Chapter 18
eighteen
Must be a dream.
My hand was in that of the Seelie Prince of Verenthia, the same guy who saved my life when he was eight years old. The same guy I traveled through the fae realm for and almost died a dozen times. The same guy I healed and then was accused of murdering.
Yes, yes, must be a dream.
We walked out of the throne room and Lyall wrapped my arm around his, placed my hand gently over his forearm and held his over my fingers.
Every little movement he made seemed to come so naturally to him, like he’d been doing the same thing since forever, every single day.
I was in awe of how fully he embraced whoever he chose to be just now.
Because this was not his true face.
I don’t really know how I knew—maybe it was just pure common sense.
A man who was a prince, about to become a king; a man who would be targeted and poisoned by someone close enough to him to actually pull it off; a man who would speak to his mother, a queen, the way he had— very difficult to imagine such a man to be this kind, sweet, innocent guy he wanted me to believe he was right now.
Or maybe it was because of my instincts. Because I already knew enough about Verenthia to understand that nothing was ever as it seemed here, and I wanted to find Rune first.
Maybe, maybe, maybe. It all came down to one thing—I would not let myself trust this guy no matter what he’d done for me when we were kids, until I knew who he was now.
“How?” I asked as he took me down the wide hallway, every inch of the marble underneath our feet perfect, every color twisted just right.
The walls, the chandeliers, the lanterns, the paintings—everything in this place was so perfect it made me feel like I was the biggest flaw to have ever existed in both this world and mine.
“How, what?” Lyall asked, eyes on the side of my face, but I refused to meet them.
“How did you pull it off? You looked so real. I was doubting my own eyes, my own sanity.” Which sucked because I’d been doing it since the first time I ever saw his face in the meadow.
“Illusion magic,” Lyall said. “My mother’s. She’s quite powerful—and very thorough when she creates.”
Creates, he said. Like illusions were a piece of art or something.
“Where are we going now?” I asked because we turned one corner, and now we were about to turn another that ended with a wide staircase, and there were no soldiers out here by the walls, only the three who had been in the throne room with us, following some ten steps behind.
“To your chambers,” the prince said. “You will have your space to relax and rest, to clean up and do whatever it is you feel like doing while you’re here.”
Chambers. That was something I never actually thought I’d have.
Come to think of it, to be in a golden palace in a different realm, walking hand in hand with a fae prince was even more absurd than having chambers, if we wanted to be picky.
“How long will I stay?” I asked because I still felt like I was diving into this headfirst without knowing what was awaiting me on the other side—just like I had when I followed his uncle through the Aetherway.
“As long as you please, my Lifebound. Forever wouldn’t suffice to get enough of your beautiful face.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “Just Nilah is fine,” I muttered. “Where is Helid, by the way? He wasn’t in the throne room.”
Lyall led me up the marble stairs lined with gorgeous golden railings illuminated by the floating lights. “My uncle is away on business, currently in the Unseelie Court,” he said. “Why—do you need something from him?”
“No, nothing. I was just curious.” I said.
“Well, if you do, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Your chambers are on the sixth floor of the palace, which is this,” he said when we reached the top of the stairs, and led me into yet another hallway, wide, one side of it made of floor-to-ceiling windows with golden frames.
Dressers and fresh flowers of all kinds were neatly placed in golden vases.
Those paintings and those floating lights, the sweet scent of the air, the way the walls and the corners of the floor seemed to glow from within as if they were made to repel any kind of shadow—it was all a fantasy to me still .
“It’s…it’s beautiful,” I whispered because there was simply no other word that could do this place justice.
The prince smiled and I saw it through the corner of my eye.
“I’m glad you like it. My chambers are on the eighth, so I am not too far away. For anything you might need, it will be enough to ask your guards.” He moved back his hand to indicate the soldiers following us still. “Even if you need to send for me, talk to them and I will hear about it.”
“Thank you, Lyall. But this is too much. Seriously, I?—”
We were in the middle of the wide hallway, which had only one set of white and golden doors at the very end. He stopped and turned to me with his whole body, my hand somehow between his.
