Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
“My room isn’t the one I woke up in?” I huffed, out of breath from climbing up four flights of golden, spiral stairs.
Delani had just finished giving me a very thorough tour of the entire first floor, making a point of showing me where the kitchen stored their wine. Then, she took me to where I’d stay during my time here—however long that would be.
She clicked open the lock to an ivory door, pushing it ajar with her forearm. “That room was in the mending quarters. I don’t imagine you want to stay there more than needed. Right?”
“Right.”
The door closed behind us with a thud as I stepped onto shining wooden floorboards. They didn’t strain under my feet like the ones in my family's aged cabin had. I slid across them like I was on a frozen lake, twirling in a slow circle to absorb the space.
A loveseat and armchair were positioned to face a crystalline coffee table.
Abutting the opposing wall stood a wardrobe and shorter dresser, both of which angled towards a set of windows concealed by lace curtains.
The powder-blue walls kept the space bright and airy, and upon a woven carpet was a mattress that I could not wait to lay down on.
“My room is down the hall, Sawyer is next door to you, and Pia and Kohen are across the way.” Delani plopped down on the bed, her tiny frame hardly taking up any space on the oversized mattress.
I searchingly stared at her and awaited an answer to my unspoken question, but she began weaving her hair into a braid instead.
A knot forced its way down my esophagus. “And Sebastian?”
“He’s been staying here…” Her eyes locked with mine. “The two of you were going to be here, but we can have Dad make other arrangements if you want.”
At further inspection of the room, I noticed Sebastian's belongings scattered about. One of his sheathed daggers on the coffee table. A bookmarked novel on the armrest of the chair with his glasses folded neatly on top of it. A pair of boots that looked too shiny to be his usual ones—my father must have given everyone a new set of clothing when they’d arrived.
I released a heavy sigh and tossed myself down by Delani, the plush mattress having a slight spring to it. “I know we have more important things to catch up on, like way more important, but I am so pissed at him.”
“Does Maeve actually want to talk to me about guy stuff?” Her pitch raised. “I’ve been waiting for this day since I hit puberty.”
My eyes fluttered a few times before surging into a spin. “Forget it.”
She rolled to her side, resting her head on her hands. “I get it. But sooner or later you’re going to have to forgive him.”
“I don’t have to forgive him,” I argued, although the ache that came with those words threatened to tear me in half.
Now knowing what life was like with him, I couldn’t imagine my life without Sebastian.
Though I also couldn’t see a world where I understood why he did what he did, either. So where the hell did that leave me?
“No. Sorry. I suppose you don’t have to.”
“I want to read the journal,” I announced, pushing up on my side to face her head on. “I want to see just how much he hid from me.”
Her throat bobbed. “I’m sure you can. But I think healing and focusing on this new power of yours should come first. You need to figure out what exactly it means.”
In all honesty, after seeing what I had been capable of during the battle, I was kind of scared to try conjuring the stars again. I wouldn’t exactly say that what I did back in Caelestis was controlling the power. More like in the moment, I had nothing to lose by giving it free range.
I shifted the subject. “I also need to know what's happening in Caelestis. And with Beaumont. Do we know if he survived?”
“Gods. Does your mind ever stop?” Delani’s head tossed side to side in disbelief. “You know that it's okay to take some time to heal and adjust to everything before jumping right back into this mess, right?”
Wrong.
My mind couldn’t handle not knowing. I deserved all of the information. Even if he didn’t think so.
“Just answer the question,” I snarled. “Do we know anything about Beaumont or not?”
“No. We’re pretty secluded here in Lumosia,” she answered without an inch of doubt.
I couldn’t stop the way my face scrunched. “You sound like you’ve been here for years.”
Delani’s chin tilted to the side. “Come on, Maeve. Give it a chance. It’s our new home.”
“This place will never be home.”
My home—Vierallo—was gone.
“You can have more than one home,” she argued.
“Sure,” I scoffed, falling to my back to glare at the ceiling and holding up three fingers.
“One home is a building with four walls.” I dropped a finger.
“Home number two is a person—should you be so lucky.” Another digit fell.
