Guardians of the Boundary (The Conjurors Series Book 3) (32 page)

Drained of hope, and light, and
love, Valerie was oddly peaceful lying with her head against her father’s
chest. She could shut her eyes and sleep, and with a little luck, Reaper would
make sure she never awoke. But she didn’t.

Instead, she forced herself to
her feet, refusing to look at her father again. She wanted her last memory of
him to be of his smile as he’d said her name and called her Daughter for the
last time.

She did pause before Reaper’s unconscious
body after she’d picked Pathos up off the ground. She would dearly love to
grant him his wish right then and end his life. For a long time, she stood with
her blade pressed against his throat, but finally she sheathed Pathos and
turned away.

Her legs were wooden as she
walked out of the castle, and the world looked surreal. Light and dark seemed
to contrast each other more than usual, and the few bright colors, like the
smear of Oberon’s blood on her arm, were more brilliant than normal. When she
opened the huge doors at the front of the castle and light speared the shadows,
she had to squint her eyes to see.

She’d thought there would be a
token group of Fractus there to defend the castle and its master, but it was
deserted. A corner of her brain registered that she hadn’t seen Venu in the
battle, but if he was guarding the castle, then he’d obviously decided to hide
when his master collapsed.

She remembered her last battle
in front of the Black Castle, and it seemed like a dream. Back then, though
she’d doubted herself, she’d had hope. Her father lived, and she would find
him. Her days of being an orphan were over.

Wiping the last of her tears
from her cheeks, Valerie trudged toward the Oasis, which was a little part of
Dunsinane that was protected from the Fractus by lingering magic from an
ancient war.

Time was irrelevant to her,
though a burning sensation in her throat made her idly wonder if she was
thirsty. When she reached the Oasis and dropped to her knees by the little lake
there, she began frantically scooping water into her mouth, hardly aware of
what she was doing. It was as if her body was acting on its own to keep her
alive while her mind struggled to function.

After she drank, she
lay on the bank, water soaking her clothes. Valerie reached out for Henry, so
that he would know she was alive, before she let her mind slip into oblivion.
His relief registered before her body shut down from exhaustion.

Someone was gently shaking Valerie
awake, and she squinted into the light that was burning down on her. She’d had
a dreamless sleep, but the knowledge of what had happened never left her.
Waking up only meant that now she’d have to deal with other people, too.

“You don’t have to say
anything,” Henry said. “I was with you the whole time, even though you didn’t
know it. I tried to help.”

Her vision cleared, and she
could make out the details of his face. His eyes were so sad, and she saw
little creases around them. Was it possible for a seventeen-year-old to already
have wrinkles? It reminded her of how he’d had gray in his hair until the
Glamour Guild had turned it all black for him. Without realizing it, she
touched the gray streak in her own hair.

“Then you know about Dad,”
Valerie said, her voice scratchy.

The first dagger of pain made
its way through her haze of numbness. Henry had lost two fathers to this war
with the Fractus. Even if he’d never acknowledged Oberon as his father, the two
had become closer. Valerie suspected that Henry was growing to love him, too.

“It’s just the two of us, now,”
he said, and his voice cracked.

Valerie didn’t know how it
happened, but the rest of her numbness fell away all at once at his words, and
she cried in her brother’s arms, sobs racking her entire body.

After a while, their emotions
spent, they sat next to each other, staring blindly at the water, which
sparkled in the bright sun. Valerie began to remember that there were more
people in the world, but she was afraid to ask about how the rest of the battle
with the Fractus had played out.

“Everyone’s okay, for the most
part,” Henry said, answering her unspoken question. “They’re here, when you’re
ready to see them.”

Valerie brushed some sand off of
her face and nodded. Henry stood and raised his hand, and a group of people came
running toward them. Cyrus reached them first, gripping her hard against his
chest. Over his shoulder, Valerie saw Thai staring at her, his hands clenched
as if he had to physically fight to keep from holding her. She squeezed her
eyes shut so that she didn’t have to see the conflicted pain on his face.

Valerie pulled away from Cyrus
and turned to see that Dulcea, Jack, Elle, and Will had all come with Henry.

“Where’s Kanti?” she asked,
panic spiking in her.

Henry shrugged, and a stubborn,
stony stillness transformed his face. She couldn’t believe after everything
that had happened that he was still angry with her, but she didn’t have the
energy to talk about it with him now.

“I saw her after all the
fighting was over, and she’s okay,” Cyrus answered. “She left to call her
parents, and when we headed out to come get you, we couldn’t find her. She
probably crashed in the dorms.”

“Which is where we all should
be,” Dulcea said firmly.

Valerie was infinitely grateful
as Dulcea took charge of the return trek back to Arden, first feeding them a
meal that she’d hastily packed in a call box, and then organizing the hike back
to the outpost of the cities in the trees that was on the fringes of Dunsinane.

They climbed the tree that led
to the world of the People of the Woods, and Cerise waited for them at the top.
When Valerie ascended the platform and stood, she knocked over again when Emin
barreled into her to give her a hug.

She dropped to one knee to hug
him back.

“Ow, you’re squeezing too hard,”
he said.

“Sorry,” Valerie said, forcing
her tears not to spill.

“That’s okay. Mom made me miss
the battle, or I would have helped you!” Emin said, his eyes alight. “But I saw
you with your sword, and you were so brave!”

Valerie couldn’t stand to see
the hero worship in his eyes, so instead she met Cerise’s gaze. “Since you’re
here to escort us, does that mean Elden…”

Cerise shook her head. “He
lives, so he is luckier than many.”

Valerie forced herself to ask
the question. “How many died?”

