Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
- LYRA -
We all shuffle out into the hallway dressed in glittering gowns. I slow when we near Marcella’s room. The rest of the women move around us as we wait, but the door doesn’t open. I lean forward and knock. “Marcella? Hello? Are you coming out?”
We wait for a few seconds as the women begin to disappear around the corner at the end of the hallway.
“Come, we don’t want to be late. Perhaps she’s already in the dining room,” Aelia whispers and tugs my arm.
I try the knob and find it locked. Frowning, I shake my head.
I don’t think she would leave without us.
But with Aelia’s second tug, I relent and follow.
We quicken our pace until we’ve caught up with the rest of the group and gather near the double doors into the dining room.
We spill inside, our gowns glittering in the candlelight.
Food is already set at the table, and I scan the room to find that only the armored guards line the room.
No Marcella.
Lady Bethany waits for us at the bottom of the stairs as we descend, her gaze sweeping over the group of women and lingering on the two of us before it’s gone.
“I don’t see her…” I murmur to Aelia right as we part ways around the long dining table to take our usual spots.
What if whatever happened to Willow, happened to her?
Aelia tosses me a slight shrug from across the table.
Though, as I grab the back of my chair to pull it out, I see her out of the corner of my eye.
Marcella.
She’s dressed in a ruby red gown, hugging her hips and bust and billowing out onto the marbled floors. Her heels click on each tile, demanding attention. However, her eyes scan the table. Looking everywhere but at me.
Rather than taking her chair next to mine, she finds a new one at the head.
Right at Lady Bethany’s side. I can’t help my lips parting in surprise, then closing them as I swallow.
She has to be upset with me. She hasn’t wanted to look in my direction since the ball the other night, and now she won’t even sit next to me?
I’m running through every interaction from the second trial onward, searching for a reason for the change.
I take my seat as Aelia whispers, “Did something happen between you two?”
Flicking my gaze up off the golden plate in front of me to her, I shake my head. “I don’t think so…or at the very least, I don’t remember. She hasn’t spoken to me much or even looked in my direction.”
“She’s treating you as she does almost everyone else.”
Pinching my eyebrows together, I look down the long table at her. Now is not the time for grudges or frustration. No matter what I’ve done. We’ve created a blood pact. Willow is missing. We still have one more trial, and I can’t talk to anyone else about the bloody earring I found.
“You know what? If she treats all of her friends this way, then perhaps we shouldn’t waste our time worrying about keeping her friendship. Perhaps she’s realized only one of us can marry King Cyrus, and she doesn’t want to worry herself with her competition.”
I relax back into my chair slightly, because Aelia doesn’t know that’s not what Marcella wants.
Marcella wants me to win the hand of King Cyrus so I can pardon her brother.
Or…was that just a lie? And now that we’re closing in on the end of the competition, she’s realized what a foolish endeavor that was?
That perhaps I don’t have a chance any better than she does?
But…what if I wasn’t the only one she made a pact with?
I slowly slide my attention to Aelia, who plucks a wine glass and takes a drink. As I scan the rest of the table, I snag on the one empty chair. One empty spot that belonged to Willow.
She still isn’t here.
“Lyra,” Aelia says loudly.
I stop, along with several other women around us, as we all turn to her. Based on the confusion in her face, it isn’t the first time she’s called my name.
“Sorry, I…” I shake my head as if I’ll be able to recall whatever she was saying while I was taking note of Willow’s absence.
“Is it Marcella? Or something else? You can talk to me, you know. We’re friends.” Aelia whispers quietly.
It’s Marcella.
It’s the next trial.
It’s Willow’s bloody earring I found, and Cyrus pinning Devin to the wall by the throat.
It’s the dreams and visions.
It’s a thousand things at once.
I finally answer, “I just thought her and I had become something of friends. Truthfully, I don’t think I would’ve survived the last trial if it weren’t for Marcella.”
“I understand you’re hurt,” she murmurs warmly. “But I don’t think you give yourself nearly enough credit for how far you’ve come.”
I look up from buttering a slice of bread at her and smile. “Thank you…” But I can’t take my mind off the forest and fog. Because what if that’s our next trial?
I take a bite of bread, and my eyes are drawn down the table as everyone eats dinner. I’m pulled back to that one empty spot.
Willow’s.
It’s like containing a wildfire in my chest, not being able to talk to anyone about my discovery yesterday. Each minute that ticks by, it burns hotter. Demanding me to speak to someone.
I slide my attention back to Aelia. Watching her lift her teacup to her lips and sip while I wonder if she’s someone I can truly trust the information with. She’s never given me a reason not to. She’s always been good to me.
