Chapter 35
thirty-five
Rune had gone out to create another distraction for the guards, he said, so that I could sneak past everyone without being noticed.
And in the two minutes he was gone, I half convinced myself that there was absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be like this every single day, Rune and I. There was no reason to hide—not from Lyall and not from anybody in any world.
So, when he came back, before we walked out of the throne room, I said, “Are you really sure we can’t tell him?”
Rune stopped and looked at me, touched my chin with his fingertips. “Yes, I’m sure. I know him, Wildcat. He’ll see us as a threat.”
“So, let him—it won’t matter once we do the unbinding ceremony, will it?” In my head it made perfect sense, but…
“The unbinding ceremony won’t matter. When Lyall sees a threat, he removes it.
He will do anything it takes—he’s currently faking his own death to find the people who tried to kill him,” he said, and that made a lot more sense, unfortunately.
“It kills me that I can’t protect you. I’m not strong enough right now, so I have to keep in the shadows.
I hate it, but I’m not about to gamble your life. ”
This guy. “You keep me plenty safe,” I said, but it was obvious that he didn’t believe me, even if he didn’t say anything. I closed my eyes and released a long breath for a moment. “Is it possible that it’s them he’s trying to find? The Broken Crown?”
“Very possible,” Rune said without batting a lash.
“What do you think, though? About this whole thing, about Lyall, about him being poisoned—what do you think?”
Rune was quiet for a moment—and we were still by the doors, about to leave, but not quite ready yet.
“I think I don’t know enough to form an opinion yet,” he whispered. “And I think it strange that Helid isn’t back yet.”
Helid.
My stomach fell. “Isn’t this normal for him to travel to the other courts?”
“It is, but never for this long,” Rune said, then kissed my forehead. “We have to go now, Wildcat. I’ll come to you as soon as I can.”
I don’t want to go anywhere you’re not, I thought, but held my tongue. “Promise?” I said instead.
He took my face in his hand and looked at me— really looked at me. “On the stars.”
Just like that, walking away from him wasn’t all that bad.
I smiled, touched his lips before I kissed him. “There’s nobody like you, Mister Moody.” And some might argue that I hadn’t met the whole world or every person in Verenthia, even, but I knew that beyond a shadow of doubt.
Rune looked sad when I said that, though, but there was no more time to talk. There was only time to sneak out of the throne room and make it back to my room in one piece— without him.
Something didn’t feel right.
It wasn’t because I’d spent possibly over an hour with Rune in the queen’s throne room last night—it was what had happened before that.
The Whispering Ball. The woman masked with emeralds who’d whispered in my ear, and the one who’d come at me with a knife only to end up putting it in my hand.
The knife that was in front of me now, very real and very pointy, the broken crown engraved on the side of the handle so very vivid to my eyes.
Most of all, though, it was that Gallery of Time, that tunnel where the portraits of cursed royalty hung on forgotten walls, covered in dust and cobwebs—except for one.
Queen Veyra.
Every time I thought of her name, the hairs on my forearms stood at attention. Every time I thought of her face, half of it ripped off, my heart forgot how to beat.
And every time I thought back to Mysthaven and Maera, and that sorcerer who’d chained himself to that piece of rock…
My eyes squeezed shut and I fell back on the bed, feeling like my flesh was melting off my bones.
My queen, you came back, he’d said.
And what were the fucking odds that that woman in the painting looked exactly like me?
Oh, and let’s not forget about the last woman who wore that face died screaming . Yes, that one’s pretty interesting, too.
“ Fucking Whispering Ball ,” I muttered to myself.
Standing up, I hid the knife under my pillow and went to the other side of the room, to the vanity table, sat on the stool and forced myself to look in the mirror.
Everything inside me twisted when I saw my reflection.
The thoughts in my head rebelled, of course, simply because none of this made any kind of sense, but…
My hand shook when I raised it and covered half my face.
My God, the portrait indeed looked a lot like me. Or rather I looked a lot like the woman in the painting. The queen .
The very queen that Rune was accused of killing.
Putting my hands in front of my face, I covered myself from the mirror, as if I believed it knew what I was thinking, and it would agree with me, too.
Yes, she looked much older, and, yes, the lines of her face had been sharper, but I looked so much like her it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, could it?
