***
He knew she was here. Keopelani was here, so his wife was here. He’d seen Kale only once, strutting around like a Lord, but not a single sign of Leiani.
He had tried to go to her rooms, but he had been stopped before he even reached her hall by a bevy of armed guards.
He snarled without words, sulking over his food in his own rooms—rooms he had never lived in before. Due to his banishment, his rooms as Leiani’s husband had been given away... to Kale, if the man’s smug looks were any clue. He was now stuck in a room half the size—a set of rooms that was his mother’s when she was a child.
He refused to eat with the other numen when his current status was so embarrassing. Mostly, he spent time in his rooms thinking over his conundrum... and occasionally drowning his sorrows, though he tried to keep that to a minimum.
A knock on the door made him straighten up and tuck away his beverage of choice. “Who is it?”
“Trafford.”
He leapt to his feet. Trafford was the only one who ignored the destruction of his fortunes and his reputation. Friends for almost their entire lives, he was more relieved than words could express that Trafford refused to deny him, even at his lowest.
They embraced quickly before Trafford took a seat. His sweeping glance took in the mess of the room, the badly hidden bottle, and settled on Alan, who looked away.
“What are you doing?”
It was clear he didn’t mean at that exact moment.
“Are you really going to just lie down and take this?”
“And how do you want me to fight it?” Alan demanded.
Trafford sighed. “Alan.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no. Absolutely not.”
“Don’t you think this stupid sibling rivalry has gone far enough?”
Before Alan could continue his protest, Trafford ploughed on. “Alan, you’ve lost the protection of Lady Keopelani. Even the destruction of your brother won’t save you—Artifex is going to paint all Aerons with the same brush, including your daughter. Your only hope now is to get someone more powerful than Keopelani on your side.”
He leaned forward and clapped his hand down on top of Alan’s twisted fingers. “Alan. You’re my brother, as far as I’m concerned. You know that. What I’m telling you now comes from a desire to see you safe. I’d prefer happy, too, but I’ll take alive first. Nolan is your salvation. Your other choice is to sit here and drink yourself to death. Don’t try to deny it,” he said when Alan opened his mouth again. “Your breath says more than your words ever could.”
Alan deflated, sinking back into the couch cushions. He was half-buried in damask before he stopped. “You’re right. I won’t go without Leiani, though.”
“That is a whole other problem.”
“What have you heard? You and your little spy ring?”
“My spy ring, as you so inadequately put it, has been busy, and you should thank Neptune for it. Keopelani is pretty much keeping her prisoner down in the Aqua apartments. People have been in to see her, but she hasn’t been out since Kale brought her here. Kuriyami goes in every other day to check on the health of the baby.”
“And?”
“So far, so good.”
“Kale?”
“A pompous piece of shit.”
Alan’s grin was positively feral. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
“Seriously, though. He’s walking around like he’s Lord Aquos already. Rumor has it Keopelani has given him permission to act as her husband… in all things.”
The glass in Alan’s hand shattered as it dropped from nerveless fingers. “Has he taken advantage of that yet?”
“My sources say no. But it’s only a matter of time—he’s been after her for years. I think the only thing stopping him right now is the pregnancy, but that won’t deter him forever.”
“I need to get in to see Leiani. There’s got to be a way.”
“Well, you’ve got a few options…”
Chapter Sixty-One
The group in New York was finally making some progress. Idella had managed to get in touch with the Eigenaar for St. Thomas, who was now doing her legwork for her in discovering the current whereabouts of Cherrie DuBois. Nolan and Pyrrhus kept themselves busy by sparring when they could and reveling in the notion that they were fairly anonymous in a city that didn’t look twice at the eccentric. Bentley and Gia were working through John Aeron’s journals, hoping for any hints that could aid them in their attempt to stop Michael Warrington.
Their diligence was soon rewarded.
“Nolan?” Gia called from their bedroom, which they’d converted into a makeshift library. “Pyrrhus? I think we’ve found something.”
She heard them break into a run from the kitchen, Pyrrhus sliding on the rug covering the polished hall floor and hitting the wall with his shoulder with a resounding bang. Nolan shoved past him and was at her side in an instant, panting.
“Something good?”
Gia smiled and pointed down at the page she’d been reading. “Here. This is his last journal—it starts in June of 1984 and stops right after you were born, it looks like. Second entry down.
He followed her pointing finger and read:
29th December 1984
Our final attempt was useless. Sight of the new child did nothing to deter Peter from his destructive course. Julianna is of course inconsolable. She only gave birth four days ago, and now she will be raising her girl alone. We sent her home with her daughter—there was no need for her to see this.
Azar and I had discussed the possibility at length, but we were not sure that it would work. There was always a chance it would kill Peter instead. After today, our options have been limited to one. Peter cannot be allowed to continue to destroy everything in his path.
I am relieved to say that we did not kill him, but he wishes we had. His numina has been drawn back to the Sword, and he is now human. May Jupiter and Vulcan forgive us for what we had to do.
Nolan blinked, startled. “They stripped him of his numina? He could do that?”
