Chapter 42
GARRICK
I’d seen the gown. Of course, I’d seen the gown. It had been hanging on the wardrobe for the past few days. But seeing her in the gown… nothing in my life had prepared me for this version of Koryn.
Balar Shan was not ready for her.
The fae court was awash with beauty, but it was muted by the layer of ice that coated everything. The colorful spires of the towers were dulled, the intricate patterns of brickwork harder to distinguish beneath the snow.
But not Koryn. The frost and ice could not diminish her. They were a part of her.
The lavender gown had an almost silver cast to it that shimmered as she moved.
It clung to her hips and waist, emphasizing her sumptuous curves before it fell into a heavy skirt.
There were wide slits cut into the velvet to create movement, and panels of silk in the exact same shade of silvery purple sewn into those slits.
Emerald and turquoise embroidery danced along the entire garment, evoking vines or scales, bringing the garment fully to life.
I could just make out the lines of her corset beneath the bodice.
I begrudged the boned garment that it got to touch her skin while I had to content myself with looking.
The square neckline of the gown should have felt severe, but it only enhanced the appeal of Koryn’s soft body.
I wanted to make love to the swell of her breasts.
To run my tongue along that soft pocket of skin where her arm met her breasts.
Koryn exhaled a shaky breath, the skin beneath her collarbones fluttering.
“Will I meet the expectations of the fae court?” she asked.
There was more than a little sarcasm in her voice. But I also caught the undertone; the slight unease that lined her words.
I couldn’t imagine her being nervous about how she measured up physically. She had to know how beautiful she was. Something was bothering her. But I had to trust that she would tell me when she was ready.
“There is no comparison,” I told her truthfully.
Her eyes softened.
I was afraid to reach out to her. The fabric of her gown was so beautiful and delicate. Even the sleeves were intricately detailed. They billowed out, much wider than her arms needed, hanging down in elegant triangles of translucent fabric.
My mother had made my costume, too. Instead of black, she’d chosen the deep blue of twilight reflecting off of raven’s wings. It was the same shade as the ink of the Lifebind.
Koryn regarded me with the same intensity I had her when I walked into the room.
Her eyes took in every detail, from the line of gilt buttons that ran up the outside of my boots to my own embroidered details.
My surcoat was quilted, as always, but the pattern was different.
Instead of a pattern of squares, my mother had created a series of overlapping feathers using shimmering thread against matte blue wool.
Koryn reached out a hand to examine the detail with her fingertips, but she only made it halfway. We slept in each other’s arms, but that hesitation remained. We were still afraid of breaking each other.
“You need a mask,” I said, trying to give us both room to breathe. I lifted my own from where it dangled in my hand. The feather motif continued, though my mother had used real raven’s feathers to decorate the mask that covered the upper third of my face.
I held it out to Koryn and turned around. I had to kneel so that she could reach, but she understood my request. She secured my mask in place, tying the ribbon just below the knot where I’d tied back half of my hair. It was almost as long as hers now, but I was loath to cut it.
I lifted a brow in question as I turned back around, only to realize she could not see it behind the mask.
But Koryn understood me on a level no one else ever had. Even my mother. Even Alair.
Her own brows were already raised. “As if that will fool anyone.”
The corner of my mouth twitched. “The courtiers will use glamours to hide their identities. Unless there is an element to your power that you have been hiding, you’ll need a mask.
” It would not hide her identity entirely.
But that wasn’t really the point. The anonymity was mostly a farce, anyway. An excuse for what came later.
Koryn pursed her lips.
“No. I’m not Syleris,” she said. Because he was hiding things. But even though she said it, she did not seem quite ready to talk about it. She flicked her eyes up and down, examining me again. “I don’t see a glamour.”
I took a step closer to her. I couldn’t help myself. The twitch at the corner of my mouth was a smirk now.
“No amount of magic could hide me from you,” I said into the close space between us.
I watched Koryn’s skin prickle with more than a little satisfaction. My own heated in return. I wanted to peel that beautiful dress off of her, because what lay beneath was even more precious.
She lifted her hand and slowly twirled her index and pointer fingers together. Whorls of power frosted the back of her hand. I watched her face for any sign of distress, of her power surging. There was a divot of concentration between her brows, but she remained in control.
