Moonbeam

Chapter 5

BLAKE

Elena had been unconscious for almost two days. Ralph had come the night Elena was shot and taken the arrow in a container so they could do as many tests on it as they could think of.

Two days and we hadn’t heard anything yet.

How difficult could it be? Unless there wasn’t an antidote.

Please, please don’t let that be the case.

I’d never prayed as much as I had the past two days.

I didn’t have my orbs anymore. I could…no, don’t think like that, Blake. She is still alive. That was all I wanted.

My mom had taken Silho to the manor. The vibe inside the castle upset her, and she didn’t understand why her mother wasn’t around. Why she didn’t want to wake up.

This reminded me of the time she’d been in her two-month coma. I felt lost without hearing her thoughts. So disoriented.

Her thoughts were dark. She wasn’t even dreaming. I couldn’t reach her.

We still had no idea what kind of poison was on the tip of the arrow. If there even was any poison.

If not, why wasn’t she waking?

They’d had it now for more than forty hours and we still had no idea what was in her system.

I tried to sleep, but couldn’t, so I just sat in a chair next to our bed all day and all night.

Her father came in regularly. So did Constance and Annie.

Becky and George slept in the guest room. Even Sammy came.

She’d accepted the position my father had offered her three years ago, but she hadn’t taken another rider yet.

Dean had been a great guy. It was clear Sammy would never trust another the way she’d trusted him. He’d died during the freeing of Etan. I doubted my sister would ever be the same again. That haunted sadness never really left her face.

She’d seemed fine right after his death. I guess she’d had to make sure I was fine for Elena’s sake before she had her meltdown. A part of her had shattered so badly that nobody could heal it. I couldn’t heal it, and neither could my father or any of her friends.

Elena, on the other hand, had healed. The scar was almost gone. It’d taken twenty-four hours for the gash to close.

By tomorrow the mark would be completely gone, but something told me that she would still be asleep. Trapped.

It had to be poison. Why else would she still be knocked out like that, unreachable?

Her heartbeat was steady, yet soft. More proof of my theory that poison flowed through her veins. It was as if she was slipping into hibernation, her body shutting down softly.

She needed to wake up soon.

The door opened and Ralph walked in. We’d finally gotten the phone call that he needed to see us as soon as possible.

King Albert, Constance, my father, Emanual, and Annie waited for him in the library.

Ralph nodded toward us. He greeted all of us. Another scientist followed him in. Both faces were grave.

“No, no, no, no…There has to be an antidote!” I was strangely shrill. Constance placed her hand on my shoulder.

King Albert looked as if he were going to collapse. But my father stood ramrod straight beside him.

“It’s not that, Blake. Sorry, my king. Here.” He took a small vial out of his pocket. We all exhaled in unison.

“The poison in her blood and on this tip, was none other than Louie’s berries.”

“Louie’s berries?” I said.

“A slow death awaits Elena.”

A gaping maw opened in my chest, unbearable and achingly empty. I closed my eyes and hugged my aunt and mother-in-law. It had been her call. She’d mentioned the poison.

She stroked my torso and pressed her head into my chest as she took the vial from Ralph.

“There is more.”

We all looked at Ralph.

“Find out. I’ll stay with Elena.” Constance looked up at me. I nodded.

I watched her leave. Elena had to wake up.

We’d given him Louie so he could take the poison from his berries to use it on the Saadedine. Nothing had worked as it should.

“What news do you have? That expression on your face…You almost gave us a heart attack.”

“Sorry, my king. We are struggling to accept it ourselves.” Ralph glanced at the scientist next to him. “It’s the arrow.”

The gaping maw in my chest threatened to consume me.

King Albert spoke first. “What about it?”

The scientist behind Ralph wiggled toward the table. On it lay with a solitary envelope and a crate stuffed with documents.

We all went over to the table and watched him open the envelope. The heavy parchment crinkled audibly in his hands. Inside was the weapon that had almost killed my reason for living. Well, the most important one, anyway.

“My name is Kingston,” he said, sounding slightly out of breath. His hands, though, were steady. Excitement sparkled in his bright blue eyes. “I work in the historical department at KU Labs.”

“Historical?” I repeated.

He reached out his hand with a slight bow at the waist to King Albert.

“Wait, what the hell has this got to do with the arrow?” Confusion clouded my mind.

“Blake, you need to sit down. All of you,” Ralph said. I looked at my father, standing like always, a few inches from King Albert.

“Proceed.” King Albert looked at Kingston, ignoring Ralph’s gesture.

Kingston removed the arrow as if it were a great treasure. A snarl curled my lip. They should’ve burned that thing. “We have performed every kind of test we could think of on this arrow. I promise you, the data we collected…” He shook his head, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Then he seemed to realize how inappropriate his enthusiasm was. “Sorry, let me proceed.”

“What about the arrow?”

“The arrow is more than two hundred years old.”

The room fell silent as everyone considered those impossible words.

“What?” We all looked at him, mouths agape.

“How is that possible? It should have disintegrated by now.” My father raised his eyebrows, staring at what looked like a new, yet delicately crafted arrow, not a two-hundred-year-old artifact.

“Exactly our point,” Ralph said. “No chemicals could preserve this arrow, and we found no trace of any charms. Whoever shot Elena at that distance must have been one of the best wielders in the entire world.”

“So,” Kingston said, “we researched this type of arrow, and we’ve got a fingerprint off it.” He looked at Albert. “Believe me when I tell you that none of it makes sense.”

“I agree,” King Albert said. “Who’s the culprit? Who almost killed my daughter?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Ralph paused.

“Who, Ralph?” King Albert insisted. His anger was palpable.

I didn’t like this side of him.

“It was…Queen Catherine.”

The entire room fell into a deadly silence. We all stared at the arrow, not one of us had the nerve to say what was on everyone’s mind. A million thoughts zipped through my head.

How could this belong to Queen Catherine? It hit Elena in the stomach, and…

“Wait, someone kept Catherine’s arrow and hit Elena with it?” King Albert was thinking in the same direction as me.

“No, my king,” Ralph said. He took a deep breath. “If they’d kept it this long, it wouldn’t have been in this sort of condition.”

“Spit it out, man. What are you trying to say?” I asked.

Ralph looked at me. “I’m saying that somehow, you and Elena went back two hundred years. Queen Catherine shot Elena.”

If shock was what we’d felt a few minutes ago, then I didn’t know what to call this feeling that rushed through me. Something heavy and hot trickled through my limbs. The ache in my chest expanded. Elena.

King Albert took the arrow. It looked brand new. It couldn’t have been two hundred years old.

His eyes traveled down the long shaft, seeking something. Then they widened in surprise. He dropped the arrow and it clattered to the floor. He fell into his chair. His face was slack.

“Al!” My father was at his side at once.

“Look,” King Albert said, pointing at the arrow.

It was as if my father knew what he was looking for. He found it immediately.

“Katie’s markings?” he said. He looked at me.

“Blake, the battle you saw,” he started. “You said it was on Mount Likwa?”

I nodded. “The stars were all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“They were wrong, Dad!” I yelled. “Some fell. A long time ago.”

“Two hundred years ago?” Ralph said.

I didn’t want to nod, but I had no choice. How could this be?

“Then it’s a miracle,” Kingston said with a smile lingering on his lips. “You found a way to jump back in time.”