“And your final home is wherever they throw your corpse after you’ve lost your two other homes. ” I folded my fist.
Delani's hazel eyes widened so much that I swore they were going to fall out of her skull and roll across the birchwood floor. “Oh how I have missed your optimism.”
“I’m not trying to be optimistic—”
“Clearly.”
“I am trying to be realistic,” I sharply concluded.
A heavy knock hit the door, followed by a creek as it was pushed slightly ajar.
“May I?” Archer waited for a response before peering through the crack of wood.
“Sure,” I replied with a click of my tongue. “It’s your house, or mansion, or palace…whatever you call it.”
“Has she always been this sarcastic?” he asked Delani with a chuckle as he made his entrance.
“This is nothing, compared to her usual ridicule.”
My father’s sight locked to where I lay sprawled on the plush duvet. “How are you holding up?”
My bones shook as I moved upright, the cartilage still weak from the multiple breaks I had endured. “How do you think? My mind has been blown one-too-many times today.”
He stepped further into the room, centering himself in the middle of the area rug. “I know it’s a lot to process. And I don’t expect you to come to terms with everything overnight, but there is work we have to do. Business that we must take care of.”
“Business?” Delani arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow.
“There are things we must discuss,” Archer reiterated.
“Such as?” I had a feeling that at least some of this business was about what I had just asked Delani.
“To start, I would love to get to know my two daughters. That is the most important thing on my list at the moment. And after that, we need to talk about Caelestis and Beaumont.” Archer gestured at me. “Also your new powers, and those markings on your arms.”
The mattress bounced as Delani jolted upright. “Yeah, Maeve, tell us more about your magic? You can compel minds? And your friends were saying you destroyed a bunch of Draemornians with starlight. How?”
I shrugged, not quite having an answer to that yet.
“I dunno. Blythe transitioned her magic to me, and then she just…vanished. It was all so off-putting and happened so fast, that I didn’t really have time to think about what I was doing.
” I forced myself to a stand. “Then my friends and the kingdom were in danger, and my body just…did it.”
“Do you think you could do it again?” Archer asked, a spark of hope glimmering in his eyes.
“Probably. I just don’t know how exactly. And to be honest, I don’t have the energy or strength to attempt it right now.”
Archer grinned apologetically. “Of course not. You need time to rest and adjust. We’ll worry about that when you're back to one-hundred percent.”
A snort of a laugh shot through my nostrils. “Sorry. But if you wait for me to be at full health, then you’ll be waiting forever.”
Delani’s lips downturned, her face tensing as her eyes raked over me from head to toe. “What does that mean?”
“How much time do you have?” I took a quick glance at the clock upon the desk. The hour hand swiftly approached two in the afternoon.
Woah. Time flies when you’re reevaluating your entire existence.
An hour later, I had given them the rundown of the past year of my life and granted Archer a brief explanation of my childhood.
I told him about how when I was eight, our village doctor evaluated me.
My mother had brought me there after she noticed some repetitive behaviors of mine.
Following some extensive testing, the physician told me that my brain was different.
That it held on to things longer than it should.
He said my thoughts may seem redundant and obsessive.
He explained how the repetitive motions of my body were not my fault.
I've made a lot of growth since that diagnosis, but when life goes astray, it’s hard for me to not obsess over every fine detail.
I didn't know why that was the topic I chose to bring up, but for some reason, I felt like my father deserved to know about it, seeing as I could feel a relapse in growth coming in response to recent events.
The hour after that was taken up by Delani filling us in on hers. Then we went back and forth for a while, reminiscing about our mother and describing our childhood to Archer in as much detail as we could supply. By the time the sun had set, I almost felt like I had known him for years.
The strained groan he released when pushing out of his seat showcased the deterioration of his aging body.
For a moment, I grieved the version of him I never got to know.
The young man who had married my mother, who had just become a father.
The version who used to be a ruthless soldier, the form of him who could silently rise from a chair.
“I should let you get some rest.” He muffled a yawn with his roughened palm.
Delani slid off the bed while vigorously rubbing her eyes. “I’m going to go, too. I haven’t talked this much in a year.”
Sardonic laughter escaped me. “I find that incredibly hard to believe.”