3
Soleil
I will never get used to traveling through the Veil.
Granted, it’s only my third time making the trip through the ether, but I’m already ready to admit I’m not cut out for it.
I wonder how the hell Seren does it.
My sister’s been hopping around realms for almost as long as the new bargain’s been cast, and just the thought of how many times she’s traveled through the Veil makes me queasy.
Allie puts a steadying hand on my shoulder. “Doing okay?”
I must look as green as I feel, but I try to manage a nod. “I’m alright. That was just…”
“I know,” she says sympathetically. “It gets easier after a while, if that makes you feel any better.”
It doesn’t, really, but I nod again and straighten up. Maybe pretending I don’t feel like I’m going to vomit will make me actually feel like I’m not going to vomit.
I study the woods surrounding the stone arch which holds the Veil. They’re still beautiful and rich in early autumn. Mostly pine, but with a few other trees scattered throughout that are starting to show their fiery colors as the seasons change.
In the distance, towering, snow-capped mountains frame the horizon, skirted by miles and miles of dense forest.
The last time I was here, a demon guard was waiting by the Veil to bring me right back to court through one of the portals their magick allows them to summon.
Slightly less stomach-turning than traveling through the Veil, but not by much.
“So,” I say, noting the distinct lack of any demons around to open a portal. “Are we hiking back to court?”
Ugh, I can’t think of anything I’d like to do less.
I’m more of an indoor girl on my best days, and on days when I’m running on barely any sleep, with nerves frayed within an inch of snapping and a stomach that still won’t settle down?
Count me out of any outdoor activities.
Allie, however, offers an immediate solution.
“I can portal us.”
“You can?”
Shit, that sounded rude.
Especially given what I know about her background and her history, immediately questioning her magickal capability is probably the worst thing I could have done.
But she just grins. “Yeah, I can. It’s freaking wild, but after Eren and I sealed our bond, I started developing some of his powers. I’ve gotten pretty good at portals over the last few months.”
A portal only sounds marginally, infinitesimally better than hiking, but I brace myself, nod, and Allie gives me another sympathetic smile.
“It’s not that far, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Well,” I say, grasping the hand she extends. “If it means I don’t have to walk…”
I should have just walked.
Between one heartbeat and the next, she’s opened a portal and stepped us through. We’re spat back out on the other side after a rush of wind that feels like stepping into a jet engine and the awful, stomach-rolling sensation of having the world fall out from beneath my feet.
I barely manage not to dry heave as we land.
“Are you alright?” Allie asks.
“Never better,” I rasp, making myself get it together.
“Sorry,” she says, nodding toward the mountainside in front of us. “But at least it’s not much further.”
Just like the last time I was here, the view takes my breath away.
It’s nearly enough to make me forget how damned sick I feel as my eyes trace the line of gray stone up and up and up to where it pierces a bank of low-hanging clouds.
The sheer size of it is almost unfathomable, and gives me a strange, world-tilting feeling as we get closer.
Even more unfathomable is the way the court’s main doors appear from nowhere in the mountainside.
One moment, we’re walking toward a sheer rock face, and the next one of the guards standing watch at the entrance lays her hand on the stone and it transforms.
A gate materializes in front of us, allowing us to walk right into the heart of the mountain. Both guards offer greetings and bows of respect to their queen as we pass.
Inside, the way ahead is lit by burning sconces set into the stone walls of the corridor. There are more demons here, hurrying from one place to another, obviously starting what must be a very busy day in the seat of this realm’s power.
Still, none of them are too busy to recognize Allie as we pass, with more greetings and more bows.
Allie, for her part, is transformed.
From the witch I used to know back in our younger days, to Queen Allison Ashblood. Her whole bearing and attitude change. Kind and responsive to the respect she receives, but also regal, poised, downright… queenly.
The change is so drastic I have to blink a couple of times.
It also makes me painfully aware of how I look next to her.
Allie is put together impeccably; her emerald gown falling gracefully and her long brown hair still perfectly in place even after a trip through the Veil and a portal to get us here.
In comparison, I’m still wearing last night’s skirt and blouse, rumpled and stained in a few places with the ingredients I used for the dreamsbane. My hair was tied back into a braid at one point, but that’s long since given up, and I don’t want to think about what a rat’s nest it must be.
It’s not like anyone is looking at me, specifically, but a few gazes slip from Allie to me and a few brows furrow in confusion at what a mess of a witch like me is doing with their queen.
I hastily run a hand over my skirt and unsuccessfully attempt to smooth my hair into something resembling order.
“It’s weird, I know,” Allie mutters to me after the dozenth or so well-wish she gets from a passing demon. “The way everyone stares. It still feels like I’m playing a part most days.”
“But you play it pretty damn well,” I mutter back. “Seriously, you’re great at this.”
She grins, and is about to say something else when she spots someone and waves. “Vayla!”
I follow her gaze and find the court’s resident healer heading our way, one brow raised high when she sees me standing next to Allie.
“Didn’t expect to see you back at court.”