Pyrrhus whistled low. “Sounds like it… and one of ours, the Ignis, I mean. My father was involved in this, somehow.”
Gia slammed her hand flat on the table. “The names in this sound so familiar. Something… it’s right here.” She gestured to the back of her head. “I feel like I should know who this is… or was.”
“Pyrrhus?” Bentley asked. “Any idea who the unlucky man was?”
“No. I wish we’d found this earlier so we could ask Grandmarie. I’ll see if I can puzzle it out from the dates and the names, though.”
“Still,” Nolan said with a nod. “It gives us another possible option for dealing with Michael. Stripping him of his numina would certainly take the wind out of his sails.”
“It’s a shame everyone we could have asked about it is in Caer Anglia—it would be suicide to go there now.”
“We’ll keep reading—he may have explained it more,” Gia said, and bent her head back to the journal, effectively dismissing them.
***
Alan slid through the final foot of the vent and landed in the bathroom with a thump. He froze, listening for noise. Hearing nothing, he slowly stepped to the door and listened again.
Taking a chance, he turned the handle of the door and pushed it open just enough to see the room beyond. Leiani was lying in the bed, curled up on her side, facing him. No one else was in sight.
“Leiani!” he hissed, afraid of scaring her, but not wanting anyone else to hear.
Her eyes flew open. “Alan?”
He was by her side in an instant, smoothing his hand over her hair. “I’m here, I’m here.”
“Oh, Alan—you’re going to get caught! What are you doing?”
“I had to see you and make sure you were okay. They’re not hurting you?”
Leiani snorted. “And risk harming the baby? Not likely. What about you? Are you alright?”
“As okay as I can be without you.�
�
He bent to kiss her. In the pleasure of their first kiss in months, neither heard the key turn in the lock.
Kale entered the room and froze when he saw Alan leaning over Leiani’s bed.
“How dare you!” he snarled. “Guards!”
Before Alan could put enough distance between himself and Leiani to make fighting safe, several officers tackled him.
“Good thing we didn’t trust you, Aeron,” Kale said. “We’ve had guards on call since we arrived. I believe you are in breach of your Lady’s order, sir. You will be summoned to answer for it. I think a night in the holding cells will do you good. Get him out of here… and shut the door behind you.”
His grin in Alan’s direction made Alan surge forward, screaming obscenities. The guards manhandled him out of the room, shutting the door and muffling his cries as they dragged him down the hall.
Kale turned his attention to Leiani, who began to scramble backwards at his approach.
“Don’t you touch me,” she snarled.
“You forget, darling. I am your betrothed. By your mother’s own order, you were to treat me as a husband in all things. I believe you have been remiss in your duties.”
His hands went to his belt, unbuckling it quickly.
“You dare?” she asked, shrinking back and desperately trying to summon some of her numina. “I will kill you with my own hands if you touch me.”
His backhand was swift and brutal. As she fell back across the bedcovers, stunned, he put his entire weight down over her, smothering her into submission.
“Come now, Leiani, you don’t think struggling will save you, do you? Lie still—you’ll enjoy it.”
Screaming was useless, she knew. She fought with all she had—teeth, nails, fists, feet—desperation giving her strength. Yet it wasn’t enough.
She was weeping by the end of it, which only seemed to spurn him on. As he rolled off of her, he ran his hands over her breasts. “There, see? Lovely. I knew we’d be good together. The struggle really added to it, I think—we should keep a little of that next time.”
She ignored his smug satisfaction, her panic rising as a sharp pain knifed through her from abdomen to spine. “Kale, help me. Something’s wrong.”
He only turned from her to re-dress, running his hands down his arms to smooth his clothing.
“Kale!” she whimpered, the pain repeating in waves. “The baby…”
“Ah, yes. An Aeron. No great loss, that. We will replace it with one more… suitable.” He stroked her cheek as she panted through the pain. “Try not to die, though—you are not so easily replaced.”
He strode to the door and she heard him giving orders that she not be disturbed for any reason. The heavy door slammed behind him, and the key turned in the lock, leaving her in her own personal hell.
She was torn between lying still and hoping the pain subsided and trying to discover a way out of the room. When the pain only seemed to get worse, her impossible choice was made for her.
She rolled off of the bed as gently as she could manage, creeping across the floor on her hands and knees. She was horrified to see a smear of blood on the sheets where she’d rolled.
She began screaming for help non-stop, slamming her fists against the door in between what she was now certain were contractions.
“Is that Leiani screaming in there?”
Thank the gods! “Kuriyami!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help me, I think I’m losing the baby!”
“Let me in there this instant!”
“Lord Kale was very specific—“
“Do you want the death of an Aqua heir on your head?” she demanded as Leiani cried louder.
The clicking of the key in the lock was the most beautiful sound Leiani had ever heard, but as Kuriyami fell to her knees next to her, she feared it was too little, too late.
Chapter Sixty-Two
The creak of the metal hinge pierced through Alan’s despairing thoughts. “Okay, Aeron, you’re free to go. Remember that if you disobey Lady Keopelani’s direct orders again, you’ll be back down here—and not for 24 hours, either.”
