Chapter 47
Rylee
I’ve only ever been to the temple of Eirdis once before, during Pierce’s and my first time together in the Emerald Wood.
Today is vastly different.
I’ve spent over an hour in the temple, combing it for anything out of place, and coming up empty.
I came to the Emerald Wood to collect another batch of the antidote Ivy has been endlessly producing and deliver another three bundles of Tareena’s golden flowers she needs to create it.
It’s the last we can spare without eradicating the plants.
We’ll have to wait for them to regrow before we can make more, but this will help.
I stopped here afterward. I had to, after what Erin said to her people about the temple. She could’ve meant Evaluna’s, but I went there yesterday, and everything was normal. Neph’s, too.
Same here.
I intend to check on Tareena’s temple tomorrow.
Kal and Axl are currently finishing up visiting the healers’ establishments, ensuring the sick are getting the antidote they need. But here I am, standing on the balcony that wraps around Eirdis’s middle, my neck arched so I can look up at her pristine face.
Something inside me pulls, almost reminiscent of the bonds.
The unbreakable connections that tug at me even now—two in the direction of the Ruby Aire, one toward the west, where Silvac lies, and one so faint I can’t pinpoint where he is.
I focus on the separate connection to stop me from spiraling about Jax.
No word, no inkling, nothing.
I feel so out of control when I think about him, it’s all I can do to not rip my hair out.
I take a deep breath, closing my eyes as I center myself like Pierce taught me. Thinking about him, about the statue of his mother before me, has that connection flickering to life. Almost like an acknowledgment or a way to get my attention.
I could be imagining it, but after the dreams I’ve had with Evaluna and the events that follow them, I don’t discredit any instinct fluttering through my body.
I died, and thanks to my mates’ sacrifice, the goddesses brought me back.
Did that create a connection, too? The same one that allows Evaluna into my dreams?
Or is that merely a facet of her power, like she spoke about?
“Are you trying to tell me something?” I whisper to the sleeping goddess, feeling rather foolish. Who do I think I am? Some special chosen one to interpret messages from them?
I shake my head, blowing out a breath. I think I’m so desperate for answers, I’m conjuring connections in the search for solace.
“The first time I saw her, I couldn’t remember how to breathe.” The king’s voice cracks the silence in the temple.
I whirl around and spot Pierce’s father, Brooks, strolling up the last few steps to this middle balcony, heading my way. He wears a pair of crisp black trousers, a shirt of emerald stretching tight over his chest. He’s casual today, his curly black hair longer than it was the last time I saw him.
“Your majesty,” I say, bowing properly. He’s certainly not the worst of the kings, but he doesn’t hold my trust, either. I take a casual step away, toward the stairway, in case I need to make a quick exit.
Brooks dips his head toward me, then looks up to the face of Eirdis.
“We’d all heard of the goddesses’ arrival in Lumathyst,” he continues, leaning against the balcony railing.
“They’d walked among us for quite some time, blessing people, enriching the lands with their powers, but I’d never seen her up close until after a few months.
I was working in a bookshop near what is now the Emerald Wood, poring through titles like I would any other day.
It was raining, and she came in to get out of it.
” He smiles. “I was dumbfounded. A goddess, in my shop, looking regal and yet . . . simple in the most fascinating way. She had a thirst for knowledge that outweighed mine, which was saying something, and once I remembered how to breathe, we spoke about many things. Books and teas and her affinity for lemon cakes.” He chuckles.
“I told her I didn’t expect a goddess to be so easy to talk to. ”
I swallow hard, unable to stop the warmth spreading through me at his words. The look in his eyes. There’s a youthfulness there that looks like love.
“I knew when she walked out of my shop what she was to me,” he continues.
“Not that I knew the term for it or the magic behind it. I certainly didn’t expect her to feel it the same way I did.
But . . . mates. Such a tangible, undeniable situation.
She returned the next day. And the next.
Until neither of us could deny what the Fates had clearly deemed. ”
“The Fates,” I say. “I’ve learned more about them, but I fear there is still a great deal I don’t understand.”
“Give it time. There’s much to learn when it comes to our kingdom’s foundations.
” He nods. “Eirdis spoke of them often,” he says.
“Sometimes in favor. Other times, not so much.” He smiles again.
“They’re the ones who granted them permission to leave their ethereal domain and come to these lands,” he says, tilting his head. “Didn’t you know that?”
I part my lips, ready to explain that Ashlanders aren’t given the same history lessons as those in the royal cities, but I stop myself. “It’s wild to imagine her needing permission for anything,” I say instead.
“I often said the same thing.” He sighs. “I miss her.”
Shock rattles through me at the confession, at the confused and longing look he casts upward.
“I rather thought she’d return to me by now,” he continues, almost under his breath.
I recognize that longing, empathize with the ache. I miss Pierce, and we haven’t been separated nearly as long.
I can’t imagine decades of time. I almost feel sorry for him, but the notion is easily quashed when I remember the lack of trust between us. The hoops he’s made me jump through before and after being mated to his son.
“Are you here to offer me something else?” I ask. Last year, during the time I spent in the Emerald Wood with Pierce, Brooks sought me out and offered me a new life as long as I stayed away from his son. “Or another task from the list, perhaps?”
“I deserve that,” he says, then waves me off. “Believe it or not, I come here quite often.”
I blink a few times. I didn’t expect that answer.
“It’s true,” he says. “Not that many people are aware of it.”
“The kings, you mean,” I say.
“We all handled them going to sleep in different ways,” he says. “Some took it better than others.”
Baydel. He took it very well, I imagine.
I don’t say as much.
“I’ll leave you with her, then,” I say, heading toward the stairs. I need to meet with Kal and Axl instead of chasing instincts with no rationalization.
“I’m happy you didn’t take my offer the last time we met privately,” he calls to me.
I pause on the first step, my hand on the marble railing as I tilt my head at him.
“Anyone who would’ve taken that offer wouldn’t be worthy of my son,” he continues with a shrug.
“While I agree with you, your majesty,” I say as kindly as I can manage, “there will come a time when I’m no longer keen to perform for any of your tests.
” I plant him with a serious look. “There will come a time when proving myself to you or the RAC will no longer hold the weight it does now.” Something flickers inside me, a sense of pride I can’t quite place.
Brooks tips his chin, glancing up at Eirdis before focusing back on me. “Let us all hope it doesn’t come to that, my dear,” he says.
I don’t bother bowing before I leave him there, staring up at the statue containing his mate’s essence and body—a mausoleum of sorts. A reminder of all he lost.
It’s sad, when thinking about it like that, but it’s hard for me to linger on pity for the king too long.