Breath of Life (Godstone Saga 2)

“He’s fixing your knee?”

Rayne tightened his fingers around his sister’s and pulled her back to lean against him. “It’s his connection to the Godstone. A gift from the Goddess of Life.”

Zephyr hummed softly and rested her head on her brother’s. “Praise to the Goddess Tula. May she always watch over Erya and her children.”

It was an old, simple prayer and not one he’d ever heard uttered in this household. Maybe sending his sister away for school had been a good idea.

He had never put much stock in the gods and goddesses. Of course, he’d believed them all to be dead like most of the people of Thia. But what he’d seen Caelan do with the God of Storms’ powers and now what he could feel from the Goddess of Life, he was definitely a believer.

Eno returned a couple of minutes later with a towel wrapped about his waist. Rayne adored the soft smile that crossed Eno’s lips when he spotted Zephyr resting by him. It was as if Eno had found a way to hug him from across the room.

Rayne could have happily lived without the encounter with his parents, but it was worth it if it meant he got five minutes with his sister. All the more reason for Rayne to find Eno’s brother. If Eno had even a slim shot of this with his brother, Rayne was determined to get it for him.

Caelan lifted his hands from Rayne’s knee. “How does that feel?”

Very slowly, Rayne moved his leg, shifting it back and forth while trying to not disturb the covers too much. The pain was completely gone. “Good. Great, actually. I’ll test walking on it later. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

His prince shook his head, a wry smile twisting his lips at the title, but Rayne thought it was proper considering his sister was in the room. “Anything to keep my advisor locked to my side.”

Rayne shifted to meet his sister’s eyes. “Zeph, don’t mention this to our parents. No one needs to know exactly what Caelan can do right now.”

She grinned. “Yeah, like Dad needs to know about this. No, thank you.”

“We’ll work on getting you to Caspagir soon,” Drayce offered. He leaned his shoulder on the window and crossed his arms over his chest. His fierce expression was completely ruined by the frilly yellow robe.

“Good trade,” she giggled and winked at Drayce.

Eno moved farther into the room to stand at the foot of the bed. “Are you planning to go to the same school Rayne studied at in Caspagir?”

“Yes, but I plan to get my art degree there, where Rayne was there for only a couple of years.” She paused and sighed. “He always has this dreamy smile on his face when he talks about Sirelis, so I figured I need to give it a try.”

Eno coughed as if he were choking on a laugh, and Rayne was starting to second-guess whether it was a good thing that he got to see his sister.

“It’s a shame you can’t follow in Rayne’s footsteps and snag yourself a prince while you’re there,” Drayce teased, and Rayne decided in that instant he was going to kill his prince’s best friend.

“What?” Zephyr screeched, her high-pitched voice threatening to pierce his eardrum. “You met Prince Shey? Wait! You dated—”

Rayne slapped a hand over his sister’s mouth out of fear that his parents might hear her incredibly loud questions. She was practically vibrating in the bed with excitement. Rayne threw Drayce a dark look.

“Oh shit,” Drayce mumbled. “Sorry about that. Guess she didn’t know.”

“No, she didn’t,” Rayne snarled before glaring at his sister and lowering his hand. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“But-but-but you dated?”

“Now is not the time, Zeph. We need to discuss some important matters.”

She narrowed her eyes on him and poked him in the chest. “You owe me. Big. Huge.”

“Yes, yes.”

“I’m serious, Rayne. I want details. Dirt. Real dirt. By the gods, he’s soooo hot! How in the world did you fuck that up?” Rayne frowned and she threw up her hands. “All right.” Zephyr gave in, sounding completely exasperated with her brother. “Fine, but you still owe me. I’ll toss the clothes in the wash and see about some food.” She grinned over at Drayce. “No rice.”

“You’re a freaking angel,” Drayce moaned.

“I’ll try to run some interference with Mom and Dad, but I make no promises.” She pressed a quick kiss to Rayne’s cheek and bounced off the bed. “You guys go back to plotting how you’re going to get rid of the Empire so I can go to school.”

With everyone’s clothes added to the basket now on her hip, she slipped out of the room again, leaving them alone to catch up on everything that had happened not only while they were separated that day, but in the previous days. It was good to know that General Morgan and the Royal Guard had proved to be useful, but not good to hear that this Levi had tried to kill Caelan.