50. The Mist Thief
Chapter 50
Arion’s affinity did not let him cross through fire and light for long distances, and he could only travel to places he had seen. The truth of it, revealed he had been watching my chamber for some time. The prince likely came to Klockglas with Cian and knew well who had slaughtered the guard.
The prince summoned light, but he could steal us away through it. Almost like the darkness of my mists, but he was not feared. No. Arion was revered by his clan.
With his arms around me, the prince forced me through a back chamber of an alehouse, to torches near an alley, then lanterns by the sea.
A ship met us at the shore. The white iron began to fade from my blood enough I could stand if I braced against Arion’s form.
I didn’t.
I let myself drop, tried to claw against the dark sandy shore, tried to scream. Only raspy sobs for Jonas escaped.
From the rowboat, three Ljosalfar warriors forced me into the vessel. Dressed in their golden armor with sleek braids keeping their smooth hair back, my mind accepted them as conspirators in this plot, and tried to be free of them as fiercely as I tried to do with Arion.
When I tried to fling myself over the rail, the warriors bound my wrists with a leather belt and Arion kept hold of it in his grip.
I glanced over my shoulder at one of the warriors. “The prince killed him. Dorsan.”
A tug on the leather on my wrists lurched me forward. Arion gripped my face. “They will not care like you think. Dorsan was Dokkalfar, not of my clan.”
“You are connected to us.” My voice was heavy from the iron. “He did not need to die. I hope it stains your soul.”
“Like I said, Skadinia, if it earns me the throne of all elven, a few stains will be worth it.”
Cruelty lived in Arion’s features. Already his heart seemed twisted with greed. There was no future with him where he did not make me his weapon.
Cold mists enveloped us when we entered the shores of Natthaven. The dark peaks and forests sparkled in lanterns from treetop folk, and the glimmer of the palace in the distance seemed so innocent, so welcoming.
It was a beautiful prison.
When the rowboat slid onto the sand, one of the warriors lit a matchstick. Arion reached for the flame until it danced in his palms. He tossed the fire with a flourish and a violent cyclone of heat and wind fashioned in the darkness.
Arion pulled me through with a firm tug. My hair whipped through the blaze of his hot, biting affinity until I landed on cold stone of the familiar hall of the elven palace, my wrists tucked beneath me.
With a rush of wind, the fire ring closed. Arion stepped past me without a thought.
“I’ve retrieved her, as promised. She’s delirious, lost to some of the alver elixirs. I’ve no doubt that will explain her odd behavior during the visit. It is as we suspected.”
“Liar.” I propped onto my elbow, but my breath stuttered. Eldirard was seated on his throne, more haggard than before. He seemed old. By his side, Gerard took a king’s seat. Stern and harsh, the Ljosalfar king kept his grip on the pommel of his bronze short blade, and a sneer twisted on his lips.
I managed to rise onto my knees. “Arion slaughtered Dorsan.”
My grandfather’s eyes went sharp, but the prince held up a hand. “I did not lift a blade, King Eldirard. The alvers caught our escape and poor Dorsan was caught in the middle. We will honor him in both clans.”
I was going to end Arion. He’d be tossed into the Nothing, and I would never let him escape it.
“Grandfather, he lies.” I tried to stand, but my limbs were made of heavy stone. “Why have you done this? I have always loved you, obeyed you, and you have robbed me of my happiness.”
“Like I said, delusions.” Arion shook his head as though heartbroken. “There is no telling how long she has been unknowingly taking their spell casts, but they have manipulated her mind to give them undying loyalty.”
King Gerard stood. “We will work on restoring the princess, then at last join our clans. Once we are ready, we’ll take those boons to which we are entitled from the fae.”
“Grandfather, you cannot trust this! You are allowing Arion to bring war to our people. Again! They will come for me. Jonas of House Eriksson will never stop searching for me. You underestimate them.”
“Perhaps you underestimate your own people, Princess,” Gerard said. “You do not know the half of what has been done to bring us to this moment.”
“Grandfather.” Strength built; I rose to my feet. “Do not agree to this. I will never be free, not with Arion. They will use me, you know it.”
Before Eldirard could speak, Gerard interjected. “Your affinity was gifted to the elven clans through fate, girl. It is unique and powerful, and was never meant to serve fae folk. It was made to serve the elven. Accept your fate, and fulfill your duty.”
“I will never serve you,” I shouted. A few gasps came from the servants around the throne room. My fists curled at my sides. “Never. You will never be my kin in my heart. You can force me to stand before your son as a bride, but I am vowed to another, and I will wait in nothing but ice if I must until the day he finds me and calls me out of it.”
