3. CHAPTER 3
Aveline
The guard and I both knew that I was well aware of the location of Prince Kallias’s personal chambers. Him escorting me there was merely a formality, and one I did not appreciate. It made me feel as though I couldn’t be trusted.
The guard stopped at the door, bowing his head as I pressed my hand to the brass handle.
“Thank you,” I said, turning my face toward his to offer him a soft smile.
If he hadn’t found us in the crowd, there was no telling how long it would have taken us to make it safely back to the castle. If we even could, amid the tumult.
“It was my pleasure, Lady Aveline.”
“I’m not—” But the guard was already off, trotting back down the corridor the way we had come.
I pressed the handle and the door to Kallias’s chambers opened beneath my touch. The familiar scents of cinnamon and clove filled my nose, and I took a deep, steeling breath.
Gothryn hadn’t brought war to our doorstep this day…not in truth. They had merely been trying to scare us. To show off their irrefutable power. If my own feelings held any merit, their little stunt had exacted the desired effect.
King Faris and Queen Dyata were rattled. I certainly was.
I took another deep inhale as I closed the door behind me and turned toward the room.
“Aveline!” Kallias was already here, pouring himself a drink at the gilded cart before the crackling fireplace.
I sprinted toward him, almost tripping over my skirts before falling into his arms. He pressed me against him, his hand weaving into my curls. I released a deep sigh against his chest, gripping his velvet tunic in my hands and pulling him against me.
He felt so familiar. So comforting. His strong embrace enveloped me, his honeyed breath stirring my hair. His blond stubble scratched against my forehead as he kissed my temple.
“I was so, so worried, Aveline. If it were up to me, you would never leave this castle.” His voice was hot against my neck as I leaned back to meet his gaze. “I need you by my side. Always.”
“Your mother would love that,” I jested.
The hand buried in my hair moved to tuck a stray lock of it behind my rounded ear. The sun was streaming through the bedroom windows, casting an auburn glow against the black lock trapped between his fingertips.
He leaned toward me—his kiss a whisper away—but I pressed against his chest with my palm to stop him.
“The city?” I asked, escaping his embrace and moving toward the set of windows at the back of the room.
Guilt still sat heavy in my gut that I had escaped and left the innocents above to their fates while I was safely escaping in the tunnels below.
I could see the city of Majur beyond the windowpane of Kallias’s bedroom.
He had been right…the few fires that had started were already put out.
The streets were now empty, devoid of the townspeople who had been filling the market square minutes ago.
Street carts were toppled over. A few of the more dilapidated homes had been reduced to ember and ash.
The cobbled streets were painted crimson and ink with stains of blood and char, smeared and burned across the worn stone.
The preparations that had been underway for tomorrow’s summer solstice were either burned or torn, soiling the streets in a cursed reminder of the deadly beasts that had filled the skies with their dragon fire.
I shook my head as I glanced out the window, my fingers placed lightly against the cool glass. The citizens that had damage to their homes and shops would need to rebuild. We had been truly lucky there had been no casualties, especially considering the devastation the dragons had wrought.
It didn’t escape me that this show of power had occurred the day before the biggest festival in all the kingdom. It felt quite pointed and calculated on Gothryn’s behalf.
Kallias pulled me gently from the window, pressing me down against the pillowy white bed.
His mouth met mine, and instant relief wash over me.
He was here, and he was safe. His lips were warm against mine, fervent.
His strong hands held me against him tightly enough that I could barely take a deep breath between our kisses.
My fingers brushed through his shaggy blond hair, over the tips of his pointed ears to grasp the back of his head to press him harder against me.
I never felt safer than I did in Kallias’s arms. He leaned back, gazing into my eyes with a heavy sigh.
“These eyes.” He hummed, grasping my hand to bring it to his lips and press a chaste kiss against my skin.
I hummed back, my eyes falling closed as I enjoyed the warmth of his body pressed over mine.
“I will be sad to leave you,” he murmured against me.
My eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”
He bent his elbow against the bed, propping his head up on his hand as he leaned over me. “To slay the dragons, of course.”
I sat up with a start, pushing him off me. “Kallias…you can’t be serious.”
