Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
Aventurine
Leda and Adrian searched for the portal that would get us back to Crea while I was in the Vale. It was the reason they’d moved to this cave instead of remaining at the camp where I’d left them.
We stop just before the stone archway resting beyond the creek bed that Graylen bathed in this morning. The structure resembles the frame of a round door, its stones split with cracks and tangled with dead ivy.
Just passing by, it could be mistaken for the ruins of an old home, with other crumbling stone structures scattered around it.
There isn’t anything magical about the way it looks, but there’s something that feels…wrong about it. A shiver works down my spine as Adrian shifts from one foot to another beside me.
“Before you go,” Leda says, turning to me and Graylen, who stands on my other side. She gestures to Graylen’s ears. “We need to take care of those.”
My hand immediately lifts to my own, gingerly tracing the soft point at the top. After taking aconite for so long, it took a while for them to grow into their natural shape. And now, I have to get rid of them.
Graylen nods, but stays quiet.
Leda gives me a lingering look, similar to the one I’m giving him. She clears her throat and adds, “Addie, Avery, and Graylen all had to learn the enchantment to keep their form human during their journey in Crea.”
At the mention of Avery and Addie, my heart sinks. I miss them. They were the first real friends I had outside of Opal, and now I don’t know when I’ll see them again—or when I’ll see my mother again.
I wish I could’ve seen her—talked to her about everything I had learned—before I left, but there wasn’t enough time. There’s never enough time to do the things we want to do.
“Graylen?” Leda urges gently. “You’ve done it far more than I have.”
He grunts, but gives a short nod as he looks at me. His brilliant green eyes are wary and distant—as if his mind is somewhere else.
“Ready?” he asks into my mind.
I clear my throat and straighten my spine. “Ready.”
He raises his hand, a spark of fire crackling on the tips of his pointer and middle fingers. He walks around to my back and, with his free hand, shifts my hair over to one shoulder, leaving my left ear exposed.
His fingers graze my neck, causing goosebumps to pebble my flesh. There’s a moment where I feel him lingering at the soft space just behind my ear, and it sends a shiver down my spine.
We haven’t had much time to talk about what’s happened to him, but there’s no denying that he’s still him. Right now, there may only be glimpses of the Graylen I once knew, but deep down, he’s still there.
I can’t imagine what he’s been through, and I’m willing to give him however long he needs to work through it.
“I’ll find time to teach you the enchantment.” His words are soft, floating in my thoughts.
The unsaid reason hangs between us: in case we get separated.
Adrian shifts into my line of sight, catching my eye, but his gaze is set over my shoulder. On Graylen. His brows draw together as he slowly looks down to where Graylen’s fingers are pressed behind my ear.
He quickly spins around, kicking loose rocks at his feet.
Graylen begins to mutter a string of words aloud that I don’t understand, drawing my attention back to what he’s doing. His two fingers trace the slope of my ear slowly—they glide across my skin, leaving a trail of warm tingles in their wake.
His chanting continues behind me, and I try to focus on the words he’s saying. But it’s hard to listen when his magic starts to cascade around me. It starts at my ear, the tingling moving to my neck, my shoulder, and my chest.
My eyes flutter closed.
Graylen pauses, his Essence slowing its delicious descent down my side. “Your magic feels different.” Graylen’s voice filters into my mind. “It always reaches for mine, Lunaria. Always. But this time…it took longer.”
My eyes snap open. He noticed. Of course he did.
“Something happened to it,” I answer honestly, craning my neck enough to catch his gaze. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
Right now lingers after my words. If anyone will patiently listen and work through this with me, it’s him. I want nothing more than to sit down and tell him not just about the shard and my magic, but the things I did while wishing he were there with us.
I want to tell him about Kauri and the wild fae there. About their strange way of being marked with ink, similar to the Aegis but more primal. Ancient. He’d love to hear about us sleeping suspended in the air high above the ground, and the flight to the cave.
But now isn’t the time.
Graylen’s jaw works, concern flickering in his gaze. “You don’t have to tell me about it now.” His nostrils flare. “But soon.”
I swallow and nod. His hand shoots out, fingers wrapping around my chin to angle my face toward him. My breath catches as he leans toward me, his lips hovering above mine.
“I may have been in the Vale with the Goddess of Vengeance, but I know you went through something too while I was there,” he murmurs, the words scattering my brain. “It does not make your pain less than mine.”
Before I have time to react, he gently lowers his lips against mine. The kiss is soft and quick, long enough for my body to gravitate toward him, but short enough that he pulls away before I can deepen the kiss.
Tears gather in my eyes, and he smiles sadly at me.
“Time for the other side.” He begins on the opposite ear, this time moving far quicker.
Afterward, he does his own ears. Meanwhile, the kiss stays seared into my thoughts. The feel of his mouth against mine lingers, my lips tingling.
