Note From The Author—Thank you guys so so much for the overwhelming response to this story! I'm so thrilled you're into this. I'm thinking we'll probably go to three chapters but we'll see. Thanks again and enjoy this chapter!
Before he had passed out, Cain had been thinking that when he did lose consciousness he probably wouldn't wake up. He knew that by then DG's thoughts had probably turned to the same place, and it broke his heart to know that they both could be right. So when he felt him self awaken he was more than happy to have been proven wrong.
To everyone standing there it may have looked like he woke suddenly, his eyes opening rapidly to meet his wife's. In reality, it was a gradual process. The first thing he felt was searing pain then came a blinding light and a sensation as if cool water was rushing through him and soothing all his hurts. His eyes opened to see DG leaning over him, and his name was on her lips when she collapsed.
"DG!" He was up off his back in seconds, dropping to his knees next to his wife. "What the hell happened?"
The crowd of people around him only goggled at him for a second. "It worked," Az said, shaking her head in amazement. "It actually worked."
"Dad, I…"
Wyatt shook his head. "Jeb, you have no idea how glad I am to be alive and apparently healthy, and how happy I am to see you. But at the moment my wife is laying here unconscious in the rain, and I'd really like to know what in the gods name is going on."
They were all shaken out of their reverie by his words, and Raw moved over to put a hand over DG's heart. "Alive, but pushed deep inside."
"What the hell does that mean, Furball?" Cain questioned.
"She is alive, but Raw cannot wake her up. What DG did with magic Raw cannot undo. Must get Princess out of the rain."
Honestly, they had all forgotten about the rain, but the reminder brought the chills and worry coming at them hard. "Let us all go inside, we can discuss this when we are safe and dry." The queen's regal command spurred the crowd to action.
Cain refused any help with DG. He felt as healthy as a horse, and when he swung her up into his arms he could have wept over how good it felt to hold her again, unconscious or not. When their bizarre caravan of people arrived in the family's quarters he and Az settled DG on the bed and while the others went to dry off, they changed her into a pair of pajamas and dried her off the best they could, using Az's magic to fill in the blanks and get rid of the last of the moisture.
When Az left, Cain changed his own clothes, and then settled on the edge of the bed next to his wife. Words couldn't even begin to describe how much he had missed her, or how horrible it had felt knowing that he might never get home; but to find her this way, and evidently because of him… "What did you do darlin'?" he asked her quietly.
"She gave you some of her life force," Jeb answered from the door. "I'd never seen anything like it," he told his father as he walked into the room.
That had him on his feet. "What do you mean some of her life force?"
The younger Cain shook his head. "You think I understand it any better than you? I hardly know anything about magic, Dad; and what I do know only because Az has told me. The two of them worked on you together with their magic, and when it wasn't working DG pushed Az away. She started screaming, this god-awful, heart breaking scream."
"Jeb, you're scaring him." Princess Azkadellia was back, and this time she brought her parents, Ambrose, Raw, and the other healer with her. "We'll explain all of this after you've been looked at Wyatt."
He folded his arms across his chest. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm completely fine. DG's the one lying on that bed."
"Dad, we were all literally watching you die," Jeb told him. "Just let them look at you."
Of course he didn't like it, but the lingering fear in his son's voice had hem convinced. Raw and the healer looked him over, and he felt a little like a science experiment as everyone wondered over him. The wounds he had been suffering from had healed to smooth scars.
"I'll be damned," Ahamo whispered almost reverently. "She really did it."
"Did what?" Cain asked. "Jeb said she gave me some of her life force; how on earth does that work?"
The queen held her hand out briefly, signaling them to be silent until the healer left the room. Glitch hurried after him, closing the door softly as she began to spoke. "Jeb was right; DG did give you some of her life force."
Wyatt felt a bit like an angry animal; like he was ready to rip someone's throat out if he didn't get his answers. "With all due respect, you can all keep telling me that 'til you're blue in the face and I'm still not going to understand it." He sat down on the bed, his hand stroking over DG's hair. "What does that mean for her?"
Az could see him struggling, and she sat down next to him, laying her hand over his. "We don't know, Wyatt. That's the problem."
"What DG did for you is different than what her mother did for her," Glitch chimed in, pacing. "What the queen gave DG was all to do with magic, her essence rather than her life, and into another would be vessel for magic, which was why she didn't die when she gave everything up. DG quite literally gave up a little of her own life to bring you back."
"What will that do to her?" Ahamo asked the question that Cain couldn't.
The tears in the queen's eyes scared them all more than anything could. "I've only heard of anything like this happening a few times in hundreds of years."
"No disrespect, but please, just tell me everything you can as straight as you can," Cain pleaded.
She nodded. "Glitch is exactly right. When DG did what she did, she gave you a piece of her life. That could mean anything, but what is certain is that it will take something from her."
"But what? What will it take from her?"
Desperation was creeping into his voice, and Az gave his hand a squeeze. "There's no way to know until she wakes up. She could lose pieces of her memory; she could lose muscle function or her sight."