Thai slid his hand into hers and
squeezed before quickly letting go so Cyrus wouldn’t notice. “Seventy-four
fallen Conjurors, and a hundred and nine Fractus.”

“In addition to nearly a hundred
Fractus who have been taken prisoner,” Cerise added. “Gideon and his Knights
have jailed them in the Justice Guild. It was a narrow victory.”

But the idea of so many dead
could never be a win in Valerie’s eyes. It was a bloodbath. What a child she’d
been before this battle, believing that only a few might fall. She couldn’t
absorb the magnitude of the loss of life. Thinking of it opened a gaping hole
in her heart that nothing would ever fill.

“Everyone says you’re a hero,
Val,” Cyrus said gently.

His words burned, and she
couldn’t even look at him.

“Then they don’t know what a
failure I am,” she said. “The Byway is destroyed, and Reaper still managed to
open a portal to Earth. He can send whatever remains of his army there at any
moment.”

Cerise’s sharp intake of breath
was the only sound that followed Valerie’s words, but she could see from her
friends’ expressions that Henry had already told them as much.

Valerie’s knees were shaking,
and Thai’s arm slid around her waist to steady her. Until his arm was there,
she didn’t realize that she needed his support to remain standing. She saw
Cyrus register Thai’s gesture, but he didn’t say anything.

“Yesterday was no
victory, then,” Cerise said, but she’d already regained her composure. “It was
the beginning of a war.”

In order to face the day ahead
of her, Valerie remembered a technique Gideon had once taught her. She locked
her pain into a box in her mind so that she could continue to function. But
that didn’t affect her physical exhaustion, and as they made their way over
paths through the trees, weariness nearly made Valerie stumble. A slender hand
caught her before she fell.

“Elle,” Valerie said,
registering the Empath’s presence with surprise.

Elle’s usually composed face was
tense. She glanced around as if to reassure herself that no one was walking
close enough to overhear them. “I have sought you out because I do not wish to
worry Henry over nothing.”

“What is it?”

“Something may be wrong with his
girlfriend, Kanti,” Elle said.

Valerie’s stomach lurched.
“Where is she? Take me to her.”

“I cannot. When I learned that
she had vanished after the battle, I searched for her with my mind, because I
know that Henry will never recover without her. Usually she is easy to find—her
mind is so open to the world.”

“If you can’t find her mind,
what does that mean?” Valerie asked.

“I cannot physically locate her.
I did not say I couldn’t find her mind,” Elle said, sounding a little insulted.
“It is only that it is a whisper of her usual self, as though she is at a great
distance.”

“Could that be because she went
home to Elsinore? Maybe it has to do with proximity,” Valerie suggested.

Elle nodded, but she frowned as
if she wasn’t comfortable with that assessment. “I would have guessed that
she’s farther away than that.”

“Could she be hurt?” Valerie
asked.

“I don’t think so,” Elle said,
sounding frustrated with herself.

“Kanti’s okay,” Henry said,
startling them both. Valerie wondered how long he’d been walking behind them.

“How can you be sure?” Valerie
asked.

“I talked to her mom through
Dulcea’s mirror when I couldn’t find her after the battle. She said Isabella
came to get Kanti, and they’d be home in Elsinore in time for dinner,” Henry
said, gritting his teeth slightly. “I guess after our fight, she didn’t think
she needed to say goodbye.”

“That doesn’t sound like her,”
Valerie said.

“Maybe we don’t know her as well
as we think,” he replied, and then walked faster so that he didn’t have to
continue the conversation.

“I apologize for worrying you
for no reason,” Elle said, and there was a slight flush in her cheeks.

“You were right to
come to me,” Valerie assured her. “We can’t take any chances.”

In Arbor Aurum, Valerie visited
the wounded that were being tended by the People of the Woods, including Elden.
Cyrus’s magic had enabled many Conjurors to live, though the wounds they bore
from the battle could never be cured with magic. Like humans who had suffered
in war, they would have to contend with disfiguring scars and lingering
problems of severed nerves and broken bones. But they survived.

Everywhere they went, people
thanked Cyrus. She was surprised by how many gripped her hand, as well, their
faith in her unshaken even as the news of her failure to stop the Fractus from
sending their army to Earth spread.

“Cy, you’re a hero,” Valerie
said. “You saved dozens of lives.”

For once, Cyrus didn’t seem
pleased with his position of power and popularity. “Some of them are going to
suffer for the rest of their lives, which might be a lot shorter because of
their injuries. And I couldn’t save them all.”

“I know. But you saved lives,
you didn’t take them,” she said, and she hoped her words gave him a little
peace.

Elden was hovering between life
and death, and he didn’t respond when Valerie sat next to him. Almost all of the
gold had disappeared from his skin. She thought about his family, his daughter,
who might have to live without him the way she would have to live without her
own father. The thought almost overpowered her, but she forced herself to keep
it together.

Valerie leaned down to whisper
in Elden’s ear.

“I lost one flower that belonged
to you, but I promise to bring you the first bloom of my garden this summer in
its place. I know it can never replace what you’ve lost, but it will be a piece
of life that I nurtured in your honor,” she whispered in his ear.

A whisper of a smile
crossed Elden’s face, and it gave Valerie hope that he’d be alive to receive
her gift soon.

Valerie parted ways with her
friends to visit the Justice Guild. Inside, she was informed that Calibro was
too busy scheduling trials for a personal visit, but Valerie was reassured that
the prisoners were in fair hands. The Knights, including Gideon, had already
left, returning to their homes and families to recover from the battle.

On her way out of the Justice
Guild, Valerie saw Skye talking to Leo. They were disheveled, exhausted, and,
in Skye’s case, a little bloody. They clearly hadn’t had any sleep since the
battle had ended the day before.