Cursed Flames Remain

30. CHAPTER 30

Aveline

The tincture. The poison.

It had been masking my magic…burying it deep, deep down. When I ran out of my elixir in Stormgaard I had felt…different. I had sensed my magic beginning to surface, only I hadn’t known it at the time. I had sensed the water droplets calling out to me.

I had simply thought it was Sorin’s magic. Fae magic was vast, and I had never met Vireth before. I didn’t have a deep enough understanding to comprehend what was going on.

It hadn’t been a dream at all…but a vision. A memory from my mother. Enora’s own mother vowed to ensure Enora would guard me. Safeguard this secret my mother so staunchly protected.

That I wasn’t human at all.

But if I wasn’t human…what was I?

Why had my mother lied to me about my father all these years?

I turned to Enora as she rushed across the room, her boots crunching against the shattered glass as she tore me from Sorin’s grasp and pressed me against her.

“I am sorry, Aveline. I only meant to protect you. To keep you safe.”

I nodded against her, tears dripping down my cheeks to mix with the brackish water I had drawn from Blackwater Lake. Water I had called from beyond the windows with my own magic.

Magic.

I pulled away from her, a question in my eyes. “But my ears…” My finger traced the soft, wet skin. They weren’t pointed.

It was still possible that it was common magic—that my father was fae.

Sorin himself had ears that were barely pointed as a halfling.

But why would my mother go through so much trouble to conceal that?

Halflings weren’t as castigated as humans were in Myros.

My life would have been much easier had that been the case.

What was it that my mother was trying to hide from me? Who could my father be?

I wished desperately that I were back in Myros and I could ask her myself.

“Do you know who my father is?” I asked Enora, pulling back to search her gaze.

She shook her head. “I don’t. Only that we needed to keep your magic a secret.”

But to what end?

Since the moment I had stepped foot in Gothryn, nothing had gone according to plan.

I had failed to adhere to Queen Dyata’s plan.

I had failed to poison the dragon prince.

I failed to even set eyes on the ancient relic dagger she spoke of.

I failed to do anything, really, except confuse myself and my own feelings.

I pushed back from them both with a frustrated huff, my gaze falling to my water-logged boots. The robe and shift beneath were clinging to me uncomfortably. I was overstimulated and angry, my emotions threatening to bubble over in a wild torrent.

I didn’t have control of myself, evident by the outburst of magic. I needed to get away from this place.

I made for the door but Sorin was before me in an instant, his wings at his back, chest heaving. His inky hair was plastered to his skin, droplets of water running down his face.

“Where are you going?”

I pushed past him, making for the door once more. He reached out to stop me, and I slipped my arm out of his grip easily. “I need to be alone, Prince. Please do not follow me.”

I stormed out of his chambers, leaving the double doors ajar in my wake. One glance over my shoulder confirmed Enora remained standing amid the reeds, her boots planted in the center of a pool of water.

Sorin watched as I went, unmoving.

I wasn’t sure where I was going, only that I needed to get away.

I had no idea how to control the threads of power simmering inside of me, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone.

I felt betrayed.

By not only my mother, but by Enora. That they would both keep something this important from me. That they would allow me to poison myself.

I felt betrayed by my own thoughts.

How could I care about any of this? I had all but forgotten the reason I had come here in the first place. To appease Queen Dyata so that I could be with Kallias.

If I loved him so much, how could I feel even an inkling of something toward Sorin?

I tore into my room angrily, slamming the door shut behind me.

I quickly slipped out of the wet shift and left it crumpled on the floor.

I pulled on a simple day dress, a powder blue with minimal embellishments.

I loosely plaited my hair into a braid down my back to keep the wet tendrils out of my face.

I only had the one pair of boots, so I turned them upside down, allowing the water to empty directly onto the floor.

I shoved my feet back into them and took to the corridor, all but running down the hall. Quinnick hadn’t been in the bed where I had left him—he must be traversing the castle somewhere. I didn’t have the energy nor was I in the mood to track him down at the moment.

