Chapter 32
The smell of the hearty stew and warm bread wafted around Cora and me.
Normally, the food would be a welcome comfort, but neither of us could eat much.
Gabriel insisted we take dinner with the royals and some of the nobles in the dining hall.
He claimed not showing up would make us look like we couldn’t assimilate to seraph culture and that the king might think that we didn’t believe in the divine absolute of Themis’ word.
I didn’t believe anything about Themis was good, though. Everything these seraphs believed caused harm, both in their community and in human society. The king only seemed to care about his power and not about the seraphs he ruled.
Prince Percie sat next to Cora, animatedly talking to her about something, but Cora sat with her eyes averted and occasionally nodded or forced a smile at the prince’s story.
My heart broke for her. She was already having to stifle her own emotions and needs to appease others.
I worked hard to ensure she never had to do that, and I failed miserably.
Cora had been through so much, and I couldn’t subject her to any more violence.
What if what we said or did was deemed worthy of going to the atoner?
My insolence with Gabriel could have certainly sent me there already, and that made me wonder how much more nobles got away with than commoners.
Noble transgressions were not held to the same accountability as commoners on either side of the barrier.
“Lady Aurora, how did you enjoy your first experience at Temple this afternoon?” A noble, Voralia, I believed, asked me.
Lie.
“It was a pretty Temple. Nothing I have experienced before.” I forced a cheery inflection into my voice and hoped that it came off as genuine.
Voralia tipped her head. “Are there no temples in Edenalee?”
“There are smaller temples for various deities. Most humans privately worship and have home altars,” I stated.
More noble eyes turned to me. Gabriel’s hand covered mine on top of the table. Anya sat across from me and watched intently; her eyes flicked to Gabriel’s hand on top of mine.
Voralia looked at me, head tipped. “You mean, humans worship false gods?”
Careful, Rory.
Before I could respond, Anya chimed in, “Voralia, did you hear the latest gossip about Henrick being seen courting Isla. Apparently, they are trying to hide it so that Isla’s father doesn’t find out, but Nysin saw them in the rose gardens getting a little too cozy.
” All the nobles became intently interested in this new scandal and lost interest in me.
I looked up at Anya, silently thanking her.
King Torrish stood after his fourth tankard of ale. The permanent scowl on his face was only eclipsed by the swaying of his body. “Dinner is over. I have a meeting with my council to discuss Edenalee,” he grumbled, his speech slurred.
My head turned to King Torrish at the mention of my home. Gabriel quickly stood and moved to his side. “Brother, allow me to accompany you to the council room. There is much to discuss about the militia and the new developments I mentioned to you.” He looked at me reassuringly.
“Yes, yes. I need to strategize on all fronts. Bring the map,” the king commanded.
Gabriel left in a hurry with Torrish without so much as a word to me, even leaving behind his sword in haste.
I dragged my eyes down the table as seraphs stood, when my gaze crashed with Queen Mollah’s.
She was staring at me, a look of indifference on her face, but something behind her eyes made me jumpy. I moved to stand with Cora.
“Lady Aurora. A word, if I may,” the queen said with a painted-on smile.
I paused. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
Oh, what in the underworld now?
Anya nodded to me, took Cora’s hand, and led her out of the dining hall.
When the room cleared, Queen Mollah moved to sit next to me, taking Gabriel’s seat.
Her sweet smile was still perfectly in place, but her demeanor was tense.
“I want to tell you how wonderful you are at adapting to your new surroundings, Aurora. It must be hard to be a human in a seraph land. Cora is such a joy, and my son tells me they are the best of friends. Tell me, how are you feeling about Tironaill so far?”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. I am sometimes confused and sometimes elated, but everyone has been so welcoming. A vastly different interaction than I thought I would have coming here.” I kept an easy smile on my face.
“I’m so glad. And how are you handling the enchants around you?” she asked and folded her hands in front of her.
“I don’t know how seraphs do it! Everyone’s so different, and I’m ignorant of what any seraph is capable of at any given time.”
Mollah let out a breathy laugh. “Yes, I would imagine for a human that it would be hard to navigate. Most seraphs can shield, so we aren’t always subjected to other seraphs’ enchants. Especially the passive ones. Did you know I have two enchants? Both passive.”
