Chapter 4
SAPHIRA
The castle was exactly as I had expected.
Bright.
Golden.
Stained glass threw beautiful colours across the pale cream marble in every wide walkway that looked more like a gallery than a corridor.
Large stone urns of brilliant blooms positioned at intervals filled the air with their heavy perfume.
Sheer turquoise drapes trimmed with fine gold embroidery framed every towering arched window that revealed the glimmering green world beyond.
Gilded beams arched across the vaulted ceiling, embracing vivid painted scenes of nature, each one different.
And the people I had seen in my short time here?
They were as bright and golden as their palace.
As picture perfect and beautiful.
I glanced at two handsome males standing guard near the arched entrance to the castle as I reached the ground floor with my handmaiden, and both gracefully dipped their heads to me, pressing their free hand to the breasts of their teal and gold uniform as they did so.
But beneath the veneer, I saw what they were—vipers.
Exactly as Kaeleron had called them.
My hand trailed off the stone balustrade as I turned away from the courtyard, somehow managing to maintain my regal poise as my gaze landed on a set of double doors at the far end of the broad, vaulted corridor.
What awaited me beyond those innocent-looking pale wooden doors?
I swallowed the nerves that trickled through me, a constant companion I wanted to shake but had failed to vanquish in the short time I had been here.
They lingered, fuelled by doubts that I would make it out of this court alive.
All it would take was one tiny slip up and these vipers would see me for what I was and strike at me.
The urge to lift my hand and touch the brand that marked the skin on the left side of my chest was strong. Kaeleron’s mark. My only connection to him now that we were so very far apart. Too far apart.
Gods, I needed to hear his warm chuckle and see that light in his silver eyes as he teased me.
I needed to feel his arms around me and his scent filling my lungs.
I needed that soft kiss he had developed a habit of pressing to my forehead before leaving me, one that comforted me and made me feel loved.
A little brave.
I drew down a subtle breath, not letting it shift my shoulders as I marched towards what felt like my doom.
The entrance hall was as wide as my parents’ cabin.
It was bright and open, no windows filling the spaces between the pale marble arches that formed the walls, as if it never rained here, when the lush orchards I had seen and those rolling meadows said it had to rain often.
Maybe it never touched the castle. Fae magic was strong and Kaeleron had only told me a few of its uses.
It was possible a barrier had been cast over the castle to shield it from rain.
Delicate carvings of leaves and flowers glinted at me from the bottom and top of each column, and every rib of the arches they supported had been gilded to match them, along with the floral friezes that filled the wall between them.
Gossamer teal curtains shifted in the scented breeze that swept in from the formal tree filled gardens on either side of the hallway, and more elegant planters of blooms had been placed between each arch, before the low wall that spanned the columns and barely reached mid-thigh on me.
The bright globes of golden light that danced from gilded branches above me reflected off the gold that lined the floor and brightened the inlays of turquoise stone.
I caught my reflection in the polished stone.
Not recognising myself.
We neared the end of the corridor, where the arches gave way to mirrors that reflected light around the bright space, and I slowed as I looked into one.
The fae females who had dressed me hadn’t allowed me to see their work.
Who was this female staring back at me?
Wrapped in a dress of gold and white.
Collared with gold that felt tight against my throat, each fine chain that ran from it to the sweeping neckline of my strapless corset feeling suddenly cold against my skin.
My silver hair had been coiled into an intricate knot on my crown, embraced by a brilliant gold, sapphire and diamond diadem.
I stared into my blue eyes, recognising them at least.
And those eyes lowered to the mark still visible beneath the chains of my dress.
I glanced at my handmaiden, making sure she wasn’t looking at me as she waited for me to move, her back to me, and then lifted my trembling hand and brushed my fingers over that mark—over the black elkyn head and those five stars suspended between its antlers.
Feeling Kaeleron in it. I tempered my need to see him, shoving my fear of this court and what I would face here down deep into my soul, afraid that if I didn’t I would accidentally trigger the reason he had placed this mark on me.
Summoning him to me.
It would be a disaster if I did.