Vayla’s got the sort of blunt, no-nonsense attitude I always appreciate in a witch.
Not that she’s a witch in the traditional sense, but she told me the last time I was here that she has an ancestor way back in her family line who was one of the first Tithe brides, like Allie was for King Eren.
It’s given her a bit of witchmagick running through her veins, which she puts to good use in her position at court.
I give her a half-smile. “I didn’t really expect to be back, either, if I’m being honest.”
“Well,” Allie says. “I guess this will save me a trip down to your workshop, Vayla. Soleil is here to help you with Ariana’s grimoire.”
Vayla’s expression lights up at that. “Really? That’s fantastic. I’ve been waiting to tackle some of the sections on potions and herbal blends, so your timing is perfect.”
Another forced smile, a shrug, and I hope Vayla can’t see right through me.
“Happy to help. I had some free time and remembered the conversation we had when I was here tending to Joan. Thought it was past time I paid the demon realm another visit.”
Allie tactfully doesn’t mention this visit is coming on the heels of impulsively fleeing the coven hall and at the potential expense of my Ascension.
The less Vayla knows about my real reason for being here, the better.
The less anyone knows about my real reason for being here, the better.
It’s just for a little while.
Just long enough to do some good work on the grimoire and clear my head. A change of pace. Some different scenery. An opportunity to get out of the coven hall pressure cooker and gain some perspective.
Fortunately, Vayla doesn’t seem to notice anything is wrong.
She and Allie chat about a few patients Vayla has seen lately, and something about a flower she’s planning to harvest that I don’t quite catch as my eyes wander to the top of the atrium in the center of the mountain.
It goes all the way up to the top, where a tiny sliver of daylight is just—
“Did you know Seren is here?”
Vayla’s words jerk me back into the conversation and throw me immediately off balance.
It’s been a couple of months since I last saw my twin.
Things between us were… better, but only slightly, when she and Callum went back through the Veil after the bounty they were chasing for the queen of Faerie.
We’re still nowhere near how we used to be, nowhere near as close or trusting of each other, but it was a start.
“Is she?”
“Yeah,” Vayla says. “Not for too long, I don’t think, but she and Callum were staying over last night as guests of the Nighfalls.”
I’ve got no idea who the Nighfalls are, but if Seren is here at court…
“Can you take me to where she’s staying?”
Apparently my impulsive streak hasn’t entirely died down, because suddenly the only thing I want to do is see my sister.
My brave, reckless sister, who left the coven the day she turned eighteen.
My gifted, powerful sister, who decided she’d rather use her magick for herself and forge her own path than follow anyone else’s.
My passionate, temperamental sister, who probably still hates me at least a little because I stayed, and even more because I’m planning on Ascending to priestesshood.
“Sure,” Vayla says, and nods toward one of the side corridors branching off the atrium. “I’ll take you. I’m sure Her Majesty is needed in the great hall with King Eren.”
Allie laughs and shakes her head. “You’re not wrong. He’s probably already sent guards out looking for me.”
Before she goes, she takes my hand and squeezes it gently. Our eyes meet, and the depth of sympathy and understanding I find there tightens my throat.
It’s not the reassurance I would have ever expected from a Crescent witch.
Not that Allie’s a Crescent witch anymore, not really, but the moment of support is more than I’ve gotten in years from any of my sister witches.
“I’ll stop by the workshop later,” she says, “and see how work on the grimoire is going.”
I’ll stop by and make sure you haven’t fallen entirely to pieces is the unspoken bit of her parting words, and with a brief goodbye to Vayla, she heads toward a pair of towering, carved wooden doors that lead into the great hall.
“Come on.” Vayla is already moving, not one to waste time or mince words. “It’s not far.”
Not far seems to be a very demon measure of distance, because by the time we’ve made our way through an endless maze of corridors—all of which seem to lead uphill in some direction or another—I’m winded and ready to find somewhere to sit down.
“This is their room,” Vayla says, stopping in front of a door. “I’ll leave you to it. Either Seren or Callum should be able to bring you down to the workshop when you’re done. It’s a bit of a hike to get there.”
Oh, perfect.
If not far felt like we walked for miles, I shudder to think what a bit of a hike will be.
But that’s a problem for future Soleil.
Right at the moment, I’m more worried about catching my breath and doing what little I can to make myself presentable. If I know my sister, she’ll be able to spot what a mess I am inside and out as soon as she lays eyes on me, and I’d rather not alarm her too much.
When I’m about as put together as I can possibly be in this moment, I raise my hand and knock.
It takes a few seconds, but eventually a familiar voice calls out from inside.
“Come in!”
The scene I walk into is so cozy that I immediately feel bad for intruding.
Seren and Callum are sitting on a balcony that looks out over the side of the mountain. She’s in his lap, cuddled up close, though she sits bolt upright in her seat when she sees who’s come to barge in on her morning.
Seren lifts herself off Callum’s lap and turns to me with wide eyes. “Soleil? What are you doing here?”