19. Chapter Nineteen
19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ELODIE
T he surroundings grew progressively lavish the further we walked, until I had no doubt I was far from my little room. Every graze of Kaius’ hand brushing against mine sent a thrill through me.
Frame upon frame of gilded paintings lined the walls between elaborate golden sconces that held smokeless flames. Ones I was damn sure didn’t run off electricity.
We only passed a few people which was surprising giving the size of the place. The men nodded their heads towards Kaius, eyes down with greetings of ‘my Lord’ passing their lips, while women cast him shy looks from under their lashes which changed to confusion when they noticed me. He ignored them all, frame still rigid with tension.
The further we made it from the room I had lost control in, the calmer I felt. I was still pissed I had been left with more questions than answers, but I knew talking with Kaius gave me a better chance of getting them.
I tried to categorize what I was most desperate to know, hoping he was in a sharing mood. The hall widened to an archway, and passing through we entered onto a large mezzanine level that stretched out to both sides of the arch. Light flooded the space through the multi-storey, floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows that filled the entire wall opposite. Glass cut into tiny shape that depicted flames and women and all things fire. The sunlight that filtered through cast everything in an orange glow. As we walked, the colours danced over our skin as though we were walking through flames.
They shimmered across Kaius’ his face. The soft light reflected in his eyes until they glittered like polished silver. The image of an angel. His lip quirked as he caught me staring, motioning me to the stairs ahead.
The shining banister was solid gold, the metal alive under my fingers as we descended. Crossing the open hall, Kaius led us out of the huge glass doors and onto a wide stone platform open to the elements where cool air soothed my overheated skin.
The steps led down to a patch of the same shimmering black pebbles that I had walked on up to the castle, before they gave way to a carpet of green clover dotted with tiny white daisies whose petals were open to welcome a sun that barely warmed the earth.
The chill under my feet was enough proof of that.
Around me was a sprawling garden crammed full of white flowers. Rows of fluffy white roses, overgrown bushes of hydrangeas beside them, foxgloves, hyacinths. Untold flowers I couldn’t even name. I didn’t know how they thrives in these conditions, but apparently a little cold was going to stop them blooming.
A wooden pergola covered with leafy vines thickly woven across its roof stretched out before us through the garden. Wisteria—this time white—trailed from their stations on the wooden posts, their clusters of flowers swaying lightly.
Leaving Kaius, I walked forwards, the carpet of clover soft under my slippered feet, and I ignored the cold that seeped through the thin material. The wind was sharp, blowing a bouquet of fragrances from the flowers, and bringing with it a glimmer of happiness I hadn’t felt since arriving here. I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes and tilting my face to the distant sun, willing the anger of my encounter with the prince to dissolve in the wind. I sensed Kaius move to stand in front of me, could feel his eyes on me as I kept mine closed, wishing the rays were warm enough to soak into my skin.
“Technically this isn’t the palace,” I said.
A small laugh. “You’re right, technically it’s not.”
Moments passed before I opened my eyes to search his, hoping this was where I would find answers. He was wearing all black again. Loose trousers hung from his hips, and a tightly fitting long-sleeved jumper hugged his muscles in all the right places under a woolen jacket. Sunlight flashed off a collection of dark daggers he had hanging from his hip, one of his hands absently running along a hilt covered in tiny square cut emeralds. Another large emerald hung from his neck and as he tucked a lock of dark hair behind his ears, I noticed the silver jewellery that studded its way up his lobe.
The longer I looked at him, the longer he looked right back , and the more magik began to buzz through me. It wasn’t on the surface anymore. It had sunk deeper within me, and I broke the contact, looking at the flowers instead. Allowing their pearly blooms to capture my attention while I considered what to ask first.
Noticing the rough gemstones protruding from the earth, hidden between the leaves like buried treasure, I crouched among them, feeling their call. A rush of energy passed under my fingers as I ran them over their facets that glittered in the sun, painting pretty patterns on my skin.
