Chapter 19
Serafina
My fingers glide through my wet hair as I continue to work the soap through my slick strands, focusing on not just how good it feels but also on Nyxa’s current lesson.
“How will you ever learn to properly shield your mind if you keep allowing yourself to get so distracted?”
I let out a short laugh.
“I needed a shower, Nyxa. This is called multitasking.” I stop touching my scalp but refuse to get out of the warm water. “Okay, so repeat step number two.”
“Step number two?” She gasps, as if I couldn’t have insulted her more. “We were on step three.”
Hmm, I suppose we were.
Step one: Focus on feeling your mind as an object. Visualize it with edges, as something that can be physically grasped.
Step two…shit.
What was step two?
“Serafina!” she reprimands. “This is important!”
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. You’re right. Multitasking was a bad idea.”
I turn off the water, grab the towel hanging on the hook, and start patting my hair dry.
“Step two,” she huffs, “is to reinforce those edges. Now that you can touch them, how can you strengthen them?”
“By imagining them made from something strong. Something durable that cannot break easily,” I say, remembering what she already told me.
“Exactly. Now, tell me, what are your walls built of?”
Bricks? Iron?
“Either will work,” she says.
Okay, bricks, then.
“So step three…” I probe, and I swear I can feel her eyes roll. I smile.
“You build them.” Her voice has no humor, and for some reason, her frustration makes me smile more.
Closing my eyes, I grip the towel in my hands tighter as I try to visualize stacking large stones around a glowing core—around my mind—sealing it off from anyone who might try to peer inside.
My temples ache painfully, and my eyes snap open.
“We’ll try again later.” Her words are soft. “You’ll get it soon.”
“Sure I will.”
I wrap the towel around my body and step out of the bathroom, but my feet halt—refusing to carry me any farther—as a feeling I’m all too familiar with surges through me, coiling hot and sharp in my chest.
Rage.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” I clutch my towel tighter, and Theo’s eyes leave the book he’s holding to meet mine.
He removes his feet from the top of the desk but continues to lean back in the chair. His clothes are far too formal for our current setting, and I can’t help but wonder where he was before this.
He wears an embroidered tunic with gemstone buttons, cinched at the waist with a deep blue belt. Leather pants hug his legs, and a dagger rests against his hip, though the weapon looks more ornamental than practical.
“To be fair, I did knock. You just didn’t hear me,” he says, a sly grin tugging at his lips.
“That’s not how knocking works.” I move to the dresser to grab something to throw on. “Leave,” I demand, but of course, he doesn’t move.
“And to think,” he says slowly, tilting his head, “this is the gratitude I get for checking to make sure my cousin didn’t toss you out on your ass after your little stunt the other day.” He clicks his tongue in mock disappointment.
“How very honorable of you,” I retort, pulling out a knee-length floral dress and holding it against myself like a shield. “But as you can see, I’m perfectly fine, and you can be on your way.”
I walk back toward the bathroom.
“But what if I told you…I brought you a present?”
I freeze.
My curiosity getting the better of me, I turn my head ever so slightly to look at him. He’s holding up a soft blue leather journal. It’s thick, full of untouched pages.
Damn it.
I want it.
“I noticed you’re quite fond of taking notes.” His eyes flick toward the pile of loose papers on the desk, the same ones that had been scattered across the floor the last time he invaded my space. “I thought maybe this would help you keep your thoughts a bit more…organized.”
“Why?” I demand, resisting the urge to snatch the notebook from his hand.
It reminds me of the ones I keep at home, the ones that Telfi used to write in, and my heart aches.
“I just told you,” he says plainly, setting the journal down on the desk.
“I mean…why bring me anything at all? Why are you being nice to me?” My face softens because this…this is kind. And I didn’t expect kind from Theo Bray.
“Careful, Little Flame,” he teases with a light chuckle. “Don’t forget I’m spoken for. I can’t have you falling for me.”
I glare at him.
One, because that wasn’t an answer.
And two, because sometimes the things that come out of his mouth are absolutely absurd.
He exhales, the humor fading from his features.
“Fine. If you must know…” He stands, his muscles flexing as he pushes himself up from the chair.
“You remind me of someone and giving you this,” he taps his pointer on the notebook.
“Well, it’s something she would have done if she was able to.
” His voice fades, and a terrible sadness crosses his face, instantly filling my gut with a sickening sort of dread.
I realize his cocky persona, the one he consistently has on display, it’s possible that it might be nothing more than a mask. And that mask isn’t on right now, which means I might finally be seeing the real Theo Bray.
“Why isn’t she able to?” Unease twists my stomach, forming so many knots, I fear I’ll never stop feeling it.
His eyes don’t meet mine. They shift to the floor instead. “She was sent away.” The pain in his voice is unmistakable, the kind of pain that wreaks havoc on your soul, haunts every waking moment of your day.
“She’s the woman you love,” I murmur, more of a statement than a question.
There’s no way I’m wrong. Not with how he looks right now—so wrecked and unraveled.
“That she is.” He smiles, but it’s soft, and it doesn’t reach his eyes. “She stole my heart with a single glance. Impossible to ignore, impossible to forget.” He shakes his head. “But her scorching words were a pleasant bonus. You’d like her. If you two were to ever meet.”
“And why,” I hesitate, fearing it’s not my place to ask, knowing it’s not, but wanting an answer anyway. “Why was she sent away?”
He laughs. It’s a chilling sound, completely opposite from his usual tone. “She was a servant, and my mother…Well, let’s just say she did not approve of such things.”
“Theo, I’m so sor—”
“Save your pity, Little Flame,” he interrupts, his voice firm but not unkind. “For I plan to get her back.”
“Does she know that?”
“Oh, she better.”
“And where will you be getting her back from? Where did your mother send her?”
His eyes drop to the floor again, and he clears his throat, as though the words themselves are a wound too raw to touch. Like forcing them out is too painful to bear.
“To Bragunda.”
The name drops like a stone between us, crashing to the ground with a sickening crack I feel deep in my soul.
My eyes widen.
Bragunda.
But Bragunda doesn’t have servants…they have slaves.
It’s been that way for centuries. Dozens perish every day because of the severe mistreatment, the relentless punishments for stepping no more than a fraction out of line.
They aren’t viewed as people, as humans, and there are no signs of it ever changing.
News of what happens in Bragunda is spread throughout the villages, probably to make us realize that life could be worse, and that we should be grateful, and in a way, I am.
“Theo…how will you ever get her back from such a place?”
Wait a second…Jax had just been in Bragunda, and I am such an ass. He must have gone there to find her, to bring her home.
Guilt washes over me because I had been mad at him for leaving. So very mad when he was trying to be honorable, trying to do the right thing and bring back the woman his cousin loves.
Theo’s jaw tightens.
“By burning the entire kingdom to the ground, if that’s what it takes.
” He smirks, but he’s serious. I know he is.
I can see it in his eyes. I can feel it in my bones.
“Anyway.” He shakes his fingers and jerks his head, as if trying to clear his mind from the dark path our conversation just took.
“I can see now why my cousin likes you. You’re easy to talk to.
This was not a conversation I planned on having today. Or ever, if I’m being truly honest.”
I force an awkward laugh.
“I think you and I have very different definitions of the word like. I drive your cousin mad half the time.”
He smiles at that. “And that’s how I know he likes you.”