"If she couldn't shut the process down, it could be even worse," Glitch said, sorrow clear in his voice. "She could lose control of her body entirely, and if it went too far she may never wake up."
The room went silent as they all absorbed that piece of information. Tears sprang to Wyatt's eyes, and when Az saw them she stood. "We'll give you some time."
The eldest princess led everyone out of the room, and Cain was grateful for it. As soon as they were gone he turned fully to DG. She looked so damn peaceful, and it was tearing him apart to know that he might never get her back. With his hand still trailing over her hair, he wondered if this would be his last chance to speak to her.
"Why did you do that darlin'?" he asked. "I am not worth your life. I suppose I'm a lucky man, to know that you love me so much you would do that for me; but I'd rather have you here to tell me yourself. We both know this wasn't how this was supposed to turn out. Took me long enough to let the fact that I loved you get through my stubborn head; I wasted so much time pretending." He stroked her cheek, feeling tears fall faster. "I need you to wake up, sweetheart. We need to give Jeb a whole passel of brothers and sisters to drive him crazy and look up to him. I have to hold you and kiss you and love you again, Deeg; I won't be able to stand it if I can't. Come back to me."
He broke off with tears overtaking him, and as he lay down to take her into his arms he prayed that it would be the last time he did so.
While Cain was dealing with the realities facing him, Az and Jeb had settled in her rooms. They lay together on her sofa, wrapped up in each other's arms and trying to forget the fact that they could lose DG.
"What happened, Jeb?" she asked.
He sighed. "It was all a trap; the whole thing. The village had been harboring Longcoats for years. It wasn't a rogue faction of villagers that came after us; it was the Longcoats that the sympathetic villagers had been hiding for years. Their magic distracted us long enough to get their hands on Dad; that's what they wanted all along."
"But why?" She questioned. "Why did they want your father?"
"He was the one that put Zero in the tin suit. After the eclipse Dad and DG went back to the place, and they used her magic to make sure that Zero would live the rest of his life in that personal prison. As far as they knew or cared Dad was responsible for the death of the man who was effectively their leader. They wanted revenge."
She still didn't get it. "Why keep him alive for so long?"
Sometimes it amazed Jeb how different Az was from what they had all assumed her to be. In the days of the witch she would have immediately known the answer to that question. But with sweet and considerate Az in full possession of her mind and body, it wouldn't even occur to her. "Torture, darlin'. They wanted to make him hurt."
The nickname he had picked up from his father usually made her smile, but today it was only a reminder of what was at stake. "What am I going to do if I lose her?" she whispered.
"Don't think like that Az," he urged. "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. For now we hope, and we pray to the gods that she wakes."
"And that she's still DG when she does."
Though nobody wanted to say it out loud, everyone was dealing with the same fears as Azkadellia; and as the days ticked by without DG waking up, those fears began to weigh heavily on them. Nobody wanted to face the reality that she may not wake up, so none of them did.
They went about their business in the palace, dealing with the mundane activities of everyday life and the duties of a royal family and their staff. They tried to avoid thinking about it as best they could when they weren't with DG and Cain. However, reminders of her seemed to crop up everywhere as they had to explain to their people what was going on, and as they moved through the palace.
Everyone tried their own methods to keep themselves sane, though none were very effective. Glitch dove into his experiments, disappearing for hours at a time. The Queen took on every diplomatic responsibility that she could in an effort to keep herself busy, and Ahamo spent most of his days working with the palace guards.
Az wasn't sleeping, so Jeb spent most of his nights sitting up with her. They would play chess, talk, or just lie there together; it didn't really matter so long as she could escape her frightening dreams and he could escape his worry for his father and stepmother. Still, the younger Cain was exhausted, and Azkadellia knew it. As much as she appreciated him constantly staying with her and keeping her mind off things, she knew he deserved some rest. That was the precise reason that when Jeb drifted off one night in the middle of a conversation, Az settled a blanket over him and went to her sister's rooms.
As she had expected, she found Cain by DG's bedside. He was wide awake, clutching his wife's hand and looking entirely lost. With a sad sigh, Az walked into the room and laid a hand on his shoulder. "When was the last time you slept?"
Wyatt laid his hand over hers briefly before turning his focus back to DG. "It doesn't matter."
"Yes it does. It's been almost a week, and you've hardly eaten or rested at all. I know you don't want to leave her side, but you can't keep doing this to yourself."
He shook his head. "Az when I lost Adora I spent the first year in that suit wondering; did she really know how I felt, did I tell her often enough how much I loved her? Every fiber of my being wondered if I had made it clear to her. When I finally got my act together and told DG that I loved her, I promised myself that at the end I wouldn't have any of those regrets again. But we haven't even been married for a year. How could she know how deeply I love her? How could she know after so little time that she's the center of my world?"
"She knows," Az told him. "Of course she knows; and you have to believe that she's going to wake up, and you'll be able to tell her all of these things just to reinforce it all."
Cain turned to look at her, and for a moment dark eyes held light. He could see the worries there mirroring his own. "I just hope that believing is enough."