From her fingertips formed a mask of crystallized frost that sparkled even in the low evening light. The whorls that covered her skin now decorated the white and silver mask.
Pride surged in my chest. My magnificent, powerful, perfect witch.
She required no assistance to fit it to her face. Her power did the job easily.
Her warm brown eyes shone out through the eye holes, luminous against the cool, sparkling silver. “Will this do?”
“Beautiful.” The word was so painfully insufficient, but I had nothing else. I finally let myself touch her. Just my palm cupping her elbow, the thin, shimmery fabric of her sleeve between us.
Koryn shivered, then settled into me, into that singular point of contact. Her lids were heavy behind the mask. She pursed her lips and blew out a measured breath.
“Syleris is keeping things from us,” she said, shifting the subject.
This territory was terrifying in its own right.
She’d adopted his name as easily as me. It felt right. He was more than the Dark God. He was the person who’d been there for Koryn when she wasn’t ready to let me back in. He’d offered me comfort in the wake of the Peace Gate. He was more than the Dark God. But he was not separate.
My hand tightened around her elbow. “The Dark God is keeping secrets. Syleris—”
“You think they are not one and the same?” Koryn interrupted.
Yes. No. “One part of him is inextricable from the other, just like either of us,” I said.
Koryn was a witch, but she was still ruled by her heart.
I was half fae, but I was also human. We were, all three of us, a mess of contradictions.
“But I think that it is his place in the pantheon that silences him.”
The man who had forced himself into our lives? I wanted to trust him. But the Dark God, who’d been party to the curse that was killing Velora, who had created the witches?
Koryn bit her lip as she considered that.
“We could use sex against him,” she huffed. “As an incentive for truthfulness.”
I knew it was a jest. But she made them rarely, and I did not believe this one. She was trying to protect herself from deeper feelings by focusing on the physical. It was a strategy I knew well.
I brought my other hand to hers, threading our fingers together. “I don’t know if I could,” I said honestly.
Koryn’s eyes shone up at me through her frosted mask. Desire thickened the air between us.
“Me neither,” she whispered.
“It is difficult to think clearly in his presence.” Or hers. But I did not need to say it. She could feel it, surely.
Koryn huffed an unamused laugh. “Imagine having him in your head.”
I couldn’t begin to fathom it.
She raked her teeth over her lower lip, again and again.
I’d spent hours turning over the possibilities, trying to understand Syleris from every angle, but I could not come up with an answer.
He cared for Koryn deeply. He might even hold some affection for me.
But he had his own agenda. The real question was—what would he do when those priorities came into conflict with one another?
And would Koryn and I both be strong enough to resist him when it came to that?
Koryn released her lower lip from its prison and lifted her eyes from where she’d been staring off into the middle space between us.
“Garrick, I… I spoke with your mother.”
That was… news to me. My jaw locked into place, my face flattening by habit. It was not inherently bad, but my response to anything that surprised me was always to clear my face of any emotional reaction. Emotions made you easier to manipulate.
“I see,” I said.
Koryn’s brows drew together. She frowned. She’d gotten better at hiding her emotions, thanks to her efforts with Tomin and her sessions learning to control her power with Syleris. But she did not hide them from me. That was a gift—one I needed to return.
It took effort, but I let my own discomfort and uncertainty come through. My mouth tightened into a line. My eyelids opened wider. Koryn tracked the motions, even with the mask in place.
Her chin wobbled slightly as she spoke, all in a rush. “She has agreed to come with us when we leave. I offered her a place with Kyrelle. Once the curse is broken, she could build a life there.”
My mouth fell open. I wouldn’t have been surprised to look in a mirror and see that my turquoise irises had consumed the whites of my eyes entirely. Koryn had done the impossible—what I’d failed to do for years. And all of it because at a soul-deep level, she believed in… us.
“You think we will break the curse,” I said.
Her eyes glistened as brightly as the mask that surrounded them. Her smile was just as tumultuous. “I cannot consider another option.”
“My audacious, gorgeous, incredible witch.” I shook my head, emotions devouring coherent thoughts. “Thank you.” It was all I could get out.