I didn’t care—it wasn’t like I was looking for their approval, and any vague respect I’d had for them in the beginning, more due to their age than anything else, was rapidly vanishing. They were relics of a past that no longer had any role here. They had gotten crusty and arrogant, thinking that they could control the future of Nevertide through manipulation and game-playing. With the rise of the entity and its army, their time was over.
“We did what we thought was best,” the first minister replied.
I’d heard it all before.
“I’m not interested in joining your brotherhood,” Ash replied coldly. “I have a vested interest in the outcome of Nevertide, and I hope I always will. If we survive this war, that’s how this land will be run in the future—by people who care. Lock yourselves away in this monastery if you want, hoping that the entity won’t find you, but your time of power and influence is over.”
The Impartial Ministers looked affronted. The third looked furious—his face darkened and his staff trembled in his hand.
“If we don’t have a role here, Nevertide will not last long,” he spat.
“We’ll see about that,” Ash replied levelly. “Come on, Ruby—we need to get out of here.”
We walked away from them, but I could feel their glares resting on our departing figures. I was glad to be out of there, but I wanted answers. What did it mean that Ash would now live many lifetimes? Was he immortal now, or was that only if he continued to use the waters in the same way that the ministers did?
“Ash,” I whispered before we left, “don’t you think we need more information on what just happened? The waters obviously changed you somehow—”
“Don’t worry,” he replied swiftly. “We can talk to the other ministers when we get back. I’m not interested in talking to them, and I don’t trust them to tell me the truth. Not really.”
“Okay,” I replied. I wondered if it was pride getting in the way of Ash asking them questions. I understood if it was—the disdain they felt toward him was obvious. I just hoped he would seek out the answers when we got back to the palace. If my fiancé was suddenly immortal, I wanted to know about it.
We started making our way back down the narrow passage, following the trail of blood that we’d made on our way in.
“Guess I was injured pretty badly,” Ash commented dryly.
I nodded. I wasn’t ready to joke about it. I half wanted to scream that he’d nearly died on me—it wasn’t something I’d get over any time soon.
He paused in the passage, turning around to face me.
“Ruby, are you okay?” he asked.
No.
I tried to smile reassuringly up at him, but I faltered.
“That was the most terrifying couple of hours of my life…I thought you weren’t going to make it.” My voice had come out raspy and high-pitched, and I squeezed my hands into fists, embarrassed that I wasn’t holding myself together, knowing that he’d been the one injured and at death’s door, not me.
He moved his hand to my cheek, wiping away a tear I hadn’t even realized had fallen.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize,” he whispered.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” I replied. “You were the one hurt! I just—it was scary, that’s all. I’ll be all right in a minute.”
“You don’t have to be all right, Shortie. You’ve been through a lot—we both have.”
I nodded, brushing away my tears hastily. They kept falling down my face, not caring that I was commanding them to stop.
“If our roles had been reversed,” he continued, “I don’t know what I would have done, so don’t get angry at yourself for being scared. I would have been terrified—I was. When the creature ripped through me and I fell to the ground, my only thought was that I wasn’t going to be able to protect you, and that image came into my mind—from the mind-meld, you standing at the door of our house, with your baby bump. The thought that we wouldn’t get that—the thought that we wouldn’t get our future together—that pain was worse than anything the creature could have done to me.”
He held me close, and I buried my head in his chest. His words were comforting. I realized that I wasn’t alone in this. Ash was safe. I was safe. Our survival was all that truly mattered to me right now. Even though everything else felt uncertain, my feelings for Ash weren’t—they were the one thing that I could cling onto, no matter what was coming our way.
“Thank you,” I whispered, smiling up at him, a genuine smile this time.