Reluctantly I pulled my hands away, hating the way the magik fell from me, and I was left colder than before. My breath clouded in the air as I moved to stand under the canopy and Kaius moved with me. Weak sunlight fell through the gaps the vines had left to cover the floor in speckles of light. I walked on, lifting my head to take in the white blooms that dotted the roof like stars in a constellation.
I kept my back to Kaius, running my fingers over a trailing wisteria flower, the soft jangle of my bracelets the only sound between us.
“You stayed.” It wasn’t a question. I knew he hadn’t left long before I had woken.
“Yes.”
“How did you know?” My voice was soft, needing his answer.
“I was down the hall, and I heard you.” There was more, but it didn’t seem he was going to give it.
“Why am I here, Kaius?” I asked gently. Tracing the patterns on one of the flowers blooming within the vines, I kept my back to him, silently praying to the gods he would give me answers.
“Elodie...” His voice was barely a whisper as the leafy carpet muffled his footsteps. “I won’t lie to you, but please know there are things I can’t tell you.”
Turning to him, I nodded. I believed him, believed he would answer whatever he was able to.
Why I felt so sure after knowing him for barely a few days, I didn’t know, but my mind whirred with questions he might answer before they landed on my most recent mystery.
“Did you take anything from my house?”
Like an ominous Tarot card.
“From your house?”
“Other than me that is?” He grimaced then.
Good, he should feel bad.
“There wasn’t exactly much time to pack you an overnight bag,” he said as I raised my eyebrow.
“No,” he conceded. “We didn’t take anything. We weren't exactly expecting to take you .”
“What were you expecting to take then?” Kaius’ face pulled into a grimace, and I knew I’d hit a question he wouldn’t be answering. He did had a point; there hadn’t been time.
Nothing stopping them going back after, I don’t know what they do in their spare time.
“So, you won’t tell me why I’m here.”
“No, Goldie.”
“Ok. Where am I?”
“This is the Palace of Ignify.”
“And where is the Palace of Ignify ?”
“In the Kingdom of Incaendium.”
A kingdom?
“Never heard of it.” Great start.
So, he would answer my questions, but this was getting me nowhere. If this was how every question was going to go it was going to take all fucking day. I started walking and as Kaius mirrored my steps, I became acutely aware of his eyes on me.
I needed to do better, ask better questions before his generosity ran out, but I didn’t know the right ones. The sweet aroma of the flowers drifted to me as energy simmered in my veins, and I allowed some to pool to my fingertips, the gentle sparks dancing.
“He said you needed my help. Is that why you brought me here?”
“Yes and no.” Not really an answer at all.
I huffed a breath of frustration. “Help with what?”
He arched an eyebrow, he wasn’t going to answer. I needed to change direction, looking down at my hands, I knew what to ask next.
“You have magik, too, you and the others.” It wasn’t exactly a question, but it was a start.
“Everyone here does.” I bit at my bottom lip as I took in his answer and Kaius’ eyes flicked to my mouth.
Everyone here had magik? How was that possible? Until a few days ago the only people I knew who were capable of calling energy were Nanna and Briar. Now he’s telling me a whole palace full of people can do it, too?
Where the fuck was I?
“How? How does everyone here have magik?” There were pieces of this puzzle I was missing but would he give them to me?
“Because we’re Fae, and something tells me you are, too, Goldie. You might look human, but I meant what I said. I’ve never heard of any human able to access magik and definitely not the way you did earlier,” he replied.
Look human? He looked like me. Sure, he was unbearably beautiful, but still.
“Fae,” I answered sceptically as irritation flashed. “I thought you said you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying, and I know you know that.” Despite his promise, I still rebelled against the idea.
It wasn’t the fact that Fae existed that made little sense; I had grown up on tales of them and found that I was strangely unbothered by that revelation. It was that he was trying to say I was one of them.
“How would that even be possible? You might be a Fae but there’s literally no way I am. That would mean my parents were, and they weren't!” My voice grew louder, shattering the tranquillity of the garden as I forced myself to think about my parents. I had been so young when they died that the small number of memories I had of them were unclear, but now as I pushed harder to remember anything of them, it was almost impossible.
