The goddess rose to her feet and wandered deeper into the forest, just at the edge of sight. She knelt to the forest floor, collecting various berries and herbs. Araes wincedagain as he risked another glance at his feet. Nightfall was just upon them and gods only knew what darkness might bring. He needed to get a fire started and to set up their mat, but the wounds forced him still.
“Goddess, they’re fine, please. We must set up camp,” he said, attempting to shift on his feet. Pain kept him rooted to the ground, though.
“Not until I tend to those.” Tethys returned with her tunic folded into a pouch across her abdomen and retrieved a copper bowl from Gaia’s travel bag. Araes watched, almost mesmerized, as she dumped the ingredients and crushed them between her fingertips.
“This salve will help to ease some of your pain, and hopefully in a few days’ time these will heal. I can’t promise the scars will fade, though,” she said delicately, swiping the salve on each cut. The mixture cooled the white-hot heat until it was merely a dull ache.
“Where did you learn to make that?” he asked as she wrapped a clean set of bandages around his left heel.
“When Polaris and I were children, Euda caught us in the back gardens of our home making mud cakes and herb potions. Thank the gods she did, though, because Polaris was about to feed me our recipe,” she said, moving to his other heel. Her hands were gentle, but firm as if she’d trained her entire life with the Venian healers.
“Euda stopped us before I could drink the mixture and informed us, rather forcibly, that the particular combination we’d made—nightshade and winter jasmine—was lethal. Had she not been there that day, I would’ve died.” Tethys tied the last knot in place.
“Polaris felt horrible, of course, but Euda reassured her it was an honest mistake. The power of herbs is unmatched, she told us. For the rest of the week, Euda taught us various uses of common herbs and plants. Her lessons back then were much more enjoyable than those now of etiquette and mortal customs.” She smiled softly andwiped the residual salve on her trousers, her eyes glittering gold in the low light. Firebugs meandered around them with glimpses of amber light, as the forest settled into slumber.
Araes wasn’t sure if it was the evening breeze or the memory that wisped through Tethys’s curls, but in the fading sunset he realized this thickly-rooted flora brought her peace. He’d seen glimpses of this version of her as they twirled around the ballroom, but now, the content smile curled on her lips was an astonishing beauty he yearned to look upon forever.
“Thank you,” he whispered, stroking a hand on her cheek. She grinned and pressed into the touch.
As darkness spread through the forest, Araes lit a fire, and the two settled into a quiet evening. Over smoked trout and cheese, they shared memories of childhood long since gone until exhaustion took hold. Araes unrolled their sleep sacks and pulled Tethys into his embrace. Their bodies, like two puzzle pieces, fit perfectly against one another.
“Thank you for staying, Araes,” Tethys whispered. He smiled with sleep heavy in his eyes, as she placed a gentle kiss on his lips that lingered until dawn.
Chapter 50
Tethys gazed upon the vast fields of snowpack and ice from an arched windowsill. Fire roared in the hearth beside her, but only frigid flames cast light across her bedchamber’s walls. She braced against the sill, long black locks curtaining her face as she huffed a sigh.
Tethys knew then she wasn’t herself. This wasn’t her memory, but of the woman who came in haunted dreams.
“You’re just as much of a coward as our father was.” The queen scowled. With her chin tipped slightly, she paced the room, her black heels clicking on the cold wood floorboards. “All you’ve ever wanted was my title—the crown’s title for yourself.”
Tethys watched from the window, keeping the snowy fields fixed in the corner of her eye.
“That’s not true, Adria, and we both know it, but you’ve let Ursae crumble. Reopen our trade routes with the other realms. Our people are starving and freezing, and yet you sit here in this godsforsaken castle with a full belly and warmfurs.”
“Shut your treasonous mouth!” she hissed, jutting her skeletal index finger toward Tethys. “I should throw you in the dungeons for your defiance.”
Tethys’s fists curled around her chair’s velvet armrest.
“My defiance? Sister, for once in your life, please just listen to me. Ursae will die if you don’t reopen those routes,” Tethys cried. If only she could burrow through Adria’s icy walls, maybe then she could be reasoned with.
“Last I checked, I am the northern queen, not you. So, know your place.” The queen’s vicious bite sank its teeth into Tethys’s skin, practically drawing blood. She turned on her heels and unlatched the door. “Don’t bother coming to tonight’s celebration. Festival is better off without you.”
“It’s no wonder even your son hates you, Adria. You’re cruel—always have been and always will be,” Tethys seethed. “You’re a terrible queen. Good thing our mother is long since dead, she’d be so fucking ashamed of what you’ve become.”
Adria stopped in the open-door frame and glanced over her shoulder, eyes burning with lethal hatred. “She was never any mother of yours, sister. She despised you. Why do you think we always locked you in your nursery?”
The queen approached, her footfalls cutting through the frigid wall between them. “Why do you think when I had new dresses, you were left my hand me downs? Or why I got the finest porcelain dolls for my birthday and you received nothing?”
Rage bubbled in Tethys’s belly as Adria continued, closing the distance between them until their noses just brushed.
“You are an abomination in this world and I wish you were dead, Elpis,” Adria whispered, her breath an arctic blast across Tethys’s cheek.
Violent whispers licked up Tethys’s throat, leaving a blazing trail of venom in their wake. She gritted her teeth, stifling the fury just enough to keep her vision from tunneling. Adriagrasped her shoulders, digging her sharpened nails into flesh.
A droplet of blood trailed down Tethys’s arm and splattered to the floor.
“Why don’t you do the realm a favor and kill yourself now before you bring us all to ruin?” Adria whispered.
