Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
Ayear later, the Sacred Palace sat quiet.
The dancers had gone, one by one, into the lives they chose.
Some married, some kept the heated pools, some opened a new dance hall in the city, where dancing was only for joy.
The ritual was abolished. No one bled for it now, but pilgrims still climbed to the pools to bask in the heated waters.
Sometimes, when I slipped up from the hollows to sit among them, I saw the ghosts of the old Lead Dancers, spinning across the empty amphitheater, twirling endlessly, desperate to keep the ritual.
Determined to keep their place and purpose long after the music faded.
I did not fear them, but I grieved them, for I had nearly been one of them.
My body had grown strong, though pieces of my soul were gone where the dance had stolen them, edges I would never get back.
On the worst nights, the layered voices of the deep still reached me, the demons begging for release from hell, beyond the sealed rift.
And on the night of the full moon, I still woke with a cry, a nightmare creeping in behind my eyes, sharp as ever, though as the months drifted by, it began to dull.
But one thing was certain. When I woke, he was there. Airen. The Hollow King. By my side in the dark, every time. I did not always trust my own memory or my mind, but I trusted him.
“What are you thinking?” he murmured, caressing my cheek with the back of his hand.
His gaze was soft, tender. I’d seen that softening the longer we lived together in his kingdom.
“I’d like to see the roses in bloom and visit the meadows.”
“Come.”
He led me out of our bower and through the halls that let in the light.
There was always light now, no darkness left in it.
We walked out into the night air that smelled of roses and lavender.
The Hollow Kingdom spread below us, mountain and mist and a lagoon where cranes caught fish, and a trail that danced into the wood.
The grounds were wide and varied, and I thought I’d never be able to explore them all.
Now that the Hollow Kingdom was free, I saw it for what it was.
A place in between places, only accessible if someone knew how to slip into the unseen passageways.
As Queen of the Hollow Kingdom, I had the magic to open invisible gateways and move between worlds.
It filled me with awe and reverence, yet I rarely went anywhere without him.
We walked barefoot down the twisting stones, the wild grass brushing my ankles like small kisses, welcoming the king and queen to the humble carpet of earth.
We walked up to a hilltop where it flattened out.
Airen took my hand, his other at my hip, and pressed me close, his warmth enveloping me as he kissed me.
Then he stepped back, and music began.
It wound through me until I was giddy, and we danced, there, underneath the moonlight.
This time there was no shuddering of breath, no cough rising to steal it, no trembling in my limbs. Only the king I had fallen for, the one I’d dared to trust, to risk it all for.
And somewhere in the distance, beneath the music of the night, I heard it.
The clicking of claws against stone. I saw his shadow rise, apart from him, and then, for half a breath, seeming to rise from him, a horned darkness.
But he spun me around, and it was nothing again, just the two of us, the moonlight, and the midnight blossoms that bore witness.
I let it be nothing.
We danced until we descended into passionate kisses, our limbs entangled, fingers entwined in hair. He drew me down to the grass, spun me out of my silks, and we made love while the music played on and the heavens sang.