since the day he joined. But the threat...
