Land of Light and Shadows

Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Four messages went out the following morning, one to each of the groups going through the Escarrali territories and the last all the way back to Ayveri. Most thought the ravens carrying them would be swallowed up by the darkness before they even got out, but they weren't. It seemed Corliss wanted word to get out about the Crown Prince of Dalcaine's death.

And Lyv...Lyv was numb to absolutely everything around her. The only time she showed any emotion at all was when she screamed at Gideon, Mik, and Alberich as they attempted to move Jai's body. They were going to cover him up and she...she couldn't take it. She needed to see him, see his face, see the gray pattern on his skin, see the dagger wound on his chest. The fatal blow.

They moved him into their room, laid him out on the bed. All Lyv could do was sit there beside him and stare. Stare until her eyes were blurry, until she almost fell face first into the pillow from exhaustion.

And she stayed there with him.

For three days.

She had no recollection of the first. Just the tears and whispers from outside their room, the rustling of the canvas as they looked in on her, but everyone gave her space. Space to cry, to sleep, to mourn.

The second day...she woke up thinking it had all been a dream. The most terrifying dream she'd ever had before.

Until she opened her eyes to see Jai's pale face beside her.

Reality came crashing down around her as she pressed her fist to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs.

Gods, she couldn't stand to look at him the way he was, still bloody and looking like he'd been through hell. She did something about it. She needed to work, needed to get her mind on something else. Her healing magic recoiled slightly when she pressed her hands to Jai's chest, knowing how utterly wrong it was to heal a dead body. But she needed this for herself, so this wasn't her last memory of him.

Lyv started with the gray veined pattern that covered every inch of him. With the minette spider venom gone having nothing left to feed off of once his magic was gone, it was easier to make those scars disappear. The only ones she left, though, were the ones from before. Back when she'd hated him and yet healed him. And when she was finished...gods, now more than ever did he look as if he were sleeping. His skin was clear unmarred, back to its natural dark tan.

Then she got to work on that dagger wound on his chest. First, she tore away the remnants of his tunic, immediately turning it to ash in her hands because she didn't want to see it anymore, soaked through with blood. Sitting down on the bed beside him again, her hands were already glowing with healing magic as she pressed them on either side of the gash. One deep breath and it surged through him, knitting together his skin, and leaving behind just a faint white line, almost like the ones Lyv herself had.

There.

Perfect.

And yet her healing magic was still surging through him, searching for any small, insignificant sign that he might still be there. The only thing she found was the dull, frayed end of their bond. She couldn't help herself when she grabbed hold of it, tried to heal it, but ended up knotting it together with hers. Another rush of healing magic, but...

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

And yet she still held onto it as tight as she possibly could, not ready to let him go just yet.

It was after she washed off the remaining blood and dirt from his skin that she found his bag kicked under the bed, then dug around for a fresh set of clothes to put him in. Just a simple tunic and tan pants. She slipped them on easily, though she still couldn't look at his face. When she was moving to clean off his boots...that was when she found the letter, having fallen when she moved them from the bedside.