I had wondered what each royal could do. “No, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, yes. The enchant that I use almost all the time is my glamour enchant. I can make myself look young and beautiful no matter what. I don’t think I even remember what I look like without it,” she admitted.
Flatter her, Rory. “You are beautiful, Your Majesty. You have a kind spirit.”
She nodded. “But that isn’t how I got to be queen, though I am sure Torrish loves that I have that enchant.
” My head tipped, and my brows creased. “I became queen how any angheal noble would: By climbing the social ladder. Though I was much better at it than everyone else, using secrets, good and bad, to get the crown on my head. Oh, don’t look frightened.
I can’t read minds,” Queen Mollah giggled.
I did worry about it for a second, and my stomach dropped.
“You see, Aurora, I know so many secrets because I am audioperceptive. I can hear exceptionally well and at a further distance than most. Whispered conversations across crowded rooms, for instance. I can even tell when people, say, sneak up on me in compromising situations.” Her smile dropped.
My eyes widened. “Your Highness, I—”
“You saw Devoruh and me together,” Queen Mollah whispered in a deadly tone.
“It is none of my business, Your Majesty. I would never say anything. Nobody knows.” My mind was racing. Would she have me killed?
Mollah stared at me, searching my face. “I believe you, Aurora. Royals marry for lineage, power, and politics. Nothing more. Torrish and I have no true love for each other, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t view me as his possession.
” She rose and paced in front of me, still maintaining pristine posture.
“I find in Devoruh what has been missing from marriage. We have been through a lot together. Devoruh has been through more than anyone, seraph or human, could ever imagine. But that doesn’t mean I can let go of my station. My life also depends on it.”
“I understand, Your Majesty,” I said urgently.
Mollah paused and looked down at me. “But I didn’t make my way to being queen by taking people at their word, for I deal in secrets. I am calculated but not cruel. I want no harm to come to you, Aurora. You are needed here. But I must ensure your silence, and secret for secret is how I work.”
I tipped my head.
She smiled at my confusion. “I am also good at hearing muffled conversations through walls and floors. Your rooms just happen to be under my tearoom.”
I dragged in a shaky breath. Queen Mollah smiled. Her saccharine persona covered her devious abilities. “You are not a stupid woman. You have been quite busy wooing my brother-in-law, or should I say, using him. But you don’t fancy him that way, do you?”
I lifted my hands in supplication. “It isn’t that. I—”
“Now, now, Aurora, you have some complicated feelings for our Captain of the Guard, my dear nephew, don’t you?
A tragic outcome of why we don’t cross angheals with other seraphs.
But he broke your heart a little, didn’t he?
Last night, you told him how you felt, and he left without returning your feelings.
How unfortunate.” She shook her head and pursed her lips in a mocking pout.
“And today he scared you. You saw the side of him that scares all seraphs. Darragh showed you his monstrous side, and now, you want out of here. I wonder how our Army Commander would feel knowing that the woman he is pining after yearns for another.” The queen paused, then her sweet smile turned positively wicked.
“Not just another man. The one he hates most in this world. It would put both you and Darragh in so much danger. Gabriel has quite the temper, but you saw that already in the sparring room. I wonder how far you would have let Darragh go if you weren’t interrupted by Gabriel’s outburst. He was furious, you know.
He told the king and me all about it. I didn’t have to overhear you telling Anya to know that a lady in a compromising position like that isn’t just trying to learn how to fight.
I mean, why fight when you could have men fight for you? ”
Queen Mollah certainly knew how to play her cards.
I stood and splayed my hands on the wooden table, knocking over a wine glass.
The dark liquid slowly flowed over broken shards in the light of the torches lining the wall.
“Please! Your Majesty, I didn’t plan for any of this to happen.
I truly just want to keep myself and Cora safe, and the only way to do that is to keep Gabriel on my side.
I love my daughter. Just as much as you love your younglings.
From a mother to a mother, I won’t put you or your children in jeopardy with your secret. Please don’t share mine.”
“To ensure that you keep my secret, I propose a covenant binding. Do you know what that is?”
“I have heard of them, Your Highness.”