He met my grave stare with one of his own. “I am, Aveline. What do you expect us to do?”
I shook my head, mouth dry. “Not that!”
Kallias scooted closer, pulling my hand back into his and rubbing his thumb against me in a soothing pattern.
“Aveline, we don’t have much of a choice. The Blackwater royals clearly have no intention of obeying the newly instated peace accords. It has been what, a week? Two? They already have to show us that they’re more powerful than we are.”
“And your solution is to kill them yourself?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
A grin spread across his beautiful mouth. “Not alone, of course. But the Blackwater princes must be stopped. If there was ever a time to retaliate…it is now. King Mavros grows weak. He offers his throne to his bastard son. We need to take advantage of what could possibly be their only weakness.”
“You can’t go,” I whispered, the hand not clasped in his burying between the buttons of his tunic to touch his soft flesh. His chest hair tickled my fingertips as my gaze dropped to our hands twined between us.
“Aveline, I must. If Myros is to survive, the dragons cannot. They have corrupted their own continent well enough. We can’t allow them to conquer ours.
We stand no chance against them in a head-to-head battle.
Their dark magic will always prevail,” he replied, grasping my chin to turn my gaze up toward his.
Those jade green eyes held mine as he pressed his forehead against me. “I will come home to you, I promise.”
But he couldn’t promise that, could he? He endeavored to slay a dragon. It was no easy feat to be certain. They were too powerful.
Hadn’t he told King Faris that immediate retaliation would be against our best interests? Asking him about it was out of the question—it would reveal that I had been eavesdropping.
I leaned away from him to search his gaze. “It’s too dangerous.”
Kallias nodded. “It is dangerous. But lest you forget, Veytari fae magic thrums through my veins. The light will withstand the dark, as it always does.”
He pressed his lips to mine once more and I dissolved into it, consumed by him. If we were to be parted from one another, it wouldn’t be on bad terms. It would be with the reminder of my lips and body still fresh on his lips.
He laid me back against the pillows—his teeth nipping at my bottom lip—drawing a soft giggle out of me. I loved Kallias completely. He was pure and gentle. Good, down to his very bones. He always wanted what was best for his people. It was what made me fall for him in the first place.
He was a devoted prince and would make an even more devoted king.
I would be proud once he ascended the throne in Myros to take his place as their ruler.
I worried for him if he planned to journey across the sea.
But if there was anyone who could do it, it would be Kallias and his faithful commander, Galen Prynn.
His mouth pressed against mine more insistently, begging for me to open. He slid his tongue inside to caress my own as he wrung a soft moan out of me.
Right as I was about to peel off his tunic, a throat clearing behind us had us springing apart.
I blushed, thoroughly embarrassed. Had someone knocked and we hadn’t heard it?
Queen Dyata stood at the foot of the bed; her expression not amused in the slightest. She watched with a judgmental gaze as I adjusted the bodice of my dress, flattening my hair back against my scalp to make myself as presentable as possible.
I wiped the taste of Kallias from my swollen lips with the back of my hand.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked, her voice feigning kindness. But I knew better.
“Of course not.” Kallias hastened to the end of the bed and stood, placing a kiss against Queen Dyata’s rouge covered cheek.
She kept her gaze fixed on me as I remained sitting.
“May I have a word?” she asked, brow raised.
Queen Dyata was the picture of Veytari perfection.
She didn’t even have a hair out of place despite the city having just been attacked.
Despite dragons having filled the skies with brimstone and reigning terror down on our people.
Her hair was always perfectly coiffed and braided into a crown.
Her nails were always manicured and painted.
Her lips always stained with a wash of color.
She was perfectly composed.
“Excuse me…” I stood, running my hands down my skirts as I made my way toward the door.
I didn’t have my own chambers in the castle.
Whenever I stayed here, it was with Kallias in his personal rooms. If the queen was excusing me, I would need to brave the crowds outside the castle to return to our home in Majur.
I needed to check on my mother. I prayed to the old gods that our home remained standing and was not one of the unfortunate casualties to have fallen during the attack.
That my mother was safe within its familiar walls.
