Chapter 72 – Fear.

Elyra was sitting on the edge of the bed with her back straight and her hands resting in her lap. Her gaze was fixed on the body lying in front of her.

Matt hadn't moved in five days.

'…This isn't normal.'

Elyra leaned forward slightly, pressed her fingers to Matt's neck and searched for the pulse.

'…slower.'

Every time she took his pulse, Elyra felt the interval between one beat and the next was a little longer. Not much. Not enough for an ordinary doctor to notice.

But she wasn't an ordinary doctor.

She had centuries of listening to heartbeats, her own and other people's, and she knew when a heart was doing what it was supposed to and when a heart was slowly stopping.

This one was slowly stopping.

'…No.'

Elyra pulled her fingers back and straightened up. She ran a hand over her face, slowly, without realizing it was the first time in a very long time she'd made that gesture.

Elyra stopped with her hand at eye level and stayed still.

'…No.'

She lowered her hand.

She looked at Matt again.

He was pale.

Paler than usual, even taking into account what he already was, which was pretty pale. His lips were slightly cracked. His eyelids closed and sunken. His chest rising and falling with a slowness that didn't match anything the queen had ever seen in a living body.

And still he was alive.

For now.

Elyra thought back.

'The first time he passed out was when he came out of the cave.'

That she understood. She'd understood it. Matt had been inside that cave too long, he'd forced himself to endure too much, he'd fought with too many things, and his body had said enough.

He'd passed out. He'd slept several days, but in the end he'd woken up hungry and with a headache and a foul face, but he'd woken up.

And Elyra had been at ease.

Exhaustion.

Nothing more.

That she understood.

But this was different.

This time Matt had done something inside. Something she hadn't seen and hadn't been able to stop and still didn't fully understand.

He had fused with two weapons at the same time.

Two.

Not one.

Two.

And not just any two, but those two, the twins, the ones the queen had been keeping for another moment.

And now those two were inside Matt.

Elyra pressed her lips together slightly.

'…I shouldn't have let him.'

Elyra pressed her hands against her lap and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was still seeing the same thing. Matt lying on the bed with that stillness that wasn't sleep and wasn't death.

'…What is this?'

Elyra stopped to think about it.

She allowed herself that for a second. No more. A second. With the calm of someone considering important things.

'…Fear?'

She frowned slightly.

'…No, it can't be.'

But it was.

It was exactly that.

Elyra, who had gone so long without feeling it that she'd almost failed to recognize it, kept looking at Matt with that new thing moving in her chest, and she didn't like it at all.

Not at all.

Fear.

Fear for him, because if Matt didn't wake up, if Matt truly, this time, this one time, didn't wake up.

Then all that was left was Iris.

Elyra had prepared her. She'd raised her. She'd trained her the best she could, with what little you can train a vampire that young, and even so...

Iris was very young.

Iris wasn't ready.

Iris didn't know anything about politics, didn't know anything about the court, didn't know anything about the traitors who had spent years scratching at the castle's barrier, didn't know anything about how to defend herself when she wasn't there, and she wasn't going to be there forever.

And if Iris was left alone with them outside…

With her bloodline reduced to a single head.

'…A year.'

Elyra calculated slowly.

'Two, if she's lucky.'

Then they'd catch her. They'd bleed her dry. They'd tear her into little pieces and split her up among themselves and there'd be nothing left of the line.

Not a drop.

Nothing.

And with that… everything ended.

Elyra knew it.

She knew.

That's why Matt had to wake up.

Matt had to wake up.

Matt had to wake up because if he didn't wake up, everything the queen had built over these years was going to fall.

'…Wake up.'

Elyra looked at him.

'Wake up.'

Matt didn't move.

'Wake up.'

Matt still didn't move.

Elyra closed her eyes for a moment. She opened them. She ran her tongue over her lips, slowly, and considered the option she'd been considering for three days now.

Blood.

She could give him blood.

Again.

She'd done it at first. The first two days. She'd opened her wrist carefully, with those fangs she knew how to use like scalpels, and she'd pressed her wrist against Matt's lips.

And Matt, asleep, had swallowed. Instinctive. Without thinking.

And for two days it had looked like it was working.

Then it had stopped working.

