Song of Blood and Reign

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Jai had hardly slept in the past four days.  He'd drift off for only an hour or so at a time before being woken up by nightmares that plagued him.  The darkness seemed to laugh at him then, though he knew it was only him and Allel in the room and no one could get in.  He'd put up a protective ward all around Solandis's tavern that only the five of them could move through.

Well, the four of them for now since Allel had yet to wake up.  Jai continuously did sweeps of his magic through her, but didn't feel anything wrong.  She was just...resting, it seemed.  After everything these past few months, they all needed rest, which what what they were doing then. 

What woke Jai then wasn't nightmares, but rather a rhythm, a song being hummed.  Nothing that went along with words, just one meant to soothe and convey love and hope and longing. 

One that was being hummed down a bond that tethered his heart to another. 

Distance and darkness kept his words from being heard by Lyv, but the emotions could never be held back.  They flooded down their mating bond, washing over her for the first time in months and holding on tightly.  The humming stopped for a moment...before starting back up again. 

But that darkness was different.  It wasn't the darker version of Lyv he was silently communicating with.  It was his Lyv, though there was something different about her.  That darkness was still present, but she was in control of it now.  It wasn't gone like he hoped, but it wasn't taking over either.  She seemed to be...planning.  Planning and worrying about something.  Multiple somethings, it seemed.

Jai was so close to getting her back, but he had someone else to worry about right now.  He knew Lyv would understand.

He stretched out his stiff legs from where he'd been sitting beside Allel's bed.  She was still unconscious and hadn't even made a move to wake up.  It wasn't just physical exhaustion of Mik's attack, but also mental and emotional.  Jai was going to give her whatever time she needed, though.  His worry was about her now that he knew Lyv was back to herself, locked away wherever Corliss was keeping her.

The Keep...Jai, Gideon, and Thia had asked Solandis more about the fortress-like structure north of the Camdover Mountains, but she didn't have much to say they didn't already know from Allel.  What still confused them was why Kalla hadn't sent word of her surveillance of it.  But then again, the Pirate Queen of Blackloch did what she wanted, not what everyone else did. 

They had sent a message to her, but never received one back.  Jai had an uneasy feeling it had been intercepted, but it wasn't too descriptive in that it gave their movements away to anyone else who read it.  He'd hoped for her help whenever they finally made it, which he had a feeling he already had even in her silence.

  Jai sat up straighter in his chair, rubbing both hands over his face to wake himself up even more.  Glancing at the open windows, the sun hadn't even begun to rise.  Filwey's streets were still quiet, a stark difference from the crowds of people who milled about by midday. 

The shifting sound coming from the bed made Jai's eyes snap to the shapeshifter who lay there.  Allel's eyes were open and staring up at the ceiling.  She was seemingly trying to make sense of where she was...before the reality of what happened came crashing down on her.  The next breath she took hitched as tears welled in her eyes, but she smothered her sob with her hand as the other pressed against her stomach. 

Jai was by her side in an instant, sitting on the bed and leaning over her as he grasped tightly to one of her hands.  "You're all right," he told her, and reached up to wipe away her tears with his other.  "You're fine."