2. Chapter Two
“You’re taking this whole…imminent war thing well, Aurelie,” Casynox said less than five minutes into the journey. We traversed by carriage, moving slowly through the winding paths as we neared town.
If well meant staying up into the wee hours of the night with reckless nightmares plaguing her sleep, enticing her cries, and numbing her human heart, then yes, she was doing well. But that wasn’t a fight I was willing to have right now—not for my sake, but rather…Aurelie’s.
“Let’s just say I’ve grown used to chaos,” she muttered with the slightest grin.
She was trying so hard. I saw it in the glitter of her eyes, the twitch in her smile, the slump in her shoulders. There wasn’t anything I could say to change what Sólkon did to her, but I could encourage her down a path of recovery. Whatever that looked like, at least.
That part was still to be determined. None of us had a clue what he actually did to her, but I knew it wasn’t any good. I still had flashes of coming up to her in those wretched chains, naked skin ravished by teeth that did not deserve to taste her flesh. I licked my tongue across the edge of my canines, rage brewing deep in my chest.
Should I ever be fortunate enough to find Sólkon, should he break free from the depths of whatever hellhole he was hiding in, I would make him pay. I’d never desired revenge as much as I did now.
More than revenge, actually. I’d never desired the blood of my enemy. Now, it swarmed in my head like a sweet, prophetic dream. I would get justice for what happened to her, whether she wielded the blade or I. I wanted him to suffer.
“Chaos is overrated,” Casynox said as he leaned back into the seat, his silver eye glittering toward her with knitted brows. When he smiled, his sharp canines captured the light. “I prefer my wars to be like symphonies. Calm, surreal. A real work of art, truly.”
“Cas,” Sapphire sighed and flipped the page of her book, her foot bouncing irritably. “Aurelie doesn’t want to hear about your fantasies about war.”
Even in a wholly fae form, with his beast withheld, there was something predatory to him. It urged subordinates to listen and commanded his foes to choose their moves carefully. If I hadn’t been uncertain of Aurelie’s safety back in the Winter Court, I would have let him unleash that beast on those brainwashed soldiers.
Oh, the mayhem would have been glorious, but I’d never risk my witchling’s safety and sanity unnecessarily. The kidnapping right after leaving the Night Court was terrible enough. Few had lived to tell the tale of Casynox’s chaos—even fewer of his mercy. That said, his heart was as warm and inviting as one of the sprites in the Winter Court woods.
Bit like them, too. Irritable little things.
Aurelie’s eyes narrowed toward Casynox. “When did you find your love for such a thing? War isn’t the most appealing of things, even for the fae.”
My eyebrow cocked, a small smirk dancing on my lips as I thought back to the days when we first met. Casynox had no connection to the Winter Court, nor the Spring Court for that matter. He was all but rogue, banished from his home in the Summer Court. He almost put me out of my misery when he found me somewhere between the Spring and Winter Court borders. I don’t think I ever thanked him for not listening to my plea, because if he had, I wouldn’t be here.
My smirk faded. That was one of two times I’d wished for death.
“Truth be told, Aurelie, I didn’t ever truly love it. I was a general for a crown I loathed, and the second I found a way to break free, I ran. All roads led to this fucker,” he said as he kicked my boot. “I had sworn to myself never to get involved in the politics of war and royal pricks again, but who could turn down a mug like that?”
I rolled my eyes and leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees. “Please. You jumped at the idea of a rebellion after I was strong enough to speak the word ‘revenge.’”
Aurelie laughed, but when I turned to her, there was a distant look in her eyes. She’d gotten paler too, the normal rouge that colored her cheeks gone.
“Why side with him, then?” Aurelie asked quietly.
“We shared a common enemy,” Cas muttered. The humorous twinkle in his eyes was nowhere to be found by the time he’d turned to glance out the window. “And thank the gods we did. Now, he’s my brother—blood or not.”
Aurelie’s expression softened, her hands folding over her lap as she settled into the seat. Finally, those emerald gems captured mine. “Everybody deserves a friend like that,” she said quietly, offering a small smile. “I am glad you found each other when you did.”
She didn’t know the half of it. If it wasn’t for Casynox, I don’t know what would have become of me.
Despite being protected by an elaborate glamour on the edge of the Spring Court border most of my time in exile, it never failed to astound me whenever we pushed beyond the threshold. It was like the strange harmony of a warm embrace and bone-chilling cold, all in one go. Despite my best attempt to shake it off, my skin rose with gooseflesh as I shuddered.
Aurelie gasped, her nimble fingers slipping past the curtain that shielded us from the sunlight. I leaned over to catch the view before she let the sheer blinds fall back into place, still amazed by the temporary city crafted of tents and training fields, concealed but so easily found, given the right nose.
“What was that?” she breathed, her hands folding tightly over her lap, as if to ease her nerves. I smiled subtly, wishing I could peer into her mind, to better understand the mundane anxiety. She may have been a halfling, but she was imperfectly human in all the right ways.
“A glamour,” I said quietly, studying every crease around her lips as she pursed them thin. “Think of it like a veil shrouded by the second layer of our realm. It’s there and always will be, no matter the magic, but to a wandering eye, it is…nonexistent. Irrelevant.”
