“Yes,” escaped him in a weary sigh. His friends. The men who’d become a family to him, more than his mother had ever been able to be. He wanted this pain to go away and to just be with them.
The anger flew from him like a bird taking flight as he opened his fingers, leaving him hollow and sad. Darkness crept in around his vision and he exhaled, letting the power pour out of him again. He was falling slowly, drifting to Thia. He couldn’t see anything. There was only that darkness, but he trusted Kaes. He trusted his friends.
4
Rayne Laurent
Rayne stood at the foot of Caelan’s bed, watching as his prince continued to sleep. This was becoming an ugly trend when it came to the God of Storms. This was the second time Caelan had lost consciousness when he’d had dealings with Kaes, and they could not wake him. He couldn’t recall the queen ever having issues like this in regard to the Erya Godstone and Lady Tula, the Goddess of Life.
Of course, Queen Amara had made sure she’d never shown a moment of weakness to anyone. Hagen would have known, but it was too late to confer with the queen’s bodyguard. They’d both been lost in the New Rosanthe attack on Stormbreak.
Did this have to do with Caelan not being properly prepared to bond with a god? Or was it rather that Caelan was never meant to bond with the God of Storms? The heirs of Erya had only ever bonded with the Goddess of Life. Caelan had spent his entire life around the Life Stone. He would have been bathed in its power, the very essence of Lady Tula.
Rayne’s brain darted down one avenue of questions and theories and then up another. None of it was really getting him anywhere. There were no answers to be found. There was only one person alive right now who had ever bonded with the gods, and he was asleep in the bed.
Gods, sleep.
Caelan had been asleep for more than twenty-four hours. Rayne was pretty sure he hadn’t had a good sleep in at least two days. Or was it longer? His brain was fuzzy and muddled. Everything in him ached. He didn’t feel like he was any good to anyone right now, and yet he couldn’t sleep. Not until Caelan woke up.
Right now, every time he closed his eyes, he saw Caelan falling out of the sky. Yes, it had been a somewhat slow, controlled drift down, but still, it had been one of the most terrifying moments of his life. Even from a distance, it had been clear that Caelan was completely unconscious as he fell. They’d all thought he was going to fall straight into the frothy waves, but he’d glided right over to them, settling into Eno’s outstretched arms.
Rayne’s knees had nearly given out right then. As it was, he’d been whispering prayers of thanks for both Kaes and Tula the second they had him. He’d never considered himself religious in the past, but there was no mistaking that one of the gods had seen Caelan safely to them.
A knock at the outer door to Caelan’s suite had Rayne turning from the bed and shuffling across the room to see Prince Shey walking toward him. He wasn’t looking much better from the past twenty-four hours. Deep, black circles underlined his eyes, and his lovely blue hair was standing up in odd directions. His face was smudged with dirt, and his clothes were completely ruined with splatters of blood and soot. The man needed to be in bed and not checking on them.
“Any change?” Shey asked softly.
Rayne shook his head and led the way into the bedroom so Shey could see his sleeping prince. After they’d gotten Caelan back, they’d found temporary refuge in a vacant store until the worst of the storm passed, then made their way to the palace with an escort. They’d not run into any trouble along the way, but it had been nice to just focus on Caelan and not have to spend energy glancing over his shoulder.
Shey frowned. “But sleep is good, right?”
“That’s what I keep telling myself,” Rayne murmured. He slipped his fingers under his spare glasses and rubbed his tired, burning eyes. His original pair had been lost on that blasted Empire ship.
Eno and Drayce were supposed to be sleeping, but he wondered if either of them was actually managing it. They’d both been pacing the room with Rayne until just a few hours ago. He’d barely managed to convince them to go find their own beds for a bit.
“Is this…is this normal when using the powers of a godstone?”
“I honestly don’t know. The last person to be bonded to a godstone is dead, so I have no one to ask. No resources. No—”