"Paige!" There were hands on her face. Parker, she realised. He was tapping her cheek, trying to get her to wake up.
Her eyes blinked open. She was sitting on the floor, cold seeping into her backside, and Parker was crouching in front of her. Ellis was behind her, supporting her back. She blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the silver blur in front of her eyes. Her chest was heaving so fast she was afraid she'd pass out again.
"Is she alright?" someone asked. She didn't recognise the voice. It wasn't the prince. She looked up. Not a few feet away, on the other side of the bed, was a man with so much natural authority that there was no doubt in her mind that she was looking at the king himself.
Her entire being rushed to a halt. Her mind filled with images of blood. Corpses. Soldiers. She heard her own voice, screeching the names of her children over and over. She found her mate only minutes later, run through with a silvered spear. Dead. She'd fallen to her knees in front of his lifeless body, screaming until there was only air coming from her throat. She'd torn at his chest, had pumped all her magic into him, but it had done nothing. He was gone already, and her powers didn't reach beyond the grave. In a daze, she had pushed back to her feet and had started looking for her children. She never found them. They had burnt to a crisp in one of the houses.
"Paige. Paige!" Parker cupped her face in both his hands and she forced her gaze up to his. She was crying, she realised. The silver in front of her eyes was gone, but had been replaced by a veil of tears. She sobbed and buried her face in Parker's chest. His hand burrowed in her hair, pressing her tighter against him.
"What is he doing here?" he asked, nodding at the king, his voice strained in anger. "Did you want to watch the last werewolf healer in action, Your Highness? Perhaps if you hadn't killed all the others, she wouldn't be so rare. Did you know you killed not only her fated mate, but both of her children? You took everything from her, and you dare show your face?"
"Parker, no," she said, lifting her head. She envisioned him getting arrested for speaking so harshly to the king. She refused to lose him too.
He frowned at her. "Why –"
"There is no point. Please." She cleared her throat. "I can stand. Ellis, can you help me?"
"Of course." He hooked his arms around her and helped her to her feet, making sure she was standing securely before releasing her. Parker rose as well, still looking at her as though he didn't understand how she could tell him not to yell at the king for what he had done to them. Had Alder been anyone else, she might have let him, but he was the king, and she wasn't looking to push her luck.
"We're not trying to get arrested, remember?" she said, nudging him and forcing a smile. Everything hurt, from her feet to her throat, to her brains, and everything in between. Yes, she could get rid of silver like no other werewolf alive, but it took a few minutes, and it hurt like the bite of a feral rogue.
She turned to the king. He was staring at her. Usually, she could pick up people's emotions by using her magic, but her powers had no effect on him. However, she had spent years reading micro-expressions on Corbin and Ryleigh's faces, so she knew what to look for. He wasn't annoyed by Parker's accusation. If anything, he looked ashamed.
"Apologies, Your Highness," she said, "Parker is passionate."
"I'm not passionate, I'm pissed," Parker said. "You killed both my parents. You killed our alpha. Our children. Our friends. Ryleigh's mother. Our teachers. Our healers. Everyone. Everyone, everyone." He shook his head, clenching his hands into fists. "We need to leave before I get us both arrested."
"Calm down," Paige said, placing both her hands on his shoulders and working her magic. Involuntarily, his muscles relaxed. "It's not worth it. Your anger isn't going to bring them back. Please, calm down."
The door opened again and they both snapped their heads into the direction of the sound. It was a woman, regally dressed. Paige guessed it was the queen.
"Did I miss it?" she asked.
Alder didn't speak, and the woman's smile fell. She moved to her mate's side, slipping her arm around his. "Alder?"
He blinked and looked at her, his brows dipping down as though he was only catching onto her presence then. "What?"
"I asked – well, never mind. Are you the healer?" She turned to Paige, finding her smile again. "I'm Corinne, Alder's mate. I didn't think you'd show, to be honest. But I'm infinitely grateful that you did."
"I did it for Jade," she said, turning to the bed again. Already Jade's complexion was growing more lively. Aaron was standing on the other side of her again, holding her hand. The relief on his face was so strong that Paige felt a pang in her chest. This man, though he was her enemy's son, and a Royal Wolf, and many other things she'd learned to distrust, loved Jade dearly.
"She will be just fine," she said, ducking her head a little to catch Aaron's gaze. "It might be a few hours before she wakes up, and then it'll probably be another day or so before she's able to get out of bed, but she will recover quickly. I came here just in time."
"How can I ever repay you?" Aaron asked. He had beautiful eyes – light grey with a hint of blue – and right then there were tears in them. Paige could tell he was a good man, despite everything, and glad though she was that Jade had found someone to love her completely, it still felt odd that it should be him.
"Ask him to give us Alder's head," Parker linked her. "That should make a fine reward."
"No payment is necessary, Your Highness," Paige said. "Like I said: I did it for Jade. I did lose my children fourteen years ago, but though Jade is not my blood, she is one of my own. We couldn't let her die."
"Did Corbin give you permission to be here?" Alder asked.
His voice was deep, distant, but not unkind. And he was authoritative and had the strongest energy she had ever seen in a person, but if she, impossible though that was, forgot about who he was for a second, he wasn't scary. He wasn't like Corbin, demanding respect through fear. It was odd and more than a little disconcerting to find he wasn't the monster she had pictured all these years. At the same time, she knew full well that appearances could be deceiving.