Then the queen had tried again, on the third day, and the effect had lasted half an afternoon.

And then the fourth day, the effect had lasted nothing at all.

And on the fifth day the queen hadn't tried.

Because she already knew.

Her blood was starting to be useless to him.

'…And if I keep drawing it…'

The queen looked at her wrist. The left one, the one she'd been using. There was a fine mark, almost invisible, from the cut she'd given herself several times.

Other vampires wouldn't have seen it. She did. She knew her own skin. Beneath the mark she felt her own pulse, faster than normal.

'…If I keep drawing it, I'll be weak.'

The queen thought it over slowly.

'And if I'm weak, will I be able to protect him.'

That was the problem.

That was the whole problem.

The queen could give more blood. She could give all of it if she had to. She wasn't afraid of that. She had never been afraid of giving blood for something that mattered to her, and few things had mattered to her in life, so the ones that did got what she had without discussion.

But if she gave it all, if she ended up without the strength to stand at the door of this room when the traitors decided it was time to bring the barrier down…

'…I can't.'

Elyra rested her hands on her knees, closed her eyes and opened them again.

'…So what, what do I do?'

And for the first time in a very long time Elyra didn't have an answer.

She didn't know what to do.

And there the queen did the only thing she could think to do.

The only thing.

Not because it was a great plan.

Not because she was confident it was going to work.

But because it was the only thing left, and she needed to do something.

Anything but sit there watching him for one more day.

Elyra got to her feet and smoothed her dress. Then she walked slowly to the door and opened it just a little. On the other side was a long hallway, lit by tall candles that burned with blue light instead of yellow.

And in the hallway, very still, very straight, without moving a single millimeter, were the two guards.

Two vampires, tall, in light armor, with their gaze fixed straight ahead. The second the queen opened the door, both turned their heads at the same time, with the same movement, at the same speed.

"Your majesty."

They said it at the same time.

The queen nodded slightly.

"Come in."

Both entered without asking. Without hesitating. Without looking to the side. They crossed the threshold, stood a meter from the bed, and went still again, hands resting on the hilts and gaze fixed forward.

Elyra closed the door behind them, calmly. Then she leaned lightly against the closed door and looked at them.

"I need to do something."

"…"

"And I'm going to be defenseless for a few minutes."

"…"

"You stay here."

"…"

"If anything happens, anything at all, at any moment."

"…"

"You pull me out."

Both guards nodded at the same time.

"Yes, your majesty."

"With whatever force is necessary."

"Yes, your majesty."

"No matter what I say afterwards."

"…"

The queen pulled away from the door and walked toward the bed.

Before sitting down, she stopped. She looked at the two guards. And for the first time that night, not out of habit, but because she really needed to know, she asked.

"Are there still guards at every window?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"At every corridor?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"At every balcony?"

"Yes, your majesty."

"And outside?"

The two glanced at each other, just barely. Just a tiny movement of the eyes. Nothing more.

The first one answered.

"The traitors are still probing the barrier, your majesty."

"…"

"Same as every night."

"…"

"One of them approached two nights in a row from the east side, but didn't cross."

"…"

"Another changed his pattern on Thursday, approached through the woods instead of the road, but didn't cross either."

"…"

"Aside from that, nothing unusual, your majesty."

"…"

"None of them got through."

"The castle is intact."

The queen let out a breath.

'…Good.'

She still had time.

The queen nodded slightly.

"Good."

The guards didn't reply.

The queen sat down on the bed. Not on the edge. Not this time. She sat further in. She settled slightly against the headboard, with her back resting, and with both arms, carefully, with a gentleness she had never shown anyone at court in her entire life, she lifted Matt's head.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

And she rested it on her legs.

Matt didn't react.

Not a movement.

Not an eyelid.

Nothing.

The queen adjusted him slightly. She brushed the hair off his forehead with her fingertips, leaving it neatly combed back. She touched the edge of his jaw, just barely, to check the temperature.

'…He shouldn't be this thin.'

In five days you don't lose weight like that. Not even sleeping. Not even without eating. Not like this.

Something inside was eating him up.

'…The weapons.'

The queen pressed her lips together slightly.

'Fusing with two at once is costing him.'

It's costing him body.

It's costing him blood.

