Chapter 23
VINCULA
Caius sat in the sandwich shop, staring at the chair across from him where Rory once sat. She wasn’t in the soulscape last night, and he was miserable.
“Your Grace?”
He turned toward the delicate voice to see a pretty young woman standing beside him, holding a sack. Her hair was a soft blonde, and she had a gentle air about her.
Caius struggled to place her. “What’s your name?”
A slender hand brushed a wisp of hair away from her face as she smiled politely. “Brynne.”
Brynne Taylyr. A light went off in his head. “Convicted of theft and assault.”
She averted her gaze and shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, Your Grace.”
He gave her a once over, remembering her arrival. It was shortly before Rory’s, and unlike his mate, Brynne had been polite and cooperative when she arrived.
The girl was caught with groceries shoved into her large bag.
Most people did not need to steal food because The Crown provided a certain number of food credits for every person in Erdikoa each month.
She was sentenced to Vincula because when the shop owner grabbed her arm to stop her, she decked him in the face, earning an assault charge.
Caius meant to seek her out and figure out why she’d stolen food, but Rory arrived, and everything else was pushed aside.
“Sit down.” He stood and pulled out the chair across from him.
“Your Grace, I only wanted to borrow the chair.” She pointed to a small, chair-less table across the crowded deli. “There were no extras.”
Caius tapped the back of the chair. “Sit.”
She snapped her mouth shut and sat tentatively, clutching her sack lunch like a lifeline.
The girl looked ready to bolt, but he knew she wouldn’t leave. He was the king, after all. “Why did you steal food?”
Her fist tightened around the top of the sack, and she swiveled toward the counter. “I paid with my credits, Your Grace.”
He chuckled at her stricken expression. Rory would have thrown her food at him, but Brynne sat obediently, maintaining her innocence.
“I know that, Miss Taylyr.” She shivered slightly and slowly set her sack of food on the table.
“I am asking why you stole food in Erdikoa. The Crown provides its citizens with enough food, does it not?”
She looked ashamed. Not guilty, but ashamed. “Tell me,” he urged quietly.
“I had to trade some of our food credits for moedas.” Refusing to look at him, she prattled on before he could ask questions.
“My older brother is a Sibyl. He’s almost forty years older than I am.
My mother shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant with me at her age, but she did, and the pregnancy took a toll on her body.
” A dismal quiet settled over their table until Brynne spoke again, “She was almost seventy-five, you know?”
“She was a Fey,” he guessed. They live longer than other mystics, and he’d heard of Fey women having children in their sixties, but in their seventies was unheard of.
Brynne nodded. “My father did his best, but it was hard since my older brother is a Sibyl. His abilities manifested when I was five, and by the time I was sixteen, I had to drop out of school to care for him.”
Caius didn’t know a simple question would have such a complex answer, and a part of him wished he’d never asked, but the other part of him needed to know why she wasn’t taken care of by The Crown.
“My father was a Visitant,” she continued.
Caius wondered if he ever used his abilities on Brynne to provide her with a happier childhood.
He hoped so. “He died when I turned twenty-one. I never graduated, and I had trouble finding a job that paid enough to cover our bills and a day nurse for my brother while I worked.”
“And you had to sell your food credits to pay for his care,” Caius concluded, and she swiped at a rogue tear. “Did you go to the mystic services office and petition The Crown? There are programs available to help.”
Her eyes hardened. “I did. They said their funding had been cut drastically, but that they’d put me on their waitlist. Their very long waitlist.”
Sitting back in shock, he scratched his jaw as he thought. Why would Gedeon cut the funding to the assistance programs? He didn’t need the money. On top of being the Lux King, each of the Royals had an inheritance from their parents. It was what Caius transferred to Rory in Erdikoa.
“Is there anything else you need, Your Grace?” Brynne asked politely.
He looked at the woman, who was so unlike Rory, and smiled to himself. His mate would have liked Brynne and demanded he apologize for making the poor girl cry.
Fuck, he missed her.
“I apologize, Miss Taylyr. The Crown failed you.” He stood and pushed his chair under the table. “Tomorrow morning, find the legion commander and give him your brother’s name. We will look in on him and see that he is taken care of.”
Her hand flew to her chest. “You would do that?”
“The happiness of my subjects is important to me.” With a small wave, he turned to leave. “Have a good afternoon, Miss Taylyr.”
Caius strolled down the streets of Vincula, watching the inmates go about their day-to-day.
He couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Brynne.