I needed to put as much distance between this palace and myself as possible.

It was dawn in Gothryn, the sun kissing the tree line with orange and pink rays as it made its ascent into the morning sky. I burst through the front doors and down the steps, grateful that I needn’t worry about running into anyone this early. The staff were likely just rising for the day.

Frustration strangled me like a tangible thing, choking off any words and sending a river of tears down my face. I angrily took the road toward Scaldrithor on foot. I wiped the tears from my frosty cheeks with the back of my hands.

I was spiraling out of control and there was no one here who could stop it. I should want to find Kallias—to fall into his arms. But I hadn’t been thinking of Kallias at all.

I had only been thinking of myself.

I desperately needed to know who my father was, and why my mother had hidden it from me. Why Enora and her mother had agreed to go along with the deception. Why she had allowed me to be raised as a lowly human, enduring the torture Queen Dyata had foisted upon me when she found out about us.

If only they knew I had magic…none of this would have ever happened. I would have had enough station to marry Kallias on my own merit. I never would have been sent to Gothryn in the first place.

I never would have met Sorin.

An angry cry tore through me and I pulled at my own hair in frustration, pieces of it pulling out of its plait.

Why in the seven hells did the thought of never having met Sorin plague me so deeply? Why did it awaken a pit in the bottom of my stomach, filling me with uncertainty?

I stopped, turning back toward the castle.

Silence surrounded me as the sun rose high enough to paint a golden blush against my skin through the tree cover.

The road to Scaldrithor was silent and empty.

There were no carriages or travelers. No animals chattered in the forest but for a single lone owl with black feathers and a silver half-moon painted across its forehead.

It watched me as I hesitated.

All was quiet as I gazed upon castle Gothryn, its onyx spires reaching toward the realm of the old gods among the alabaster clouds.

I had to know.

I had to know what hold Prince Sorin had over me. What had me feeling so entangled? So unmoored. For a woman who was usually the picture of propriety, the dragon prince of Gothryn had me entirely undone.

I took my first step back toward the castle, then a second.

I broke through the front doors at a run, back the way I had come. I stormed up the four flights of stairs, barreling down the corridor toward Sorin’s private quarters.

I knew it wasn’t right—that merely the thought was a betrayal to Kallias—but I had to know for myself.

The obsidian doors were shut, and I strode in without knocking.

Sorin stood at the far wall of the bedroom.

It had once been covered in beautiful arched glass, but now it was exposed to the lake beyond.

He turned at the sound of the door slamming shut behind me, a question in his eyes. His vast black wings tucked against his back as he made to step toward me, bare feet against the shattered glass across the floor.

“Aveline—”

I stalked toward him, silencing him with a finite shake of my head.

I was pressed against him before I even consciously knew what I was doing. My hands braced against his shoulders as I pulled myself against his bare chest. Without question, his arm wrapped around me.

Then my mouth crashed into his.

Sorin’s lips opened beneath mine, hungrily kissing me back as we staggered toward the fireplace together.

Threads of magic hummed around me as Sorin turned us, pushing me back against the wall.

His body pressed into mine as I tasted him, tendrils of desire unraveling deep within me as the taste of spice and ash spilled across my tongue.

I pulled back with a gasp, my eyes wide as they met Sorin’s. Twisting within his molten gaze were the threads of my own magic, blue and white wisps circling his brown iris.

What the—

But his mouth found mine once more, fire blazing into me. Branding me.

I arched off the wall, pressing my body against his as forcefully as I could.

I needed to crawl into his skin. Erase any space between us.

I wanted to meld into him—for the two of us to become one.

Our kisses were frantic and frenzied, a sheen of sweat breaking out across my skin as I tasted his perfect lips.

It was more than I could ever imagine. Fire seared through me as desire pooled between my thighs. His stubble scratched against my face as he marked me as his.

