Chapter 58 #3
Kaeleron bowed his head to her. “As a coronation gift, the Shadow Court shall send its finest craftsmen to assist you with the rebuilding of your castle.”
“Thank you.” She regally dipped her head and then slid me a look that was part relief, part hope, and a lot of uncertainty. She took hold of my hand. “You will come, won’t you?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” I squeezed her hand and then glanced at the head on the ground before looking at her again. “I don’t suppose you’d let me keep it after all? I know an amazing necromancer who might be able to do something with it.”
Kaeleron’s warm chuckle set my heart alight as he reached up and claimed my waist from behind. “I am sure Tan’ith will be up to the challenge, and I will gladly school you in the art of tormenting a soul.”
I twisted in his grip and grasped his shoulders, leaning into them as he lifted me down from the stone. But he didn’t set me down on the ground. He kept hold of me, my feet dangling a foot above the ground, my eyes level with his.
“Are you ready to go home, my little queen?” he purred.
I nodded and slid my arms around his neck. “Absolutely.”
“Then home we shall go. I need to pick something up first.” He did set me down now and I expected him to grab Lorien’s head.
Only he turned towards Arianell where she lingered near the edge of the pond.
He looked back over his shoulder at me, his grin charming. “Another stray for my collection.”
I smiled and shook my head.
Arianell watched him approach. “Is it time?”
He nodded. “It is time. Are you ready?”
She fidgeted with a bundle of something wrapped in grey fabric and tied with string, lifting it and clutching it to her chest. Her hoard.
She patted it, nerves flickering in her eyes as she said, “Little Neve will be so happy to meet you.”
I reached for her arm, touching it gently as I smiled at her. “I’m sure she will be happy to see you again too.”
She nodded, looking unsure, but then she rallied and tilted her chin up. “Of course she will, silly. Who would not be happy to see me?”
I shook my head again, easily able to imagine the mayhem that was about to hit Falkyr when we went from one dragon shifter to two in our home.
Arianell suddenly gripped Kaeleron’s arm when he went to take hold of me, her pale blue eyes glassy. She released him and took my hand he had been reaching for, twisting my right one upwards.
“I saw glittering gold.” She ran her thumb over my blank palm. “So pretty… but only part of who you are. Who you are becoming. You are not yet all you will be.”
She brought my hand to Kaeleron’s and made him link his hand with mine, our palms facing, pressing together.
“A union,” she whispered with a smile. “A heart made whole.”
“A benevolent queen of shadows,” Kaeleron murmured as if he had known what she would say next and she nodded, leaving me feeling she had said this to him before.
“Drifting. Dreaming. Drinking. A wolf on the water. A fae beneath.” She swirled her fingers around our hands, binding them with ribbons of golden light threaded with shadows.
“I saw you. A wolf and an elkyn. A queen and a king. Running in the ancient forests of this land. Standing at the edge of forever.”
The threads of magic she wove around us settled onto our fingers, forming black rings around the top thirds of mine and gold on Kaeleron’s.
She wrapped her hand around mine and stared deep into my eyes. “Go to the lake. Find your heart among the towering peaks. Be reborn in fire.”
Kaeleron snatched his hand back, shattering the magic she had woven, and glowered at her. “Do not meddle with fate. You told me that. Yet, you seem content to meddle with it yourself. Tell her what else you saw.”
She inched back, her gaze flickering between us, and finally, quietly said, “I saw his pain. I tasted his fear. Agony wrenching stars from the sky. Fracturing the very foundations of the shadows.”
I looked between them and then down at my marked hand.
Drink. Drift. I slowly shook my head, everything Neve, Arianell and Vaeleryn had said to me colliding in it.
“Lucia guides you. A heart made whole,” Arianell whispered and then slammed her mouth shut when Kaeleron glared at her. She pouted at him and muttered, “She must make her choice.”
“And it must be her choice to make. Not something forced upon her. Is that not what you implied?” He took hold of my arm, roughly at first but his grip softened as he realised what he had done, and he sighed as he looked at me.
I didn’t like that shadow of fear that lurked in his eyes. I didn’t like the thought of him suffering, in pain, because of some choice I was supposed to make.
A heart made whole.
Union.
Drifting. Dreaming. Drinking.
A wolf on the water. A fae beneath.
Mirrored like I had seen the elkyn in my dream? Like the ley lines Arianell had shown me?
“Let us go home, little wolf,” he husked and I nodded, trying to push it all from my mind and my heart, not wanting the questions that plagued me to hang over me in this moment I felt as if I had been waiting for forever.
But as I pulled Kaeleron and Arianell into a teleport with me, I couldn’t banish them all.
One lingered.
Was my heart whole?