Gedeon’s greed now affected the people of Erdikoa.
This was no longer about revenge for his and Rory’s sisters or saving Rory’s life.
It was about protecting the people, too.
Everyone thought Gedeon was a decent ruler for the last five-hundred years, but was it possible things were worse than they appeared? If not for Brynne, Caius wouldn’t know about the funding cuts to Erdikoa’s assistance programs. What else didn’t he know about?
“Caius,” Sam’s deep voice called across the street.
Caius smiled and crossed the road they had no use for. There were no carriages or horses in Vincula, but the Seraphim wanted it to be as familiar to the inmates as possible. As time passed, renovations were done to keep up with the changing times.
“Good to see you,” he said to Sam, slapping him on the shoulder. “Lauren told you why I needed you back, I presume?”
“Briefly.” Sam eyed him with scrutiny. “You want to learn to create using the shadows?”
Caius waved at a passing inmate before answering. “Yes. I need something to get through the barrier or break it altogether.”
“I am unsure if your plan is sound,” the Angel remarked as they walked side by side.
An anger Caius rarely experienced toward the commander reared its ugly head. “What other solution have you come up with? From where I’m standing, this is our only lead.” He ran a frustrated hand along the side of his styled hair. “If you aren’t capable of helping, I need to know now.”
“I will try to help. Where did this idea come from?”
Caius gave him the rundown of the information Cat found in the old storybook, and when he finished, Sam looked impressed.
“That was an excellent observation,” Sam replied.
“While that story is false, it is rooted in truth. A Seraph did create the realms for his wife. She’d always wanted children but thought she couldn’t have any, and it was his way of giving them to her.
” Sam’s voice grew sad. “The darkness of the universe is a powerful thing.”
Caius saw the Angel in a new light. He wasn’t speculating; he knew. Sam and Lauren were the only two Angels in the realms, and when they arrived, they claimed it was to help with the inmates but never stated why.
“It’s possible, then?” Caius felt the shadows move around him as his hope flared to life.
His friend chuckled. “It is for a Seraph. If a Seraph used their full power within the realms, it would destroy everything.”
“Even if they used them to create?” Caius was befuddled. They created the realms with their power; how would it destroy it?
“They created the realms while still in the aether,” Sam replied. “The capacity of power the aether can house is limitless, but these realms were not made for that.”
Caius’ hackles rose with suspicion. “Have you ever created anything?” Was Sam a fucking Seraph?
The Angel’s brows furrowed. “Of course not, but I have seen it done.”
It made sense. Angels were from the aether. While it was a resting place for the souls of mystics, it was also a realm. Caius wasn’t sure what happened to souls when they reached the aether, but different races of Angels resided there under the Seraphim’s rule.
According to their history books, anyway.
“If I can manipulate the darkness,” Caius said, pressing forward. “Then, by logic, I can manipulate the realm itself.”
“If logic were the basis for magic and creation, then yes.” Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar. “But nothing about magic is logical.”
Caius visualized shoving the candy down Sam’s throat. “I have to try, with or without your help.”
Swallowing, Sam licked the chocolate from the corner of his mouth. “I will help, but do not put all of your eggs into a picnic basket.”
Caius barked out a laugh. The rapport around the palace had been dark since Rory left, and seeing his friend had not changed was nice. “It’s ‘in one basket,’” Caius told him. “Not a picnic basket.”
Sam threw the chocolate wrapper into a trashcan as they approached the palace gates. “Does the size of the basket matter?”
Caius continued to laugh on their way to his office. “When can we start?” he asked, circling back to what was important.
“Tomorrow. It will be taxing, and you need to be well-rested. We will meet at the arrowball field at sunrise.” Sam opened the office door. “I must check in with the enforcer in charge. Send for me if you need anything.”
“Wait,” Caius called out. “How is she?”
“She’s asking a lot of questions,” Sam replied, crossing his arms. “Because you are telling her things in the soulscape.”
Shit, Caius thought. Sam didn’t know of their plan to help Rory remember.
“I’ll explain everything before you return,” he promised the Angel as they parted ways.
After pouring himself a drink, he fell into his reading chair, opening the drawer of the side table out of habit. His favorite book was missing. He hadn’t read it in years, but Rory said it was Cora’s favorite, and he’d started to reread it before Rory went back to Erdikoa.
It was comforting to have something she held dear, but now it was gone.
Sighing, he pulled out another book and turned to the bookmarked page. His thoughts were loud, and today he hoped the characters could occupy his mind for a little while until the real world came crashing back in.