Chapter 32
Reyla
Dorion swallowed hard and took a step toward the boy, clearly mesmerized. He stopped in front of the sofa and crouched to the child’s level. “I’m Dorion. What’s your name?”
“Mummy said I shouldn’t tell anyone who I am,” he whispered, his wide gaze flicking to Lore and then me.
“Your mummy is very wise,” Dorion said.
“But… But… I’m Brys,” he said in an even softer voice.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Brys.” Dorion shot us a look of unfettered joy. “He is. He truly is. I know it. My mother has a portrait she had made of…” Himself. “It hangs in her bedroom. I’ve seen it many times. The resemblance is startling.” He turned back to his son. “Where’s your mummy?”
“She’s not here.” Brys shrunk into the cushions. “I shouldn’t be talking to you. You came through the window somehow. How did you do that?” His breath caught. “You haven’t come to kidnap me, have you?”
“We have not.” Dorion straightened. “We came to speak with your mother.”
“Felice took her.”
I walked over and sat on the sofa beside him, giving him a sweet smile. “Where did they go?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. They don’t let me go inside with her.” He looked down at his hands. “They make me wait in the hall.”
While they did whatever it was they were doing to her? I’d bet anything Felice took her to Naveer.
“Why didn’t you go with her tonight?” I asked.
“I was with my tutor when they took her.”
Took her. Lore and I exchanged a long look.
“How long is she inside the room?” Lore came over to stand nearby.
“I don’t know.” Brys yawned. “Maybe you should kidnap me?” He sounded excited about the prospect.
“Not tonight,” Dorion said.
Wait. He wouldn’t…
Actually, if Laphira couldn’t protect this boy, he should. I doubted he’d see much protection from his grandmother.
“Maybe she’ll be back soon.” Brys peeked up at me, giving me a shy smile.
“I hope so.” I wanted to hug him, tell him things would be alright, but that would be lying. Something was very wrong here, and I wasn’t sure we could make it right.
Our time here was limited. After patting his head, I rose from the sofa and strolled toward the bedroom door. Brys watched me before looking back at Dorion.
“Why are you here?” the boy asked. “You didn’t say.”
“We came to speak with your mother,” Lore said.
“You can wait. She’ll be back sometime.” Brys sat up stiffer on the sofa. “I miss my mummy. She doesn’t smile any longer or read me stories or tell me she loves me.”
“How long has she been this way?” Dorion took my place on the sofa and tentatively put his arm around the boy’s shoulders.
While father and son tentatively connected, I opened Laphira’s bedroom door and slipped inside, leaving the door open, though their conversation was muted enough I couldn’t hear what they said.
Let me know if you learn anything important, I said to Lore.
She’s been like this for only a short time, as far as I can tell. Brys doesn’t appear to understand time, but he remembers that it started one night and that she was sleepy at first. After the second time, she emerged like we’ve seen her. She hasn’t changed—or smiled—since.
Queen Naveer’s hand, I assume.
That’s my assumption as well.
The air in Laphira's bedroom felt different than the sitting room. Almost viscous. A metallic tang coated my tongue, and the shadows seemed deeper here, pooling in corners where light couldn't reach.
I made a quick pass around the room, checking the items we’d found during our first time here. The room remained unchanged, everything in its disturbing place.
The clay effigy still sat on the shelf, bone needles piercing her chest and head.
This close, I could see tiny dark stains around each puncture.
Dried blood. My belly lurched. The figurine radiated a cold that had nothing to do with temperature, and when I leaned closer, the faintest whisper of sound escaped it.
Like it was breathing. Or sobbing. I jerked back, my skin crawling, and replaced the book in front of it again.
When something glinted on the tallest bureau, my pulse quickened. Each step toward it felt like I was walking through invisible cobwebs, and the floorboards beneath my feet groaned despite my careful movements.
A wooden jewelry box sat on top of the bureau. It wasn’t here when we searched before.
Crafted from night-dark wood veined in silver, its surface shimmered in the low lights, almost like it had been dusted with frost that never melted.
Intricate vines, stars, and even a moon spiraled across the lid.
A snarling nyxin with its mouth open wide had been carved into a clasp.
With the edge of my sleeve, I gently tugged on the lid.
