Chapter 6
Sybil
The door shut, its echo reverberating through my very bones. I forced myself to look up, to look into Ambrose’s deep blue eyes and see the smug satisfaction reflecting back at me.
“Do you know why I asked you to stay?” Ambrose asked, his head cocking to the side.
“I don’t,” I said quietly, flicking my gaze to Arianna. She had been unusually quiet while Samian was here, which doubled the dread twisting in my gut.
“Since I will take over as acting king, I will need a consort—someone to be my queen.” He paused, his eyes tracking every move I made, every breath I took.
I straightened under his perusal. “Right after we made our bargain, after Ezra barged in, you heard me mention Arianna being the new queen. Do you remember that?”
“I do,” I pushed out, keeping my face blank. My palms prickled, my magic shooting needles along my skin.
Ambrose frowned, like he knew what my power was doing, but said nothing. Instead, he continued, “I want you to swear your allegiance to her as well. I want you to swear that you will follow her orders as if they were my own.”
I hesitated, my eyes sliding to Arianna. Her sharp smile grew. “Well?” She purred, enjoying every second of the war between my heart and mind.
The thought of bowing to her made me sick.
Just bowing to Ambrose was enough to make me hurl, but Arianna?
I would rather jump off a cliff than accept her as queen.
But Kieran and Samian—Vivi, Orin, and Ezra—they all flitted across my mind.
My body felt like it was vibrating as my heart lost this battle.
I held in the blistering anger that licked up my body, forcing it into a cold resolve.
Repeating the same action I made for Ambrose, I kneeled, placing my hand over my heart, though this time, I didn’t linger. I kept my movement swift before turning back to Ambrose, disregarding her completely. I could feel the disdain of her pointed glare, but I kept my focus solely on Ambrose.
“Good,” he said, ignoring the slight I made against her.
“I will also ask that you keep this to yourself until we make it known to the public. The meeting with the lords will be later this afternoon. I will send Hale to fetch you. Oh, and wear your uniform.” Ambrose looked over to Arianna, flashing her a sensuous smile.
“Anything else you would like to add, my love?”
Arianna smiled coyly at him, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. “No,” she said playfully. “You’re dismissed.”
I swallowed down the nausea that rose from seeing them together. How could I have been so blind to have missed the attachment they shared? Though I still didn’t believe it was love that Ambrose felt for her, not when he was so readily intimate with me.
My hands prickled again, but I dismissed it and gave Ambrose a small bow that I had seen others do before leaving his office. I let the door shut behind me and found Samian waiting in the hallway. He looked me over, his shoulders sagging in relief, seeing that I was unharmed.
“Are you okay?” His voice whispered in my mind.
“I’m fine. Ambrose just wanted me to bow to Arianna and ask her to keep her becoming queen quiet until after he announced it.” We walked silently down the hall into a larger corridor. “He wants me in the meeting later today. Is there anything I should know before I go?”
“Don’t trust anyone you meet and keep your opinions to yourself. Otherwise, you’ll be fine. I’ll gather a list of the lords and some information for you, though, so that you have it.”
I gave him a warm smile, but stopped when the corridor split into three sections. “I need to speak to Aster about something. I’ll find you after, okay?”
Samian narrowed his eyes but nodded. I could feel him watching me as I went down the furthest hallway to the right, the one that would lead straight to the medical wing.
Walking into the waiting room, I found a healer and asked for Aster’s office.
Pointing me in the right direction, I followed her guidance until I reached a door with a covered window.
Snorting, I knocked on the door and waited, listening to the bookcase being shuffled out of the way.
Aster opened the door, her face set in a scowl that only deepened when she saw it was me waiting at the door.
She raised her eyebrow, her lips thinning, as if to ask, “What do you want?”
“I—I-uh, I wanted to talk,” I stammered, feeling suddenly inadequate under the stony stare she sent my way.
Aster clucked her tongue but opened her door wide enough for me to walk through. Shutting it swiftly, she pulled the bookcase back into place while I walked about her office. A tube that glowed light green caught my attention, and I leaned over to look inside.
“Don’t touch that.” I jumped, not realizing how close Aster was behind me.
“I wasn’t going to,” I said, giving her a weak smile.
She continued to stare at me, her eyes narrowing.