Graylen finishes up, a tense silence resting between the four of us. Leda is watching Adrian’s every move, while Adrian is pointedly looking anywhere but at all of us.
I rifle through our packs, making sure we have everything we need. The one smart thing Adrian did was come to Penyth with money—a lot of it. Plenty for us to buy a few horses, some food if needed, and new clothing before we get to the castle—and still have some left over.
Leda worked with Willow to gather enough cured meats, cheeses, and dried fruits to last us at least a week on this side of the border in case things didn’t go as planned getting Graylen back. It’s more than we need, but it gives me something to do while Graylen finishes the enchantment on himself.
“So, what’s the plan?” Adrian breaks the silence, his gaze sliding to me. “I’m just going to show up at the castle with you and Graylen while making it look like I managed to bring both of you back alone? Without any of the guards or Reichardt?”
I can feel Graylen’s questioning gaze on me; he was bound to find out at some point.
“We’re going as his…captives?” he says in a low, quiet rumble. “Who’s going to believe that?”
Adrian’s head snaps to him, the tension mounting between the two of them. “They don’t know what you are,” Adrian hisses. “All everyone knows is that you left with Lu. If my uncle knows she was born with magic, then we could convince him it was her that got you all out.
“My uncle isn’t dumb. He’s going to know something is off the moment we show up, just the three of us,” Adrian adds. “We still have the suppressant necklace my uncle gave me—”
“No.” Leda takes three large strides over to Adrian, heat practically billowing off of her as she stops in front of him, so close that he has to crane his neck to look up at her.
“That isn’t why we brought it.” She glances at me briefly, then back at Adrian, her features shifting into a calm fury.
“The necklace is a vile collar that chains up fae like an animal. Use it on Lunaria and see how long I let you live after that.”
My eyes widen.
“Use it, and I’ll find a way to get to you,” she whispers to Adrian. “I’ll find a way to ensure you never have the ability to use it again. Got it?”
Leda isn’t coming to Crea—if Adrian were to somehow use it on me again, Leda wouldn’t be here to stop it. But that doesn’t stop the tremble that starts in Adrian’s shoulders, or the way he takes a noticeably large step away from her. His face flushes, and he nods stiffly.
With her eyes on Adrian, she reaches into the small pack wrapped around her waist. She pulls out the collar Adrian used on me—the one he was given by his uncle to suppress my Essence in case I had learned to use it.
In order for this to work—for us to get close enough to the castle to find Nightfall—we have to make this story believable. They may not know for certain that Graylen is fae, but they know I am.
Agreeing to this makes my knees weaken. I don’t want to lose who I’ve become in Penyth, and my Essence is a large part of that. The thought of losing what makes me like my mother and sister pierces my chest like a searing brand.
And, more than that, I don’t want to be vulnerable again. Weak. But we also don’t have the luxury of avoiding this. If I say no to the collar, then it could risk our plan. Once again, I’m the only one who can do this.
“I’ll wear it,” I say suddenly.
Leda’s fingers curl around it, her knuckles turning white as her gaze shoots toward me. “Lunaria—”
“Getting what we came for is what matters most,” I try to reason, keeping my meaning vague in Adrian’s presence. “If I need to wear this just to get in, then I’ll wear it.”
Leda’s nostrils flare delicately, and she pulls the collar closer to her body. “It means you’ll have to stay by Adrian’s side,” she reminds me. “No further than a few paces away from him the entire time.”
Graylen shifts toward me, being unusually quiet. His fingers brush against mine and he whispers into my mind, “I don’t like this, Lunaria.”
“Well, that makes two of us,” I send back. “But we’ll do what we need to do to get this done.”
Neither of us knows what we’re walking into. We might need my magic when the time comes. We’re risking our lives by keeping my Essence locked away—but we’re risking the dagger by not.
Leda’s eyes drop to the collar. She slowly begins to nod her head. “Fine,” she sighs and tosses it over to Graylen. “But he keeps it until it’s time.”
Graylen catches it, his shoulders sagging as he stuffs it into the pack on his waist. He already looks like he needs to lie down again. Doubt sinks its claws into my stomach when he looks my way, his gaze vacant and eyes heavy.
“I’ll be okay,” he says into my mind when he notices me staring. “Where you go, I go, little princess.”
There’s a plea in his voice I’m not used to—a desperate one, almost panicked at the thought of us separating.
The truth is, any power to make choices was taken from him over the past few weeks. He’s been bound to a realm he never should’ve gone to, stuck, not knowing if he would ever leave.
I can’t take this choice away from him.
As much as I want to demand that he go back with Leda, stay in Kauri where it’s safe and he can heal, I know he wouldn’t go. If his choice is to go with me, then I have to let him make that decision.
There isn’t much I can do for him, but I can do this. I can trust him and give him the option to do what he wants to do.