A Dance Of Twilight: (A Fae Dark Fantasy Romance Stand-Alone )

Chapter 57

Waking up in a cold sweat laying on something firm, I felt my heart race and a growing fear rise up in my chest. Ornella. Where was Ornella? I didn’t give whoever was next to me a chance to speak as I got to my feet and disappeared in my shadows and reappeared in Ornella’s bedroom.

Empty.

Cold.

Nothing was here.

It didn’t take even a single second for April to appear behind me in her own puff of smoke, her arms crossed, and her brows creased.

“We can’t find her, Nic.”

My chest felt as if it would cave in on her words as they settled in. I knew something wasn’t right. The pull I’d always felt in my chest towards her, was faded, as if shielded by something. I didn’t sense her in my mind either. I’d always been able to, ever since we were children and as much as I tried to shut her out, that pull had always been there.

But now, it seemed faded, darkened.

“I will search for her. I know I can find her.”

“You will do no such thing.”

A growl emitted from my lips as April tried to command me. I was ready to throw her into the dungeons for even the idea of not being with my guards to search for my wife.

“Do not test me. I need to find her.”

“There are bigger things we have to deal with right now. You were out for two days and in that time, soldiers managed to break through the barrier.”

Two days? I’d been asleep for two whole days. It didn’t feel that long and already shit had happened.

“How? How has that happened? Nora is at the border protecting it.”

April lowered her eyes and kicked her feet, obviously hiding something from me, or not wishing to enrage me even more. More had happened in these two days than she was letting on.

“April, where is my wife?”

She bit her lip just as Vanessa and Morgana stepped into the room. All three of them, I noticed then, were dressed in armoured gear, minus the metal that would protect their chest and shoulders. Each of them with a sword and dagger on either of their hips.

“She’s with Nora,” April admitted, but there was something else.

“We have reason to believe after Ornella left here, Nora followed her and took her to the border. To her brother and uncle.”

The world felt as if it would swallow me whole. Nora, the Fae who’d taught me how to fight, how to protect myself and guided me during my early days as king had stolen my wife. I didn’t want to believe it. There had to be a reason she’d taken Ornella to her family. Perhaps they offered her something in exchange. Maybe it was done as a peace treaty.

“Nicholas, she,” Vanessa began to choke up as she spoke. Morgana hid her face from me. They’d both been crying.

“Nora is the one who killed Mother and Father,” April finally confessed.

I couldn’t feel anything. I forgot what words were as the truth sank deep into my bones. Nora couldn’t have been the murderer. It was someone from Ornella’s father’s court. They’d been here for months, pretending to be ambassadors, trying to keep the peace between our two families.

My mother and father welcomed them, tried to put the past behind them. I’d tracked that Fae down and strung him up, but not before torturing him to death. He’d even admitted to the killings. He’d done it, under the orders of Ornella’s mother. Not Nora. No. She was our most trusted captain, friend, even family.

“How do you know this?”

“We found letters—journals—detailing everything in her room after we found out she was seen following Ornella. Percy has, however, suspected something for weeks, Nic.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

I felt dizzy, sitting down suddenly on the edge of Ornella’s bed. Percy’s job was to tell me everything that went on within the castle walls, but if he’d suspected something he’d never once told me. Could that be why he always looked uncomfortable whenever Nora was in the room? Why he would only say the minimum, allowing her to speak?

“Bring Percy to me.”

“He’s in your study, waiting for you,” Morgana said.

My fingers tapped against the oak table as Percy set the letters and journals down in front of me, his hands shaking from nerves, but his face said something different entirely. He was just as angry as everyone else in the room. Angry from the betrayal and trust that was seemingly broken.

“She’d planned it all along, right from the start. She found out about your relationship with Ornella years ago. Detailing everything down to the finest detail,” Percy began to speak as I flicked through the letters, all addressed to Nora from none other than Ornella’s uncle. “Somewhere along the way, they decided to get King Theodore and Queen Helena out of the way. Lord Dorian writes in code that someone was to admit to the killings, leaving her to continue on as planned. I suspected something was going on when she kept returning to the border, but not where we’d stationed our soldiers. She would meet with someone in secret at a tavern. The same one, she said, she’d brawled with some soldiers.”