And just as I was thinking that, someone knocked on the door.
That I didn’t scream was a miracle.
When the door actually opened without my say so, I jumped to my feet and didn’t collapse from the stool. Thank God, because it wasn’t the chambermaids, like I thought.
It was Lyall himself who walked into the room with his head up and his shoulders back, like he owned this place—which he did. But he also looked at me like he owned me, and I had a big problem with that.
“Good day, Nilah,” he said, that easy smile stretching his lips as he came closer, and something told me he wasn’t going to stop by himself, so I stepped back a bit to tell him to.
Thankfully, he got it.
“Hi, Lyall.” I tried not to sound irritated, I really did.
“I came as soon as I could,” he said, and when the door fell closed behind him, he bowed his head. “I never actually thought I’d say this ever in my life, but I apologize for the kiss I gave you last night. Believe me, I had no choice.”
Rune’s voice rang in my ears all of the sudden. “Oh.”
“You see, the fae challenge others all the time in the Whispering Ball. It’s one of the reasons why the tradition still lives,” he said, straightening up again. “And I was challenged to kiss the most beautiful girl in the room. Truly—I had no choice.”
A hand to his heart.
He looked good when he lied—just like when he did everything else, I guessed. Dressed impeccably in dark red velvet threaded with gold, a silk shirt underneath that matched the lightest color of his eyes, his hair as if made of the same fabric, sleeked back, not a hair out of place.
He was indeed one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen in my life, and yet he irritated the shit out of me because of his lies.
My God, Rune really did know him. “Of course,” I said with a nod. “But the next time someone challenges you like that, find another beautiful girl, won’t you?” My voice was as polite as I could make it. “I’m your Lifebound, not some random chick you can kiss whenever you’re…challenged.”
Yeah, in the end I couldn’t keep the bite from my voice.
“I will keep that in mind,” Lyall said, and if he was as irritated by what I said as I thought he would be, he didn’t show it. “I take it you didn’t like it—which is another thing I never thought I’d say to a woman. ”
“I didn’t,” I said. “I don’t much like to be kissed out of the blue, in a place full of masked strangers, and by someone I am not attracted to physically.”
This made him laugh. “Oh, my heart! You really are quite cold, beautiful Nilah.”
“I’m really not.” I went for a smile, feeling a bit awkward now.
He was here to apologize, and I really did want to be in his good graces, considering he was the only thing keeping me alive and safe right now, so…
“I don’t mean to be cold, Lyall. Merely honest.”
This time, when he came closer, I didn’t move away. “And I admire that. I admire a lot about you, Nilah,” he said, and I could have sworn that he was genuine just now. “I want to know more about you. A lot more. I think I want to know everything .”
Oh, God…
“Listen, Lyall, I?—”
“Please, don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I just want you to feel right at home here.”
Home, he said. “You know what—we should talk about the unbinding ceremony, I think.” Fuck, did it suddenly get so hot in this room or was it just me? Seriously, I was sweating.
Lyall flinched. Actually flinched.
“There is no rush, really,” he said. “We can talk about it later.”
“I thought you wanted me to agree to it right away—remember that? When your soldiers first brought me in front of your mother?” In the throne room, no less. The same throne room where I’d been on my knees blowing Rune just last night. It is definitely too hot in here…
I cleared my throat. “It was important to you then to separate yourself from me right away. I’m just wondering what changed, that’s all.”
“ You, ” Lyall said without hesitation, and he took half a step closer to me, but again, I didn’t move back.
He was still a good distance away, and he didn’t look like he might suddenly kiss me like he did last night.
“There’s so much more to you than I realized then, Nilah.
You…” He looked down at my body and suddenly I felt uncomfortable as hell, like my body already knew what he was going to say before he did.
“To start with, you have magic in you, which you shouldn’t have. ”
Fuck.
I swallowed hard, fisted my hands until my nails sank into my skin, and my instinct was to deny it. To hell with all of it— magic? What magic? I don’t have magic! No sir, not me!
But Lyall knew.
I could see it in the curiosity painted in his eyes, in his attention—he knew, and no matter how hard I tried to deny it, it wasn’t going to make him believe me.
Might as well own it, especially since he was responsible for it in the first place.