It creaked open, revealing glinting jewelry inside.
The pendant wasn’t among the rest, however.
I should turn away and keep looking but my attention was snagged by a curved object half-buried beneath necklaces and earrings bejeweled with stones of every imaginable color.
I eased the object out from beneath the jewelry with the tip of my dagger and dangled it from its chain in the light.
A claw of some sort, the size of my fist and with a very sharp tip.
Something…
Where had I seen a claw like this before?
It was past time to search some more, but I couldn’t drag my gaze away from it spinning in the light.
Hesitant to return it to the box, I stuffed it and the red stone from beneath the floorboards into my pocket.
I slammed the cover down on the jewelry box, and it released a dull thud when it landed. By then, I was moving around the room, examining everything else. Why hadn’t Laphira laid the talisman on her side table like most people would do?
As I quickly searched, the back of my neck prickled with the constant sensation of being watched.
When I passed a tapestry depicting ladies sitting in a garden, drinking tea with a profusion of flowers around them, the thick fabric fluttered without any breeze to stir it.
The movement made goosebumps lift on my skin.
Fabric didn't move like that naturally. Something wanted me to look behind it, and that realization made every instinct scream danger. I would’ve kept going if something along the edge hadn’t caught my eye.
I used the tip of my blade to ease the tapestry to the side, revealing something carved into the stone wall. Leaning close, I tried to determine if this was a random mark inherent to the stone or…
No, they’d been deliberately placed here.
I found a series of runes, I said to Lore. Carved into the wall, hidden behind a tapestry.
He strode into the room and over to stand beside me, lifting his hand as if he’d touch only to drop it back down to his side.
“Bound flame,” he whispered, pointing to the first.
“Is that what it says?”
Nodding, he leaned closer, his fingertip hovering over the second.
I added light to make it easier to see.
“Seek within to find the parts that are missing,” he said softly.
Chills scraped down my spine. “Justifar said that when I was crowned. It was part of her prophecy.” I still wasn’t sure I believed anyone could predict the future, but I hadn’t grown up knowing I was fae or thinking magic was anything but the tool of someone evil.
“Seek within to find the parts of yourself that are missing. What part of me is missing?”
He flashed me a crooked smile. “You’re perfect the way you are. Every missing piece you think you lack, I see as strength that brought you to me.”
“Justifar might not agree,” I said dryly.
His smile dropped. “No one’s opinion outside your own matters. Never let anyone steal that from you.”
“You’re right.” Self-worth remained fragile territory. “Fuse them to heal the wound that has long gaped wide. She said that as well. I was missing many parts of myself when I first arrived here. My heart, mostly.”
He took my hand, threading our fingers together like a promise. “And now?”
“I feel whole. But what if her prophecy was a message and didn’t actually relate to me?
We’re trying to find the final talisman, which doesn’t appear to be here, by the way, to fuse it together to heal the wound that has long gaped wide.
It’s not a stretch to believe the curse is a wound.
” A wound that would fester until Lore turned thirty, then reopen with our son's birth.
When he kissed my forehead, the curse's countdown paused, if only for a heartbeat.
“What do the other runes say?” I croaked, my eyes stinging. Days were ticking past, and we still didn’t have the talisman. And how was I supposed to fuse them together? A little guidance in that would be helpful.
“Just three words. Essence, devotion, dominion.”
“Back to them again.”
He nodded, studying the last rune.
Dorion hurried into the room. “Time to leave. They’re in the hall.”
My heart slammed against my ribcage as I recognized Felice’s sharp tone.
Dorion's jaw clenched. “I told Brys to keep quiet, but he's five and who’s to say what he’ll tell them. But he doesn't trust Felice, so it could go either way.”
My heart hammered as voices grew closer—one I recognized as Felice's sharp tone, the other a stranger's deeper rumble.
“Alright.” Lore wrapped his arm around me and grabbed Dorion’s arm.
A flit, and we stood in our own suite’s sitting area with the fire crackling in the hearth and Farris still snoozing on the sofa. My ladies had removed our dinner platters.
Sitting, Lore warded the room. His magic brushed mine as his ward settled, that familiar tingle of connection reminding me of what we were fighting for.
