“She’s here.” Leelah steps back as I come up the stairs. “She’s… come see for yourself.”
I squeeze her shoulder as I pass.
Ma’s bedroom is dark but Rogue flows past me, lighting a few candles around the bed. The glow illuminates Ma’s haggard face.
A spear of ice travels down my spine. “Ma?”
Her eyelids flutter but remain closed. I sit and take her hand—her skin is hot to the touch. Her lips are cracked. The scarlet rash has spread over her face, but a spot on her high cheekbone is turning ash gray.
A rustle just beyond the doorway tells me Leelah is hovering in the hall.
“What’s happening to her?” I ask without taking my eyes off Ma. “What is this?”
“It’s the curse,” Leelah whispers. “She was doing so much better, I thought she’d been cured—until earlier today. I was visiting, and she sounded tired. She said she might turn in early. When I came to check on her, she was burning up with fever. And then…” She comes to stand beside me. “See that, on her cheek? The skin turns hard. This happens in the final stages of the Red Death. The victims… turn to stone.”
The dread is making me numb. “What about the medicine the king sent?”
“She's taken it all.”
“I can get more—”
“Even if you could, she can’t take any more,” Leelah says softly. “She can’t drink it. There’s nothing we can do. She’s beyond healing now, Rose.” Her voice is thick with sorrow.
“No,” I whisper. “No. Get me more medicine,” I order Rogue. “Get me anything… anything in the king’s possession that might help. We have to help her!”
My braids fly back as thewhisppuffs past me. The window sails upward and the shutters clatter.
“It’s okay,” I tell Leelah, who’s shrunk back in the corner, her hands clutched to her breast. “It’s just Rogue. One of the king’s magical servants.” I turn back to Ma, settling onto a stool and taking her hand. “It’s all right, Ma. You’ll be okay. Help is on the way.”
“Rose?” Leelah asks in a small voice.
“Yes?”
“Is it true? Are you the Omega chosen in the Queen Covenant? Did you meet the king?”
“Yes. But that’s not important now. I’m here. I’m home. Everything will be all right.”
I just wish I was as certain as I sound.
TWENTY-ONE
Bestian
WouldI have done it all over again?
Yes.
In a heartbeat.
If I had known then what I know now, I like to think I would have behaved differently—but regret is easy when you’re looking back.
Rose… my little moonflower… my perfect mate and my true love… she was in my life for such a brief, dazzling time, yet she changed everything.
When I stood on the beach watching her float away from me, I hoped and prayed that she would feel my love for her. I was too cowardly to say it aloud.
I stand in my study with my hands braced on my desk, my claws digging into the wood as I stare at the orb through a watery gaze. The anguish in my chest is so intense, I can’t breathe.
She promised to return once she’d nursed the healer back to health, but we both know the truth. The Red Death is deadly. Some were saved when I sent the medicine, but the chance of her Ma recovering after a relapse… it’s not worth calculating. Not worth dwelling on.
