22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Ihadn’t worked up the courage to see Lyra, since she and the healer occupied the guest room upstairs. Sapphire reported her well-being every now and then, but as I nibbled on a biscuit the following morning, her ear-shattering wail made me jolt out of my skin.
I lifted my head and stared at Sapphire. Casynox cleared his throat. “They’re trying to bleed the magic out of her.”
My head whipped toward Casynox in disbelief. Sapphire sighed and let her fork clatter on the plate. “Why do you have to scare her like that? You know she doesn”t know what that means.”
Casynox smiled bitterly at Sapphire before returning his focus to me. “Whatever happened that day poisoned her. Her magic is fighting against her body, and there’s nowhere for it to go but out. So, day by day, the healer performs a procedure that gets rid of the bad. Over the following weeks, as she heals, the good magic will return.”
My shoulders eased, and the thrumming in my chest started to slow. “So it’s not permanent?”
He shook his head and smiled softly. “No, Aurelie. Not permanent.”
“Was that so hard?” Sapphire muttered before grabbing her plate and bringing it to the kitchen. The silverware clattered against the dishes, and although it was indiscernible, I could barely make out the curses she was throwing his way. Casynox stretched, groaning out.
“Eero told me you will be leaving for the mortal realm tomorrow,” he said before he leaned in to whisper. “Good thing, too. Sapphire’s this close to making me lose it.”
Meanwhile, she’d been inching closer with an angry glare glued to the back of his head. I blinked at him, jerking my head toward her, and smiled impishly. Casynox’s face faded into realization, and just as he spun around, she was lunging at him. I let out a fit of laughter when she reached for his glass, likely to pour it over his head, but he snatched her wrist and tutted at her.
“Words, Sapphire. Use them!”
“I am getting so tired of your judgment,” she hissed and finally yanked back, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re being such a…a…”
“Bastard?” Casynox cooed and faced his plate again, taking a bite of ham. “Cunt?” With that, she smacked him on the back of the head. He winced before laughing and rubbing the sore spot. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Sure, you are,” she grumbled, snatched the rest of the empty plates from the table, and returned to the kitchen. This time, he ate in silence, only clearing his throat when she exited the house and aimed for the gazebo near the water.
“Do you have to be so abrasive right now?” I asked with a narrowed stare. “Isn’t Evander being, quite literally, the worst excuse for a mate possible?”
“Not the worst excuse, but close enough,” he said between bites, chasing it with his juice. “Sapphire and I have known each other a long time. This isn’t the first time she considered doing reckless things because she’s close to the idea of what she thinks is happiness. It’s tough love, that’s all.” Casynox winked at me before standing and cleaning his dishes. “Besides, Sapphire thrives when she has somebody to be angry at who’s in no way related to the problem at hand.” A laugh, then, “Deflection at its best, Aurelie Cane. She’ll be fine.”
The floorboards creaked beneath the weight of my steps as I ascended the stairs. Eero was still with the rebels they’d stationed in town, and Casynox was sparring with Sapphire. I’d peaked out the window a few times and saw her red with rage, swinging at him with a waster unlike anything I’d seen before.
In fact, magic bounced from it. That had to hurt, but he was laughing it off and parrying like it was nothing.
The screams had died down since we all finished breakfast, but part of me was riddled with guilt—a large part, in fact. It was all-consuming and mind-numbing. I had no control over what I did and saw, but if I hadn’t been so careless when I had the time to learn, perhaps I wouldn’t have had such an outburst.
By the time I made it to the upper level, the healer was backing out of the room with a silver platter full of bandages and herbal remedies. I paused at the same time she did. Her wide amber eyes strung along me—did she know who I was?
That I was the reason Lyra was unwell?
She stammered on her words before bowing her head and spinning away, disappearing into one of the adjacent rooms without another word. I frowned and swallowed past the lump in my throat. That was my answer—without a doubt, this woman knew who I was.
I approached the door and chewed on my tongue, sweaty fingers grappling around the brass handle. First, I pressed my ear near the door and listened. It was quiet, but I could hear the subtlest wheezing.
Then, I pushed the door open, and a waft of putrid herbs and soap whipped me in the face. I held my breath and allowed my gaze to shift to Lyra—
My heart fell into the pit of my stomach.
Her veins were the color of midnight, stringing underneath her eye bags like vines. Her lips were more chapped and cracked than I’d ever seen them, and there were small incisions lining the length of her arm from where they bled her.
I did this.
My magic did—with my hands. I was at fault here. I approached her slowly and choked on the gasp lodged in my throat. The black liquid beneath her skin moved, as if swimming against the current of her veins. I had never seen anything like it before, and I never wanted to again.
“There is a plague, madam,” came a soft voice. I jolted back and turned around, catching that wide-eyed stare of the healer. She lowered her gaze to the ground before scurrying in with a cold compress, resting it against Lyra’s skin. “It’s not contagious—not in the traditional sense, no.”
I wetted my dry lips and flicked my stare back down. I had no reason to believe this healer, but she likely knew about it more than I did. “Will she overcome it?” I asked. “What sort of plague is it?”
