Kaitlyn woke slowly to find her whole body aching. She let out a soft groan as she tried to pull herself to a seated position. There was a flurry of activity at the far end of the room, and a young man rushed to her bedside.

  “Whoa, are you okay?” he asked. Kaitlyn strained to remember who he was.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re still in the chapel at Happfield.”

  Those words were enough to remind her. This man beside her was the same paladin she had been fighting in the chapel’s sanctuary. “Why? Where are the others?”

  “Just relax here for one second. I’m going to get the Father.” Sam said as he helped Kaitlyn back down.

  “No, wait,” Kaitlyn called through her pain as the paladin left the room. But he left anyway. Kaitlyn thought back to the last things she remembered. Calling on the power of the stones that built the chapel. She was going to tear the whole thing down during their fight. Then everything had gone black. She had vague memories of Benji shouting, but little else.

  “I’m glad to see you’re awake.” Father Pryce’s voice entered the room before he and Sam did. The old man appeared, a bruise running down the side of his elderly face. He looked on at Kaitlyn with sadness and concern. “How are you feeling?”

  “What happened?”

  “That man you brought with you? The one who went to the basement. He stole the Halcyon Band.”

  Kaitlyn felt strange when she heard that. She should have felt successful or proud, but it seemed wrong. Matthew did not deserve her help and he did not deserve success. Especially if it resulted in her being left behind here.

  “But that is not all. He put the band on his arm as well.” The priest said this line with effort, as if he had been searching for words. He looked at Kaitlyn, like she should know what he meant by this.

  “Is that where the bruise came from?” Kaitlyn asked. Father Pryce shook his head. The doomed looks from the two men were beginning to make her feel uneasy. Then she realized something amiss.

  Kaitlyn reached to her stomach. The slight bump she had been showing was gone. Sam looked down at the floor as she found her child was missing.

  “What happened?” Kaitlyn asked, her voice beginning to break. “What did you do?” she asked Sam, her voice full of blame and hate. He had been the one fighting her after all.

  “It was not Corporal Bleedingheart that caused this,” Father Pryce said, moving forward. “It was the man in the crypt.”

  Kaitlyn was beginning to react, and the environment was as well. The stones of the building, the wind outside the window, and the flame of the candle beside her were all reaching toward her to try and comfort the shaman. The room creaked and groaned, and the two men looked even more distraught. What had been an uncomfortable situation was becoming a dangerous one.

  Kaitlyn began breathing faster, approaching hyperventilation when her mind caught on the last thing the priest said. It was the man in the crypt. She pictured that urn her grandmother always described. It was shaking, spilling over with contents aching to be free. But, at this point, it was too much in that urn. Kaitlyn knew that if she released them all right now, her despair and anger would kill these men. So she held the emotions of her surroundings away from her.

  She controlled her breathing. She capped the urn.

  The priest and paladin watched in silent awe as she brought herself and the world around her to peace.

  “The Halcyon Band was a cursed item. That is why it was hidden so far away. Wearing the item and drawing its power pulls blood from the wielder, but also renders the wearer unable to have a child. The Church used the enchantment to control its finest warriors. It demanded their sacrifice and devotion.

  “It seems that we have witnessed just what this means for a yet-unborn child.”

  Kaitlyn said nothing. She just stared. The silence went on for a moment before she finally decided on an appropriate question. “Where are Benji and Sarah?”

  Sam and Pryce looked at one another before Pryce spoke. “I presume Benji and Sarah are the other two with you and the man that stole the Halcyon Band?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well,” Sam began. “The big guy in the sanctuary wanted to stay and help you, but when the man and woman came up from downstairs, the man threatened him. Ordered him to leave you behind.”

  Kaitlyn took a deep breath as the stone whined again. Then, peace once more.

  “They stalled. Wanted to make sure you would be taken care of. The woman even apologized, but quietly. Eventually they left. Said they were headed for The Throne.”

  The compassion in the room was becoming more voluminous with each moment. Stones layers below the chapel, as well as groundwater, and winds blown in from far away all rushed forward to give Kaitlyn their sympathies, but they were made to wait just outside the room. Even Pryce and Sam could feel the pressure on the space around them, but to Kaitlyn, it all just seemed like pity.

  Matt used her to the very end. She should have seen it all sooner or stood up for herself sooner. She did not want this pity right now.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  And so the emotional walls grew higher.

  “How are you feeling? Father Pryce asked, gently taking a step forward.

  “I am sore, father.” Kaitlyn’s response was stiff.

  The priest looked down and took a breath. “Our druid, Gretta, will be in momentarily. She has some medicines for you. May I ask your name, child?”

  Kaitlyn wanted to protest. She wanted to react, and scream, and throw things around the small stone room. But she thought better of it.

  “My name is Kaitlyn. Why would Matt be going to The Throne?” she asked.

  “For the rest of the armor, I am guessing. That man, your lover-”

  “Not anymore.” The response was void of emotion.

  Pryce paused. “My apologies ma’am. That man was being guided by a god known as the King’s Shade. The god embodies ambition and lust for power. I believe that your husband will not be permitted to rest until the armor is in his hands.”

  “And what will that mean?”

  “Well,” Pryce sighed. “The band alone gives him powers that we were unable to contend with. The armor would make even an untrained warrior on par with one of the greatest heroes of the Church of the Will.”

