Chapter 26
Caelan
The morning sunlight shone through the narrow slit in the curtains, blinding Caelan even with his eyelids squeezed shut.
Groaning, he rolled over in his bed, hands searching for Elara’s sleeping figure.
His fingers brushed across the empty sheets, their coolness telling him she had been awake for a while.
The two of them had spent the last several nights tangled up together, whispering and laughing as they explored each other’s bodies and minds.
“I thought royals got to sleep in,” he said, sitting up and rubbing his hand over his stubbled chin.
Elara sat in a high-backed chair at the fireplace, her wild hair and sheer nightgown reminding him of the night of the invasion.
The dying flames cast a glow around her like a halo, while ominous shadows loomed around the rest of the room.
“Elara? What is it?” he asked when she didn’t respond, taking his blanket and draping it over her shoulders. Her bare skin was like ice where his palms grazed it.
“I had another vision last night,” she said. Her voice was hoarse, as though she had coughed up a gallon of salt water. Caelan steadied his breathing as his eyes widened at the news.
“Tell me.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, the vanilla scent of her hair filling his nose. With soothing circular motions, he used his thumbs to massage the knots out of her shoulders.
“I saw . . . the future. Our wedding. It’s impossible, but Lysandra told me . . . and I believe her, Caelan.”
Elara’s familiar—though he hadn’t yet told her what Lysandra was—was dangerously close to becoming a drowned cat.
She lounged on the floor near Elara’s feet, licking her paws clean.
Caelan shook his head. Between Elara’s healing essence affinity, Lysandra, and this vision, he worried his father was right about her destiny. The thought made his skin crawl.
“Slow down,” he said, kneeling before her and placing his palms on either side of her pale face. “I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when it comes to your magic.” He offered her a tiny smile. “I’m here. Just breathe. Start from the beginning.”
“You were dancing with Sera, then I saw them. Thalia. And my mother and father.” Elara could barely form the words, as if they burned her throat as she spoke them aloud.
Caelan stiffened. No.
The room shrunk around him. The soft crackling of the fire was a roar in his ears. The drawn curtains threatened to fly open at any moment and expose him to the world.
Elara was his world now, and he focused on her face, keeping his breathing steady.
“But it wasn’t really them. They didn’t act like themselves.
And Thalia’s eyes . . .” Elara shuddered, her own eyes glossy and haunted.
“They were illusions, Caelan.” Her faraway gaze came back into focus, staring into his eyes, searching.
“They were Sera’s illusions.” She started sobbing, curling in on herself as her cries jolted her slender shoulders.
Caelan’s heart ached for her, and icy dread pulsed through his veins. I should tell her. He’d known this day would come—the day his shameful secret would be revealed, the weight of his cowardice crushing him. He stroked her hair, trying to soothe them both.
“Sera wouldn’t do that unless my father ordered her to,” he said, choosing each word with intention.
“He was there too, Caelan. Threatening me, threatening them again. He told me to ‘enjoy them while I still could.’ ”
Caelan shook his head, his hair falling over his eyes, and brushed his thumbs over her damp cheeks.
“Elara, darling, I know you are hurting right now. But I need you to listen to me. If Lysandra is right and this is really a vision of the future, I think it means that my father plans on killing your parents after we wed.”
“I know it’s real. And I’m not surprised that your father would do such a thing.” She paused, searching his eyes once again. Then she exhaled, her shoulders sagging. “There’s something else I need to tell you. I’ve experienced a glimpse of the future—or maybe the past—before. From a seer.”
“What seer?” Caelan’s brows drew together.
“At the Mabine festival. She told me of a prophecy about someone who would restore essence to the world.”
Stars, another prophecy? Caelan thought. A prophecy had brought him across the sea to this palace. “My father believes in seers too . . .”
“How is this possible? I’ve never heard of any essence affinity that allows someone to see the future.”
“Just look at Lysandra, or the artifices they’re building in the North. There is magic in this world that we don’t understand, Elara. Knowledge lost to the ages and new discoveries that we can’t even imagine.”
Caelan thought about Sera’s amulet, the one that allowed her to use her illusion magic to conceal memories. What could Elara do with the right tools? The right spells? Time was running out—he had to tell her the truth or figure out how to prevent her from discovering it.
“Do you remember the prophecy the seer gave you? The exact words?” he asked.
Elara nodded. “They were impossible to forget.” She took a deep breath, then recited:
The Druids danced away the night
The War, the ruinous delight
Man cracked the Well
Destroyed the spell
And cost the world the Light
One shall come with Death her boon
Born under the Cygnet Moon
One who hears the raven’s call
By triple Stars to save us all
Caelan’s head spun. The Druids, the War, the Well . . .
“A raven’s call? Do you think that means . . . ?”
“Lysandra. But it can’t be . . . It can’t be about me. The seer said the Cygnet Moon is rare, and the next one is in a month. Our wedding night.”
Caelan nodded his agreement. It couldn’t be about Elara, but it wasn’t a coincidence that his father planned for their wedding to be the night of the Cygnet Moon. The prophecy made little sense to him, and it didn’t match what his father was expecting—the reason they’d come to Serendith.
“What about your father? What prophecies does he believe in?” Elara asked, rubbing under her nose with the blanket.
Caelan moved to sit across from her in a matching chair and leaned back.
“He knew about my mother’s death before it happened and tried to prevent it.
He knew that you and I would wed and made sure it happened.
As for what else . . . I’m not sure. I don’t know what he’s really after or why he would want to kill your family after the wedding,” he lied.
“I can guess. He wants you on the throne as king, and he doesn’t want to wait. If he can make Sera create those illusions, he can use my family as puppets for as long as he likes before he’ll claim they perished in some accident.”
“He’ll thank the stars that you were here, safe, and that our marriage ensures the royal line.” His hands balled into fists in his lap.
“But why? Why does he want you to be king? Trade deals? I know he was angry with my father for backing out of some arrangement. I thought it was the engagement, but what if it was something else entirely?”
Caelan scrambled to pull together a half-truth that would satisfy her. “Vengeance. Remember the tapestry and the journal you found? Your family exiled mine generations ago, after the Shattering.”
“After they betrayed us,” she added.
“That’s not how my family told the story.
I grew up on it, and so did my father and grandfather.
This is more than a coup . . . It’s a blood feud that started centuries ago.
” He placed his forehead in his hand. “I’ve been so blind.
He wants me on the throne and a long line of Stormriders to rule Serendith. ”
“But you’ll only be king consort. Does that mean he’ll kill me?”
“No. At least, not right away. He’ll only force you to transfer your power to me and take my surname. I promise I won’t let him hurt you, Elara.” His stomach turned in on itself at the thought of losing her.
“And my family?” Fresh tears pooled at the edges of Elara’s eyes.
“We’ll find a way to get them somewhere safe before the wedding. I’ll reach out to some trusted soldiers under my command.” Caelan raked a hand through his tangled hair.
“Good. I’ll go talk to Sera.”
He grimaced. “Be careful. As much as I want to trust her, I don’t think you should tell her about your healing essence affinity yet. Or the prophecy. See what she knows of my father’s plan, and we can come up with a counter.”
Elara nodded. “I’ll be careful. But we need her on our side, Caelan. Keep my family safe, for now. We’ll need more allies at court, regardless of your father’s plan for us. I’ll see what I can do.”