Never Yours ✔️

Ch. 6

"You can't let him go on like this." Arysa's voice was quiet.

Demain sighed, laying his head against the headboard. She sat across from him, her back against a pillow she'd set up on the bedpost. The only light between them was the soft glow of the bedside candle.

"Eklys already said he knows as much about mind sickness as the rest of us. There's nothing to be done."

"But something must be causing it." Arysa murmured, tracing the patterns of his bed cover with her finger. "Maybe he's slipping him something?"

Demain glanced at her. "You know Father would have never let anyone get close enough to poison him. He was lenient, but he was no fool."

Arysa pressed her lips together.

She came early that night, and for hours they talked about all that happened when Demain was away, what Arysa discovered about the Vella, what she noticed about Serden. It'd been too long since they'd talked like this, openly, honestly, and comfortably. Arysa missed it, and most of all she missed it with Ashlyn. But she could already feel the broken pieces of their relationship shattering even more.

"When did it start? When did he start showing signs?"

Demain let out an incredulous laugh. "I don't know. I have no idea. For months we were blind to it. Maybe it started as soon as Dreadroot arrived. Who knows which thoughts were my father's and which were his?"

More than ever now, Demain wanted to stop Serden's control over his father. He couldn't lock him up. His father would only set him free. Killing him wasn't an option. Reasoning with him was impossible. If only they could identify the source of it all. If only they knew what drove their king mad and into Serden's grip.

"Maybe the Vella have someone who knows more about these kinds of things?" Arysa asked hopefully.

"Maybe." Her cousin replied, but there wasn't much hope in his voice. "I miss him."

"I miss him too. I miss what Rahaida used to be."

He ran his hand through his hair. "I miss what we all used to be." He nibbled on his lower lip. "I don't want to be king. I'm not ready. I was supposed to have time."

"You're already king, Em. You have been for some time."

"It feels like I'm failing." His eyes lowered. "I lost the trade cities. I lost even more men. Everything is gone, Rysa. In an instant it was all wiped away. No allies. No help. Nothing. We're all alone out here."

For four months, Ashlyn and Demain fought to take back the three cities and keep the soldiers occupying them from advancing even farther into Rahaida. They tried everything, but the armies they fought were like nothing they'd ever seen before. Relentless. Strong. Organized. Ruthless. They never saw any of their faces. They never saw the chain of command. Regana had even worse luck. Kingdom after kingdom, all of them faced the same war, some taken, some destoryed, none in any condition to offer anything to Rahaida. They all had the same story. Someone attacked out of nowhere, with armies the kind they'd never seen, that either took each establishment they conquered or burned it to the ground. They were all attacked at the same time. What kind of person had that many soldiers to control, that they could attack eleven kingdoms at once, all eleven kingdoms east of the mountains? But no other kingdom's ruler was attacked, driven mad. No one was infiltrated from the inside.

Only the three kingdoms farthest from Rahaida were still fighting. Theorden. Wythor. Evenai.

The four closest to them had already been taken. Draidawn. Kivix. Fallwood. Rejalla.