He kept his voice calm, his eyes hard. “Because I would never want you to risk your life for mine. I’ve had a decade to avenge my people, and I’ve got nothing to show for it. You’ve been here for two weeks, and look what you’ve done.”
“That’s not true.”
His eyes glazed over for a second, as if his mind flickered for a moment. He looked dazed, slightly confused. He took a pained breath before he forced himself to his feet and slowly walked off. “Caius.”
Caius was on the other side of the tables, eating with a group of guys, but he must have recognized something was amiss because he immediately abandoned the table and hurried to Morco’s side.
I rushed from the table and moved under Morco’s arm, supporting him when he looked on the verge of collapse.
Caius understood in an instant and took my place supporting Morco. They engaged in quiet conversation as they walked away, Morco’s movements getting progressively slower as his weakness deepened.
The revelation left me in shock for a heavy moment, tears burning in my eyes. Morco was all I had in this strange place. Without him, whatever light I felt would be gone forever. Once my body could finally move again, I left the Gathering and went after them both.
I entered the cabin and found Morco seated in an armchair, already coated in visible sweat from just the short walk from the Gathering. He was so out of it that he didn’t even notice I let myself inside, didn’t notice me standing there because he was focused on Caius. “Protect Hanne. Kill Krull if you need to. He’s expendable.” He stopped to take a strained breath. “She’s not.”
Caius glanced at me, his face horrified because he’d had just as much time as I had to process all of this.
Morco continued, unaware I was there. “She’ll try to save me…don’t let her.” His eyes closed, and he rested against the chair, like he didn’t have the energy to say anything else. His body relaxed as if he fell unconscious, his breathing still moving his chest visibly.
Caius shifted his stare to me before he pulled up the right sleeve over Morco’s arm and saw the evidence. “Fuck, Morco.” He got to his feet and put both hands on his head, clearly at a loss for direction without someone to issue orders. “Did you know about this?” He turned to me, yelling loud enough to shake the cabin.
“No. You think I would have done nothing all this time?”
“Fuck.” He started to pace, dragging his hands down his face. “What the fuck do we do? Just sit here and wait for him to die?”
I knew what I had to do—and I suddenly wasn’t scared to do it. “I know what he needs. I—I just need to get it.” The Pedalium flower was harvested for its healing properties to combat sicknesses like this. It was potent, could be applied directly inside a cut or ingested orally. In Morco’s case, he would need both—and he would need it quickly. “It grows in full sunlight, so…I need to go to theapricum.” Back to where this adventure had started, with wolves on the hunt and beings that no one wanted to describe to me.
Caius’s face went as pale as Morco’s. “He just said you can’t leave.”
“Try and stop me.” I felt the tears behind my eyes, the emotion for a man whose surface I’d only explored. Everything underneath was buried gold I hadn’t even had a chance to mine.In some ways, he was still a stranger, but he was the only stranger who was worth my life. “I know the risks, and I don’t care. But I need a guide because I don’t know the way.” I couldn’t do this alone, and the only person I wanted to do it with was dying.
Caius released a heavy sigh. “He put me in charge. I can’t leave.”
“You’re the only person besides him that I trust. And we have to go now.”
“This is the exact opposite of what he said.”
“I can save him.” The tears escaped and poured down my cheeks. “Now, fucking help me do that.”
He stared me down as he breathed, the internal debate burning behind his eyes. Seconds passed before he released a heavy sigh. “You don’t know what they’re capable of. If we’re captured, they’ll torture us. And if we’re lucky…they’ll kill us.”
In any other circumstance, I would have been too scared to go. But the fear of losing Morco was somehow greater. “I know what I’m capable of.” A pair of tears streaked down my cheeks. “And I know I can do this.”
Caius informed the Elders of Morco’s condition and appointed Liam to lead in his absence. We grabbed our packs, stuffed them with dried meat, and filled our canteens with water before we set off. There wasn’t time to say goodbye to anyone, not that I had anyone to say goodbye to.
We rowed across the lake. Caius did most of the work, but I kept up better than I ever had before. Either because my endurance had strengthened—or because every minute was life or death.
We reached the shore, and Caius led the way with his torch raised, walking as fast as he could without actually running. His legs were longer than mine, so sometimes I had to jog to keep up. I’d packed light because speed was of the essence, and I’d rather go hungry or thirsty than be weighed down.
Neither of us spoke, conserving our energy for the journey we took at our quickest speed. I could smell his sweat as it wafted behind him and hit me in the face. I felt vulnerable with Caius simply because he wasn’t Morco. Morco was the single strongest and most selfless man I’d ever met, and I’d rather die so he could live.
We moved in the dark for what felt like an eternity, seemed to run in a straight line that sometimes passed brush, trees, and rocks. But we didn’t cross paths with wolves or other creatures. We seemed to be entirely on our own.
Caius finally came to a stop, taking a second to catch his breath. “Hold this.” He extended the torch.
I took it and held it aloft, away from my hair so it wouldn’t catch fire.
Caius took a second to breathe before he approached the rocky wall. He glided his hand over the surface, and he moved in front of it, checking for a sign or something to tell him which way the path was located.
