I stand at the end of the bed, unable to sit but unable to leave. Dom and Billy are crammed together in an armchair, whispering among themselves.
“No change at all?” I ask again.
They peer up at me, two pairs of matching golden eyes. “Not in months. Father’s organized care for him day and night. Tried everything. A soother, a healer, a bloodletter. He sleeps and he talks to himself. That’s it.”
“When was the last time you saw him act like himself?”
Billy chews on his bottom lip. “Well, when we were traveling through the realmlands, he had bad days and good days. Sometimes, he’d seem just like himself, then the next morning, he could barely stand. When we got him back here, he was pretty much delirious.”
“But then Kel came to visit him!” Dom says, shooting forward and knocking Billy to the floor. “Remember? Kel came about, what, three months ago?”
“That’s right!” Billy says, picking himself up. “About a day before Kel’s visit, ol’ George was nearly acting like himself again. Walking around, talking, eating, all of that. Kel came the next day and they sat and chatted for ages. But after he left …”
“Things went bad again. Not right away. He was normal for a few weeks. But then he declined.” Dom’s face falls, and I realize just how much Rosalina’s father means to my brothers. “Now, he hasn’t woken up at all.”
I walk around the edge of the bed and touch George’s face. His brown hair, flecked with gray, has grown longer. Wrinkles line the corners of his eyes and around his lips. His mutters are quick, urgent.
“Has anyone been able to understand what he’s saying?” I ask the boys.
Billy shrugs. “We get bits and pieces. Like ‘Rosalina,’ he says that a lot. And he talks about Anya, too.”
“Anya …”
“His wife,” Billy clarifies.
“I know.” I shoot my little brother a glare.
“The rest of it is nonsense,” Dom says.
I lean down to George’s chest, my ear twitching. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from searching through texts and papers for decades, it’s that often nonsense can be the most truthful of all.
George’s voice trickles out between quick breaths: “Mask on, Annie! Mask on. To Vimy now. Ridge painted red. Planes overhead. Sound like angry wasps, don’t they, Annie? Stay close to me. Told you I’d come back. Promised I would. Watch out! Take cover!”
I suck in a breath. Annie must be his wife, Anya, but what of the rest? There’s some truth in here, something I don’t yet understand.
I pull away. None of it makes any sense. Bone-deep exhaustion fills every part of my body and mind.
My brothers look at each other, then come up on either side of me. Normally, I’d be expecting some sort of prank or trick, but this time, I wrap my arms around each of them, and they wrap theirs around me.
“We’ll watch over him, Fare,” Billy whispers.
“Promise,” Dom says.
I squeeze them tighter. “I know you will.”
I step away and make to leave the room when it hits me.
My heart erupting. A star shooting across the realms. I feel a matching pulse over the hills and desert. A matching pulse in Summer.
My mate bond … I can feel it again. That means Rosalina …
“I need to get back to Castletree. Now.”
CHAPTER 10
Caspian
Drip, drip, drip.
