CHAPTER FIVE
The moment I shimmered back to Jadzeera’s palace, the power pouring from the well so many floors below descended around me, hugging tight against my skin like a cloak.
A metal cloak.
A tomb.
With the distance of the salt flats, the constant pressure—which crept in so gradually during my short time here I hadn’t noticed—lifted, but upon entering my bedchamber, the full burden of the well’s magic snapped back into place. Around me, in me, filling the spaces between molecules.
It weighed my bones down, pulling at my limbs, painting a grimace on my face.
The only consolation was I’d shimmered back to only Callum, not a room full of realm leaders, as I’d expected.
“Verrill told us what happened. As much as he knew anyway.”
I nodded, drawing myself a bath, hoping the water would insulate me from the barrage of power my human body couldn’t assimilate.
“Would you like to talk about it?”
I shook my head as the great tub filled, fingers trailing in the stream of steamy water.
Callum joined me in the bathroom, perching on the black marble countertop. In anyone else, except perhaps Emma, the action would have been smothering, like they sat waiting until I gave in and bared my soul despite myself. But Callum’s presence wasn’t stifling. I detected no underlying impetus for his nearness. He only wanted to be close.
I shut off the water. “Tell me something.”
“Anything,” he whispered, adjusting the sleeves of his muted, earth-toned shirt.
“The Blood King steals power from each realm, each hold.” I bent to remove my boots but Callum hopped off the counter, and knelt before me, his deft movements unlacing and pulling off each soft leather boot without breaking our gaze.
“Yes.” He moved on to the buckles and straps of the battle leathers, swift fingers working to rid me of the added weight. He offered a hand as I stepped into the hot water but I left it hanging and sank into the water up to my shoulders, trying to get as much of myself beneath it as possible.
Relief from the magic pressing into me was minimal.
“Then the holds don’t contain their true, full power. They are more powerful than what I’ve witnessed.”
Callum nodded. “By a great deal.”
A great deal more powerful.
I stared at my body, glamoured to appear as it always had but knowing without seeing where the magic pouring into me had pared me down. The curve of my thigh and calf replaced with sinew and bony knees. Protruding hip and collarbones and each vertebra from my neck to the small of my back painfully visible.
I sank deeper into the bath. If this was the cost of setting things right, so be it.
But I couldn’t keep this power. My body couldn’t handle it.
What a cruel twist of fate. All this speed and strength. All this magic to wield, and my frail form, however reinforced, however bolstered by the magic, still incapable of providing enough energy to sustain it.
“What’s wrong?” Callum asked, coming to the edge of the bath.
I sat up, scrubbing away the tears rimming my eyes.
We stared at each other, me trying to lose myself in his brilliant cobalt eyes, and him searching for the cause of my suffering.
Instead of pushing for an answer Callum reached for the large, soft sponge, dunked it in the water and lathered it with soap that smelled of lemon and kaffir leaves. He drew sudsy circles across my back and shoulders, giving the sponge an occasional squeeze to let the water drizzle down my skin.
My head fell forward, clenched jaw slackened and a small sigh whispered past my lips. “Tell me what it was like before the Blood King,” I said, basking in the flood of relaxation Callum’s attention brought. “Tell me what you were like before all of this.”
Callum released my hair from the band holding it in a loose ponytail and wrung the sponge over my head slowly. “I have only known our realms as they are, I’m afraid. But my uncle, the Green King before I came to power, was part of Lillith’s horde. He was the only one the Blood King failed to turn against her. He stayed by her side until the end, despite the banishment she levied on him for doing so. He stayed until she let the hold have her magic, her life force, once more.” Callum paused in reverence to the demon who’d given up her life to the realms.
“Growing up, I had no concept of how broken the realms were, only that I was to lead when I was of age. That was my mother’s doing. She insisted my uncle not fill my head with stories from times long gone. She, like most, believed there was no way to get back what we’d lost. When I came to power, I did my best to rule justly, and made certain to follow all of the Blood King’s ever-increasing demands for power. It wasn’t until I stumbled across the prophecy, or, I should say, it wasn’t until the Green Realm’s hold showed me the prophecy, that I began to question. I looked through all the Green Realm’s history books for clues about the old times, clues about how to find you. But our books had been sanitized by well-meaning albeit shortsighted scribes. Every mention of Lillith, of the power she had to unite the realms, and of equal power among the different holds was eradicated. Only when I spoke with other leaders did we put the pieces together.”
Callum lathered my hair, pads of his fingers pressing into my scalp as he worked the shampoo into a rich, foamy, froth. I relaxed into his touch, letting it and his smooth baritone lull and soothe me.
“Mind you, it took decades of careful negotiations before I earned an audience with the other realms. In turning the realm leaders against Lillith all those hundreds of years ago, the Blood King also turned the realms against each other. Before he ever tapped into more power than rightfully his, the king had a way with secrets, dealing in lies and deceit, trafficking in poisonous whispers. The realms warred with each other for centuries after he took control and it’s only now, only because of you, that the realms have finally come back together.”
Callum squeezed spongefuls of water over my head until the water ran clear and I focused on the parts of his story that brought me peace.
He’d been the one to discover the prophecy. He’d been the one to start negotiations with the realms. He’d brought them together after finding me. And his uncle never betrayed Lillith.
I wondered if he’d be as true to me.