Chapter 25 - the Victors

AMBROSE

We pulled up to the medical bay’s exterior doors and I carried her in. Daley waved us to a room on the end where Sequoia was laying on a bed, but she got up when she saw us. She looked over Evadiene as I laid her down and I heard Covyn called a doctor into the room. Covyn, Ellion, and Daley moved into the hall as I heard Tina calling back that she would be right with us.

Sequoia’s eyes burned through me as she unwrapped Evadiene from the blanket and saw the fabric around her arm. “I told you not to leave her alone!” She growled, but it was hushed under her breath.

The guilt consumed me and I lowered my eyes from hers. I had nothing to say in return, she was right but I hadn’t suspected her reason why. I sat beside the bed and took Evadiene’s hand in mine as the doctor came in and started checking her over.

Evadiene barely looked at the doctor as she started unwrapping and cleaning her wounds, and I didn’t take my eyes off Evadiene. Sequoia helped Eva, not allowing me to contribute with her looks of pure disdain. I continued to hold Evadiene’s hand, while Sequoia held the other one through the doctor’s stitches and bandaging. The hand Sequoia held never moved, but I felt her squeezing my hand through the pain of it all.

I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb as Tina asked, “Evadiene, I’m going to feel over your ribs now. With this bruising I think a couple of them may be broken.”

Evadiene didn’t regard her at all, keeping her gaze on where my hands held hers, though I hadn’t noticed when she started looking there instead of at the closed door.Sequoia began talking to her in a language I didn’t recognize but she didn’t move. She said one thing ending with a question, then asked something else more tentatively but didn’t get so much as a head nod or shake.

Sequoia released a big breath and thumbed toward me. “Use him to gauge her pain,” she sighed.

I did as commanded, tuning myself into Evadiene’s emotions as Tina felt over the different bones. Evadiene was too tired to block me now, and though there wasn’t much in the way of emotions, the pain rang through like a flash bang in the darkness. It took over half an hour to tend to all of her injuries without her communicating the problems, but when Tina was through she brought in a bowl of warm soapy water so I could clean her up.

Sequoia reluctantly let me do it, but she insisted on staying in the room to help. We removed the bra and underwear, sending Daley to our room to get her some fresh clothes for later. Evadiene’s blood wasn’t clotting well, so she had been put on an IV with fluids and medicines to help stop the bleeding and prevent infection. We helped her into a hospital gown and covered her in multiple blankets to warm her up.

The room was quiet for too many minute, nothing but the sound of her heart beat on the monitor to break up the sounds of us breathing. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything with the pain I still felt from my mate. She started squeezing my hand and when I looked up to her face she was crying completely silently. Her chest didn’t heave, her mouth didn’t whimper, but the tears fell steadily over her cheeks and into the blanket over her lap.

I reached over and wiped her cheek with my thumb. “Evadiene…”

“You shut up!” Sequoia barked but her face grew softer towards Evadiene. “Ualitea, please… we’ve been through worse together..”

She nodded but her lip trembled. “When does it end?” Evadiene begged. “Teli ti. Bai teli ti this karotis conrishka! I can’t my peti weanu, not again.” Her hands trembled but she kept a tight grip on mine as she looked at me. “Not again.”

“How is this different?” Sequoia asked gently, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her.

Evadiene slowly turned toward her. “You know that it is. I can’t….”

“Just once more,” Sequoia begged.

Evadiene showed her first emotion in hours that wasn’t sadness as she looked surprised. “You said you’d never…”

“Once more,” Sequoia said again. “We face this head on and fail, and.. I’ll do it. Pakchee.”

I saw Sequoia’s shoulders drop as Evadiene’s eyes opened wide. “Pakchee? Really?… No, not good enough. Conrishka.”

Sequoia winced. “Please Ualitea… You can trust me.”

Evadiene shook her head. “No, not with this. You must swear it.”

“Only if you agree. Head on,” Sequoia countered.

“Wait, what did you just promise?” I managed to get out, but Evadiene and Sequoia ignored me.

They moved to shake hands but instead grabbed the other’s wrist, Sequoia’s hand wrapping gently around the bandage. There was a moment of complete silence as they looked at each other, and it looked the way it did when we spoke to our wolves in our heads; like they were having a complete conversation I couldn’t hear.

“We have acocia, the terms are set.” Evadiene returned, smirking slightly.

I watched as her face paled like the events had all caught up at once.

“What just happened?” I begged her.

“We would have spoken a language that wasn’t dead if you were allowed to know that,” Sequoia returned bitterly.

There was a gentle knock at the closed door and Daley walked in with Ellion and Covyn.

“A dead language? Which one?” Daley asked, stepping forward to set the pile of clothes on the table beside the bed and I grabbed a shirt for myself.

Sequoia shook her head. “You never would have heard of it. Evadiene taught me. I speak it better than I read.”

“What is going on,” I demanded, cradling my mate against my chest but this time she warmed into me and it made me worry more about their private conversation.

Covyn moved through the others to the bed and put a bag down. “Maybe this means more to you than it does to me.” Sequoia opened the bag, first pulling out a silver chain. “This is everything I found in the cellars that didn’t belong there.”

The next item removed made Daley gasp, “my book?” Evadiene nodded but didn’t speak as Daley opened to the bookmarked page. “You’re family name is Vesperous?” She read on, being hushed by Sequia and then lowered her voice. “They slaughtered dozens of packs after a disagreement!”

“Did not!” Evadiene returned, but even her anger lacked its usual punch.

Daley turned the book toward her. “It’s right here!”

Evadiene looked away from the gruesome photo. “Your histories are written by the victors, or those of your kind that lived. Their accounts were just trusted at face value, no proof required,” she returned more sadly her eyes looking unfocused.

“So what’s your story,” Ellion returned, closing Daley’s book.

“Are these questions necessary right now?” I demanded, my girl looked so exhausted that I just wanted to get her out of there and away from everyone.

Sequoia turned to Ellion. “It wasn’t a disagreement. A wolven saw her mom as his mate and herkidnapped and killed her. Her father sought revenge, Evadiene tried to save the fallout packs from their rage. She couldn’t get to all of them alone.”

“Sequoia, shut up.” Evadiene hissed. “You’ll anger our Goddess.”

“She already hates me,” she replied, flipping her long golden hair over her shoulder and glancing at Covyn, but this attracted Evadiene’s attention to her injuries.

“My weanu!”

“I’m fine, I heal faster than you.” Sequoia rolled her eyes and brushed her worried hands away.

“You should have never…”

“Stop. I’ll always try to protect you… until acocia dictates.” Her face turned sad.

We all felt like bystanders to their conversation until Evadiene started to shiver again. A nurse came in as I was rubbing her arms and added something to her intravenous. A loud sniffing sound occurred and then I heard the defined sound of a neck snapping.