The Art of Blood and Power (Book 2 in The Gifted Trilogy)

38- Epilogue

I barely registered getting to woods where we had tied our horses. Seeing five horses when there were only four of us caused me to spiral into myself again, dropping to my knees as I struggled to use the breathing techniques Kess had taught me. Thinking of him only made it worse.

The tears hadn't stopped since they'd started and by now I was amazed there was still water in my body left to cry. My head felt as if it were one movement away from bursting and putting me out of my misery. Blood now soaked the right half of my side, even through the fabric Cicero had tied to it while we ran. It was a burning sensation that caused my limbs to tremble with every movement, but it was nowhere close to the suffocating pain in my chest. It felt as if someone had pressed an entire mountain on it and every breath was a struggle to make.

June kneeled beside me, bringing the water flask that was tied to her horse to my lips. The moment the water reached my lips, I retched, smacking the container away and spilling the rest of the content still in my stomach on the ground. Parts of my body felt scorching hot while others were so cold I was surprised they weren't covered in ice. My body was at war with itself, and all I could think about was Kess.

I had left him. Worse than that, I hadn't noticed when he fell behind trying to fend off our attackers. I was too consumed with myself, with getting to that stupid fucking gate. If I had stopped for even a second, bothered to turn around.

Then you'd be dead. The rational part of my brain spoke, sounding like the deep and soothing voice of the man I had loved and left behind. We wouldn't have been able to both make it without being outnumbered. Then Nox would've had the crown and nothing to stop him from killing both of us.

I ran through the scene in my head, forcing myself to come up with a scenario where we could have both made it past the gate, but each one was more unrealistic than the last. It took Kess all he had left to hold them off a brief few moments, and it was only because they were all too busy with capturing him that they didn't bother chasing us. They knew that if they caught Kess, they won. Whether or not Nox had been controlling them, something had told them that even without the crown, their enemy would be powerless without their king. I'd be powerless.

Cicero's hands gently lifted me from the ground, one arm supporting my back and the other looping under my knees. I wiped my mouth with my hand as Cicero lifted me onto one of the horses. He'd already tied Kess's lone horse to his horse's saddle.

"They're going to torture him," I whispered, my voice not sounding like my own. It was raw and scratchy from my screaming, and every word was weak and shaky. "They won't kill him, but that won't stop them from torturing him. From breaking him."

During the final trial, Nox had only a few minutes to torture me and even in that brief time, he'd managed to make me forget who I was. He was going to have far longer with Kess. Kess, who he'd already scarred, controlling his mind for months, leaving him a shell of himself.

"Kesserian is strong," Cicero tried to reassure me, but I could hear the doubt in his words. "He will fight and he will survive long enough for us to break him out of there."

My hand subconsciously went to my inner pocket, pulling out the crown we had done all of this for. The crown Kess had sacrificed himself to get.

"I hope it was worth it" I murmured, staring at the metal in disgust. Nox confessed himself, he hadn't known where the crown was hidden. It's why he'd let me live so long. It's why he didn't kill me during the Summer Harvest.

"He would have found it eventually if we didn't find it first" Cicero reminded me. "The castle is only so large. If he had gotten his hands on it, this war would've been over."