30. Chapter Thirty
Ilicked the taste of magic off the roof of my mouth as we ventured further into town.
Calista had given us an old map and marked where she believed the closest entrance to the sanctuary was. It wasn’t near the castle, but rather, it was situated between rolling hills that kissed the crescent of the mountains. It was outdated, and finding our way through towns that hadn’t existed when this parchment was inked served more difficult than I had expected. It’d been hours, and each time Eero glanced at the map, it felt like we’d gotten further from where we needed to go.
“We really couldn’t have fetched a horse?” Sapphire muttered. “It’s not like we’ll be here long enough for them to notice a missing steed.”
“That is the opposite of laying low,” Eero muttered back and gave his cousin a knowing look. Today, she was blonde with hazel eyes while I was middle-aged, wrinkled, and gray. It was a nice change, actually, and fit my aching bones well. I rolled my neck and huffed out in dismay.
“Laying low is rather boring, now that I think about it.”
I chuckled.
We continued walking, until the buildings became sparse and the trees grew thick. I had to lift my boots to not trip over the roots of large oak trees, and when the lands turned into rolling hills, I knew we were finally getting close.
I squinted into the distance and eyed each hill, valley, and alcove. There weren’t any buildings carved into the mountains, nor were there lodges made of logs and old, recycled wood. It was empty. The valleys between the Elkyn and Greens kingdom were barren. I knew we were near water—the thin river that divided the two domains—but there wasn’t anything to see for a great distance. Had we been led astray?
Did the Circle of Sorceresses even exist anymore? They did in the party thrown in the abandoned tunnel near my childhood home…but that was all I knew of them.
We kept onward, following the endless dips and valleys of the mountains. Only when my knees ached and my eyes burned from the sunlight did I notice something tucked amongst the mountain. It shimmered, unlike soil or dirt and rock, but like clean stone with gold inlaid into the cracks. I wasn”t the first to notice the Goliath of a building. Eero stilled and captured Sapphire’s attention alongside him. Her crimson irises twinkled with hope before she faced me.
“That”s it, isn”t it?” she asked quietly. “You know, I never saw it for myself, but Yenira and I dreamed of this place as children.”
Eero smiled. “You weren”t missing much.”
I followed them down the hill gracefully, eagerly, and Sapphire slowed her pace to descend at my stride. “What do you remember of this place?”
“Honestly? I don”t remember anything. Azalea did everything she could to keep me away. There were times where she couldn”t avoid it, and only then did I truly learn about the world of magic. But even as a child, I knew she didn”t approve of it. I never had the interest or drive to figure it out myself, but now that I’m here, it”s the biggest regret of my life.”
Sapphire gave me a knowing look. “I must not have told you enough stories about me and Yenira growing up. In our earliest years, we didn”t know each other. In our later years, when we were discovering who we were and the magic within us, resentment consumed us. Envy unlike anything I”d ever felt. As we grew more powerful, so did our greatest faults. If the fae hadn”t taken me, I would have run away anyway. Yenira favored the sorceresses while I feared them. We are both halflings, but before the darkness ruined her, she was simply stronger. So, Aurelie, we must not focus on our regrets, because that will do us no good. We must focus on how we are correcting our wrongdoings, even if admitting that wrongdoing makes us cowards.”
By the time we”d made it to the bottom of the hill, my heart had started racing. Sapphire was wise in the worst of moments, but her words hit me hard in my chest. I loved Yenira, and although she would never be a sister by blood, she would always be family. Growing up alongside her meant that I had to accept she was just simply more powerful. More capable. More sought after, even if she was a criminal to every kingdom except one.
Not much time had passed since I was taken to the fae realm, but I felt as if I knew Yenira’s story in ways she would never tell me. The darkest moments. The kinds that were no better than the horror stories she told me about fae monsters I was raised to fear. If I was able to save Azalea—if—then I would not go easy in my line of questioning. Sapphire was right. Resentment was something I long held for my family. I envied the men and women who were bound to me not by blood, but by loyalty.
But as we approached the unfamiliar building, I knew I would be a different woman then who Azalea once knew. I just hope she accepted me for who I had become and not for who I was.
Eero stopped us outside of the sanctuary doors. There were no guards, no watchmen perched above on the rooftop awaiting us with arrows and bows. Only the tang of magic in the air filled the empty space. We couldn’t see the sorceresses, but I knew they could see us. I knew that, before we made it to that last hill that kissed the crescent of this mountain, they had detected us.
“Aurelie, you and Sapphire are of their blood, whether they admit it or not. You were both raised in mortal kingdoms before being stripped from your homes and brought to a new place. I need you to play the part.”
“The part?” I breathed, and for the first time since I knew her, Sapphire seemed just as confused. “What part am I playing?”
That familiar, confident smirk Eero wore so well danced across his lips. He was not the man I was used to seeing, with his long hair and pale skin, but flashes of who he truly was beat whatever magic Sapphire had disguised him in. “The kind that glared at me outside of her chambers and dared to defy the fae. The part that still loathes me, even if that might break my little heart.”
“I don”t know what you”re talking about,” Sapphire chuckled. “Hating you is something I”ve been good at since day one. I”m sure Aurelie can pretend for an hour.”
Eero tipped his head back and laughed, but before his fingers could even ghost over the glorious bronze handle of those doors, the woods screeched against metal hinges. There was nobody on the other side—just candlelit darkness, shadows warring with light.
I was the first to break the threshold and look past the darkness, despite the terror clawing at me from the inside. I knew these people had the ability to break Azalea out without our involvement—but they hadn’t. What if we had broken the treaty and trespassed into mortal lands, yet they had no interest in helping us? A shiver of doubt ghosted across my body, tickling me at the bones before raising gooseflesh across both of my arms.
Ahead past the darkness, light blossomed from the winding staircase that led to an upper level. it was ethereal, akin to the faelight I”d grown accustomed to, but still different. A woman dressed in emerald green, her umber skin like the sweetest shade of night, approached. She stopped at the balustrade and sneered down at us.
Kadir Zayne, the woman I’d hardly recognized the night I first met Novus at the party. The one who grinned at me knowingly—fluttering by as if she owned the room. Yenira had asked me if I remembered her then, but of course, I didn’t.
Now, though? Now, she would be a face I could never forget.
“Aurelie Cane,” she said so quietly, yet it danced across my ears like a taunt whispered inside my head. “What are you doing back home so soon?”