“It is an agreement made between two or more beings that cannot be broken, or the one who breaks it will suffer whatever consequences are set forth by the agreement. It is ensured by enchants. We lay out our terms and then seal them in blood. If you do not agree to this, I am afraid that I will have to find a reason to send you to the atoner. Or maybe Anya, for her part in helping you deceive Gabriel? She is a defiant little thing. I sent her to be your attendant because she refused the noble match I made for her. She is too old not to think about betrothal. I see she did not learn her lesson.”
I remembered from my history lessons that covenant bindings with seraphs were dangerous when humans and seraphs lived among each other.
The binding almost always favored the seraph, and their enchants made it easier for them to work around the binding effect of their part of the bargain.
Many a treaty was broken this way during the conflicts and uprisings.
I swallowed against a dry throat. “Your Majesty,” I pleaded, “Please don’t punish Anya.
She has been a great help in acclimating Cora and me to this kingdom.
It was my fault. I dragged her into my own mess.
And I have no reason to tell anyone. I believe everyone deserves to find a love like you have with Devoruh. ”
She clapped. “Perfect, then let's make the binding!”
The Queen slid her bejeweled hand under the slit in her dress and pulled out a small golden dagger encrusted in moonstones and sapphires. She snatched my hand in hers, turning my palm upward.
Shit.
Queen Mollah tapped her perfectly pointed chin with the hilt of the dagger, choosing her words.
“If you tell anyone about what you saw between Devoruh and me during the ball, then the binding is broken, and you will suffer a painful, unseen death that lasts for three days’ time, until your soul is finally sent to the underworld, leaving behind your daughter. ”
I stiffened at the thought of Cora being all alone in this land and with these people.
Queen Mollah pulled the jeweled blade across my palm, and I hissed through gritted teeth, leaving a stinging pain and a trail of blood in its wake. “Now,” her voice returned to demure and kind, “you say, ‘I take this binding into me and agree to the terms set forth by Queen Mollah.’”
I swallowed and nodded. Her grip on my wrist was bruising. “I take this binding into me and agr—” The doors to the dining hall opened to a pair of lapis blue eyes. Mollah quickly pulled the dagger back to her chest, out of Gabriel’s line of sight. She thrust a blue linen napkin into my hand.
“Gabriel!” She turned, hiding the dagger behind her back. Her sweet-as-honey voice was calm and collected. “Thank you for caring for your brother. He sometimes gets carried away with the ale.”
Gabriel strode toward us, watching me with gleaming eyes. “You’re welcome, Your Majesty. I just forgot my sword, and I came to retrieve it. Am I interrupting? I can escort you and Aurora back to your respective rooms.”
“Always a gentleman.” She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Actually, Aurora cut her palm on some broken glass, and I was about to heal it.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up, and he moved to my side, grabbing my wrist and turning my palm up to look at it. I met her eyes as she discreetly slid the dagger back under her dress at her thigh.
She continued, “I am a little rusty with my healing enchant. Would you mind?”
Gabriel placed his warm palm on mine, and his white light glowed, healing my palm. Only incessant fear remained. “There you go.” He kissed my hand, and I stifled a shudder. “Be more careful, my darling.”
Mollah smiled sweetly. “I am so happy Themis brought you to Gabriel, Aurora. You’re beautiful together.
” She turned to Gabriel, who was beaming.
My stomach soured. “We were just having a little chit-chat. Woman to woman. You know how it is,” she said with a wink to Gabriel.
“We can finish our conversation tomorrow during tea in my rooms, right, Aurora?”
I nodded, pulling a smile from the depths of me that I hoped Gabriel couldn't see through. “I would love that, Your Majesty.”
“Perfect! I will see you then.”
I didn’t waste any time following Gabriel out of the dining room and into the hallway. The one time I was thankful to be by his side.
“I am glad to see you getting along so well with Queen Mollah. If you agree to stay, you’ll be spending a lot more time in her company,” Gabriel said. It felt more like a threat now that she had shown me her true colors.
By the time I got to my rooms, I had calculated and formulated everything that was in the best interest of Cora and me, and it involved leaving as soon as I got my hands on that book in Gabriel’s office.
Now more than ever, I was convinced that it held the key to getting back through the barrier.
I had to go tonight, or tomorrow, I faced having to bind myself to the Queen of Seraphs.