Chapter 46
Again and again, I tried to pierce the icy barricade Vaeron built to keep me from eavesdropping on his conversation with his sister and the Koron. Each time, I failed. Hours had crawled by since I’d returned to the Seer’s feather. Heraphia was already asleep.
But not before she scolded me for pressing my ear to the door of her room and listening to the whispers of the others about what had transpired at the ball.
That everyone had been shocked when they were released from my mate’s Command was an understatement. I’d sprinted—as fast as my injured leg would allow—to the nearest privy to escape it all.
Returning some time later only reignited the gossip.
I huffed and twisted a lock of hair around my finger, staring into the flickering candle on my desk. I’d tried to lie beside Heraphia and rest. But until I knew what the fallout had been from Vaeron’s outburst, I couldn’t sleep.
Was I in danger? He hadn’t given me specifics when he mentioned that he was trying to keep me safe from his sister.
Had the moment he announced we were mates sacrificed the leverage he was working to gain? Or had he been able to use it to seize power?
The bond roared to life in my chest. With a gasp, I clutched my magic source like I could wrench it free. Rage, unlike I’d ever witnessed, scorched the chain between Vaeron and me.
I dove into our connection and reached for him. But despite the surge in emotion, I hit that same wall. No thoughts, no senses, nothing other than white-hot fury waited. As if as desperate as he was to block me out, he couldn’t leash that maelstrom.
Minutes passed, and the tempest ebbed. My breathing returned to normal, chest no longer tight with anger that wasn’t mine. Still, silence reigned down our connection.
Eventually, I gave up and wandered into the kitchen area, hoping Lyriasthe was around. To my shock, she ducked out from a servant’s door the moment I entered.
“Sylaira,” she breathed, rushing to my side. Then, she dropped her voice. “Are you okay? Do you need anything from me?”
Tears pricked the back of my nose. I’d never met her before the palace, and yet she always appeared when I needed her most, like a gift from the Goddess.
“Answers,” I croaked.
She glanced around to ensure we were alone. “Okay. Come, sit with me.”
I followed her to the dining table, using a spare chair to prop my bad leg up.
Lyriasthe drummed her fingers on either arm, thinking.
“Since we don’t have much time, I’ll tell you the essentials.
First, I am only in this position because of the Issaraeth and Maelsar.
I owe my life to them. Second, I have not changed my allegiance.
Third, I do not judge you for your mating bond. ”
So both of them trusted her, knowing that she was Elessarum. It made me feel more at ease about opening up to her too. “Did you know?” I asked her.
She nodded, twisting her creamy white hair around her finger. “That is why I agreed to spy for the two of them in the palace. To watch over you. And Heraphia of course.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I admitted quietly.
“If I had answers for you, I’d give them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with Sight.” She gestured toward her sky-blue irises. “In fact, I am pretty plain. Though my Illusion magic is serving me well in my mission here.”
“I’d rather be able to create something beautiful in my mind than be forced to witness the destruction of our world,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around my stomach.
Her brows pinched together. “Do you not want your power?”
“I wouldn’t call it a blessing like everyone else does.” I scrunched up my nose. “I’d rather die than have a prophecy again, especially for the Korona.”
“Ah, the leaves the Issaraeth had me give you…that was to suppress your visions, wasn’t it?” she asked, gentle understanding in her tone.
“Yes,” I sighed, tucking my hair behind my ear. “They want us to See the war. Information I give them could end up with thousands dying. Do you not understand how my magic goes against what we believe?”
She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “You could also save thousands.”
“Saving thousands means sentencing thousands to death. War is war,” I grumbled, foot jiggling against the ground. “Someone has to win and someone has to lose. I would rather not be part of it at all.”
Lyriasthe squeezed my forearm. “I’m not saying you do. Just that it might not be as bleak as you make it out to be.”
Once again, my connection to Vaeron awoke, twisting and twirling in delight. “I think I have to go,” I murmured.
The fellow peace-lover smiled. “I know.” Rising, she went to the servant’s door and unlocked it, revealing my mate on the other side.
