Chapter 15
Theo
Two days Theo had sat by Amaris’s side while she slept.
He’d read through several books, attempting to decipher Isabel’s message, but came up short.
Amaris hadn’t woken since Pricilla bandaged her hand.
She checked on her morning and night to confirm she wasn’t developing a fever.
Theo was thankful for the recess from her foul language and irritating personality, but he was beginning to worry for her wellbeing.
Not that he should have. The confusion was unsettling, but without further knowledge of who she was and what had happened, it only grew.
Solace had always found him on Luana’s beach.
He trudged through the sand and dropped down beside the largest rock, which had never once been a terrible companion, and slid his book across his lap.
He gave himself a break from the Gorrin texts.
The stray piece of parchment he’d grabbed as a placeholder for his novel slipped from the page.
It had a few scribbles of an old battle plan.
He leaned back and tried to read the first few lines of the chapter using the light of his lantern.
He spent every spare moment devouring any book he could get his hands on, but as his eyes shifted over the text, nothing imprinted in his mind.
He’d come out here to allow the sound of the surf to calm the ever-growing need for a breath.
For a moment, he didn’t want to think about Amaris, his nightmares, or his discussion before supper with his stepmother.
Genevieve was adamant about assisting him in selecting an escort for the Conjugation. Theo had managed to spare himself for now, but she’d handed him a list of eligible women and demanded he picked one within the coming weeks.
“Pondering life’s greatest mysteries or hiding?” Adelaide’s voice drifted from up the path.
Theo closed the book and shifted his gaze to his sister jogging toward him with flushed cheeks and beads of sweat trickling down her face. Her sword and dagger dangled from her hip.
“Thinking,” Theo answered, but hiding was more like it. Hiding from Bennet, his father, Genevieve, anyone threatening to send his head into a deeper spiral.
Adelaide drew her sword, twisting it in the moonlight.
Her hand rotated the blade, twirling it like an extension of her arm.
She flipped her long black ponytail off her shoulder and lunged, striking her invisible opponent.
It was incredible how long her hair had grown in what felt to Theo like only a short period of time.
Her resemblance to their mother was growing more prominent with her years.
Especially with those eyes they’d shared with her.
She dropped the tip of her sword and leaned into the hilt. “Looks more like brooding to me. I’m surprised you’re not in bed, snuggling up with your pillow and muffling words of longing as you drool across your sheets.” Sibling mockery enveloped her laugh in a warmth Theo couldn’t reciprocate.
Gods, I missed her laughter. Before he’d left, it’d carried through the halls, and every single person within the manor had felt its contagious warmth.
“I’m not brooding.” He wished he laid in bed dreaming of a woman, or anything other than the war. A peaceful night’s rest was precisely what he needed.
Her giggles ceased. She inclined her head and raised a suspicious brow, her eyes glittering with silver specks.
“I know you, Theo.” He gave her an incredulous look, but she only raised her brow further.
“You are aware I can find out whatever information I desire, or have you forgotten my cunning abilities already?”
Theo moved before she could react, kicking her legs out from under her. Her sword fell several feet away, and she landed in the sand with a sharp grunt. “How can I forget your incessant need to ramble during your training?”
A spark ignited in Adelaide’s eyes as she rolled back on her hands and propelled herself up. She took her fighting stance, lifting her fists. With his headache, Theo questioned if he’d be able to beat her in a fight, but with the waves crashing against the rocks, there was no better distraction.
She swung her leg out, making to collide with his head. He rolled to the side, getting his feet under him. A blow to the head in his condition would be a short end to their sparring, and he didn’t need Adelaide asking why he wasn’t himself.
“You’ve lost weight,” she said, cocking her head as she began her circling. “You’re quicker.” She faked a jab to his face, but he caught her attempt to open his stance and blocked her as she sent her fist toward his stomach.
“I see your first move is still to fake your opponent out.”
She charged, hurtling a series of punches and kicks. Theo focused his attention on her attempts at sending her fist into his skull, but he failed to block her kick to his chest. His lungs burned for air, but he didn’t keel over. He panted through pursed lips, keeping his arms up.
“What happened in the throne room?” she asked.
