Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kole was gone.
My magic searched and searched and searched for the warrior.
I should have been able to locate him immediately, no matter how far away he was.
Even if he’d mistphased to the Nolus continent or a distant Lochen island or the enchanted ice cliffs on the Solis continent, my magic would have found him.
We were linked, irrevocably, yet . . . he wasn’t anywhere.
I was in a state of panic by the time I sprinted across my chambers to the hall and flung the door open to a very startled warrior.
Royden’s eyebrows rose, and he scanned my appearance. Like yesterday, I’d dressed for the day in the morning, letting Betsee do my hair, but I’d also been running my hands through it repeatedly. I probably looked like a mess.
“Princess, is everything all right?” Royden asked.
I was so worried that I didn’t stop to think about my dead heart. I lunged toward him, curled my fingers around his tunic, and screeched, “Kole’s gone.”
He carefully pried my fingers off him, frowning when his warm skin met my cold. “Yes. That’s why I’m here.” His tone was patient, if slightly condescending, and I howled in frustration that he wasn’t understanding.
“No, he’s gone. As in entirely vanished. Kole’s not anywhere in the realm.” My stomach felt as though it’d dropped to my feet. I stumbled back, my spine slamming into the hallway’s wall. “Oh Gods, Royden, he’s dead. He has to be dead. That’s why I can’t find him!”
Royden held his hands up and approached me slowly. “Hold on a minute and calm down. Why in the realm would you think Kole’s dead?
“Because I can’t find him mentally. Aren’t you listening to me? Oh Stars. We have to find him.” I slapped a hand to my forehead. “Maybe, just maybe, he’s still alive. Maybe he’s close to death, and his magic is too weak. Maybe that’s why I can’t locate him. I need to find my father!”
I took off at a run down the hall, and the warrior called out from behind me.
But I didn’t slow. I ran so fast, blindingly so, and it was only when my uncle’s magic began to rear, about to command me to either stop or manipulate all of the minds around me who could see my speed, that I slowed. But only enough to mimic fae.
I was about to make the final turn to my father’s study, the one he often occupied during the day, when a hand gripped my biceps.
Royden stopped me mid-run. “Princess Primelle. Calm down. I can find Kole for you. We don’t need to disturb the king about that.”
“But you said—”
“It’s all right. Deep breaths.”
It hit me like lightning that my heart should be thundering and my breaths ragged. I forced my chest to rise unsteadily, the movement entirely awkward, but my panic thankfully seemed to be distracting Royden enough that he wasn’t paying attention to my lack of bodily functions.
“I’ll contact the Council and get answers for you, but I need you to return to your wing and stay behind your wards. If I’m not with you, you must stay there. Understood?”
I nodded shakily and then followed the warrior back to my chambers. My stomach kept tumbling, but at least, for the first time, my vampire urges weren’t overtaking me. Royden’s heart was thudding steadily, but I couldn’t have cared less.
All I wanted was to find Kole.
Once I was behind my wards, Royden left. The entire time he was away, I paced from one end of my room to the other. I continually tried to find Kole as well, my mental magic constantly seeking him, but to no avail, and I berated myself over and over again that I hadn’t checked on him earlier.
It felt like hours before a knock came on my door, and Royden entered. I flew to him, eyes wide, and he gave me a pacifying smile. “Kole’s fine. He asked the Council for a few days off, but he’s all right.”
“He is?” For a moment, I stared at him, dumbfounded, but then added, “How do you know?”
“His death magic never triggered. He’s still alive.
If he wasn’t, magic would have alerted the Council to his demise.
It’s something we’re all infused with as a way to let the Council know if one of us gets into trouble, but I confirmed with my commanding superior that Kole’s magic is still intact. No signals have been sent to them.”
My eyebrows slammed together, and I shook my head. “But if he’s alive, then why can’t my magic find him?”
Royden shrugged. “You would probably know better than me on why that is.”
I stumbled back to the couch near the fireplace and sat. Kole was alive. He wasn’t dead. Yet my magic wasn’t able to locate him.
I froze, everything inside me turning as solid as ice.
If my magic couldn’t find Kole, and he wasn’t harmed, then it was likely because of something Kole was doing.
Kole had intensely strong magic of his own.
He possessed three Solis affinities as well as elemental air magic from Faewood.
He was hardly a weakling, and if he was evading my magic, it could very well be because he didn’t want to be found.
Which meant that he didn’t want to talk to me.
Everything inside me felt like it was shutting down, down, down.
