Chapter 18 Sasha
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SASHA
Frustration about our lack of progress had been building for days, settling into my bones like a persistent ache. I touched my locket as we walked the main garden path, my mind churning through every failed theory and every dead end we’d hit.
Dominic walked beside me, his shoulders tight with his own tension. He ran his hand through his hair for the third time, making it stand up in ways that shouldn’t be endearing but absolutely were.
“I keep thinking we’re missing something obvious,” he said, echoing the thought that had been haunting me.
I catalogued our failures out loud, needing to hear them spoken to understand where we’d gone wrong. “The head gardener gave us nothing useful. Every staff member we questioned came up clean. The magical signature testing was completely inconclusive.”
“And we’re running out of time.” Dominic gestured to a cluster of emotion-responsive flowers that had been vibrant days ago but now drooped sadly. “The festival is in three days.”
Not enough time.
This wasn’t like my usual problems where I could analyze data, create a strategy, and bring about a solution. This mystery kept slipping through my mental fingers, refusing to fit into neat categories I could solve.
“Maybe I’m not as good at this as I thought,” I whispered.
Dominic stopped walking, turning to face me. He stroked my cheek, tilting my face until our eyes met. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Will we?” The doubt in my voice surprised me. I’d spent years being the one with answers, the strategist who anticipated every problem. Admitting uncertainty felt like failure.
He gazed into my eyes. “Yes, we will.”
The certainty in his voice, the unwavering confidence he had in us, loosened the frustration in my chest.
Savory shifted on my shoulder, her talons pricking through the fabric of my gown. Sometimes the answer isn’t found in what we see, but in what lies beneath.
I started to respond, but her words snagged on something I’d forgotten, bringing it back to the surface. “Looking beneath what’s visible. Shadow beneath beauty’s roots. What if Lady Edwina meant it literally? Shadow beneath beauty’s roots could mean something underground.”
Dominic’s brow furrowed. “Edwina’s predictions are usually nonsense. Beautiful, poetic nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless.”
“But what if this time they’re not?” Excitement shot through me, pushing aside my earlier doubt. “We’ve exhausted every logical approach. Maybe it’s time to try the illogical one.”
He studied my face, and I watched understanding dawn in his eyes. “Magical tracing. Following the dampening effect back to its source.”
“Exactly.” My pulse picked up. “Let’s combine your fae magic with my plant affinity. If there’s something underground affecting the root systems, we may be able to sense it.”
“It’s worth trying.” His hand slid from my face to capture mine, lacing our fingers together. “Where do we start?”
I looked around the garden. “The center of the most affected area. Where the wilting is the worst and the emotional dampening feels strongest.”
We made our way to that section. Flowers that should be blooming for the festival hung limp and colorless. Vines had pulled away from their supports, the leaves curled and brown.
“Here.” I positioned myself in the middle of the path, Dominic standing close beside me. “Both hands. I bet we’ll need maximum connection.”
He took my hands in his, and the familiar tingle of our magical resonance sparked between us. His warmth seeped into my skin, steadying me.
“Close your eyes,” I said. “Let your magic rise naturally, don’t force it. Just feel.”
I closed my own eyes, sinking into that internal space where my plant magic lived. Usually it whispered quietly, easily ignored unless I reached for it. But with Dominic’s energy flowing into me through our joined hands, it roared to life.
I can help, Savory said, launching into the air. I felt her magic join ours, a third thread weaving through the connection, amplifying and focusing our combined power.
An intense sensation rushed through me. Magic tingled across my body, heightening every sense. I became aware of the root systems beneath our feet, the vast underground network of plant life that connected the entire garden.
And beneath that, something odd, a faint taint that pulled at my mind like a discordant note in a song.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered.
“Yes.” Dominic’s voice had gone rough. “It’s like a void. A place where emotion should flow but doesn’t.”
Follow it, Savory said, her wings fluttering as she circled above us. Let the wrongness guide you to its source.
We started walking, our eyes still closed, led by the magical pull. Dominic’s hands tightened on mine when we needed to navigate around obstacles. His magic guided me when the path grew rough, his awareness compensating for my lack of sight.
