Chapter 166
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
Ryker had his hands full with Aurora and Riley. I put Audrey on the ground and reached out to grab her sister from his hold. The moment I did, Ryker steadied his sister and carried her into the palace. Audrey was asking questions that I couldn’t hear because my thoughts were going a mile was asking a minute. I held onto her hand and pulled her into the safety of the palace. I needed to be with Ryker right now but for that, I needed to make sure my kids were safe.
I moved blindly until I was standing in front of Christine’s room. I knocked harsher than I should have and waited impatiently. It took her two minutes to open the door and when she finally did, her hair was dishevelled and the sleeve of her dress was pulled down lower than it should have been. Her cheeks were pink and she was breathing exceptionally hard. I should have felt guilty for interrupting her but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“I need you to watch them for me, please,” I begged and I wasn’t sure if it was her general kindness or the desperation in my eyes, but she nodded immediately.
“Of course, what’s wrong?” her voice was laced with concern and that spurred some movement from behind her because suddenly, Juan was at the door. He looked just as dishevelled as she did. He looked down at Audrey and gave her a small smile.
“Hey pretty girl, what are you doing here?” he asked and she shrugged.
“Aunt Riley is sick and I think my mummy is worried about her. Daddy is with her right now,” she offered up so innocently. Christine turned to me with a raised brow but I shook my head. I didn’t want to discuss it, especially not in front of the girls.
“Well then,” Juan broke the silence with a small smile. “Why don’t we let your mummy go do her work? Come in, I’ll show you a new game that I got.”
I watched as Audrey was led in by Juan. Christine took Aurora from my arms without another word. The look in her eyes was encouragement enough and I forced myself to blink away the tears that had gathered there. I couldn’t imagine what I would do without Christine. She was more than ready to drop her needs for mine all the time. It was a beautiful and selfless thing that sometimes I feel like I take advantage of.
“Go and be with your mate,” she whispered and I nodded.
“Thank you, Christine, I won’t forget this.”
She waved me off and I rushed down the halls until I got to the physician’s office. Ryker was pacing in the room when I got there while the physician was speaking to him. He didn’t look like he was listening, he was lost in thought and it was obvious that he was one wrong word away from punching the physician. I cleared my throat to make my presence known and they all turned to me.
“How is she?” I asked the physician and from his expression alone, I could already tell what he was going to say.
“I have never seen anything like this in my life. It could be something she contracted during one of her trips. I have given her something for the rash and something for the paleness, but these are merely symptoms and I don’t think they will handle the underlying cause.”
I hummed in understanding. “Just give her whatever you can and let her rest. It just might be exhaustion from her trips and like you said, something she contracted. I am sure a night in the palace will do her some good.”
He bowed and moved on to do as I had asked. I watched him fuss over Riley and prepare a potion for her. Ryker stood still by the corner but I noticed he kept tapping his feet anxiously. He watched as the physician fed the potion to his sister but all the while, he never said one word. I stood next to him just for support but he didn’t even acknowledge me. Even when I tried to hold his hand, he immediately pulled away.
He hated being comforted, it was something I had come to learn. I thought that he was getting better but it seemed I was wrong. There were certain things that would never change and it seemed like this was one of them.
When the physician was done, he bowed to us and excused himself to give us some privacy. I knew Ryker wanted space as well so I slowly made my way over to the bed where she sat and sat by the edge. What she had wasn’t like what the other two did, but I was certain it was done by the same person- the one in my dream. She was peacefully sleeping and I reached out to hold her hand. Like the second person, there was no tug of magic in my gut, just silence. I wasn’t sure if I was getting a hold of my powers or if it was an effect of what had been done to them.
“I could try to heal her,” I offered up. “I’m not sure how that would work because I don’t fully have a grip on these powers but I promise, I’ll do my best.”
Ryker still didn’t say a word and I turned to see that he hadn’t stopped staring at her. There was something in his eyes akin to despair. It was rare to see him so broken, but here he was. He slowly moved from his spot at the wall and came to stand directly behind me, his eyes never once moving from his sister.
“I practically raised her,” he whispered. “When my mother died, my father couldn’t care less about her. I fed her, I cleaned her and I bathed her, I taught her to read, I saw her first steps and I had to convince my father to send her to school because he didn’t think that females should be educated.”
He hadn’t told me this part of their story yet. I knew they were all each other had but I never knew it was this bad.
“The only reason I knew I would be a good dad was because of her, because I felt if I could do a good job with her then I could do a good job with my own kid,” his eyes finally met mine and the sheer force of the emotion there nearly knocked me off my feet. “Please, don’t let her die. She cannot die. There is still so much for her to live for. She is the only other family I have left.”
I nodded as I tried to blink away my tears. “I will do everything in my power.”
As I turned back to her, I muttered a small prayer to the goddess. If Riley died, I would never forgive myself, if I couldn’t heal her, I would never recover. I healed two random strangers, I should be able to heal her. I closed my eyes and focused on the thrumming power inside of me and I willed it to flow out. I focused on pushing as much as I could into her.
My powers were like light and a gently flowing stream but like the water, it hated to be controlled. Lucky for me, I had more than enough experience wielding water and I knew just how to apply pressure. I pushed hard and let out a gasp as I felt it leave me. It flowed in controlled waves and as power went from me to her, I realized that I had just learned to control it.
I peeled one eye open and watched as the spot between our hands glowed a bright white. I just watched it flow until I figured it was enough. I didn’t know how I knew, there was just an awareness in our subconscious and I severed the connection. I pulled my hand away from hers and the dizziness hit me at once. Ryker was immediately by my side with his hands around my shoulders.
“Are you alright?” he asked and I nodded which proved to be a terrible mistake because my head began pounding even more. “Do you think she will be alright?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted softly. “I did what I could but there is no way to know until she wakes up or-I trailed off because I didn’t want to say the words but Ryker understood. He nod and helped me to my feet. “Thank you, regardless, you did your best and you tried to save her. I cannot begin to tell you just how grateful I am.”
“She is my sister too,” I assured hi,. “I would do the same for anyone else.”
I managed to rise to my feet but I swayed. Using my powers took a lot out of me and I was yet to recover. Ryker picked me up bridal style before I could even realize what was going on and walked me up the stairs towards our room. I tried to protest that I could walk but I could barely form a single sentence without my head feeling like it would split open.
When he got to the room, he gently lay me on the bed. “Will you be okay on your own here or do you need help changing?”
I waved him off. “I’m fine, you can go and stay with her. I know you want to and I know she would be happy if she woke up with you by her side.”
“Are you sure?” he looked a little hesitant. “If you’re not feeling okay, I can stay here. I should stay here. She might not wake up tonight but you need my attention.”
“Ryker,” I groaned as I sat up straighter. “Go to your sister, I’ll be fine, I promise.”
He hesitated for a split second before pressing a lingering kiss to my forehead and rushing out. I watched him disappear and waited for the moment the door slammed shut before I stopped pretending and flopped against the bed. I managed to undo my dress and was about to dump it when I felt something drop on the floor. I looked down and saw blood. Another drop fell and I felt something run down my nose.
I reached up to touch wary of what I would see and gasped when my fingers came back red.