Sorin was the flame, and I was cool water. He burned fiercely where I lapped softly against the shore. We were opposites in every conceivable way. Even our magic was contradictory.

With startling clarity, I realized I craved him in a way I had never craved another. I had never felt this thrall before. Never felt like if I didn’t have him right now, I might cease to even exist.

He pulled me against him equally as hard, our hips grinding together as I sought friction desperately between us. I needed him. Needed him inside of me. Needed him to claim me.

I was untethered.

I had never experienced passion like this. Never thought that anything could feel the way that this did. As if everything was clicking into place, and I was exactly where I was supposed to be. That I belonged nowhere else but in Sorin’s embrace.

That I belonged to him.

“I’ve been waiting so long for you,” he whispered against my lips, reverent.

My leg reached up to hook over his hip. He growled against my mouth, nipping at my swollen lips. I felt flames in my blood, pulsing hot beneath the surface.

I was losing control.

I pushed him away, crossing the room to put distance between us. I was on fire.

I knew that if I could still feel his hot breath against my skin, I wouldn’t be able to clear my thoughts. My chest was heaving, my hand coming up to wipe my mouth.

“What in the gods above was that?” I asked, panting.

His gaze locked on mine from across the room. An invisible thread connected us, drawing me back toward him.

“Aveline, I didn’t mean to—”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorin. I kissed you. But I need to know what the hell that was…because I have never felt anything—”

“We are mates.” The words were out of his mouth in a single, fleeting moment.

I stepped backward only to find myself pressed up against one of the wooden bed posts. My hand flitted to my chest, my heart pounding beneath my palm. “Sorin, I don’t think—”

“We are mates, Aveline. We are each other’s fated.” He swallowed hard, taking a tentative step toward me but stopping when my gaze fell from his.

I shook my head fervently, tipping back as a disbelieving laugh escaped my lips.

“We can’t…” I started, voice taut and hoarse. “We can’t be. Humans don’t feel the bond—”

Sorin inclined his head as he watched me, gaze molten. “But you aren’t human.”

The realization crashed down on me all over again.

I could feel the bond. I had been drawn to him since the moment we met. When I had run out of poison, it was as if that invisible string had suddenly sprung free after being suppressed.

Did I have any say in the matter, or did the bond simply decide for me?

I moved toward the door once more with a frustrated huff, aiming to storm out of his chambers for the second time within the hour.

“Aveline—” Sorin was before me within a blink, blocking my way to the door.

He had respected when I needed space before, I knew he would respect it now, too.

“Sorin.” His name was a warning on my lips, my chin turned away from him.

“I can explain everything. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. Last night, at the ball. The moment I met you…the moment we began spending time together… my curse started to heal.” My head shook back and forth as my eyes pressed closed.

His words threatened to tear open the fragile hold on my control.

“The mage who cursed me…she told me that the only way to heal my wound was to find you. To find my mate. With you, I am stronger than I have ever been before.”

“You are betrothed!” The words escaped my lips on a cry, my hand moving up my chest to cover the blush rising up my throat.

“So are you!” he roared back. “And to my enemy, no less!”

This was a godsdamned nightmare.

I had officially reached my breaking point. I had come back to the castle to find answers, only to find myself more confused than ever.

I had the right idea the first time…I needed to be alone with my thoughts.

I moved around Sorin but he stopped me, his touch featherlight on my arm. “I won’t stop you, Aveline. But we need to talk.”

I pressed my eyes shut once more, nodding. “We will talk, I promise. But right now—right now I need to be alone.”

I swallowed hard as I met his darkened gaze. The threads of my magic were fading, but still visible as they danced around his iris with iridescent tendrils.

He nodded once, releasing me. The moment his hand dropped to his side I surged for the door. This time, I didn’t leave it ajar in my wake.

I was a tempest, and I needed grounding before I unleashed emotions and magic I hadn’t the slightest control over. I needed to temper this fury before I did something I regretted.

I slammed the door shut and charged down the corridor.

And this time…I didn’t look back.