He ripped open Rayne’s door and his heart stopped. His advisor sat at his small desk pushed against the wall. The top was littered with empty glass vials. A thick, sour miasma of sickness and death filled the air, threatening to choke Caelan. Rayne held one of his blades in his right hand while his index finger on his left hand pressed into the tip. A drop of bright red blood welled up and slipped along his finger.
Rayne lifted glassy eyes to Caelan, and a broken laugh jumped from trembling lips. “I never realized how hard it would be to kill yourself when you have the Goddess of Life fighting you.”
The knife clattered to the desktop as Rayne’s eyes rolled up into his head. Caelan and Eno jumped on him, hauling his limp body out of the chair over to the bed. Caelan called on the healing power of the goddess, pushing it into Rayne’s body, but he flinched the second it touched Rayne.
“Cael?”
“He’s a mess. There are at least half a dozen poisons in him. I…I can’t do anything with all that in his system. They’re shutting down organs faster than I can fix things.”
Eno nodded once and grabbed Rayne, carrying him into the en suite bathroom. Caelan trailed behind in time to see Eno place him over the toilet and shove a couple of fingers into his mouth. The contents of Rayne’s stomach came up quickly, and Caelan thanked Tula that she’d held him together this long.
Messy, ridiculous humans, she muttered, and Caelan had no argument.
With shaking hands, he grabbed a towel and slapped on the hot water. He finished getting half of it damp when Eno was carrying Rayne into the bedroom. Rayne was unconscious again when Eno laid him on the bed. Caelan handed over the towel, allowing Eno to clean him up while Caelan grabbed Rayne’s hand in both of his.
He plunged into his friend with his healing gift, but the bleak darkness nearly crushed his heart. Caelan didn’t need to ask what had driven Rayne to this desperate act; he could feel it. He’d lost everything. The thought was ringing like a death knell in every inch of his body. This one act had lost him Caelan, his kingdom, his honor, and the man he loved. Rayne thought he’d had nothing left.
Shoving aside his own feelings of horror and pain, Caelan worked through Rayne’s body, healing everything he touched. Heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, everything was made new. It was slow, meticulous work, but he refused to allow the poison to leave a mark on Rayne.
Every second that ticked by, he whispered thank-yous to Tula. They’d had numerous differences over the months, but through every inch of Rayne he could feel where she’d fought to keep him alive against Rayne’s wishes. She’d kept up the battle as long as she could, but her tie with Rayne wasn’t as strong as it was with Caelan. There was only so much she could do, and Rayne was incredibly stubborn.
You fix this mess. Never allow it to happen again, the Goddess of Life snarled, and Caelan could only nod. He would fix this. He would learn his lesson. His words held far too much power. He could no longer give in to his emotions without realizing the dire consequences that would follow.
“I’m sorry, Rayne. I’m so sorry,” he whispered, his lips pressed to Rayne’s fingers.
“Cael?” Eno said, drawing his eyes up. His voice was strong, but tears had been steadily running unchecked down his face.
“He’ll be okay. He—” Caelan broke off when Rayne’s eyes opened and a pained moan from the deepest part of his soul escaped him.
“I’m sorry. Lost everything. Betrayed my king,” Rayne cried brokenly.
Eno instantly scooped Rayne’s long body up and placed him in his lap as he sat on the bed, wrapping him tightly in a cocoon of his massive arms. “No, baby. No,” Eno cooed. “You did not betray Cael. You’d never do that.”
Caelan crawled up onto the bed next to Rayne and grabbed his hand again. “We fucked up, Rayne. We all did, but you never lost me. You never lost Eno.”
“But…” Those jade-green eyes rose to his face, looking so very lost and desperate for any shred of hope Caelan could give him.
“No buts. I lost my temper and said things I didn’t mean. I don’t regret making you my heir. I still believe in you. I know you would do everything within your power to take care of our people.”
“I was trying to protect you, to protect Erya,” Rayne said thickly.
Eno pressed a kiss to the top of Rayne’s head through his tangled mess of hair. “Your first thought is always of Erya.”
Caelan lifted Rayne’s hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. “Rayne, we need to learn to talk to each other better. I loved and respected my mother, but I do not want to rule like her. I don’t want the secrets and shadow deals. I don’t want the fixing if we can help it. Maybe that is naïve, but I want to at least try. But I can’t do any of that without you with me.”