The taint grew stronger the farther we walked. It grated against my plant sense, drawing us deeper into a section of garden I’d never explored.
“We’re getting close,” Dominic said. “I can feel it intensifying.”
I opened my eyes to find we’d reached an overgrown area. Thick vines covered what looked like a hillside, their leaves dense enough to create a living wall. But my magic sang with certainty. We were in the right place.
“There.” I gestured to where the vines grew thickest. “Something’s behind all that growth.”
We approached the hillside together, our hands still linked. Up close, I could see the vines weren’t naturally occurring. They’d been deliberately cultivated, woven together in a pattern that suggested magical camouflage rather than organic growth.
Dominic released one of my hands to push aside the vegetation. His magic rippled through the air, and the vines twitched before shifting aside slowly, revealing an entrance carved into the hillside itself.
Dominic eased open the rough wooden door, revealing stone steps descending into darkness.
“Should we go in alone?” I asked, even as every strategic instinct screamed that having others with us or at least telling someone where we were going would be wise.
“This is my court,” Dominic said. “I’m going to see whatever’s down there.” He tightened his grip on my hand. “But you can wait here with Sasha if you want.”
“Nope. I’m going with you.”
After releasing our hands, we descended, him taking the lead. Savory swooped in behind us, soaring down, down into the dark.
Magical lights flickered to life as we moved down the narrow stone steps, responding to our presence. Cool underground air raised goosebumps on my arms. The space had been deliberately carved rather than naturally formed.
“Do you smell cardamom?” I asked.
He paused, frowning. “No. Do you?”
I sniffed again, but the scent was gone. “No. I thought I did, but I must be mistaken.”
The steps opened into a chamber much larger than I’d expected. Someone had gone to considerable effort to excavate and maintain this space. The walls showed tool marks, and the dirt floor had been smoothed and leveled.
Ritual circles had been carved into the floor, and crystals had been arranged in a precise pattern.
Dominic stooped down and hovered his palm over one, closing his eyes. He sucked in a breath and straightened, his gaze meeting mine. “They’re…suppressing magic.”
Dampening crystals, Savory said, and I shared this with Dominic, who nodded.
A workbench against one wall held tools I didn’t recognize, along with notebooks. Charts hung on the walls, tracking fluctuations in the court over what appeared to be months.
Personal belongings scattered throughout suggested whoever used this space came here often and stayed for extended periods of time.
I went over to the workbench, carefully examining the notebooks without touching them, building a picture of the person’s methods and motivations.
“Sasha.” Dominic’s voice held a note of shock. “Look at these charts.”
I joined him at the wall where dates and measurements had been sketched, creating a complex web of data. The tracking went back over a year.
“This isn’t about our alliance,” I said. “This started before Grandmother reached out.”
“But intensified after.” Dominic traced one of the lines on the chart. “See? The dampening increased right here, around the time Mother received your grandmother’s first letter.”
The scale of this operation stole my breath. Someone had been draining the court’s emotional magic for much too long. Our partnership hadn’t caused the problem. If anything, we’d been fighting against something much older and more entrenched.
“We need to be careful,” I said, unease prickling down my spine. “Whoever built this room could come back at any time.”
Dominic nodded, but neither of us moved to leave. There were too many clues to examine and too much information to process.
We worked quickly, moving through the chamber and documenting everything we found. Dominic sketched the ritual circles in my small pocket journal. After, I added the layout of the crystals, replicating their arrangement and the patterns carved into each one.
Dominic’s hand steadied me when I leaned too far forward to examine something on the upper wall. My fingers brushed his when we both reached for the same notebook.
Each touch sent awareness sparking through me, heightened by the magical connection we’d forged during our tracing. I could feel his energy zipping beneath his skin, responding to mine in a way that had nothing to do with investigation and everything to do with desire.
“Look at this.” Dominic held up a dusty journal, his voice pulling me back to the task at hand. “I found this in a box underneath the counter. The entries appear to be ancient, and they describe a ritual for purifying emotions.”
I moved closer to read, the right side of my chest pressing against his back. His warmth seeped through my gown, and I had to force myself to focus on the words rather than the solid strength of his body.