Like they had been shoved behind a wall of fog and no matter how hard I pushed, the fog reshaped around my efforts.
Had my memories of them always felt like that?
I was the first to admit I rarely thought about them, but I was sure when I did it hadn’t been as hard as this.
“I don’t know,” Kaius admitted. “I didn’t even know you existed until a few days ago, but I do know that this is where you belong.”
Where I belonged? This wasn’t where I belonged. I belonged back home. With Nanna. With Titan. With Polly.
“I know you can feel the pull of this place. It calls to you, doesn’t it?” He took a step forward, running a hand through his hair as my heart raced with the possibilities he was presenting.
Because he was right, this place did call to me.
I felt alive, my magik responding in ways it never had before and stronger than anything I ever felt back home.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t human, that I belonged here.
It couldn’t.
He reached for my hand and energy flared as our fingers met, but my heart slowed a fraction, and I blew out a shaky breath. None of this made sense.
“I don’t have all your answers, but I promise you I will help you find out the truth.” Now holding my hand in both of his, he spoke quiet words I couldn’t catch as a flash of light grew from our intertwined fingers. Something deep inside me stirred, reaching towards him until it connected with a thread that was so familiar and yet foreign at the same time. The light grew for one blinding second before fading away.
“What did you do?” I whispered, tilting my head to look at him. He was so close, he almost blocked out the light, shadows clinging to his silhouette.
“I made a promise,” he said with a shrug.
That was more than just a promise. I had felt it in my soul.
How would I even find answers? How would he ? My parents were dead. The only person who could know anything would be Nanna, and I had no idea how to get home to her. I doubted they were going to let me leave anytime soon.
“Have you done that before?”
“Once.” Kaius nodded. “Next question, or have you run out?” he teased, releasing my hands and stripping the seriousness of what had happened with a wink. I stepped back, needing the space between us.
“Definitely not,” I scoffed, attempting to ignore whatever connection formed between us.
“Tell me about the thing that chased us, that was in my room.” It came out in a whisper, as though speaking it out loud would call its terror down on us. It could be another question he wouldn’t answer, but I was desperate to understand. I held back on telling him it had appeared in my dream that night, too. This time, Kaius didn’t hesitate with his answer though his body tensed as he began to speak.
“We don’t know.” My body sagged in disappointment before he continued. “We call it The Darkness. We don’t know what it is or where it came from. Only that since it first turned up it’s grown immensely in size and power, and we think it feeds on the energy of Fae. Not many escape it once it’s found them. The more powerful you are, the harder it will try to get you.”
It feeds on people.
It was hard to swallow past the lump of remembered dread in my throat, now a hundred times more grateful to have escaped then I had already been.
“So, the ward we passed through...” Remembering how it crashed against the invisible shield, I looked up at the sky, the faint iridescent shield rippling reassuringly as the light caught it. “It can’t get through?”
“Not unless it finds a weak spot, and the bigger the ward the more likely there will be one. But it is constantly testing it. It must be how it found us outside the city walls. At the moment, every Fae living here is required to aid in its strength, and they do. It used to be only those from the Royal Lines who fed their energy to it as they could afford to expend the amount required, but now everyone adds what they can.”
“Royal Lines?” I asked, unsure how much more I wanted to know about The Darkness but relieved I was safe within the wards.
“There are seven of them. Each line holds power over a different Kingdom of Avelin. They have a King, or Queen, who holds the High Position. Those who come from the Royal Lines are considerably more powerful than average Fae, though there are always exceptions to the rule. Magik is funny like that.”
His face smoothed out from the frown that had been there. “It seems to have a particular taste for those from the Royal Lines.”
“Bastian. That’s why it chased us. Because he’s the Prince.”
“Not just Bastian,” he murmured, not meeting my eyes for the first time since I’d met him, fingers running along the hilt of a dagger at his hip.
“Oh, you’re a Lord, aren’t you? Is that why?” I remembered from the time he had held me, and my heart ached a little at the memory.