Aurelie’s tight-lipped frown loosened into an ‘o’ shape. “That’s not seasonal magic, though. You told me the fae cannot practice ordinary spells like that.”
“They can’t,” Sapphire chimed in with a droll tone, ushering my focus from the novice witchling to my esteemed cousin. I couldn’t help but smirk, knowing exactly where this was going. “They wish they had our power, Aurelie,” she quickly added, fluttering her eyes up at us. She didn’t smile, but her eyes glistened as if she were. “Casynox has a way of finding all the hidden gems, it seems.”
Casynox let out a harsh chortle. “Halflings aren’t as hard to find as you love to make it seem, Saph. Especially ones with big pointy ears like yours.”
This earned my cousin’s smile as she turned her crimson glare to him. “And if you’re not careful with your words, I’ll sink my big pointy claws into your chest.”
Though his laughter faded into quiet delight, a bit of terror shadowed him. Sapphire was rarely bluffing—he knew this firsthand.
“Point being,” Casynox said, facing Aurelie and turning his smile into that crooked smirk he loved to flaunt, “there are a select few halflings in the camp we’ve recruited for our cause. They maintain the magical ward, glamouring us away from prying eyes. When they aren’t busy giving themselves magical hangovers, they will be helping you.”
“Cas,” I snapped, and though I did my best to hide the bark in my tone, it bled through the cracks. Aurelie’s heart picked up the pace at the false promise. I would kick him in the groin for saying that so prematurely. “I told you we would speak on this matter later.”
Aurelie breathed a laugh through her nose, tightly coiling her arms over her chest. “So you speak for me now, Eero?”
There it was. Her fiery attitude warmed me, even amid nasty arguments, but this topic was sensitive. I reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose, trying my best to drown out Sapphire’s titter. Casynox, however, had grown deathly quiet.
“Why wouldn’t I train with the other halflings?” she continued. “Sapphire is great—”
“Thank you,” Sapphire interjected.
“—but I shouldn’t have one teacher. I should have as many as possible.”
After moving my hand to rub my forehead, I opened my eyes and looked at my witchling. She waited patiently, not moving to break her closed-off posture even after the carriage had stopped. Cas and Sapphire exited in silence, but as soon as the door shut, my cousin burst into laughter after a dramatic smack reverberated through the air. Meanwhile, my dimwitted best friend was spewing off all sorts of excuses about why he would offer this up to Aurelie without discussing the logistics of it.
Even in times like this, their presence thawed my cold anger. I needed it, to be fair—Aurelie was a force to be reckoned with. Without my calm, she would likely burn everything to the ground with magical rage.
I didn’t blame her. I never would. She’d been through hell and back in the span of months. “My hesitation only exists to the extent it did when you told that blacksmith in the Spring Court about your halfling blood. I trust and want you to learn, but I do not know these people.”
Her rage dwindled to an idle flame, the very kind that withstood a windy evening campfire, but I could smother it. She was no fool; she understood how dire this situation could become, throne or no throne.
“Then what do you suggest, Eero? Should I limit my potential to what Sapphire knows? She’s powerful, but will it be enough to…”
In seconds, I watched that night flash through her eyes again. The agony tightened in my chest, and my own mind swarmed with visions of her hanging from those silver chains like a slab of meat, awaiting an untimely death. To this day, I don’t know if Sólkon thought she died, or if he had something else up his sleeve. No matter the intent, my yearning for justice remained the same. He wouldn’t get away with it; he would suffer.
Pulling myself from the thought, I brushed a strand of hair from her face. “I will never let that happen to you again, Aurelie. I swear on my life.”
In so many ways, I blamed myself for what happened to her. If I hadn’t tried to forcibly keep her away from the cruel, vindictive ways of the fae, if I had let her come to town with us that day…she may have been able to be saved.
Been able to save herself—
She was more than capable of that, but I forced her into solitude. Even the most well-equipped and trained sorceress would crumble at the hands of Sólkon and his henchmen.
“You can make your promises, Eero, but you do not control him.” Despite the gravity of her words, she smiled softly and leaned into my touch. “And you certainly don’t control Yenira.”
I kissed her forehead softly and inhaled her scent, fluttering my eyes shut for a selfish moment. She quelled my every anxious nerve with her mere presence. Nobody had that effect on me—not one. “I apologize, witchling. I do not mean to be so…”
“Controlling? Possessive?” She was beaming when I parted from her forehead enough to look down into her eyes again. “Domineering? Imperious?”
“Aurelie, don’t be silly.” With my words, her smile faltered, and I almost couldn’t bear it as my own widened. “You don’t have to list all my best qualities. I’d survive knowing my possessiveness won your heart, let alone the rest.”
All the uncertain anger washed away as she laughed, finally dropping her arms from her chest and resting a hand on my knee. “Oh, I could go on.”
“And I’m all ears,” I cooed as I stole a swift kiss before hooking my hand around the handle and pulling her from the carriage. “But it will have to wait until we finish planning our siege, if that’s alright with you.”