Chapter 25
My mother’s name—and the word queen—clang through me like a bell tolling the death of everything I thought I knew. The teacup slips from my limp, unfeeling hands and clatters to the earthen floor—liquid splatters the woven rug, blooming dark as blood. My vision goes white at the edges.
Lowan is around me instantly. His arms wrap me in iron, his scent surrounding me.
“Shhh,” he breathes into my hair. “I’ve got you.”
Through the ringing in my ears, I hear Elaris rise, her voice steady and final.
“This has been enough truth for one night. It is time to rest our spirits.”
She gestures, and orbs kindle in the shadows, casting pale light along the hall.
We file out, each of us heavy with silence.
Lowan keeps me upright, guiding me down the uneven passage until it ends in three doors.
Selene and Zillah take one side, Remli the other.
Lowan steers me into the chamber at the end.
Light swells as we enter, and I blink at the space. Woven rugs underfoot. A stone platform with a low bed draped in turquoise. A buffet table with fruit, cheese, and water gleaming in glass. Cushions are scattered on a small white sofa. It feels far too soft, too safe, after what I just heard.
Lowan eases me down onto the cushions. He pulls the sliding door shut with a click, sealing us in, then pours me a cup of water.
“Drink,” he says quietly, pressing it into my hands. I sip, but it sits like a stone in my throat. He glances at the darkened chamber beyond. “I’ll be right back.” His gaze hardens. “I just want to know what’s waiting in there first.”
He kisses my temple and disappears, sword in hand—my pulse spikes. I set the cup aside, draw my blade, and follow. The passage narrows and then spills into a rocky hollow. A mineral spring swirls at its heart, steaming beneath a shaft of pale light.
“Another spring,” Lowan says, lowering his sword.
Relief rushes through me, sudden and dizzy. I lean my sword against the wall, tugging off my damp clothes before I can think twice.
Lowan arches a brow. “What are you doing?”
“I’m still in shock,” I say, my voice rough. “And I have questions. But nothing you can’t answer from in the water.”
He smirks, shaking his head. “You’re always trying to get me naked.”
The water is hotter than I expect when I slip in, rising to my shoulders, soothing the ache from the day’s march. For a while, we don’t speak.
Lowan settles in the pool with me, and I find the rocky shelf beneath the surface, sitting back against the stone wall.
He kneels in front of me in the steaming water, close enough that I can rest my hands in his hair.
I dip my palms in, smoothing the water over his head, working it through his dark strands. He closes his eyes and lets me.
His hands roam idly beneath the surface, not with hunger but with comfort—sliding up and down my thighs, grounding me with touch. For long minutes, we’re just there, breathing in the heat, letting silence hold us.
At last, his voice breaks the quiet. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re feeling. I know that was a lot.”
I let my hands pause in his hair. My chest feels too tight.
“It all makes so much sense now why we were always running. Why we couldn’t stay in one place, she was trying to tell me the night I disappeared.
And now… I don’t think she knew what was coming—I think she thought it was just my magic, finally unbinding.
If she’d known I was about to vanish, she wouldn’t have left me so unprepared. ”
Lowan’s gaze softens. “I think you’re right. From Elaris’s reaction, she was an incredible Queen.” He pauses. “But I don’t remember her. Not really. She fled when she was pregnant with you. I would’ve been three. Too young.”
The ache in me deepens. “Gods, of course. I wasn’t thinking. This has to be just as much of a shock for you—all of it. Your whole life under that Illusion, shattered in a night.”
“I’ll survive it.” His thumb strokes my knee under the water. “But don’t apologize. Don’t carry that weight too.”
I nod, pressing my head back against the warm stone. “It’s just… so much.”
“It is,” he agrees. “But start where you can. Ask me what you need.”
“Then tell me.” My eyes lock with his. “Tell me everything you remember now that the Illusion is gone.”
He thinks for a long beat, then says, “Not much of your mother’s reign. As I said, she was gone before I was old enough to understand. But my father… I see things differently now. Little ways he tried to anchor us in the truth, even while pretending to forget.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“Like the King’s green eyes,” he says quietly. “He never let me forget them. Always told me, always reminded me. I thought it was just because they had awed him; that they were unusual. But now I think maybe he wanted me to remember. Something no Illusion could erase.”
