The Autumn Prince

64. The Prince of Autumn

I laid quietly in the back of Finn's van, each bump and jostle sending a new wave of misery through my shattered limbs. Rachel's body had been placed next to me, silent and unmoving. I didn't ask how they arrived so quickly, or why they hadn't answered when I called. That they were there was the only thing that mattered to me at the time.

There hadn't been time to attend to our injuries before leaving the scene. The authorities were on their way and not even the Fae could delay them for long. I finally saw the mysterious Cleigh, though only briefly. The massive wolf was as big as a draft horse but he loped into view like a tame puppy carrying Meg on his shoulders. She slipped to the ground and began placing ribbons around the building. I learned afterward that they had been inscribed with sigils that encouraged the fire to burn much hotter than normal. It would raise uncomfortable questions and suspicions of arson, but it would also destroy all evidence of the Fae.

As the van rumbled down some unknown highway, Rachel stirred and eventually cleared her throat. What little I could see of her ruined face made me glad there were no lights. I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from crying.

"You're awake?"

"Yeah." Her normally rich voice was hoarse and weak.

"Don't talk. We're on our way to the fairy hospital. You're going to be fine."

"It's alright." She slurred her words badly. "Should hurt. Earned that much."

"You saved everyone, Rach."

"Shouldn't have needed saving," she began, then swallowed painfully and started over. "Becca helped."

"I don't think she was playing the long game when she patched him up."

"Give her some credit," she murmured. After another long silence, she whispered, "I'm so sorry, Tom."

"Please don't start, there's enough blame to go around."

Rachel didn't speak but she held out a fist so I bumped it with my own and in that small gesture, forgiveness was asked for and granted on both sides. The movement forced a groan from my chest as new waves of agony wracked my broken body. The absurdity struck us at the same time and in a fit of morbid humor we began to laugh, wretched, pitiful noises which made us laugh harder, and that made everything much worse. Some things are worth the pain.

After two miserable hours on the road, we were loaded onto to gurneys and rushed into a dimly lit corridor. Rachel's injuries were more severe than I expected, with horrific, angry blisters covering half of her head. The oil had cooked her right eye in its socket, and holes had been burned clear through her cheek. I had to threaten violence to get Juhan to see her first.

Katherine sat with me as I waited motionless on a hospital bed while conventional medicine tried to hide the hurt from my mind, experiencing so many emotions at once that I couldn't separate them. I didn't even attempt to cope. It was a time for feeling, the mending would come later.

"Finn was right, you know," Katherine said suddenly, expertly masking her anxiety. "You're stronger than you think you are."

"What convinced you, the part where I passed out from fear, or when I was lying helpless on the floor with a broken leg?"

She laid a finger aside her temple. "I got a little taste of whatever that was in your head. The blackness. I thought just that little bit would tear me apart, but you were swimming in it."

I did my best to pull off a sigh. I could still hear the call of the void in the back of my mind, where the tangle of power lay dormant. "That only proves that I'm as bad as they think I am. An abomination."