Theo threw a punch, but she blocked it, dodging out of the way as his arm sailed past her head. She gripped his arm, bending it at an odd angle as she drove her knee into his abdomen. This time, he pitched forward, grasping at his stomach as his body sucked in whatever air it could.
“Tell me!” she demanded.
Theo barely knew what happened in the throne room.
One moment he’d been thinking about the issues of Duncaster, and the next his head had spun with Amaris’s story.
Hiding anything from Adelaide was futile, though.
She often discovered any information she wanted to know, but Theo couldn’t bring himself to tell her.
“What happened in the throne room was a mix of dehydration and lack of sustenance. What really matters is what we discovered in Duncaster.”
She released his arm but didn’t send another punch or even a kick his way. Instead, she folded her arms and prodded at the inside of her cheek. “I already heard all about it. Fights, Deavonian Accords, slavers.”
“But Freville?”
Adelaide wasn’t impressed and cocked a hip. “You think she did it?”
“No, maybe.” Theo groaned, cupping the back of his neck. “I don’t know.”
“Did she tell you who she’s married to?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “How do—”
She raised her hand, silencing his words. “I know everything, Theo, remember that.”
He released an annoyed breath.
“Are you jealous?” Adelaide teased.
“Why would I be jealous?”
“Because she’s pretty.”
Theo rolled his eyes. Why did every person within these walls wish to discuss the mating of the sexes?
She went on. “Well, if you’re not jealous, are you at least as infuriated as I am? I don’t know about you, but that is a nasty bruise across her face, and the cut on her cheekbone”—Adelaide shook her head and tsked—“probably from her counterpart’s wedding ring.”
“Are you saying you think her husband hit her?”
“You’ve been thinking the same thing. It’s probably why you’re out here brooding.”
“I’m not brooding.”
Adelaide shrugged off her long leather jacket and discarded it onto the rock. She wore black trousers and a matching vest over her shirt. She looked the part of a warrior. Theo only wished she could carry her sword in the daylight as she did now.
Adelaide bent down to pick up her sword and held her stance, pointing her weapon at him. He pulled his own from its sheath. She gawked at the silver blade, admiring the serpent hilt.
“New sword?” she asked, her eyes fixating on the jewel for its eye.
“One good thing needed to come from the war,” he said, but a smile never reached his lips.
An invisible layer of blood coated the blade.
No matter the amount of scrubbing he’d done, he would always see their faces.
Losing his old sword, the one piece of home he’d brought and promised he’d cherish, had been a disgrace.
The only reason he still had this one was because it’d been a gift from Gris.
Adelaide yelped, and their blades collided. Her feet moved in a swift rhythm, carrying her over the sand with each of her strikes.
“I see your footwork has improved,” Theo said.
Her blade met his, and she pressed against it. “As I spend my time training instead of reading silly little novels, I would hope so.”
She pulled back, but then she surged, and he was forced to move at a speed he hadn’t used since the war. With her smaller stature, he’d taught her to use it to her advantage. Wear her opponent down and move with quick strikes. She stepped back as she began circling to catch her breath.
“If you read more, you’d find they aren’t silly at all, but rather thrilling adventures.” Theo smiled, pleased with the shift in conversation.
“A thrilling adventure would be to sail the Nebulous Sea to war or travel to Duncaster. Those are real adventures, ones you get to live yourself.” Adelaide pulled a hidden dagger from her boot and angled both blades before him.
He released a sigh. As much as he wanted her to become a soldier, he didn’t wish to shift to this conversation right now.
“Not all travels are adventures. You must not mistake them for reckless danger.” Theo drew his dagger as she lunged at him. Their swords met with a piercing ring that made him wince. Adelaide pulled back, but he shook it off before she had a chance to notice.
“At least you saw combat.” She readied herself for another strike.
“War isn’t glorious, Adelaide.”
Theo didn’t wait for her to attack. He stepped forward and unleashed his own series of moves.
She didn’t balk or stumble in her steps.
Her arm moved in a fluid motion as it blocked each of his slashes.
She ground her teeth together and moved before he sensed it.
She kicked his hand, sending his dagger into the sand.
“Why do you get to run off and fight while I’m left here?”
Her scream pulled at his heart.