Exaltation (Insight #11)(72)

“You think she will not wake up and realize that she’s destined to kill me?”

“No, but I’m curious. You’re in this for a reason, Rydell. I just can’t comprehend why.”

Seriously? I’m a First. Of course I’m in this. How could he not see that?

Rydell gave him a nod of gratitude, ready to head back to his faction.

“King,” Britain said as he raised his chin. “You’re but an element above mortal at this moment. Tread carefully.”

Meaning get fed. Easier said than done. Revelin had made him regret every recent meal he’d had.

Rydell vanished from his sight.

Apparently Rydell was so grateful for no longer being in pain that he didn’t size up how weak he really was. He appeared in the home he had rented just outside the Quarter only to collapse on the couch.

He wasn’t sure how long he was out, but what woke him was the sensation of vim soaring through him. Power returning. He opened his eyes to see Dagen’s concerned gaze poring over him. He had both hands on his shoulders and was pushing an intoxicating level of exaltation into his soul.

“I’m good,” Rydell said as he urged him back and sat up. Rydell wasn’t all the way good, but he was close enough and he couldn’t afford for Dagen to be weak right now.

“I have plenty. I’ve been giving you vim for hours.”

“Where are you getting it from?”

“Our old haunts. Same old people.”

“We have to stop that.”

“You’re insane, King. This is not the time to change our diet. Things got real when you were gone.”

“How real?”

“First, tell me what happened to you? I sensed the line of obsession on you? What team are we playing for right now?”

“Ours. Revelin wanted us home. I declined. He shredded my soul. Britain pulled me from the pit.”

“Why?”

“I really don’t know,” Rydell said as he glanced at the clock, then hung his head and leaned forward on his knees. It was three AM, on what day he didn’t know. What he did know was that he had stood up Raven. And he had no excuse he could give her.

“What got real?”

“Benjamin got real. He attacked.”

“What!” Rydell asked as his head shot up.

“Something is up with him. He had far too much power behind him.”

Rydell shook his head as a murderous expression came to him. He got it now. Benjamin was giving Revelin information. Why he would do that made no sense.

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

“He rode into town on a storm bad enough to shut the school down, then approached Raven in the hall. An entire army did.”

Rydell was on his feet, his soul pulsing with rage.

“Calm down. Her father got her out and I faced off with Benjamin.”

“Is he alive?”

“Yep, he ran from me, from all of us.”

“And you let him?”

“Yeah, I let him because you told me to.”

“I did what?”

“As far as I knew you were done. I could have sworn I even felt you die. You told me to keep her safe. Benjamin was trying to draw us out of this town. I wasn’t going to let him.”

“I’m back now. You send everything we’ve got after him.”

“You want to explain to me why he’s so jacked up on power right about now?”

“Revelin must be fueling him. He never came out and said he knew about Raven but he knows enough.”

“And he thinks you’re dead?” Dagen clarified.

“Right now he does. It will take him a bit to heal himself.”

“Then we need to be calculated about this. Draw Benjamin to us.”

At that moment someone started to beat on their front door.

They looked at each other and then to the vibrating wooden door. One second later it opened and power surged into the room.

“Rydell King,” the man said.

Dear Creator, this man could have been Revelin’s twin, Rydell thought. “And you are?”

That was the last response Jamison wanted to hear from him. He had spent hours with Saige and Evanthe going over all he knew. Raven’s boy was in the Veil…Kenson, now called Rydell King, Reveca’s boy, was right here.

With all their ages of wisdom, with each book of shadows and prophecy they had, they didn’t have a solution. Saige was sure she could get Reveca to search for a way to get Raven’s boy out. It would take time, a lot of it, and there was no telling what kind of deals the coven would have to make to get it to happen. That was one problem.

The other was awakening Rydell King to who he once was. The only solution was one Jamison was not prepared to engage. He needed him to live.

That battle today was mild but held promise of a greater threat. Bottom line, right now Rydell King and his faction of Escorts were Raven’s best chance at avoiding a faceoff with Revelin before she was ready, before she was whole.

Jamison had some hope Rydell would look him in the eye and remember on his own, see how twisted this was. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen. Jamison was going to have to find a way to encourage him to protect Raven and discourage him from the idea he had a fever for her at the same time.

Jamison knew the last thing Rydell King needed would be another sin to answer for when he remembered who he was in his mortal life. When he remembered what he’d lost, and how.