Kole had purposefully left. He’d chosen not to come back to guard me because he didn’t want to be here, and now, he didn’t want to talk to me either.
I thought back to our last conversation, in which I’d treated him so horribly and screamed at him to leave.
And left he had. He’d done exactly what I’d told him to do.
A choked sob worked up my throat, and the sympathy growing in Royden’s eyes told me he was reaching the same conclusions I was.
Of course, he was. He knew Kole and I were mates.
Everyone knew now. But I didn’t carry Kole’s scent, and he didn’t carry mine.
We hadn’t completed our mating bond, and everyone knew that too.
“I’ll, uh, give you some time. I’ll be in the hall if you need me.” Royden turned on his heel and quietly left.
On the couch, I stared into a cold fireplace as everything inside me began to break apart, piece by piece. Kole had left me, perhaps left me for once and all, and I had nobody to blame but myself.
I didn’t know how long I sat entirely frozen. Unmoving. A vampire to my very core. I only came alert again when a puff of magic appeared at my feet, and a small dillemsill appeared.
“Princess Primelle, you have a message.”
Absentmindedly, I stared down at the tiny messenger bird.
When I didn’t respond or pick it up, it flew from the floor to perch on the couch beside me, then said in its loudest voice, “Your Uncle Arnel is requesting your presence in his home. He would like you to mistphase to his library, without your warrior, tonight. And he also wanted to inquire about your friend Harrietta Blackthorn and her son, Siam. He’s wondering how they are? ”
My head snapped toward the bird, for the first time, coming out of the trance that had overtaken me. “What?”
The bird, obviously thinking I hadn’t been listening, repeated the message. And when he got to the part about Ree and Siam, my jaw dropped.
I understood the message for what it was.
A threat.
I curled my fingers tightly into my palms, my nails biting.
Of course, my uncle couldn’t actually threaten them outright via the messenger bird.
The tiny bird would be obligated by Silten law to report him if such a thing occurred, but as it was, Arnel’s message sounded entirely benign.
It was simply a message from an uncle requesting a visit from his niece and asking how her best friend and child were doing.
“Would you like to respond?” the dillemsill asked.
I was so furious that my hands began to shake, so I clasped them and rapidly shook my head. “No. No reply. Message received.”
The bird dipped its small beak, then began to spin. Its yellow and purple body became a blur, and it snapped out of existence, its magic taking it back to its place of hire.
I stood from the couch and looked outside. It was nighttime. When did that happen?
I blurred across the room since no one was around and stood at the door, listening. A heartbeat thudded quietly through the door’s thick wood. Given the time, my nighttime warrior had arrived.
I blurred across the room again, this time stopping at the doors to my courtyard. The curtains were drawn, so whoever was guarding the courtyard couldn’t see me, but I detected their heartbeat too.
And it hit me. I was fully living my new life now.
I was alone. A vampire. Other. Nobody else in the realm was like me, unless my uncle had other fae that he’d turned too and had them hidden around the continent, just waiting to do his bidding.
And the one fairy, the only one who I thought would be with me through it all, had left.
My chest physically hurt thinking of Kole again, but I didn’t fling my mental magic out a second time. He was alive, but he didn’t want to be found. He didn’t want to talk to me. I had to respect that even though it felt as if I was shattering apart on the inside.
But I could check on Ree. My friend still loved me, or at least, she would until she discovered what I truly was. Maybe then she would leave me too.
Subtly, my magic reached out, worry slithering through me that my uncle could have done something to her and Siam.
But I located Ree immediately, right here in the capital, inside her home. The tiny consciousness beside her told me she was either feeding Siam or putting him back to sleep.
They’re both still safe.
Relief made my shoulders sag, but just as fast, I knew their safety wasn’t guaranteed. My uncle had made his wishes clear. I was to visit him alone tonight, and if I didn’t, Ree and Siam would be the ones to pay.
My fingers curled tightly around my courtyard’s curtains. Rage strummed through me anew that Arnel was threatening the ones I loved. It was bad enough that I’d already been forced to alter my father’s mind, but now he was threatening my best friend and her baby . . .
I wouldn’t allow that, which meant I needed to visit him.
I glanced toward the hall, listening with my acute vampire hearing, but the warrior out there was simply standing watch. He didn’t suspect a thing.
Closing my eyes, I called upon my magic, disentangled it, then pictured my uncle’s estate.
In a blast of mistphasing magic, I disappeared in a whirl of mist and shadows, air and wind.