“And the others? Did they survive?”
Eat and restore yourselves, but then you must push on. You are running out of time, and you must yet retrieve the key from the Scholars’ Temple. You—
Oh, no. I’ve pushed too hard.
Find the next key, Soli. Add it to this necklace, and I’ll come to you again.
“How? Where in the temple? Why—?”
Before I can finish my questions, the light from the amulet disappears.
And Artemisen’s presence is gone.
I’m so frustrated I want to hit something or shout at someone, but I rush over to the men, who open their eyes and sit up. I scan them for any trace of their injuries, but the scrapes and cuts are gone.
“Are you all right? Kaelen, Bern, oh, thank the goddess, in this case literally,” I blurt out, crouching down to yank Kaelen’s shirt to the side to check for his wound.
“It’s gone,” I say, laughing with relief. “It’s gone. Bern! Your arm!”
The soldier stretches both arms out in front of him. Both undamaged,notdislocated arms.
“I’m fine, Soli,” he says, wonder in his voice. “I thought I heard … Was that the goddess?”
Kaelen grabs my hands to hold me still and searches my face with his dark-purple gaze. “Areyouokay? I remember fighting to open my eyes, and you were holding us. Protecting us from the rain?”
Hepulls the bloody bandages out of his shirt, stares down at them, and then back at me. “You did all this on your own?”
“She made a fire!” Bern jumps up as if he was never injured. “Soli, I knew you could do it!”
I have to smile at his enthusiasm, but a wave of overwhelming exhaustion knocks me off balance, and I clumsily topple back out of my crouch to land on my bottom. Then I sit there, blinking, wondering why my head is suddenly too heavy for my neck to carry.
“Soli!” Kaelen catches me before I fall on my face and pulls me into his lap. “What is it? What’s happening?”
“I have the key,” I mumble, barely able to speak. “With … amulet.”
“Soli,” he says again, gently pushing my hair off of my face with one hand. “Is this just exhaustion? Or something the goddess did to you? What should I do?”
“No … nothing.” I stare at him in wonder, not understanding how the crown prince of Valourian—her true king—is here with me. Holding me. Looking at me with so much care and concern in his beautiful violet eyes.
But he is.
Which means it’s safe.
Safe to give in, because Kaelen will take care of Bern.
Because the strength the goddess gave me healed my body, but it didn’t touch my mind.
And I’m so very tired.
“I can’t fight it anymore,” I murmur, blinking hard to keep my eyes open. “I’m sorry. Trying.”
But the fog is back.
Despite the healing, despite the prince and Bern being whole and awake, the fog in my mind is back.
It’s so heavy …
I close my eyes again and let it be someone else’s turn to carry the weight of the quest for a little while.