It's costing him something else the queen couldn't quite identify and that was the part that worried her most, because you can't fight against something you don't know what it is.

That's why she had to go in.

She had to see.

'…Forgive me.'

The queen brought both hands to Matt's forehead.

Carefully.

Very carefully.

She laid her palms against it. Barely. Without pressing. With her fingertips near his temples and her thumbs almost touching in the middle of his forehead.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and went down.

◇◆◇

Moon was sitting on the low couch in the dining room, with her legs pulled up against her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, and her head resting on Sun's shoulder.

Moon had her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Every now and then a tiny sound came out of her nose, a very tiny sound, almost a purr, something between a breath and a sigh.

Sun didn't.

Sun was sitting with her back straight, with both hands resting on her knees, her jaw slightly clenched, and her head turned just slightly to the side so she could look at Moon with the sternness of a school principal.

"Moon."

"…mmh."

"Moon."

"…"

"Moon, it's afternoon."

"…"

"It's not time to sleep."

"…"

"Moon."

Moon opened one eye slightly.

"…What?"

"It's afternoon."

"…I know."

"It's not time to sleep."

"…I'm not sleeping."

"Moon."

"…I'm not sleeping, Sun."

"Your eyes were closed."

"…I was blinking."

"…"

"Very slowly."

"Moon, you're a sleepyhead."

"…Am not."

"You are. You slept three times today."

"…"

"Three."

"…"

"After breakfast, before lunch, and after lunch."

"…"

"And now again."

Moon closed the eye she'd opened. She leaned her head a little more against Sun's shoulder. And she answered with that tiny voice of hers, half muffled, half drawled, the one she used every time she got scolded for something she didn't consider serious.

"…I like sleeping."

"I know you like sleeping."

"…"

"But not all the time."

"…"

"Moon."

"…mmh."

"You're not going to sleep tonight."

"…Yes I will."

"No."

"…Yes."

"No, Moon. You can't sleep all day and all night."

"…I can."

Sun closed her eyes slightly with patience.

"Moon, seriously."

"…mmh."

"Get up for a bit."

"…No."

"Let's play."

"…Later."

"Let's read."

"…Later."

"Let's tidy up the room."

"…Later."

"Moon."

"…"

"Moon."

"…"

Moon ran her hands over her face slowly. With that laziness of hers that was almost comical. She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. She fixed the blue hair that had stuck to her cheek. And she was about to ask for another second, when she stopped.

Moon lowered her hands and went still.

Sun looked at her.

"…Moon?"

Moon didn't answer.

She had frozen with her hands at chest level, her fingers slightly curled, and her gaze fixed on a point in the air that wasn't any point at all.

"…Moon."

Moon frowned slightly. Then she straightened up all the way, in one motion.

Sun sat up too, alarmed.

"…What is it?"

Moon didn't look at her.

She looked at the door, the window, the ceiling and the floor, like she was searching for something everywhere at the same time.

"Moon."

"…"

"Moon, what is it?"

Moon spoke slowly.

"…Someone is coming in."

Sun went still.

"…What?"

"Someone is coming in."

"Where?"

"Here."

Moon got off the couch, crossed the dining room and went straight toward a door on the other side of the room, a door with warm light coming out of it and a sweet smell of something that was just starting to burn.

The kitchen.

Inside there were noises.

Clang!

Something metal against something else metal.

Thunk!

Something falling and being picked up clumsily.

"No, no, no, this sauce wasn't like this, this sauce was different! Why is it so red?! This isn't red, this is red red! The sauce was pink! Where's the teacher?! No, I can do it on my own, I can do it on my own!"

The sound of Aurora talking to herself.

Moon reached the door and didn't open it, she pushed it.

The door swung all the way open and hit the wall.

Inside, Aurora was standing in front of a burner, with an apron tied around her waist, with a spoon in one hand and a pot in the other, with her face stained red, her hair a mess, and an expression of all-out war against the food.

Aurora turned her head.

"…Moon?"

Moon looked at her. And Aurora, who had spent the last half hour fighting with the kitchen on her own, immediately noticed that there was something different in Moon's face.

Aurora put the spoon down.

"…What happened?"

Moon spoke quietly.

"The queen is coming in."

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