Chapter 32
We entered the tower to our left, which I noted had four dots above its door, apparently denoting its number. Dorian pointed to the tower we had come from, Tower Three, explaining that it had three dots, and housed all the defense, intelligence and military training facilities of Valhalla. Tower Four contained not only the sanatorium, but also the medical research and clinical facilities of Valhalla. Tower One housed the ruling families and remaining Ancients, Tower Two contained the Council Chambers, Tower Five held the schools, Tower Six was a giant indoor marketplace and Tower Seven was set aside for all other research and development. I wondered what else they could possibly dream up in Tower Seven – it seemed like they already had the tech to do whatever they wanted.
Inside, Tower Four looked more or less like Tower Three, but with a lot more people walking around. Most people seemed to be in a hurry with some place to go, although some looked sad or lost while they milled aimlessly about. In that respect, it was pretty much like every other hospital I’d ever seen on television. Of course, the gleaming gold walls, strange hieroglyphs carved into doors and the spiraling escalators pretty much ensured I’d never forget I wasn’t on Earth anymore. No. I was in it.
We rode the stairs to the top floor. The further up we’d gone, the fewer people we passed coming back down. Dorian whispered that the Sanatorium cared for long-term patients, unlike the emergency services and basic health care wards below. The top floor, where we were going, was reserved for the most serious cases, the ones who needed the most isolation and rest. With a pang, I realized what that said about my mother’s condition.
A small waiting area with soft pleather chairs surrounded the staircases. I saw Bran in one of them flipping through some papers and rushed over to pepper him with questions.
“Have you seen her? Where is she? How does she look?”
He looked up, a world weary smile on his face. “I have. She looks…a little older than I remember, but good. Peaceful. As far as she’s concerned, she’s just sleeping. Honestly, she’s probably doing better than the rest of us. I was just going through her file now to make sure the doctors are following protocol for the anti-serum.”
“Bran? Can I ask you something personal?”
“Of course. I want to get to know you, and I hope you feel like you can do the same with me. Ask away.”
“Well, it seems like you might have had feelings for my mom when you…when you guys were on mission together. She tried to find you afterwards, did you know that?”
From the way his face paled, I knew he hadn’t. I pushed on before he could answer. “How come you never tried to find her?”
“When we met, I was in the middle of a long black op. I was sent from place to place for three years, never anywhere for more than a few days, never any contact with Aeden other than my coded instructions. By the time I finished, the time I’d spent with Fredrika seemed like a dream. When I returned I was thrown right onto the fast track to command. I convinced myself that whatever I thought I’d felt, she hadn’t felt the same, or that she’d moved on. I figured if she was looking for me, I would hear about it. I’m sorry if I was wrong.”
“She didn’t talk about you much, but I know she tried. She told me she didn’t want to come to Aeden because she wanted me to have a taste of human freedom before my Choosing. But there was a moment, you know, before she was taken, that she talked about how you guys connected. How she just knew it was right, in her heart. She was talking about the surge, wasn’t she?”
“What do you know about the surge?” he eyed me suspiciously, the way I expected most fathers would if they knew their daughters had been kissing boys. I didn’t think he’d earned the right to look at me that way yet, and I gave him a look that let him know it.
“Well, was she?”
“Yes, I think so. At least, I thought so. But the surge is no guarantee. It’s just an indicator of mental, physical, and spiritual compatibility.”
“Gee, is that all? What if you don’t like the person? Can you experience the surge with someone else?”
“It’s rare enough to find the first one, but yes, you could find another surge connection. And plenty of fae fall in love and have families without ever experiencing the surge. In some circles, it’s even believed to be a bit of a fairy tale, like love at first sight.”
I snorted.
“Well, we know that’s not true,” I muttered.
“Do we now?” He eyed me speculatively.
“Can you use the energy rush of the surge to wake her?”
“No, we’ve tried that before with another patient, and I felt nothing just now when I was in her room, not even the normal indication that you get when you have contact with another fae. The anti-serum suppresses the energy flow of our light when it’s used, so the surge is disabled. But how do you—”
Before he could finished his question I deflected his attention by asking if I could see my mother now. Forgetting his budding paternal inclinations, he apologized and showed me to my mother’s room. He excused himself at the door, promising to send Amber to collect me in a half hour.
I placed my palm against the door, took a deep breath and stepped into my mom’s room just before it closed shut again. Her room was bathed in beautiful pink light reflected by the clouds. Bran was right, she did look peaceful, I thought as I approached her bedside. Her face, even without the sun’s glow, held a slight blush and her breathing was steady.
Her auburn hair fanned out prettily on her pillow, and I wondered who had arranged it that way. Had it been my father? Somehow, I thought maybe it had. I’d seen the tenderness in his eyes when he spoke of her, the regret when he realized the time he’d lost with her.
A lone IV line lay next to her on the far side of the bed, linking her to fluid sustenance. Apparently, she could exist comfortably like this for the rest of her natural life. I swore to myself she wouldn’t have to.
God, I missed my mom. I missed our daily spars, our chocolate fests and movie nights. I missed her laugh and her easy ways. Rowan was right, I tended to be too serious, but my mom… She had always been my true north to happiness. She could bring me out of any funk, and make any town a home. I wanted her back more than I’d ever wanted anything before. I had a dad now, but I would have traded him in a second to get my mother back, to go back to the way things had been before.
But I knew that could never be. I could never go back. Even if I returned to Falls Depot, even if I found a cure for my mom and brought peace to the fae, I knew life would never be the same.
Yearning for simpler times, I climbed carefully up onto my mother’s bed and curled myself around her. I rested my head on her chest and listened to her heartbeat, letting the sound of her blood, my blood, the earth’s blood, drum my worries away.
Chapter 33