“Still no word about Willow?” I ask her.
She sets her cup down in its dish. “No, not that I’ve heard of.”
Tossing one more glance down the table at Lady Bethany and Marcella, I gulp down the rest of my tea and quickly lower the cup to my lap. Scooping the earring out of my pocket, I place it in the teacup and set it on the dish. I push it across the table to her expectantly.
She watches me in confusion, grabbing the plate and dragging it to her. When she flicks her blue eyes down at the earring, her thin eyebrows bunch as she shakes her head. “What’s this?”
I lean forward onto the table and whisper, “I found it in the hallway near her room.”
“Alright…?” Aelia squints at me, not following.
I nod my chin to the cup again. “There’s…there’s blood on it.”
She grabs a spoon, nudging the earring in the cup until she sets the spoon back down on the table. Farther away from the rest of her cutlery. I lean forward, barely able to reach and pinch the plate, drawing it back to me.
Aelia’s throat bobs, her eyes low on the cup. “What’re you trying to say, Lyra?”
As I get the cup in front of me, I meet her eyes. “It’s hers.” When she shakes her head, I press, “I swear it. She was wearing them the night of the ball.”
“What were you two arguing about before she went missing?” she asks quietly, blue eyes finally flicking up to mine.
My mouth parts as I shake my head and pluck the earring to place it back in my pocket. “I didn’t…it wasn’t me, Aelia. I swear I had nothing to do with it—”
“Girls,” a voice purrs behind us.
My heart forgets to beat for a moment. I let go of the earring in my pocket, stilling my hand. Aelia looks up to someone behind me, and as I turn in my chair to follow her look, my breath catches in my throat.
Lady Bethany. Her hands perch on my chair. An insincere smile on her face as she looks from me to Aelia, then back again. Her eyes settle on me. “Lyra, you seem quite jumpy today.”
I swallow. Did I really flinch when she addressed us? My chest rises as I struggle to maintain any semblance of composure.
Can she see the panic in my eyes?
“Willow’s disappearance,” Aelia supplies quickly. “We’re all quite…nervous. And truthfully, I might’ve frightened her more with the stories about realmwalkers.”
Lady Bethany slides a hard look to Aelia, staying for a long moment. Her voice becomes more scolding than I’ve ever heard her use before. “What have I told you?”
“I-I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. It was poor timing on my part, really,” Aelia stutters, dipping her head.
Lady Bethany fixes her with one look before turning her attention to the table.
She reaches over me, grabbing the teapot, and pours more tea into my cup.
“There’s nothing to be worried about, girls.
But if I hear you speaking anything more of Willow, or spreading gossip, there will be serious consequences for the both of you.
” She sets the teapot back down, skewering Aelia with one last look before she’s gone.
Once she’s at a healthy distance, I ask Aelia quietly, “What are realmwalkers?”
She chews through her mouthful, leaving me in anticipation for a moment before she answers. “The spirits who can travel through each realm.”
“Each realm as in…somewhere other than Arterias and Vitalis?”
She twists her head slightly in disbelief. “Your parents never told you the lore of other realms?”
“My parents weren’t, umm…” I stab a piece of fish on my plate and bring it to my lips as I regard it before I say, “Well educated. Especially after my grandparents lost the coin they saved from creating dragonblades. We had to focus all our time and efforts on making enough for the family.”
Aelia’s face falls a bit, and I’m regretting having shared as much information as I have. She shared before that she came from an educated background.
She answers, “They say realmwalkers can find portals into other worlds. Worlds no one else has ever seen before. That the magic of our Gods transcends our own world, and that we’d be silly to think of ourselves as the only creations by the Gods. That other life is not out there…somewhere.”
I take a few more bites of food as she continues in a whisper, “But they say that realmwalkers often can’t return to their original home realm. They often get stuck in the one they slipped into, and many times, they forget who they were entirely. Adopting the realm they currently live in.”
My eyes widen at the new information. “That sounds more like a way to terrify children if they don’t eat all their vegetables.”
She shrugs and leans back, taking a sip of her tea. “I find it more fascinating than terrifying.”
Before I can think of anything else to ask her, Lady Bethany announces, “King Cyrus has arrived.”
We all stand in respect, brushing back strands of hair, perfecting our gowns. Praying nothing is left in our teeth as he descends the stairs into the dining room, followed by Devin dressed in his usual golden armor.
As everyone is focused on their arrival, I look at Marcella. Her back is to me, long dark hair spilling down in thick waves.
The very last thing Willow ever said to me, the last time I ever saw her, surfaces in my memories.
She leaned over the table, a smile on her face. “You don’t need to be afraid. I’m not the one that will hurt you.”