“I swear I won't touch it.” My smile grew, and I placed my hand on my heart.
She scoffed and shook her head. “What did you want to talk about?” she asked, returning to her seat.
“I wanted to see if you were okay,” I murmured, my stomach tightening with nerves.
After healing me from my time with Ambrose, I felt closer to her, though I’m sure her looking so much like my close friend had something to do with it as well.
The similarity between her and Willow was astounding. They looked as if they could be twins.
Aster hummed, still giving me that pointed look, and I bristled. I knew she was aloof in most cases. It was even fun watching it between her and Samian. But to be on the receiving end, it felt sharp.
Finally, Aster looked to the floor, her body sagging against her chair. “I’m okay. I just—” She looked back at me, her eyes full of heartache. “I met my mate last night,” she whispered.
“Your—you met your mate?” My face twisted in confusion, and Aster breathed out a laugh.
“Have you learned about that yet?” Her voice softened, her head leaning to the side as a sad smile curved along her lips. I shook my head, and she took a deep breath. “A mate is someone whose soul is linked to your own. A fated pair, equal in all ways. It’s…an intense love like no other.”
I thought back to when she grew pale the night before, when she snapped her face toward Samian. “How do you know when someone is your mate?”
“When the bond first snaps into place, it feels like a tug or a pull. Sometimes it’s more intense for the other person, but both sides always feel close to the other.
Like you want to be around them, to touch them, feel them nearby.
But when the bond is acted on, it feels like something locking into place.
Your desire for each other grows more fierce, more passionate.
There are other ways too, like how mates can speak to each other, mind-to-mind. ”
My heart jumped, and my blood ran cold. “The mind-to-mind thing, are there other bonds that can do that? Other than Samian’s soul-bonding, I mean?”
Aster’s brows knitted as she thought about my question. Finally, she shook her head. “No, I don’t believe so. Not any that I’ve heard of, anyway.” Her eyes narrowed, taking in how my body went still, the color leaching from my face. “Why do you ask?”
I willed my body to relax, to lean against the table’s edge and shrug. “I was just wondering,” I murmured, looking away from her. “Your mate,” I said quickly, changing the subject. “It was the tall redhead, right?”
Her face warmed, her eyes growing distant. “Bryony,” she whispered, her voice sounding sad.
“If finding your mate is a good thing, why do you look so unhappy?”
Aster hesitated, her hands twisting in her lap. “Arbus was her fiancé.”
The world felt like it had come to a screeching halt. “Samian told you.” Shame coiled through me, making it hard to breathe.
“He did. After I healed you the last time.” Her voice was careful, but soft and warm. “I know that it's not your fault. That Ambrose forced you to do it, but it does make the mating bond harder for Bryony. She just lost someone she loved dearly, only to find her mate a few days later.”
I stared at the floor, the guilt unbearable. “I imagine it would feel confusing,” I whispered back.
Aster only nodded, letting the silence fill the room, and I never hated myself more.
It was easy for them to say that it wasn’t my fault.
That Ambrose forced me to do it. But it didn’t feel like enough.
I was the one who agreed to this bargain in the first place.
I let it happen. I had killed someone rather than let the bargain kill me, and I felt like nothing more than a coward.
Looking over my shoulder, I eyed the hidden door that led into the old passageways.
“Seeing me wasn’t the real reason you came here, was it?”
My head whipped toward her, and I blinked. “What do you mean?” Jerking her chin to the secret door, Aster raised her eyebrow. “Tell me I’m wrong”, she seemed to say.
I sighed, looking back to the floor, my chest tightening.
She wasn’t entirely wrong. I raised my eyes to meet hers.
“I did want to check in with you. You looked so pale last night after what Samian told us, and after Bryony. I was worried about you. But your office conveniently has the passageway that leads to the queen.”
“Don’t you have an entrance in your room?”
I cringed at her question as heat crawled up my neck. “I do, but I don’t know where it is yet, or the way to the dungeon, and I didn’t want to ask Samian in case he said no or wanted to join me. I want to talk to her on my own.”
Aster laughed quietly; her face seemed brighter, softer even. This was a side of her that I was sure not many people had seen before. “Go, I’ll wait here and cover for you if anyone comes looking.”