"No," she said. "He was rather against it. As far as he is concerned, Jade is dead to us already." It wasn't entirely true – Paige believed Ryleigh's argument. Corbin did love Jade. He wanted Paige to save her, even if he couldn't come out and say the words. But Alder didn't need to know that Corbin was hiding a heart somewhere underneath all the hate and cruelty.
"Will he punish you?" Corinne asked.
"He might try, but Ryleigh won't let him." She looked at Jade, caressing her cheek. Her fever was going down already. "Ryleigh allowed me to come. She has my back with Corbin."
"Ryleigh? She made this possible?" Corinne looked surprised. In fact, they all did. They truly had no clue who Ryleigh really was.
"Ryleigh's tough and talks a great deal, but she loves Jade. That's never going to change, no matter what she says. Jade could abandon her a thousand times, and Ryleigh would still show up for her. That's what family does."
She looked up at Parker, who was boring his angry glare into Alder still. Ellis was standing beside him, watching him intently, undoubtedly ready to stop him the moment he made a move against Alder. But Parker wasn't that stupid. Or at least Paige hoped he wasn't.
"We should go," she said. "Ryleigh will be worried." She grabbed Parker's hand, holding it tightly.
"I know I probably need not bother," Alder said, "but you could stay. You must know that this war is a hopeless endeavour on the part of your alpha. You need not die for his delusions."
Parker stirred beside her, and Paige held onto his hand a little tighter.
"Our alpha is many things, but he is not delusional, Your Highness," she said. She wasn't sure how she managed to keep her composure. She hadn't often imagined meeting King Alder – fantasising about that had always been more Ryleigh's thing, especially how she would kill him if she could – but whenever she did, she used to imagine that she would yell at him for taking her children and mate away from her. Now that she was standing in front of him, she simply didn't have the strength.
"That might be," Alder said, "but he is driving you all into ruin. I can pardon you and all your people. It is Corbin I want." He was looking at Paige alone. He probably knew it was futile trying to get through to Parker. Not that it wasn't futile to try to get through to Paige. Sure, she had shown up to save Jade, but that didn't mean she was on Alder's side. She would never be on Alder's side. "If you love your people, you have to stop this. I had hoped that Ryleigh would, but it does not appear that she will."
"Your Highness, we came here for Jade. Not because we are turning against our alpha." It was getting harder and harder to keep Parker calm. Her magic was straining, tired from absorbing all the silver. She didn't have much energy left to keep Parker from attacking King Alder. She had to get out of there.
"And yet this is the second time you have defied him," Alder said. "You saved Ellis' life first, and now Jade's, both times against Corbin's will. Surely you see that he is not doing right by your people."
"All due respect, you have no clue whether or not he is doing right by us," Paige said. "He has kept us alive all these years. He cares about us. Now, if we are not under arrest, we must really go."
"You are not under arrest," Alder said, his gaze briefly straying towards Parker as though he wasn't as sure about him. "If you change your mind, you know where to find us."
"We won't change our mind," Parker said, his words so drenched in rage that Paige flinched. She clamped her fingers as tightly around his hand as they would go. She hoped the king and queen would make more room for them to pass, because she didn't know if Parker could keep his resolve if he walked past them so closely.
"I don't understand how Jade can live here," Parker said, looking at Alder with his nose crinkling in disgust. "I don't understand how she can talk to you and not kill you. I don't understand –" He broke off, shaking his head. His chest was pumping up and down as he worked to keep himself controlled.
Alder's features hardened. Paige surprised and amused herself by the thought that, had everything been different, Ryleigh might have found she was much like him. She might have even liked the guy. His face was smooth marble, but his eyes were whirlpools of feeling.
"I understand your anger," he said, his voice controlled and even. "I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it must be for the two of you to be here, and we are grateful –"
"You can keep your gratitude," Parker said. "We did it for Jade. Well, she did it for Jade. I did it for Ry. But if Paige wasn't here, and if Ry hadn't told me to keep my hands off you, I would tear you apart limb for limb."
Alder's muscles tightened, his back straightening like a bowstring. Beside him, Corinne tensed as well. For a brief second, Paige wondered what it must be like to be the mate of a mass murderer, but she figured that Corinne probably didn't view him as such. And even if she did, fate had a way of clouding people's minds.
She tugged at Parker's hand, setting him in motion. She eyed Ellis over her shoulder. He was following them in silence. She paused once she had passed all the royals, and turned back. Her eyes flitted over the three of them. Her feud was not with Aaron, and she could tell he loved Jade and would care for her like mates do. She was less certain about his parents, and it was difficult for her to leave Jade behind in a place that scared her this much. She knew it had been Jade's own decision, but it still didn't put her at ease.
"There is no guarantee that I can ever do this again," she said. "Especially if Jade mates the prince, making her a royal, in which case my magic would have no effect on her. Jade's a sweet girl, but she has a Shadow Walker spirit. She gets in trouble, and it worries me that I won't be here to get her out of it." Tears welled in her eyes, but she pushed them down. She had already lost two children to the king. Was she really to lose a third? "Take care of my little girl."
_____
A/N: Parker would have liked to rip Alder to shreds (an urge many of you share, I know). But it would have gotten him killed, and he's my favourite, so obviously I couldn't let him do it ;) Still, can't blame him. He and Paige lost a lot.
Thank you for reading <3