At long last, my grandfather stood. “Cara, if you please, take the princess to rest. It seems she is quite weary.” He looked to his guards. “Prepare the isle to fade. We go to the deep seas.”
“My king.” One of the palace guards stepped forward. “The isle . . . well, it seems hesitant to fade.”
I barked a laugh. “Because you’ve betrayed it! It will not bow to you.”
My grandfather hesitated. “We will see how far we can go. Cara.” He gestured for my lady’s maid from the corner. “Tend to the princess.”
“See to it she cannot use her affinity,” Gerard added. “At least until she can be reasonable.”
Two manacles made of white iron were fastened to my wrists. They weakened me, but not the same as a strike from a white iron blade. Mists would not form, and it was another brick in a familiar prison.
I didn’t plead. What was the point? They would not listen. I did not have the strength to pull my mists. Not yet.
I said nothing when Cara guided me from the throne room, her features contorted in a sincere worry. I let my heart slow, my indifference take hold. As promised, I would feel nothing of this place until my nightmare found me.
Moments, decades, it would not matter. I would wait in ruthless anticipation, until those hands thawed my heart again.
My old chamber held no joy for me. It was not the long chamber I shared with Jonas with my garden window he gave to me without a thought. It had no abandoned corridor where a dusty, forgotten room had been transformed into a library with tales of romance without complaint that the tales were of no worth.
It did not smell of parchment and deep forest oak.
“My Lady.” Cara stood near the doorway. “Why don’t we get you rested. You’ll feel better by the morning.”
“I will not. Do not pretend I will when you do not believe it yourself.” I faced her, cold and distant. “I never belonged here. No one will ever see me the way my husband sees me. There were no conditions in House Eriksson, Cara. No masks needed to be worn.”
“Do you truly believe such things about your home?”
Time would be wasted trying to explain, and what good would it do? No one would allow me to leave here. “I hope you will find a place to hide when the alvers come.”
I faced the window, uninterested in her look of horror at my words.
Out on the sea, clouds rolled toward the shoreline, an army of darkness here to douse the light. Little by little the candles flickered in the room until they died. Wind beat against the bubbled glass, and the sea disappeared behind the wall of night.
There was a subtle tug in the pit of my stomach whenever the isle shifted.
I closed my eyes and let the tear balanced on my lashes fall to my cheek.
Only when light returned to the glass and candles flickered back to life did the king enter my room. Worn and battered, Eldirard dismissed Cara with a look and closed the door behind us.
“Skadinia.”
I clasped my hands behind my back. “Did you know I hate that name because it is not mine? It was added upon when you brought me here. My mother named me Skadi.”
Eldirard sat on the corner of my bed, arms lax over his knees, his shoulders curved. “I thought you would be clear of these thoughts by now.”
“I will never be clear of these thoughts because Arion lied. As I told you, as you chose not to believe. You gave me an heirloom that led him to me!”
My grandfather flinched. “I wanted a swifter way to reach you, my child. In the event, the alliance grew sour and you were put at risk.”
“The only risk I have ever faced is by my own damn people.” My voice was sharp and shrill. Emotion thickened in my throat, forcing me to turn away before I broke under his watch.
“I should never have agreed to these vows.” Eldirard let out a heavy breath. “We could have created the legacy without all these toils if I’d kept to the alliance with the Ljosalfar.”
I glanced at the floor. “I am forever grateful you agreed to the prince’s proposition, even though you have betrayed us both.”
“You truly care for him? You have been infatuated with ease before.”
“You think I was infatuated with Cian and Arion? I was desperate and alone and terrified I would be the monster you all feared. Of course, I fell for their words. Until they tortured me, laughed at me, took my body, then mocked and beat me when I did not know what to do.”
When I looked at him again, shame was twisted on my grandfather’s face.
He tugged the circlet from his brow, and ran his slender fingers through his fine hair. “You never said a word, child. Why? I would’ve protected you.”
“Arion was my betrothed, how dare I come to you, the one who gave me so much, and tell you such things about a bloodline prince.” The stone mask cracked with a bitter laugh. “How would it have gone? Arion would’ve been scolded, told to do better. Cian would be reassigned to the other side of the palace, but I would still be betrothed to a wretch of a man for your legacy.”
Eldirard looked stunned. No mistake, this was the first time he truly heard my voice.
“This betrayal is proof enough that no matter what you will always give me as a prize to Arion.”
“Stop speaking as if you mean nothing.”