He reaches up, his fingers brushing lightly around my own eyes, tracing the skin there with reverence. “Although I can see how they would’ve taken him in. I know I can’t look away.”
Heat stirs in my chest, with nothing to do with the spring.
“And my mother,” he continues, “she used to tell me my father believed the realms were once one. That maybe they were meant to be whole. I thought it was just old lore he liked the idea of, but now, I’m not sure what to believe.”
My heart twists. “Yes. She told me that same story, and I asked you all about it at the tapestry in the castle, remember?”
He lets out a slow breath. “It sounds like something he would have held on to, stubborn as stone. Maybe it was his way of making sure the truth was never lost entirely. A gift to my mother. To me.”
I draw in a long breath, steam filling my lungs, and let it out slowly. My fingers trail down from Lowan’s hair into the water.
“What now, Lowan?” The question slips out before I can stop it.
“We’re supposed to go find this Arden… but who is he, really?
What do we even say to him when we find him?
‘Hello, you don’t know me, but apparently I need you to help me with something, though I have no clue what, so could you come with me?
I also have no idea when you’ll be back. ’”
My laugh is thin and shaky. “I don’t know. We came here for answers, and yes—we got some. But I swear, I feel like I’ve walked away with twice as many questions.”
Lowan shifts closer on his knees, the water lapping against my chest as his hands find mine beneath the surface.
“That’s the nature of truth,” he murmurs. “It opens doors you didn’t know were there. And once you walk through, there’s no way back.”
Lowan’s fingertip traces a droplet as it slides down my throat, lingering where my pulse hammers.
“We don’t have all the answers tonight,” he says quietly. “And that’s okay. We’re here. You never have to do this on your own. We’ll figure it out.”
Something inside me breaks open at his words.
Not fear this time. Something fiercer. Truer.
Love. I lift my head from the stone and meet his gaze.
He sees the shift before I even speak, and desire sparks instantly in his eyes.
I draw him closer, my arms looping around his neck beneath the steaming water.
My legs fall open, pulling him between them.
“You know what I noticed,” I murmur, my voice a low purr.
“I am absolutely interested in finding out,” he whispers, lips brushing my ear as he presses closer, heat and strength surrounding me.
“These rocks,” I tease, nipping at his jaw, “aren’t too sharp at all.”
His mouth curves in a grin. “What a coincidence. That was the first thing I noticed as well.”
His kiss takes me before I can laugh—searing, desperate, claiming. One hand cradles the back of my head; the other skims down my body beneath the water, igniting fire everywhere he touches. I gasp, arching into him, the sensation nearly undoing me.
He strokes me sinfully with his fingers and groans into my mouth, our tongues colliding wildly. He breaks the kiss for a moment, pulling back to look at me.
“Fucking perfect,” he growls, every word torn from his throat with want. “Open for me.”
His fingers return, pushing deeper—one, then another, stretching me as I spread wider for him. My breasts bob above the water’s surface, peaks aching, as I arch into the sensation.
Need coils inside me, sharp and unrelenting. “Lowan,” I whisper, lips brushing his ear. “I need you. Now.”
He smirks, clearly pleased with my desperation, and slides his fingers out. In the next moment, he guides himself into me—deliciously slow.
I moan, the pleasure almost too much to bear, and he stays there for a moment, buried deep, our bodies pressed tightly together, slick with the hot mineral water.
“I’d better soundproof this room,” he murmurs against my throat, “because you will cry out for me. Make it loud.”
I feel a zing of magic fill the space, then he’s moving. I need him deeper, if that’s even possible. I angle my hips, spreading wider, and he understands. His hands lock underneath my thighs, and he drives, pinning me against the stone. I splay my arms wide, bracing myself.
The pleasure of it… It’s otherworldly. How can something feel this good? The thought escapes as a moan, and Lowan pants, “Fuck if I know,” while driving into me again and again.
The Thread that’s always there between us pulses with every thrust, layering ecstasy on ecstasy until I’m almost undone. Lowan must feel it too—he moves harder, gasping my name, chanting his love for me like a prayer with every stroke.
The pressure builds, consuming me. “Lowan,” I plead. He reaches between us, circling my center with his thumb as he thrusts into me, relentless.