“Here, I’m a Lord,” he added cryptically.
“Kaius.” Annoyed by his sudden reluctance, I only realised I hadn’t said his name out loud before as our eyes collided. Like two pools of liquid moonlight, they blazed into mine in a way that felt like he was searching my soul. I knew he was deciding how much he was willing to tell me.
“Here, I’m a Lord. But… I am also a Prince, from a different Royal Line.” My mouth opened into a silent ‘oh.’ I wasn’t expecting that.
He was completely different to Bastian in every way. I took in his angelic face and the dark beard that covered his jaw, the intricate tattoos that wrapped across his skin. He didn’t look the way I expected a prince to look, but there was something about him that screamed regality. Maybe it was in the perfect curve of his lips, or the air of otherworldliness I couldn’t put my finger on.
A hundred more questions burned in me. “You’re a prince.”
“Yes.” He watched me intensely.
“But not a prince from here?”
“No.” Apparently, I had to drag this information from him.
“Then from where?” His sigh at my line of questioning had me wondering if he would continue with the honesty he had gifted me. I hoped he wouldn’t decide that was enough for one day and send me back to my cage. I was enjoying my time outside, my time with him. Anywhere but that little room, even if the chill had long since sunk past the thick fabric of my clothes and I was holding back its induced tremors.
“I come from Terrae. I’m a second son. My older brother holds the title of Prince Regent while my parents are still alive. He will succeed them to the throne which means I’m free—for now—to live wherever I want.”
Another place to add to my ever-growing list of shit I needed to find out more about.
“For now?”
His eyes swept over me, lingering on the tightness of my jumper, the obvious sign of how cold I was that peaked beneath. I knew it had been Kaius who organised my outfit choices.
That means he knows exactly what’s under it, too.
“For now.”
“You could have lived anywhere and you chose to live here, with him?” I asked incredulously, pointing a finger up at the palace.
He laughed as he shrugged out of his jacket, exposing his broad shoulders and muscled biceps before stepping forward to drape it over my shoulders. I slid my arms in with a small smile, grateful for the warmth and the heavy scent of cedar. “He’s not as bad as he seems, Goldie.”
“Doesn’t look like it from where I’m standing.”
“Mmm, but how much can you really see from down there anyway?” His eyes creased with mischief as I batted his hand away, laughing.
It felt good to laugh. It was easy being in his company, and I didn’t want it to end even if I didn’t get any more of my questions answered. I spun the rings on my finger absentmindedly and Kaius tracked the movement, ever observant. I looked up at the palace, its sheer size blocking out half the sky, and wondered where my window was.
Was I really thinking of it as mine?
I guess technically for now, it was.
“If Bastian rules here, why is he only a prince? Wouldn’t that make him King?”
“Bastian doesn’t hold the High Position. His father, King Conleth, does.”
“Right.” I nodded, wondering if Bastian’s father was anything like him. “Will I be taken to him as well?”
“No, he’s… away.” It wasn’t a lie, but I could tell it also wasn’t the full truth.
“He rules here whilst his father’s… away.”
“He does, with help from his extremely knowledgeable, and handsome, friends.” A small smile played around his mouth.
“Friends? You two didn’t seem very friendly earlier.” He frowned, surely remembering, as I was , the incident with Bastian.
“We’re more like brothers if I’m honest. Bas… has a temper, but I haven’t seen him like that in a long time.” Kaius’ eyes glazed over, lost in a memory as he brushed a thumb over a sharpened dagger edge. My gold bracelets clinked as I raised my hand to that empty hollow of my throat and he blinked out of his reverie. Brushing a lock of white hair from my face, his fingers grazed my cheek and my heart skittered under his touch.
I stepped back, letting his hands fall away with too much filling my thoughts.
“All I’ve seen of him is his temper.” But that wasn’t quite the truth; he had saved me from The Darkness, practically dragged me across that field. I knew I wouldn’t have made it if he hadn’t been holding onto me.
And he did give me his jumper when I was standing half naked and freezing at the gates.