“I do not matter to you!” Never had I shouted at the king, but it was untamed, and I felt a spark of life in my heart. Jonas’s fire. “At least not for what I can do beyond my affinity. I don’t understand why you have betrayed the treaty. You have every realm of the fae as your ally, yet you turn them against us for a single elven clan.”
The king hung his head. “I wanted to be a king the skald’s praised in their tales for generations. Be it through a union with fae or the joining of elven clans, I did not care. I agreed for Arion to bring you home after hearing the suspicions of Cian’s death. I truly thought you might be in danger.”
“You could think that after you witnessed us together during our visit? You saw how I rejected Arion, yet you did not question why Cian was in alver lands? You merely saw your other option for fame and thought nothing of me and my heart.”
“I wanted your name to live on as much as mine, as a glorious queen of the Dokkalfar.”
Gods, I did not care about my legacy if it was not written with my nightmare.
“Such alliance was written in legends, my child. A great rise of the Dokkalfar, and when I saw you, I knew you were the answer to my fading bloodline.” Eldirard rose and looked out the window with a touch of longing.
“You tore me away from the man I love for a legend?”
“It is more than a legend. The belief in prophecies was enough to form a long-held agreement with Gerard, one written in blood when you were still a babe. Arion unknowingly broke the peace alliance when he came against our isle.”
“What prophecy?”
“An old mortal seer spoke of the alliance of the elven, destined to be led by a consuming power that would lead them from obscurity. Arion has strength with the light few in his clan do, and when we heard of the Dokkalfar child who could swallow whole beings, Gerard and I agreed, this was the way to see our clans rise. Now, I wonder if you were always meant for a different fate.”
“So you thought you would pair us and we would take battle to . . .” My words faded when a thought burrowed into my skull. “Wait, what do you mean, you heard of the child? You found me by my own mistake.”
The king held my gaze. “I found you, but only after I had been searching for you since you ran away. I knew a great deal about you from many meetings with your mother and father.”
Sweat coated my palms. “You knew them?”
“They could not be reasoned with. I did what I could to bring them to understand what a benefit it would be for their child to be adopted by the crown and aligned with the Ljosalfar. They were wild hearts, treetop elven, and would not hear of it.”
“You asked them to give me up?” I dug the heel of my hand against my forehead, trying to dull the ache building behind my eyes. My heart stuttered when I looked to the king again. “All gods, no.”
Eldirard appeared as a broken man. “As king, they were my subjects, practically kin. But Gerard . . . he had his guard take white iron to them, then planned to deliver you to me. You must’ve woken up sometime through it all, saw the guards, and ran. No one could find you. Then again, treetop folk are loyal and utterly suspicious.”
I was going to retch.
“No.” I could still hear my father’s laughter when he would toss me into the ponds in the wood. I could still feel my mother’s gentle touch braiding my hair. “You told me I killed them.”
“We had to convince you of your strength.”
“You had to crush the fire in my soul!” A sob broke from my chest. “You needed your docile princess to see your schemes of domination into fruition. I loved you. I idolized you.”
“And I love you.” The king’s voice broke. “It is why after such loss, I wanted you to always be free of your affinity when it came to your vows.”
“To soothe your guilt.” Each word was jagged and lined in hate.
“No. So you could voice your thoughts. It is why when a second choice arose with the alvers, I wanted you to have it.”
When he reached for me, I pulled away. “You are vile.”
“Skadi—”
“No.” I stepped back until my spine struck the window. “You killed a mother and father who adored me. You’ve taken me from a man who loves me, just me. Not for my affinity, not for my title, for me. So don’t you dare tell me you love me, for I know too well what real love is.”
Silence fell, its sharp teeth dug into my flesh until I could hardly stand the emptiness between us. A gaping divide of a life I thought I understood. The thoughts, the pain, the fears, they were all lies.
I was not the fearsome beast two kings made me out to be. They were the monsters.
Eldirard placed his bronze circlet on the edge of my bed. “You are right. For turns, I have felt the shame of my actions, and have done all I can to ignore it. It is why I cannot fade the isle alone any longer. I have lost its trust.”
“That will be your legacy.”
His eyes were rimmed in red and pain. “Greed. It is not the legacy I desire. I grow weary of it all, my girl. You may not believe me, but I do love you fiercely. Forgive me for loving my own ambitions more. Allow me to begin making amends in the only way I can.”
The king left me bewildered and unsteady for a moment, but soon he returned with Cara. She was pale, still contorted in a bit of fear.
“Please sit, Cara. I have need of a witness for what I am about to do.”