“There are murmurs that dark magic is resurfacing,” she said calmly, as if it were any more ordinary than talking about afternoon tea. She kneeled and started cleaning up some of the incisions on her arm. Her ears were rounded, and a scar splintered across her cheek. Faded, white. “My mother used to tell me about it, trying to scare me from venturing too close to the borders between our realms. It really only sickens those of halfling blood, but it can still harm full-blooded fae, given the right sorceress.”
The information made my head pound, so I cleared my throat. “You hail from the mortal realm?” I asked with wide, hopeful eyes.
“I do. Elkyn Kingdom, just like you if I recall correctly. I’m Valerie.” Her amber eyes lifted to mine and narrowed. “My mother’s fables worked as well for me as they did for you.”
I thinned my lips. She was right—in fact, it was the first thing I thought of when Jon first asked me to venture closer to the realm in search of his hunters. This woman wasn’t fae—and she couldn’t have been much older than me. At most, she was thirty. At most.
“How did you end up here?”
A small smile twitched her lips as she tossed a browned, wet towel on the platter. She continued cleaning Lyra’s skin with a fresh one. “King Sólkon helps Novus control his Underfae problem. I played a stupid game, and one of Sólkon’s men thought it’d be good to use me as an example for getting too close to their realm.”
“They pulled you in,” I gasped. That was a breach of treaty—worse than when I killed those Underfae monsters. “How long ago?”
“Five years.”
Here, my heart slowed to a resounding thrum. I blinked away the confusion, wetting my dry lips. “I don’t understand—”
“You shouldn’t,” she said and stood slowly. Her smile was distant, weak. “Because it doesn’t make any sense, does it? I had a family. Kids. Husband. They’re dead, from what I hear, and my disappearance fell on deafened ears. None of it matters now, anyway. Casynox found me when I escaped my prison cell—offered to bring me home.”
“Yet, you’re here.”
“Because my home is gone, Aurelie. I’m not wanted there, and I have no interest in bending a knee to a monarch who silenced my kidnapping.” Here, her smile faded, and she cleared her throat before aiming for the door. Her mouth opened, but she snapped it shut and shook her head.
As she disappeared out the door, her voice echoed behind her.
“Be careful, Aurelie. Kings and Queens will do terrible things to cover up their own malefactions.”
Valerie’s words were resounding threats. They faded into absolute darkness as Sapphire and I trained, and although we only practiced basic enchantments that could be concealed behind closed doors, my mind was somewhere far away. I understood that there was much bad blood between the mortal and fae realms, but to think a monarch had her family assassinated?
I was inclined to believe it was King Sólkon who ordered their deaths, but Valerie seemed impassioned by this truth. To her, the Elkyn queen had no innocence in this. I tried to think back to every scandal, disappearance, and crime that was whispered across the kingdom, but nothing as unimaginable as the fae stealing a mortal girl from her rightful place behind their barrier ever came to mind. That sort of happening would not be ignored.
Unless the hand that fed silenced it.
“Do you know much about Valerie?” I asked quietly, watching the flower petal I’d just healed die again. What had been vibrant crimson was nothing more than dark brown, wrinkled rot.
“That she favors Casynox,” she said and smiled softly. “Thinks of him as some sort of hero. How wrong she is.”
I chuckled and dropped the rotten flower on the table, leaning back in my chair. The magic still warmed the tips of my finger, and I closed my eyes to focus on the feeling for a moment. I hoped this training came in handy—that even if I couldn’t train with the magic that would save me in times of need, I learned how to focus on the warmth it bled throughout my body. I felt like I was getting a hold of it. In times of peace, I could feel the magic flitting around in the core of my chest like a butterfly awaiting its chance to break its cocoon.
“She said she was kidnapped after getting too close to the barrier.” I frowned. “Five years ago.”
“Don’t be so surprised. I was kidnapped, you were kidnapped. What’s one more?”
“I don’t know, it just doesn’t sit right with me,” I murmured. “She had a family. Yet, no town crier spoke of it as rumor. None of the tavern dwellers gossiped. It’s not like I was a kid when this happened, Saph. I was twenty.”
“Like I said, Aurelie, what’s one more? Sólkon doesn’t care for mortal treaties, and neither does Novus. Not unlessit benefits them.”
I frowned and leaned forward, bracing my arms on the edge of the table. “So if we make it to the mortal realm tomorrow and we are caught, what will they do?”
“I think you can use your imagination.” Sapphire collected the dozen dead petals before scooping their stems into her palm. “The only thing we can do is find our way into the Circle of Sorceresses and ask for their aid. If they can’t help us get into that prison…I don’t know what we can do.”
I frowned and pinched my palm. Sapphire offered a small smile and cupped her hands together so the waste didn’t fall to the floor before turning away. I was left in silence, Lyra’s illness clouding my vision each and every time I blinked. There were so many moving parts, and if any of them failed…well, I didn’t know what I’d do.
But it all led to one thing.
Even if my family and friends turned to foes, and the mortal kingdoms called for my death, I’d at least have my closure. That alone would push me toward the crown Eero so rightfully deserved. The one he was born to.
I just hoped I didn’t lose all the things that made me who I was today in the process.