Shadow Cursed by May Sage Page 0,20

the unseelie high queen. And she’s Vlari’s mother. It seems like she needs comfort. I can attempt to provide it, pretending it’s my sister in my arms. With great difficulty, I force my arm to circle hers loosely. She sniffles in my grasp.

Oh, lords of all woods, I am dreadful at this hugging business.

“We do.” The queen bobs her head up and down, as ungracefully as she’s able to. “We do have time, now.” Finally, finally, she moves away from me. “She was fading. Her slumbers lasted longer. Most days, she barely breathed, and she was cold. So very cold. Now, look.” She’s pointing to Vlari’s hair. It isn’t much different from what it was when I first saw it a week ago. Half silver-gray, the other half a deep, dark purple.

Reading my confusion, she clarifies, “We had less than three inches of color. My daughter is strong, but even she needs anchors. Things to hold her here with us. Friends, people to entertain her. Hope.”

I practically growl. “Did none of her friends come?”

I pause, wondering if Vlari has friends at all. The Thorn girl, Mephesea, comes to mind. “Didn’t Esea come?”

The queen nods. “Occasionally, and it helped, of course. But she has no one else. A decade is a long time to hold on to just a few threads. I don’t think she was giving up. I think she was truly falling into the claws of deep eversleep, though I doubt it was of her own volition. She was fading.”

I don’t say anything. I can’t. The guilt eating at me doesn’t allow for a word to cross my lips. I could have come earlier. In my anger and cowardice, I didn’t think about what her eversleep was like for her. All that mattered was that seeing her was too painful.

“And yet, she used some energy. To save the girl…the child, a few weeks ago.”

I’m redirecting my anger at Vlari, because if I don’t, I’m going to hit something.

Ciera sighs. “She said the child is brave. That she deserves a chance. I think she knew she was almost gone, by then. She may have wanted to do something good before leaving us.”

I can’t breathe. The queen should have just stabbed me in the heart.

She takes my hand, her palm hot against my icy skin. “You brought her back to us.”

“How long?” I clear my throat. “How long do we have, now? Given her energy level.”

Ciera smiles at me. “Years. We have years, Rystan. I can’t tell you how many, exactly, but she’s well now.”

I remember how to breathe again then.

We have time.

I glare down at her body, stalking to her with a burning rage I can’t contain. She was going to let herself die, and she didn’t so much as tell me. I need to shout at her.

The sound of a frantic set of footfalls rushing toward us distracts me. I unsheathe my dagger and return to the door, positioning myself in front of the queen, though there are plenty of guards in the corridor.

Instants later, an imp in a page outfit appears, out of breath, wide eyes still open in shock.

“Your Highness—” The dainty, light-green-skinned imp is breathless. “You’re needed in the war room at once. We have had news.”

Queen Ciera’s violet eyes cut through me.

“I’ll stay with Vlari,” I say, my words concealing my rage. She and I have a matter or two to discuss today.

The queen squeezes my arm, and follows the page out of the room.

I sit next to Vlari, and take one of her hands.

As the seconds stretch, I half expect her to take the coward’s way out. She has to know how pissed I am. But reality fades, and she pulls me into one of her visions all the same.

Looking at her, I find that I’m incapable of saying anything at first, taking in the fact that she’s right here in front of me. Almost alive.

“You were dying.”

She sighs. “My mother can be dramatic.”

“You were dying.”

She doesn’t seem to get it.

Silence looms as she stares at me cautiously, and I do my best not to snap.

If I let go of whatever control I have left, there’s no telling what I’ll do. Quietly, I ask, “Why didn’t you wake up?”

She takes a moment before answering. I know she’s thinking of a way to make her response sound better. “If my energy were to die down in eversleep, I think I could still power the ward for a while. Years, maybe. They say the Cursed Prince