Together, Brom and I attacked the monster, forcing it to dodge not only the silver, but also the flames.
It felt natural, fighting with Bromley. We had practice-fought against each other so often that we knew each other’s style. We worked as one, and it was brilliant. Bromley ducked and sliced his daggers out, sweeping his arms in an arc, and in the same movement I went high and swung my sword for the wraith’s head. Unable to dodge both of us, the wraith shrieked, its body sliced clean through with fire and silver. It crumbled to dust.
As the wind carried the remnants of the creature away, Millennia collapsed into a pile of billowing blue fabric. She was visibly shaking, no doubt from the cold and fatigue. I was about to run to her when I saw what was happening across the river.
Zach still fought the other wraith.
And he was losing.
The swordsman was skilled, but he was still only human. He probably hadn’t managed more than a few hours’ sleep in the past two days, and he couldn’t keep up.
Millennia was practically unconscious, unmoving on the ground. She would be no help. I ran to the stream and was about to jump across, when Bromley stopped me. “Stay back,” he told me, “you’re losing too much blood.”
I glanced at my wrist, and I could scarcely believe the amount of blood that coated my sleeve. It was practically dripping, and I recognized the dizziness from blood loss.
Then, before I could stop him, Brom had jumped across and joined my partner against the wraith. With Brom’s help, the tide turned slightly, and Zach was able to get his second wind. Once the two warriors had the wraith against the ravine wall, Zach made a valiant strike. The shadow creature screeched and recoiled as Zach plunged his sword into its side.
But the move came at a cost. The wraith grabbed Zach’s arm and he screamed. I knew what that explosion of cold felt like. Zach staggered away—and I knew—he’d reached his limit. The monster saw it, too, and went for the final blow.
Something burst in my chest. The cry ripped through my gut and into my throat. I tried to jump over the stream, but my coordination was shot. I fell into the icy water, and it swallowed me. I pushed off the slippery rocks at the bottom, and my head broke the surface just as the wraith moved in. It reached for Zach’s heart with five daggers disguised as skeletal fingers.
I was too late to stop it—but Brom wasn’t.
He stopped the wraith’s hand with his knife. The sound of silver clashing against metallic bone echoed through the ravine. Chest heaving, Brom swung back with his free arm to go for the creature’s throat. But the wraith had the same idea.
And it was much faster.
This time I couldn’t scream as Brom fell to the ravine floor, blood pouring from open wounds on his throat and collarbone. All breath, all sound had been knocked out of me.
Zach lunged over Brom’s fallen body and hacked away at the wraith like a thing possessed. Bits of smoky darkness were tossed into the air, transforming to dust as Zach sliced and cut with a fury I’d never seen.
Once the wraith was nothing but tiny particles of darkness, Zach turned back and fell to his knees next to Bromley.
With numb limbs, I pulled myself out of the stream and crawled, sopping wet, to Bromley. My knees and hands collided with a pool of blood, and at the touch of the warm liquid, I shattered.
Bromley. Brom.
He shook on the cold stones, his eyes wide and alert and…knowing.
He tried to talk, but the wound on his throat only leaked more blood.
“Sh-shhhh.” I sobbed, my voice strange to my own ears. “No, Brom, please, I can’t do this without you. Please.”
With trembling fingers, I gripped his hand and squeezed. It was freezing, nearly lifeless.
But I could save him. I still had the Royal’s Kiss. So what if it was evil? So what if it created more monsters? I would pay any price for Brom’s life, no matter what the cost—a thousand more wraiths crawling the earth if that’s what it took.
I reached for Zach across Brom’s shivering body, trying to conjure up the spell in my mind. Trying to think with a desperate sense of clarity. I couldn’t fail this spell.
Zach took my hand in his, and I knew he wasn’t going to deny me this time. Not now. Not for Brom.
But he didn’t have to. Brom did. With his remaining strength, with the life draining from his eyes, Brom pulled me back. Blood pooled at his neck. His mouth was open but no sound. Subtly, so subtly, he shook his head.
I was willing to pay any cost, but Brom wasn’t.
My brave Brom. My Brom. I didn’t care what the Legion said—what I felt for Bromley was so much stronger than friendship. He was my family. My brother. Bond wasn’t a strong enough word for what I felt for him. It was a force, a magic that defied all reason and logic.
Love was the only thing strong enough to describe him to me.
I loved him with all my heart. All my soul.
I gave a strangled moan, hunched over him with my forehead pressed to his, and sobbed.
Tears ran in rivulets down my cheeks and splashed onto Brom’s face, rolling down his cheek and mixing with the steady stream of blood.
Then…a spark of gold.
As more of my tears rolled down his neck onto his wound, gold shimmered, covering the terrible crimson and replacing it with…
I gasped and reeled back. Light, beautiful light, shone in the darkness of the ravine, rolling off Bromley in waves. Sparks and dust danced over him, whirling around him in a tornado of sheer gold.
Everything, everything was gold.
Gold light splashed onto Zach and me, showering us with the strange magic. My wrist tingled and, without even looking, I knew it had healed.
It was so bright I had to close my eyes.
When I opened them, Brom was staring at me, wide-eyed, through the clearing golden mist. His neck was completely healed. Our astonishment lasted just a moment before we threw ourselves into a tight embrace, tears still flowing.
We sat on the cold, wet ravine floor, holding each other just like the time when I was ten and Mother had come and gone from Myria without asking to see me once. I’d been devastated. Bromley held me tight that day, and I clung to him.
And together the world had looked much brighter.
In fact, it had looked golden.
Chapter
Thirty
Love is…
The four of us stayed at the bottom of the ravine in a small cave for half the day. While Brom and I had sat locked together, Zach had crossed the river and helped Millennia back to our side. She was still pretty out of it, so Zach carried her until we found our tiny cave. After the battle with the wraiths, it felt like a palace.
We built a fire the old-fashioned way and threw our bed wraps over Millennia. Though Brom had assured me that physically he felt fine, nearly dying had taken its toll on him mentally, so I pressured him to sleep, and in no time, his head was on my lap and he was snoring lightly.
At his snoring, Zach and I looked at each other and shared a smile.
Zach prodded the fire with a stick and gestured to Brom. “I owe him my life.”
“Stand in line,” I said with a soft laugh.
“What’s the story between you two?” he asked. “Most Royals don’t care so much about their pages.”
“We’re family. He was assigned to me when he was very young, after he lost his parents. So he might have actually seen me as more of a mother back then, even though technically he was supposed to take care of me.” I brushed some hair away from his forehead and smiled. “One of his first nights as my page, he developed a bad cough. It had been from crying himself to sleep the night before. I stayed up that night with him, giving him honeyed lemons. After that, he followed me around wherever I went. He was there for me when my mother never wanted to be. I…I don’t know what I would’ve done if he’d… I was foolish to let him come.”
“From the sound of it, I doubt you could’ve stopped him.”
“Probably not.” I bit my bottom lip and looked at Zach. “It was Love, wasn’t it?”