He nodded once to indicate understanding, not consent. He had every intention of marching right back upstairs and figuring out another way into Leiani’s room.
When he opened the door from the basement, Trafford was standing there, his hands in his pockets. He had a terrible expression on his face… it looked as though he had been crying.
“Traf?”
“Alan… come with me, please.”
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“Not here. Come on.”
Alan followed Trafford to his rooms, only a few steps off of the main hall. When the door opened, his mother was sitting on Trafford’s couch. She, too, had been crying. “Mother? You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
Tears began to gather in Marama’s eyes again, but she held them back though pure effort of will as she looked at her oldest son. “Alan… Leiani went into labor late last night.”
“What? That—she was just fine! How is Iolana—the baby?” he corrected, not remembering in the moment if he’d ever shared the baby’s name with them.
“She was so tiny… there was nothing Kuriyami could do. She’s gone, Alan.” Trafford had to deliver the news as Mara made a sound like a wounded animal and began to cry in earnest.
Alan felt a numbness begin to spread through his brain, protecting him from the facts before him. “No…”
“Kuriyami is waiting down in the mo—in the Medica hall for you.” Trafford bit down hard on the word ‘morgue,’ stopping it, but Alan knew damned well what he meant. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. I will go alone.” He gave his mother what he hoped was a reassuring smile and left the room before he broke down with them. His feet carried him to the small infirmary, through the swinging doors, and back into the rear rooms reserved for those who died during their time at Caer Anglia, naturally or otherwise. Kuriyami stood there, her hands clasped in front of her, waiting.
“Alan. I am so sorry to see you under these circumstances. My condolences.”
Alan waved her and her words aside. He didn’t want sympathy. He wanted answers. “What happened, Kuriyami? Why did she go into labor so early?”
Kuriyami’s eyes widened just a fraction. “No one told you?”
“Told me what?”
She winced.
“Told me what?”
“Kale… forced himself on Leiani. In the struggle, the placenta was ruptured. By the time we got there, there was nothing we could do to save the baby. I’m so sorry, Alan.”
A red haze was hanging in his vision. He didn’t even realize he was hyperventilating until Kuriyami appeared next to him, pushing his head between his knees.
“Breathe, Alan. In…. and out. Good.”
He complied, only because he was afraid that his rage would overtake him completely and he wouldn’t remember dismembering Kale in the morning.
Once he wasn’t in danger of passing out, she led him to the back and placed a tiny bundle in his arms,
Alan wept openly as he held his daughter for the first and last time. As her numina had barely activated before her stillbirth, her body had not yet liquefied. She was tiny and perfect and gone, and he knew in that moment that his desire for petty revenge had robbed him of his own child.
“Alan.” Kuriyami’s voice was surprisingly soft. “Give the baby to me.”
“She has a name,” he managed fiercely. “Iolana.”
“It’s a beautiful name. I need you to give her to me, okay?”
“Why?”
“Her body is…” She struggled for a way to be delicate, but there wasn’t really any way but to be blunt. “Her body is breaking down, Alan. We need to put her to rest.”
“Has Leiani said her goodbyes?”
“She has. I have sedated her… she kept trying to get up to kill Kale and ripping her incision back open. Medica can only heal so far, so fas
t.”
“I want to be the one to trigger it.”
“Alan, are you sure? You may want to remember her like this, instead.”
“No!” His red eyes glared at her through his unkempt bangs. “No. I am her father. I will do it.”
All she could do was nod. “This way.”
She led him to a large table in the back corner of the room beyond, solid rock with grooves carved into it, leading down to a central basin.
“Some families keep some of the aqua vitae as a remembrance… would you like to do that?” Kuriyami held up a pair of clear crystal vials with stoppers.
“Yes.”
“I will take care of that after. There may not be many bones left when you are done. Babies… well. You know what to do?”
“I do.”
“Then I will leave you. Come out when you’re ready.”
“Kuriyami?”
She paused, her face questioning.
“Thank you,” he managed.
“You’re welcome, Alan.” She shut the door behind her, leaving him alone.
He placed the bundle in his arms down on the table and unwrapped her from her blankets. Her tiny, premature body looked even smaller on the large expanse of stone. He placed his hand over her, noting dimly that it covered her entire torso and some of her legs.
“Iolana Aeronia K’Oliu,” he started, and then choked. He composed himself as best he could. “Lani. My daughter. I failed you. I send you to an eternal life with the gods… back to the waters that made you. Aqua vitae perpetua.” With that, he sent a small pulse of numina down into his daughter’s body.
Within moments, it was done.
He methodically placed her skull and a few larger bones that survived the process into the tiny chest waiting beside him. The click of the lock sliding home broke something within him. He strode from the room, the chest in his arms, ignoring Kuriyami’s plaintive calls.
He entered his wife’s room—for to him, she was his wife, regardless of Keopelani’s decrees—and watched her for a moment as she slept. Her cheeks were razor sharp, her eyes deeply dropped into their sockets. She looked like a water wraith, Death incarnate. He gently placed their daughter’s chest onto the end table and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, stroking her hair back from her face.
The Complete Chosen Trilogy (The Chosen #0) Page 50