I shatter with his name on my lips, phoenix fire bursting from my skin, flaring gold through the water before hissing into steam. Lowan’s answering cry tears through the chamber as shadows surge from him in black, feathery wings.
The cave itself seems to hold its breath as flame and darkness twine together, consuming us both.
I wake warm and utterly content, my cheek pillowed on Lowan’s chest. He drapes his arm around me like a shield, and I hear his heartbeat steady beneath my ear. For once, I don’t push myself up or reach for my sword. I lie there, soaking in the rare peace.
Last night’s revelations hover at the edges of my thoughts, but I refuse to touch them yet. They’ll keep a bit longer. For one night, it was enough to let the caves and Lowan carry me—to drown myself in something other than grief or shock.
The chamber hums with its own quiet magic. The buffet table has replenished itself—this time with steaming cups of tea, a basket of fresh bread, and honey-glazed fruit. It’s uncanny, the way this cave seems to know exactly what we need.
Lowan stirs beneath me with a groan that vibrates through his chest. His arm tightens around me before he finally shifts, pressing a kiss to my hair. “Morning.”
“Morning,” I echo, smiling against his skin.
He eventually stretches and slides out of bed, utterly unbothered by his nakedness as he pads toward the table. My eyes follow him before I can stop myself, tracing the lines of muscle, the curve of his back, the dark hair at his nape.
Without turning, he rumbles, “I can feel you ogling me.”
Heat floods my face, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction. I prop myself on one elbow and call sweetly, “Don’t worry. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
His shoulders shake with laughter, the sound echoing low in the chamber. He glances back over his shoulder, his grin wicked. “Careful, Metra. You’ll have me on my knees before breakfast.” I toss a pillow at him. He dodges it easily, chuckling as he pours two cups of tea.
Lowan and I dress after we’ve eaten, though not without distraction. I bind my breasts as usual, then slip into loose, flowing trousers—billowy silk cinched low at my hips, gathered at ankle and waist. They’re lighter than anything I’ve worn before, almost scandalous.
Lowan eyes me appreciatively as he fastens on his sword. “I really like the traditional dress style of this island.” He drags his gaze down and back up, silver eyes flaring with need.
Heat prickles my skin, but I roll my eyes and swat his arm. “You would.”
We emerge into the common room. Elaris sits serenely, her cup of tea steaming in her hand. Her knowing gaze flicks over us, and though she says nothing, I flush all the same. Somehow, I know she knows how we spent the night.
“I hope you all are well-rested,” she says smoothly. “We have much to discuss. But first—” she gestures toward the cavern mouth “—I think you would probably like to go outside.”
“Yes,” Selene says at once. “It would be good to feel the island’s rhythms again.”
“There are no windows here,” Elaris continues. “It is easy to lose your sense of time. But remember—when you return, the cave will only open for you with blood. A single drop is enough.”
We nod, none of us eager to linger under her all-seeing stare. We file out, taking the dry path behind the waterfall rather than walking straight through. Mist clings to my hair as we emerge into the open air at last. For a moment, we stand in silence, the jungle pressing green and alive around us.
“Well…what now?” I ask.
Remli exhales sharply, her shoulders rolling. “I don’t know. But before we do anything, I need to move.”
And then she shifts, a sleek lynx bursting forward in a ripple of fur and muscle, vanishing into the trees with a wild cry. Selene watches her go, wistful. “I don’t need to run, but I’d love to walk. Feel the trees again.”
Zillah leans close, voice low. “I wouldn’t mind feeling some nature myself.”
Selene chuckles, but Zillah is already at her side, whispering something in her ear as they disappear down a shaded path. That leaves Lowan and me. He turns to me, eyes gleaming. “What do you think? Come fly with me.”
My heart lurches. “I…sure. But I’ve only ever shifted in moments of extreme emotion. I don’t know how to command it. I shifted in the dungeon. For Sirona. When I was terrified. And…” I hesitate, heat brushing my cheeks. “With you.”
His mouth curves, wicked. “Oh, I know.”
I shove him lightly in the chest, laughing despite myself. “But I don’t know how to do it when I’m not, you know, on the edge of breaking apart.”
He steps closer, voice low with promise. “Perfect. Then let me teach you.”