Wrinkles creased his once-crisp dark tunic. The high collar drooped, like he’d popped the threads with one harsh jerk. He looked like male who had been at war—with others, and with himself.
Yet even in his disheveled state, he radiated the kind of power that made me want to fall into the eye of his storm. Energy crackled under the surface of my skin, an ache to close the distance between us.
He drank me in like a male dying of thirst. “Come,” he crooned, the word more request than command.
I rose, limp more pronounced after being forced to dance too soon.
He frowned, and the concern in that expression spread warmth through my insides. “Do you need me to carry you? We have a long walk.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, studying his carved features. The monster that lurked beneath was absent, replaced instead by something broken.
“My chambers,” he told me, then glanced at Lyriasthe. “You’ll ensure Heraphia is looked after?”
“Wait, wait, what’s going to happen to her?” I pressed, hysteria creeping into my tone. We’d been separated once, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“Nothing, shh,” Lyriasthe soothed, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “It’s merely a precaution. The Korona knows what she means to you.”
Fuck, of course she did. Because Iaoth was a master of manipulation, as Vaeron had told me time and time again. Guilt gnawed my insides. Had I put Heraphia in danger again? Zuriel would never forgive me if something happened to her.
“You defend her with your life. She is everything to me,” I swore, holding Lyriasthe’s gaze. Watching for any sign of deception.
“I swear upon our Peaceful Mother,” she said, flipping her palm around and pressing it over her heart—the gesture all Elessarum used with one another.
“Thank you. Go in peace,” I told her, stepping toward Vaeron.
“Always in peace,” she replied with the traditional Elessarum farewell.
Then, darkness bathed us. Vaeron flicked bubble lights into the air, highlighting the passage.
“How did it go?” The question burst out of me before I could stop it.
He pressed a finger to his lips. “We’ll talk when we reach my chambers. For now, we need to move silently so we aren’t discovered.”
A myriad of twists and turns took us to places in the palace I’d never dreamed existed. The trek seemed endless, my limbs already heavy and aching from the weight of the evening’s events. With the fear that I’d unknowingly put a noose around Heraphia’s neck too.
When we finally stopped, it was at a panel of flimsy wood. My mate cracked it ever so slightly, peering into the hall beyond. But it was the middle of the night, and no souls drifted about.
He tugged me along behind him until we reached an opulent door. With a press of his palms against the frame, it swung inward on silent hinges.
A lock clicked into place behind us, effectively caging me in with the male who had killed my parents and hunted me down.
And somehow was also my fated mate.
And who had told the world of our bond mere hours before.
The gravity of it all slammed into me as he turned to face me again. His stoic composure crumbled like an ancient castle. In a few steps, he crashed into a chair, air whooshing out of him.
“Thank you for not putting up a fight,” he murmured, his velvety voice unusually thick.
“Tell me what happened,” I demanded, coming to stand in front of him. He shifted, and I realized I’d stepped on his ice-blue cape. I’d long since changed out of the finery the Korona had stuffed me into, opting for a linen sleeping set instead.
Vaeron yanked one diamond, then the other, off his shoulders. Without its fasteners, the cape fell away. He bundled it up and threw it like it had personally offended him. The stones clattered somewhere into the distance.
Never had I seen him so unraveled. Even when I pushed him, punished him with my words, he was more controlled.
“Dasha is the daughter of the male who hurt you,” he began slowly, raking his hands through his hair.
He slumped forward in the chair, rubbing his temples.
“Who happens to be Stadiel’s greatest threat.
A political rival, if you will. The Koron believes he has designs on the Angel throne.
To prevent that, he and my sister arranged the marriage between Dasha and me. ”
“You could have said no,” I replied.
He huffed a laugh, shaking his head. “No, little fugitive, I could not have.” He finally looked at me again. “Not until you.”
My breath hitched. He reached for my wrist, guiding me closer to him. His touch seared my skin, and I withheld a shiver as I waited for him to speak.
“The betrothal is over.”