“Not so fast.” Queen Dyata’s voice was tight at my back.
I wordlessly turned back toward her; my hands clasped together.
She did not move, her back still turned from me. “Mother—” Kallias began, but the queen cut him off with a raise of her hand.
“I would like a word with Aveline.”
“With…me?” I asked, voice cracking.
My palms had begun to sweat, and I pressed them down against my dress, leaving damp stains behind on the already soiled satin.
Queen Dyata gave one tight nod and Kallias dropped his arms against his side with a huff.
He squeezed my arm as he passed, pressing a quick kiss on my cheek before disappearing behind the heavy oak door, into the corridor beyond.
The queen and I were alone.
“Sit.” The word was a command.
I moved back toward Kallias’s bed, into the queen’s view once more. She didn’t bother to turn or offer me a seat before the crackling fire. I was nervous beneath her gaze, fidgeting with my dress and my hair as I waited for her to speak.
“I know that you and I have had a…rough start to our relationship,” she began.
That was an understatement if I ever heard one. Our relationship could be described as tempestuous, at best. It was only this morning that I had daydreamed about poisoning her. I waited quietly for her to continue.
“You know that I do not approve of you and Kallias together. I do not think the sole heir to the throne of Myros should be married to a human.” She said the word with disgust, her lip turning up. “You also know that Kallias is betrothed to Lady Astryn Hunt of Emberfell.”
Emberfell.
One of our only remaining allies to stand with us against the kingdoms to the west. If Emberfell had a princess of their own, I am sure she would have been betrothed to Kallias.
Seven hells, they would have been married already.
Luckily, they had only male heirs. That left the Ashbourne royals to settle for a lowly duchess for their beloved crown prince.
The alliance was most important, after all.
I nodded, my gaze falling to my tattered black slippers. Queen Dyata always had a way of reducing me to ash. To make me feel less than, with as few words as possible. She never let me forget that she had betrothed Kallias to a beautiful Veytari fae, and I was a human with nothing at all to offer.
I remained quiet under her gaze. The queen had never approved of us, but Kallias was determined to win her to our side with time. To let her see I could be a good match for him. To convince her to let him choose a love match over an alliance.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“A…proposal?” I asked, my voice clipped with skepticism.
My gaze rose to meet hers, and I couldn’t quite identify what it was that I found there. Her jaw was set, eyes narrowed infinitesimally.
“Yes…a proposal. If you were to accept, which, let’s be honest, you don’t have much of a choice. If you were to accept and succeed…I would allow you to marry my son.” She released a humorless laugh. This was all a game to her.
I straightened on the bed, intrigued. She had my full attention now. I would do anything to gain her favor and be with Kallias. To finally have her blessing.
“Anything,” I replied honestly. Desperately.
Her returning smile sent a shiver down my spine, one that I couldn’t hide from her watchful gaze. Her smile transformed into a grin that trapped my breath in my chest.
“I was hoping you would say that.”
She took a step forward, then another. She was standing right before me now, only a breath of distance between us as I glanced up.
“What do you require of me?” I asked, trying my best to not let my voice waver. To not show any weakness before her.
“You are but a feeble human, so this task might prove impossible. But should you succeed, should you complete this task and return to Myros, I will no longer stand in your way.”
I tried to inhale, but my chest was too tight.
My nails dug into the comforter beneath me as she opened her mouth once more, the hair on my arms raised.
Whatever it was…it was going to be impossible.
Queen Dyata would rather send me to my death then send me on a mission I might ever truly succeed in.
Especially when the prize was her beloved son.
“As you may have heard, King Faris and Kallias plan to take matters into their own hands after today’s incident.
” I nodded, keeping my mouth carefully sealed shut.
“I can’t have that, and I imagine it isn’t what you want, either.
Kallias in the path of danger. After seeing those dragons up close and personal…
well, anyone would be a fool to march against them with merely a sword. ”
I swallowed hard, anxiety choking me.
“Your task is this. You will cross the Saltale Sea and infiltrate the palace of Gothryn. You will seduce their bastard heir, Sorin Blackwater. You will steal his dagger, and you will murder him. Then, and only then, can you return home.”