We went through everything. I retrieved the note we’d found and gave it to Dorion, who stared at it for a very long time.
When he looked up, his eyes glistened. “It’s her writing. She’s scared and there isn’t a fucking thing I can do to help her. I don’t know what’s happening to her, let alone why.” He carefully folded it and tried to hand it back to me.
I waved him off. “You keep it.”
With near reverence, he tucked it into his pocket.
Telling him about the note in the book I’d found behind the headboard only made pain crater his face even further. He grimaced when we described the drawing.
When we described the effigy, he growled. “I need to grab it. See if it’s playing a role in what’s happening to her.”
“Why keep it in her bedroom?” I squeezed Lore’s hand resting on my thigh.
“You said it was hidden.” Dorion leaned forward in his chair near the fireplace. “I assume it watches or it’s there to control this in some way.”
A big supposition, but he could be familiar with effigies.
“What if it's not only controlling Laphira?” I tilted my head, pieces clicking together. “Naveer feeds on death energy, but what if she's also draining life force gradually? Keeping Laphira as a living source while she feeds off other contestants completely.”
Groaning, Dorion raked his palms across his face. “I’ve got to get her out of here. Brys too.”
Lore's jaw tightened. “It would explain why Laphira isn't dead, just…empty. Naveer gets the benefit of a slow, sustained drain plus boosts from those taken during the trials.”
“I’ll bring the effigy to my mother,” Dorion said. “She might be able to detect some resonance from it or tell us what it’s doing.”
“You’ll leave the court?”
“I didn’t win the first token, so no one will find it suspicious if I go away for the day. I’ll borrow a horse from the stables. My mother’s mountain estate isn’t far from the border.”
If we had the featherdorn pendant in hand, we’d have three days to fuse the talismans. Plenty of time or never enough.
I nibbled on my lower lip, still wondering how I was going to do it. I doubted a nullification spell would work. My shadows might be eager to help with the right incentive, but what could they do? Lightning might damage the three enough they’d never fuse together.
“I’ll sneak into her bedroom tonight and steal the effigy,” Dorion said. “Then race for the border.” He shrugged and gave us a lopsided smile, though his heart wasn’t in it. “Expect me back no later than tomorrow morning.” His gaze met mine. “Anything else I should know?”
I tugged the red stone and claw strung as a pendant from my pocket.
Dorion pointed to the claw. “That’s borgon. Where did you get the memory stone?”
I told him what I’d heard when I touched it, and what little mirth that might be lingering on his face disappeared. “Fear. Pain. A child’s voice crying. Brys?”
We really didn’t know.
He stretched out his hand, stopping before touching. “May I?”
“Take it. I’m not touching it again.” I looked up at Lore, who shook his head. “As for the claw—”
“Wise of you to take it,” Lore said. “I didn’t have time to share the meaning of the last rune.”
Dorion jutted his chin toward Lore, urging him on.
“Unite the strengths of earth and air, to reveal the prize that's hidden there.”
“I read that in Ember’s Shadow,” I whispered, then recited the full poem.
“In shadows reach where secrets lie, a golden ring the true heart must spy. With the cusp of shifting night, seek the path where the dark meets light. Ancient doors with puzzles guard, within Evergorne’s walls, echoes marred.
With trust and flame, the way reveal, through hidden truths, the hearts you'll steal.
Unite the strengths of earth and air, to reveal the prize that's hidden there.”
“What does it mean?” Dorion stood, and I could tell he was eager to leave so he could be back by morning.
I explained about the book, how it revealed things it felt the holder needed.
“I assume it relates to the dragons, then,” Dorion said.
Lore’s body jerked. “Why dragons?”
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it?” He started pacing. “One saved Lore in the labyrinth.” Pausing, he directed his penetrating gaze my way. “Another dragon, or the same one, healed you after Prager nearly killed you outside the labyrinth.”
“How do dragons play a role in this?” I asked.
Dorion’s mouth tightened. “If you can discover that, you may figure out the meaning of the riddle.”
The weight of his words settled over us.
Dragons. The creatures that had saved us both, appearing when death seemed certain. What connection did they have to breaking a curse that had plagued Lore's family for generations?
And why did I have the unsettled feeling that we were about to find out?