Chapter 127 -Avianna-

Chapter 127 -Avianna-
\-Avianna-

Caylix keeps his forehead pressed against mine, his arms wrapped around me while I hold fistfuls of his filthy shirt as though someone might attempt to take him away again if I loosen my grip.

The rest of the courtyard slowly begins to exist again around us. Boots strike stone. Horses shift impatiently near the gates. Someone calls for the wagon to be secured, and somewhere behind Caylix, Father is speaking to Captain Hale.

None of it matters. Not until a familiar voice cuts directly through everything.

"Caylix."

Agameus. Caylix's eyes close.

"No."

I almost laugh. 

Agameus stops beside us. "I haven't said anything yet."

"I know your tone…"

Agameus looks down at the dried blood covering most of Caylix's shirt and then back at him.

"You need to see the healer."

"I'm fine. The wounds are basically closed."

"Wonderful. I would still like to determine whether anything important remains damaged beneath them."

Caylix looks at me.

"Don't look at me. I'm with him."

"Of course you are."

His betrayal would be far more convincing if he weren't still holding one arm around my waist. Agameus turns toward the palace.

"Now."

Caylix sighs.

"Can I at least bathe first?"

"No."

"I smell like a horse."

"Then perhaps you'll motivate me to work quickly."

I press my lips together and Caylix looks down at me.

"You're enjoying this."

"Immensely."

"Five days away from you and this is the welcome I receive."

Caylix mutters beneath his breath, but he finally starts walking. Only then do I notice the Veylan guard who returned with him. He's leaning against the wagon while another guard helps him down, one arm held close to his body and dried blood covering his sleeve. King Erik is already crossing toward him.

"Bring him too," Agameus calls.

The guard looks toward Caylix and Caylix gives him a grim smile.

"Apparently none of us are escaping."

The guard laughs once, then winces.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Your Highness."

Caylix's eyes narrow. I smile. Perhaps seeing the healer won't be so terrible after all.

Once inside, Agameus cuts what remains of Caylix's shirt from his body. Caylix finally loses patience, catches the torn fabric in both hands and pulls it over his head.

Agameus stares at him.

"What?"

"I was attempting not to reopen your shoulder."

"It isn't open."

"That is precisely what I'm trying to understand."

Caylix tosses the ruined shirt onto the floor. I stop smiling. I had seen the wounds through the vision, and I'd felt them through the tether but neither prepared me for seeing what is left of them now. Dark bruising spreads across his side, but the place where the first arrow entered is already covered by a thin layer of newly formed skin. His shoulder is worse, an angry wound surrounded by dried blood and bruising, but even that has begun closing. The third wound on his upper arm should still be open, as it was the worst, but it isn't. I know what an arrow wound looks like. I've seen enough of them over the years. None of them look like this after a day and a half.

Apparently Agameus agrees.

"Sit."

Caylix sits on the edge of the examination table.

Agameus leans closer to his side.

"Does this hurt?"

He presses two fingers against the wound.

Caylix winces.

"No."

I stare at him, lifting an eyebrow.

Liar. I’m in your head now too, remember?

Caylix exhales.

"Yes."

"Thank you."

Across the room, the Veylan guard laughs from the second bed while another healer cleans the cut along his arm.

"I was beginning to wonder if he could feel pain."

Caylix looks over at him.

"I'll try to suffer more dramatically next time."

"There will not be a next time," I say.

Both men look at me and laugh. Agameus ignores us, although I can see the amusement he is attempting to hide as he examines Caylix's shoulder.

Father and Erik stand nearby, having followed us from the courtyard. Father is watching Agameus work and Erik is watching Caylix. He has barely looked away from him since he returned. Agameus runs his fingers carefully around the shoulder wound.

"This should not look like this."

Caylix glances down.

"I thought looking better was generally considered positive."

"After thirty-six hours, this should still be a substantial open wound. Your healing magic is fascinating. Your runes are alive."

Agameus reaches for a clean cloth and wipes away some of the dried blood. I can see it now that he mentions it. The markings aren't glowing exactly, but there is something beneath them. A faint warmth that seems to move from one rune to the next.

Caylix shifts.

Agameus immediately catches his shoulder. "Stop moving."

I move closer and take Caylix's hand. His fingers close around mine immediately. The reaction is instant. Gold flashes beneath the skin of my forearm and my prophecy mark warms.

At the same moment, Caylix's runes flare. Caylix feels it too. His eyes drop toward our joined hands.

"What?"

Agameus doesn't answer, he's just staring at Caylix's shoulder. I look at Father and he has noticed it too. The skin around Caylix's shoulder wound is changing. The angry red edges soften and the bruising nearest the wound lightens by the smallest degree.

Agameus leans closer.

"Let go of him."

My fingers tighten instinctively.

"What?"

"Avianna, let go of his hand."

Reluctantly, I release Caylix. The warmth beneath my mark fades, and so do his runes.

"Take his hand again."

Understanding begins creeping through me and I reach for Caylix. The moment our fingers touch, my mark warms, and his runes answer.

Agameus makes a quiet sound.

"What?" Caylix asks.

Agameus doesn't respond.

"Agameus."

"Your healing accelerated."

The room goes silent.

"When Avianna released you, the rate of regeneration slowed almost immediately."

He looks between us.

"When she touched you again, it increased."

Caylix looks down at our hands and remembers back to me unconscious in his arms. His runes and prophecy mark healed me that night.

"We already knew he healed me, so it’s not far to assume I could help heal him too."

"Yes," Agameus says. "We knew your magic could trigger something within his. This is different."

"Different how?" Father asks.

Agameus looks at the mark on my arm.

"Stronger."

His attention moves to the prophecy mark on Caylix's chest.

"Much stronger."

I feel Caylix's surprise through the tether. And beneath it, amusement.

You really are never getting rid of me now.

I glance at him.

You were planning to?

Not remotely.

Agameus looks between us.

"Are you two speaking?"

"No," we say together.

Father sighs.

"Is anything about the two of them normal?"

Agameus returns to examining Caylix.

"Increasingly, no."

The healer tending the Veylan guard finishes binding his arm. Erik moves closer to the bed.

"What happened out there?"

The lightness disappears from the room and the guard sits a little straighter.

"Trackers found us before we reached the border."

Erik's expression hardens.

"How many?"

"Twelve in the first group. More were coming."

Father looks toward Caylix.

"Twelve?"

"We didn't fight all twelve at once."

The guard snorts.

"He fought six himself."