Maybe he didn’t want to look at my body?
No, that wasn’t right, either. I’d seen the way his eyes ran over me when we were in that room together. Although none of that meant he wasn’t an asshole because he definitely was.
“He’s a better person than me.”
“I thought you said you weren't going to lie,” I scoffed.
“And I thought you would have more questions than this,” he teased, changing the subject once again.
“I do. But it’s hard to know where to start,” I admitted. “If you and Big Man are both from Royal Lines, does that mean you’re more powerful than the rest of the people here?” Kaius grinned at my nickname for Bastian.
“It does, though there are others, ones who don’t follow the rules.” His eyes grew intense as he looked at me, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. I had released an enormous amount of magik back in that room, but I didn’t want to consider what that meant.
“Who are they?” My voice was quiet as I tried my best to ignore the ice that had stolen into my bones, my feet turning numb through my stupid thin shoes.
“Here in Incaendium there are four. Two are healers—which comes in handy. One is a water witch who has her own space far into the east, she rarely comes to this part of the kingdom. And the last is the Commander.”
“Ah, the one who makes the guards shit their pants at the mention of his name.”
He laughed flashing his perfectly straight white teeth and a grin stretched over my own face as the sound danced around us as I mulled over the information. “The very same.”
“What’s a water witch?”
“Now we’re getting to it, Goldie. Each kingdom holds sway over a specific element. Here in Incaendium, it’s?—"
“Fire.” I interrupted, the image of Bastian surrounded in flames burning in my mind, an awful reminder of the dreams I suffered through.
Maybe that was why I reacted so intensely to him.
“Yes.” He frowned slightly at my reaction. “Fire. Every Fae can manipulate their energy and turn it to magik, and we can also draw power from items like gemstones when they need to. Their strength depends on their power level, which is determined at birth. Some Fae have been able to grow their power, but it’s not easy, nor is that knowledge widely available. Higher power level Fae and those from Royal Lines hold a deeper connection to the element that’s connected to their kingdom. So, for Bastian and those from here, that element is, as you rightly said, fire.”
“So, the water witch? She’s powerful, but not from this kingdom?” I asked, my mind whirling with new information.
“Yes, her kingdom—Aquia—holds an affinity to water.”
“Why is she here and not back in her kingdom?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never met her. We just know that she lives here and hasn’t caused any trouble so far, so we let her be.”
“Does it not weaken her, to be a water witch in a fire kingdom?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Your connection to your element stays with you no matter what kingdom you are in.”
“What are the other elements?” I felt like I was getting somewhere now. This was the sort of information I needed if I was going to understand this place even if it was a struggle to comprehend any of it were true.
And obviously get out of here.
“Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Prophecy, Death and Animalia.”
Prophecy.
The word was like a whip crack through my mind, and I willed my features to remain neutral as memories flashed through my mind of the things I had seen. Things I had been told. The readings that always rang true, the mental assault of images that would flood my mind on a moment’s notice from catching a stranger’s eye.
You’re a seer, Elodie, Briar’s voice echoed in my skull so loud I was sure Kaius would catch it.
“What’s yours?” I asked, ignoring her voice and letting curiosity burn through me.
Kaius crouched down into the flowers and picked out the smallest bud. Standing back up, he held it in his open hand. His palm glowed slightly, magik pulsing, and I watched in complete awe as the small bud grew before my eyes, expanding until it split apart revealing a beautiful white peony. It was magik like I had never seen before. He handed it to me, my fingers stroking over the velvet smooth petals as the remnants of his energy soaked through my fingertips.
“Thank you,” I marvelled, gazing at the flower.
“I’d better get you back before they bring lunch or he’ll have the entire guard out here looking for you.” I knew it couldn’t last, being out in the world, and we turned back to the steps, the peony clutched gently in my hand and a million more questions on my lips.
“Kaius.”
“Yes, Goldie?”
“Will you tell me more?” I continued to stroke the petals before glancing up at him.
He was frowning slightly. “I have a feeling that when it comes to you, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”