I lowered my hand as the handmaiden turned towards me, her curious golden gaze landing on me.
“I just need a moment,” I said with a bright smile, letting it shake a little so she would see my nerves.
She smiled back at me and lowered her head, tucking her hands before her hips over her dull teal dress. “Of course, my lady.”
Kaeleron’s translator spell was still working then.
Gods, I hope it remained active. The last thing I needed was to be stranded in an enemy court and unable to understand them.
So far, no one had questioned how I could speak their language, so I assumed Sylvan had spoken English to me and I had spoken English back at him.
But I doubted a servant would know my mother tongue.
So my words had to be coming out as fae, and the spell had to be in place still, translating whatever she said to me as it reached my ears.
I glanced at the silver ring that glinted on my finger, one I couldn’t bring myself to remove. I needed that fragile connection to Kaeleron, that token of his love for me, and I focused on it, silently demanding that it revealed where the bearer of its twin was located right this second.
Relief swept through me when the white stone shifted in hues of the aurora I had loved watching in the Shadow Court before turning a beautiful clear amethyst.
Lucia shadows.
He was safe.
I tipped my chin up and shoulders back as I returned to my reflection, staring myself dead in the eye.
I could do this. I drew on that courage and strength Kaeleron had seen in me, and had made me see.
That power I held as an alpha’s daughter.
No matter what these people said, I would always be that person.
A wolf.
But I was more than a wolf, too.
Kaeleron had seen something else in me, beyond courage and strength.
He had seen a queen.
He believed I belonged in that role and while I looked the part today, I didn’t feel it and I knew that I needed to. I needed to feel as if I had been made to sit on a throne, as if I had been born to rule a people and a court.
As if nothing and no one would stand between me and my destiny to ascend the throne and become queen.
My eyes brightened as my wolf side came to the fore, making me look fierce as an unearthly glow lit them, turning the blue as bright as the sky outside.
I embraced the wolf in me, for the courage and strength I needed, and the ferocity I wanted everyone to see.
But more than that, I did it because I looked powerful like this.
And the heir to a seelie court should look powerful.
Let them see me like this. Let them see the power in me. Let them marvel at it.
I doubted many of them had crossed paths with a shifter before and would know all my breed had eyes that glowed when their wolf was at the fore.
Danica hadn’t been here long enough for as many as I could sense waiting beyond the elegantly carved wooden doors to have seen her wolf side.
Sylvan might know what I was doing, but the rest of them wouldn’t.
And that worked for me.
“I’m ready.” I pivoted away from my reflection and nodded to the female.
She bowed her head and moved to the door, and rapped her knuckles softly against it, and then she stepped aside.
The great arched doors before me gave out a heavy thud that echoed in my bones, setting my heart racing, and then groaned as they slowly opened to reveal what felt like an arena as hundreds of curious gazes shifted to me.
The chatter hushed, a wave of expectation hitting me, and a chill skated down my spine.
I drew down a subtle, steadying breath under the weight of their gazes, fighting to master my nerves. Seeking a way to distract myself from being scrutinised by so many highborn.
Gods, I had thought it bad enough when the dozen or so highborn fae who enjoyed lounging around the gardens of Falkyr Castle looked at me. This was so much worse. So many more people than I had anticipated.
So I shoved my focus away from them. To the circular room. It was stunning, even more grand than the entrance corridor, a great hall fit for the ruler of the Summer Court, and it gave me the distraction I badly needed.
I waited until the doors had finished opening before I moved, my hands loose at my side and my shoulders back, my head tipped up to affect the air of a ruthless but beautiful queen.
My glowing eyes remained fixed ahead of me as I took my first step into the round room, towards that dais that stood at the other end of an expanse of highly polished cream marble that reflected the domed ceiling.
Arched stained glass windows lined the curved walls, spilling bright cerulean, teal and yellow light across the people who crowded the enormous space.
The columns set between them were beautifully carved, decorated with gold, supporting a thick cornice of stone that encircled every part of the room except the area behind the dais, where the columns continued upwards as the ribs of the domed ceiling.