Kaelric nodded.‘And it’s okay.’
‘Stop it!’I shouted, kicking out at him.‘It’s not okay! She’s not okay, and I’m not okay. It’s not?—’
He crawled on his knees before me and pulled me into his lap as I fell apart.
Grief racked my body like I was mourning a loved one. Like my own mother died. The sound coming from me didn’t feel human, low and ragged, pulled from a place I didn’t know existed.
‘Shhh.’He rubbed my back in small circles.
‘You don’t understand,’I told him.‘Five hundred feet, no one can swim that length on one breath, and it’s dark, and small, and we’ll never get her out.’
He pulled my face back, cupping it in his hands and using his thumbs to wipe at my tears.
‘You and Godric are safe. That’s all that matters, and I know my mother would agree.’
‘I do,’she piped in.
I frowned.‘You don’t hate me?’
He looked offended.‘I’m madly in love with you—obsessed, really. I could never hate you, Brynn.’
His voice vibrated with sincerity, softer than I’d ever heard it. I smiled a little at his reply.
‘But there has to be a way to get her back,’I whimpered.‘Not just because I want her back but to help your people.’
I then told him about the spell Mind Render had over the people of his beloved city and what Val had said about it.
Kaelric’s eyebrows drew together in a knot at the center of his forehead. “Even if we broke my mother free of the well, does she think she can break the spell Mind Render has over my people?”
He looked at me expectantly, and I waited for Valkaryn’s reply.
‘Not without killing you, Brynn,’she said, and the numbness was back, followed by anger.
‘Because I’m human?’
‘Yes.’
“Maybe, if certain circumstances are met,” I told Kaelric, and I felt Valkaryn stir at my lie. Even miles away from me, she still felt bonded to my hip.
Kaelric frowned. “What circumstances?”
‘Yeah, Brynn, what circumstances?’Val asked.
“Well, for starters, we need to get her out of that well.”
“Do you know any Elite with metal magic that could summon her out?” Kaelric asked.
“I don’t, but Cassian might.”
“Cassian,” Kaelric growled, and I grinned.
“Jealous?”
“He likes you. Of course I’m jealous,” he snarled, his eyes going yellow.
“He’s a good man, and I only have eyes for you,” I told him, planting a kiss on his nose.
Kaelric nodded, seemingly satisfied with that. “Which is why he’s still alive.”