I hated that relief that bloomed in my chest. Wetness brimmed in my eyes. Vaeron reached up and caught one drop on the end of his finger. He brought the salt to his lips and tasted it. “I should never have made you cry. The only time I want your tears is when they are borne of pleasure.”
The sensual way he spoke made my core clench.
“What about us?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer. He’d been gone for hours…
My mate groaned, a heavy, burdened sound.
“Iaoth is furious. Not as much as Stadiel. This has greatly changed his plans. It is more imperative now than ever before that we win this war. That he and my sister straddle the Skala Mountains. That we exterminate the Demons and their dark magic once and for all.”
I frowned at the mention of the slaughter that would have to take place. I opened my mouth to speak, but he silenced me.
“I know—they know—you are Elessarum. Which is where everything becomes…complicated.” His eyes searched mine, beseeching me to understand.
“The Seers will have to use their power to its fullest extent now. The days you’ve been having?
They’ll be longer. More intense. There will be more drugs.
More channels. They even spoke of power sharing. ”
Ice shattered through my veins. Our mind magics made it possible, unlike with other races, in theory.
Power sharing was considered to be a grave sin—if it was even possible.
I didn’t know a single person alive or dead who had attempted it.
Each of our gifts were handpicked for each individual by the Goddess, a holy blessing we weren’t supposed to take lightly.
“Heraphia is already exhausted as it is. You have to get her out of there,” I pleaded with him.
His chin dropped to his chest. I’d never seen him look so defeated. His pristine posture, bowed by the weight of his duties—to me, to his sister, to the realm. “I can’t. They’d know immediately it was me, and I will not put you in further danger.”
He was right, and I hated it.
“Then at least let me give her virelthorn too. I can’t lose her, Vaeron. I can’t.” My voice fractured on the last word, tears blurring my vision. “She’s all I have left.”
To my surprise, he didn’t flinch at the words, merely accepting that he wasn’t on my list. “I’ll do what I can,” he finally sighed, lifting his gaze to meet mine.
“Thank you,” I whispered, dashing the backs of my wrists across my cheeks to dry them.
“There’s more.”
My stomach plummeted at the ache in his tone.
“What is it?” I asked, trying to hide my own tremble.
“I will face a trial by light against Herr Elyriane.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, fear stabbing like a blade in my gut. But I’d seen Vaeron kill without hesitation. And the male who had danced with me was far weaker, far slower. There was no way the Goddess would allow Herr Elyriane to win.
So why did I feel like the world tilted beneath my feet? Why did this bond rage inside me at the thought of harm coming to my mate?
“He believes I humiliated his house by first announcing to the whole court that I am mated to you and thereby cannot marry Dasha. Then, by Commanding and punching him.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. He exhaled, long and low, through his nose.
“I have to throw the fight. If I don’t…” He looked away, and vines constricted my ribs as I waited for him to finish. “If I don’t, then Stadiel will own you. We’ll never see each other again.”
That same fury from earlier slammed into me, robbing me of air. Frost encased me, like a snowstorm had blown into the room and banished the heat with it.
“What?” My voice was small, weak. My knees wobbled beneath me. “You can’t let them do that.”
Flashes of all the traumatic visions I’d had blotted out the room before me.
Death. Destruction. Decay.
“You can’t let them force me to See.”
Blood. Binding. Breaking.
“Kill me before that happens. Don’t let them make me a weapon.” Fervent fear crept into my tone. I clutched my throat, hand shaking.
Vaeron’s ice-blue eyes snapped to mine. “I will never let them have you.” Gently, he captured my wrist and brought it lower. “You are my mate. It is my greatest duty to protect you. I swear, Sylaira, I will do anything to ensure your safety.”
He kissed the backs of my hands, one by one, then flipped them over and did the same to my palms.
“Sylaira, I need you,” he rasped, voice hoarse. “You are my sacred duty. A vow I will never break. After everything tonight, I need to know…”
He trailed off, staring at me like I had the power to undo him. Like if I rejected our connection one more time, he’d become nothing more than a shell of the male who’d first hunted me.
A shuddered exhale fled me as I cupped his jaw. “If I need you too?”