“You saved my life, Nilah,” he whispered, analyzing my face like he really was that fascinated by it. The sunlight from the windows at our side fell on him, and his skin glowed golden, and the ears and the hair and the eyes— how is he real?
“Well, you saved mine first,” I muttered, suddenly uncomfortable in my own skin. Uncomfortable to be touching him, too, so I pulled back my hand, but this time there was no hint on his face that he even noticed.
“Precisely. We saved one another, and nothing is too much. Anything you want in this kingdom is yours if you only ask. I will spare no expense to see you happy,” he solemnly said—and fuck me, he sounded like he meant every word.
I forced a smile on my lips as my heart picked up the beating. “I’ll be fine with a bed and a bathroom,” I said.
The smile he gave me probably made the sun envious. “You’ll have much more than that.”
He returned to my side with a graceful spin and offered me his arm. We were moving again, walking faster, until we made it to those gorgeous doors at the end. He pushed them both open with a small smile on his face and a sparkle to his eyes that made him look almost like a teenager.
Then I forgot how to breathe.
The room was massive, bigger than the entire second floor of my house, and maybe even larger because of how high the ceiling soared. Holy fuck, what is this place?!
To my right, an enormous bed dominated the space, framed by carved posts that shimmered gold wherever the sunlight hit them.
The linens were a soft pale peach, as luxurious looking as everything else.
Opposite the bed, on the left side of the room, a wide archway opened into what could only be called a hall , not simply a bathroom—long and grand, with polished marble floors, gilded mirrors, and a bathtub so large it could have passed for a pool back home.
The room smelled faintly of something sweet—peaches or roses, maybe both. Ahead of me, tall window frames stretched almost from floor to ceiling, each one flanked by built-in bookshelves overflowing with books and scrolls. The glass panes were so clear it was like they weren’t there at all.
Just beyond the windows, there was an elegant glass door that opened out onto this narrow balcony that was more like a delicate stone bridge connecting this room to a freestanding gazebo some thirty feet away.
The structure was open on all sides, draped in flowing, transparent curtains that caught every breeze and moved like they were ghosts.
“Come, come. Please, allow me to welcome you to your chambers,” Lyall said, hand on mine, pulling me inside gently .
Fucking hell, it was like I was entering a whole universe, and the warmth of the air welcomed me, too.
The magic, humming a tune I could somehow hear, was inviting, not cold in the least. And I was standing in the middle of this gorgeous place that had no right to even exist in the real world, unable to form words at all.
“Well, what do you think?”
I shook my head, my mouth opening and closing, my vocal cords still broken.
Lyall laughed.
The sound was soft, soothing to my ears, demanding my attention, so I turned to him. Looked at him. Was in awe of how perfect he looked all over again.
“Let me show you my favorite thing—and the reason why I chose this room for you.”
He pulled me toward the glass door at the end of the windows, pulled it open, and then we were outside.
The sun fell on my side, and the golden railings on either side of this bridge could be pieces of art on their own, and we were so fucking high I stopped breathing all over again.
Holy shit, this is high!
But the prince didn’t let me freeze and give in to the panic. I was not afraid of heights in the least, but these heights? Yeah, you’d have to be a fucking robot not to be terrified.
Until we reached the gazebo.
Wide round space, concrete and gorgeous mosaic tiles underneath my feet.
Stone railings painted with golden threads here and there, the top of them thick enough to be considered a bench.
The pillars were thick, too, and each one was engraved into a different animal—bird, cat, dog, tiger, all close enough to the animals from Earth so that I recognized them.
But it was the view that wiped my mind clean all the way.
Letting go of Lyall’s hand, I moved forward, leaned against the cool stone railing ahead, and looked out at the Seelie Court in all its glory, every inch touched by magic and the golden light of the sun that kissed every surface.
Endless gardens stretched below me, their hedges carved into spiraling patterns I couldn’t even begin to understand. Fountains were everywhere, too, the water catching the sunlight and tossing it right back in the air, which then made it look like the air was made of diamonds.