“So, you followed her?” I asked.

“I sent one of my most trusted spies to find out what really happened there. No one would talk, so he watched the comings and goings. The soldiers Nora spoke of, they returned with riches beyond a soldier”s pay. When he spotted Nora handing them over a bag of gold and letters, he reported back to me.”

It all sounded very convenient and suspicious that Nora was doing most of this in plain sight. As if she wanted to get caught.

“I thought the same thing, Nic,” April interjected, of course she’d been listening in on my thoughts.

“We all agree, because she has got away with it for so long, she had no reason to hide as she believes none of us would suspect her.”

“Do you think she had something to do with Ornella’s friends being able to get through the barrier?” Morgana asked. I hadn’t put two and two together until then.

“At this rate—nothing would surprise me,” April interrupted.

All of them appeared to be both horrified and angry at everything that came to light. Nora, someone we all believed we could trust was in fact, a spy, a traitor.

“Well then, what do we do? She has Ornella and the barrier is obviously cracked,” Vanessa said.They all stood in silence, as if expecting me to know the answer. The only answer I could think of was to gather everyone and march on Dorian’s army and destroy them, all while getting my wife back.

“She won’t have harmed Ornella though. We don’t believe she would. She’s using Ornella as leverage, but we aren’t sure what she expects to gain,” Percy spoke again.

“Ready our men. We ride at dawn, and I will get my wife back.”

During my sudden sleep, I remembered that moment in the wild flowered field. How Ornella laughed while placing a silly flower crown on my head. How in that moment I knew I would spend the rest of my life seeking that wonderful, joyful sound.

I’d treated her so poorly since bringing her here. I had a lot of making up to do, but if Nora and Ornella’s family thought I would just step back and allow them to take her from me, they had another thing coming.

It didn’t take long to rally the remaining soldiers within the castle boundaries or the surrounding areas. All abled Fae answered the call of their king. Their queen had been stolen from them and now we were all out for the blood of those who dared lay a hand on her.

Lord Foster and Lord Wallace to my surprise were the first ones to arrive at the gates with their soldiers. Pleasantly surprised by their arrival, they bowed as I rode out on my horse, followed by my sisters all in their gear ready to fight for their new sister.

“We will help you bring the queen home, sire, even if it kills us.”

“Surprising, considering all you were saying the other day, Foster.”

He lowered his head embarrassed at first, but seemed to shake off the feeling and squared his shoulders, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“I won’t deny, I don’t think what you did was correct, but I will always stand beside my king and fight with him no matter the cause.”

I was suddenly grateful for the lords who surrounded me at that moment. I’d believed I would never live up to the role of my father. I’d never be able to fill his shoes. Instead, I have become my own king in my own way.

It would take around four days to get to the barrier. I’d requested we’d stay back and only I and my sisters would go in first. We were lucky to be gifted with our powers and once April, Vanessa, and Morgana joined forces, creating their magical connection, the ground would shake, the world would bleed and the Crystal Fae wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.

Whatever happened next, I would make sure Ornella was in my arms at the end of it all.

“Do you still wish to leave Lord Dorian to her highness?” Lord Wallace asked.

“She will be the one to deal the final blow. As for the rest of her family, we are not to touch her brother Prince Norok—Anyone else—you have free reign to do with as you wish.”

“And what if her highness has sided with her family?” he asked.

“Trust me, she won’t have. If she has been forced to leave us, stripped of her own free will, she will do everything in her power to take back her control.”

I hoped.

I deeply hoped. Even if Ornella didn’t have that great of a swing or keen eye of an archer, I knew she had her wits and could take down kingdoms with her mind. She’d use those to her advantage and if Dorian did try anything with her, I hoped she’d get away from him. Otherwise, I would be the one to cut him down and destroy him once and for all for hurting her.