  Kaitlyn worked to press down her growing anger. “What will be done to stop him?”

  “I am going to return to my post at The Throne and sound the alarm about this man’s approach. He will not make it to the city.” Sam nodded with confidence.

  “Give me a day to rest. I want to go with you.” Kaitlyn was physically pained to create the words, but she was sure.

  “No, dear,” Pryce shook his head. “We can not allow that. You will be held here by Gretta and myself until the Church sends for you for questioning.”

  “No, I need to make this right. I never intended to hurt anyone.”

  “Could have fooled me,” Gretta said as she stepped into the room with a cart. Her lip was swollen and her arm bruised. A dusting of soot covered her clothing. “It’s one thing to come in and slap me around. But to burn my garden, too?”

  “I did not realize what we were doing. I’m so sorry.”

  “Those were my friends, Shaman,” Gretta snarled.

  “Gretta, calm down,” Father Pryce sang. “We’ve all lost already. Some of us more than others. I think it safe to say the King’s Shade may have had more of a hand in the events than our patient would be able to tell us about.”

  Gretta looked down, ashamed for a moment. “I’m sorry about the baby.”

  “And I am sorry about the garden,” Kaitlyn responded. “But Matthew. He should be the one we are concerned with.”

  “Not yet, lady.” Gretta plucked a clay cup from the cart and held it out to Kaitlyn. “Drink this. And when you swallow it, I have a question for you.”

  The liquid was good, like most druid medicines. Honey sweetened, flavored with fruit juices. Whatever substance had the medicinal effect was masked completely by pleasant aromas and tastes.

  “Where did you find this?” Gretta leaned down to grab a metal birdcage from the underside of the cart. Inside, a ball of vines and roots thrashed around and gripped for the cage’s clasp.

  Kaitlyn tried to recognize the mess of plant life when it dawned on her. “It was a gift. From a Druid outside of Crossroads.”

  “Do you know a name?”

  “He was called Gideon,” Kaitlyn said, pleasantly remembering the conversation she had with the druid that inspired her to stand up to Matt. Too little too late, though.

  At the sound of the name, Gretta’s face fell. “I will be outside. Father Pryce would like to do something for the child lost and the death of the garden. Come and find me whenever that is happening.” With that, Gretta was gone, leaving the cart behind.

  “She is temperamental at times,” Father Pryce said softly.

  “Stop coddling me,” Kaitlyn responded, not unkindly. “I know I am a criminal and enemy of the church. I aided in the theft of a relic. And I paid for it.” Kaitlyn was beginning to cry, but she was not sure if her emotions could be contained when they began to be expressed. She worked hard to seal the urn once more. “So I want to make it right. And I want Matthew brought to justice.”

  “I understand, dear. But you are ill, and emotionally compromised. You know as well as I how unpredictable that can make your power. Let Samson here handle Matthew and we will wait here for the good word.”

  Kaitlyn opened her mouth to protest, but Sam interrupted her.

  “Are you well enough to step outside? Maybe we can say a few words for the lives lost,” he reached out a hand to help her. Sam was smaller now that he was not in his armor. Much smaller. She found herself impressed that a man of his stature could wield such power in combat. And she noticed, too, the scar tissue that peaked out of the open collar of his shirt.

  “I believe so,” Kaitlyn said, taking his hand.

  The funeral was awkward, albeit well intentioned. Gretta was emotional, but only because she knew the plants that were lost, and in a way no one unversed in green magic could relate to. She freely expressed herself as Father Pryce read from a book about death.

  Kaitlyn, on the other hand, felt emotions for her unborn baby, but refused to show them. It was easier than she had expected. After all, she had not even settled on a name. In all of her fantasies, the child was this intangible idea that sat in the other room, or in a crib just out of the field of view. It existed, but never fully formed. The irony almost caused Kaitlyn to laugh, but she choked it down.

  All this time carrying this child and she spent every day worrying about Matthew. What a damned waste. She should have seen it from the start. Matthew never wanted that kid. She would not have been left to fight a Paladin of the Will if Matthew cared for the safety of the child.

  The elements were on the door of Kaitlyn’s heart again, ready to spill over her with their pity. She raised the walls higher, though. She knew she felt sad. She knew these three from the chapel felt sad for her, and that the elements would, too. But none of that was going to help stop her idiot husband.

  If anything, mourning the loss would slow her down.

  And there, as Father Pryce read and Gretta shook with quiet tears, Kaitlyn decided to put off her sadness. She would give herself time to mourn, but later. After her sins committed on Matthew’s behalf were answered for and after Matthew answered for his own sins.

  After the makeshift funeral was dinner. Just as awkward. The four, shaken by the day’s events, had their meals alone. Father Pryce, insistent that he be the one to do it, ate with one hand while using his magic to put the unbroken pews back in place in the sanctuary.

  Gretta was still outside, mourning her losses and preparing the garden for a new generation.

  Kaitlyn found Sam in his room packing. Once she had gotten up and moved later in the day, movement was coming easier and easier. It seemed that her body had just been in shock, and that had caused the pain. If she did not give it time to set in again, she would be fine.

  “Samson?” Kaitlyn asked quietly, pushing his door open slowly.

  The paladin was startled but hushed. “Kaitlyn? What are you doing?”

  “Making sure you don’t leave without me.”