Chapter 5 : Wake up, Your majesty

"Let go of me!"

I screamed until my voice cracked. Four soldiers held my arms, and one more had a hand on my neck. I kicked. I bit somebody's wrist. He yelled and let go, and I did not care.

Kael was lying twenty feet away in the dirt. His face was gray. His chest was not moving.

"He is not dead," I said. "He is not dead, he is not dead, he cannot be dead."

"The boy is mad with grief!" Vance called. "Chain him before he hurts someone."

Then I felt it.

It started in my chest, where the bond had been aching. A slow, warm pulse, once, then again. Warmth spread beneath my skin, down my arms and into my fingers.

The pendant lay on my mother's coat where she had dropped it. It was glowing again.

A ribbon of silver light lifted from the pendant, floated across the square, and wrapped around my wrists. The soldiers holding me let go all at once, like I had burned them.

I fell forward onto my knees. My hands were shining. I did not understand it. But my body did. I crawled across the dirt as fast as I could and pressed both hands flat on Kael's chest.

Nothing happened.

"Come on," I said. My voice shook. "Come on, come on."

Still nothing. His skin was ice. I could not feel his heart at all. For one terrible second, I thought I was too late. I thought this strange new power was a lie, and I was just a baker kneeling on a dead man.

"Come on, you stupid, arrogant, annoying wolf," I begged. "I rejected you, okay? I said it. But I did not say you could die. Wake up."

The light spilled from my palms and sank into his chest.

Kael's body jerked. He took a huge, loud breath, like a man pulled out of deep water. His eyes flew open, gold, then silver, then gold again.

His hand shot up and grabbed my wrist.

"Rian."

"Hi," I said. My voice was a mess. I was crying, and I had not even noticed. "You scared me. Do not do that again."

"I will try not to."

"Good."

A small, weak smile touched his lips. It disappeared quickly.

All around us, the soldiers were frozen. Somebody at the back dropped to his knees. Then another, then a whole row of them.

"The Moon Guardian," I heard them whisper. "The Moon Guardian has returned."

"Great," I muttered. "Now I have fans."

I was shaking, though. My hands felt empty and cold, like I had poured half of myself into him. My legs would not hold me. Healing was not free, and I could feel the price.

Kael pushed himself up. I tried to stop him, but he waved me away. Slowly, with his teeth clenched, he got to his feet and swayed. I stood up too, just in case. I was not going to let him fall again.

He looked at his army, and his voice carried over the whole square.

"Hear me. This boy is Rian. He is the last child of the Moon Guardians. He is my fated mate. Anyone who raises a hand against him raises a hand against me. The same goes for his parents."

A low rumble ran through the crowd. Many of the soldiers cheered. Some knelt. But I saw others who did not. A big officer near the front crossed his arms and stared at me like I was a bug. Two soldiers whispered to each other, and one of them spat on the ground.

Not everyone wanted a human Guardian. I wrote that down in my head.

My mother was crying again. My father held her up and gave me a shaky thumbs-up, and I almost laughed.

Kael leaned toward me. The cheering was loud enough that no one else could hear him. His mouth was very close to my ear.

"Rian. Listen carefully."

"You keep saying that, and it is never good news."

"This time it is worse." His hand tightened on my wrist. "The bond was drawing on my strength to heal. But a healing bond hurts. It does not stop a heart. Somebody put poison in my blood first. Someone who knew I would be weak when I met you."

My stomach turned over. "Poison? When?"

"Before I arrived. Someone close to me." His silver eyes were hard as steel. "And there is more. Twenty-two years ago, when your family was killed, I was far away at the northern border. I never knew who gave the order. But tonight, when your pendant woke, I saw someone in this square react with recognition. And fear. Whoever it was, they knew exactly what your return meant."

I looked at the crowd. Hundreds of faces. Everyone was cheering or kneeling or clapping, even the gray-robed man at the edge, who clapped slowly, with a gentle smile. Any one of them could be the one.

Then I looked down at my hand, and my blood turned cold.

Thin black lines were crawling up my wrist. They moved under my skin like ink in water, slow and steady, from my palm toward my elbow.

"Kael," I whispered.

He looked. All the color left his face for the second time that night.

"No," he said quietly. "No. That is my poison. Rian, what did you take from me?"

"I did not take anything! I just..." My voice broke. The black lines reached my elbow and stopped, and my whole hand went numb.

I looked up, wild with fear, searching for help.

And I saw him.

At the back of the crowd, far behind my parents, a man in a dark hood was slipping between the soldiers. He moved slowly and quietly. He was heading straight for my father.

There was a silver dagger in his hand.

And the dagger was already rising.