Chapter 18 #2
The words stirred an uncertainty inside him, though he kept his expression carefully neutral. His mother’s eyes lit with sudden hope.
“This could be the influence of one of them,” she continued, turning to survey the laughing crowd with renewed interest. “Do you have any idea which one? Have you honestly not noticed feeling settled around any lady in particular?”
Rather than relief or happiness, Ryden had to tamp down a rising wave of anxiety.
The only person he wanted was Aurelise, and no, he did not feel settled around her because every moment in her presence set his heart alight, his thoughts unraveling beneath the force of a longing so fierce it seemed it might consume him altogether.
How was he supposed to endure it if this entire notion of finding someone whose magic might temper his own actually worked?
If he truly was forced to choose someone else from among the Crown Court ladies?
His mother looked out at the gathering again, quiet for several moments, her expression contemplative in the soft glow of the floating lanterns.
“I’ve noticed,” she said finally, “that the palace at large seems more at peace this Season than usual. I’d assumed that with all the additional activity and excitement, the atmosphere would be far more chaotic.
And certainly, we’ve been busy—exhaustingly so—but there haven’t been nearly as many disasters as I anticipated. ”
She paused, and Ryden could see her mind working, analyzing this unexpected peace.
“Perhaps fate itself is telling us we are on the right path,” she continued. “That this was the correct choice, this gathering, this method. By Season’s end, you’ll have your bride, and your magic will stabilize as it was always meant to.”
Ryden drew a careful breath, willing the tightness in his chest to ease as the activity moved closer, the chasing crowds following a cluster of particularly active gleams that seemed to be playing with their pursuers.
A group, headed by Evryn and Mariselle, moved toward them, so focused on their quarry that they seemed unaware of their proximity to royalty.
Evryn very nearly crashed directly into Ryden’s mother while attempting a particularly athletic leap for an air-koi, his net sweeping dangerously close to the High Lady’s head.
“Your Grace!” He landed awkwardly, his face flushing. “My deepest apologies. I didn’t see—that is, I was watching—forgive me—”
“No harm done, Lord Rowanwood,” the High Lady said with more amusement than censure. “The gleams can be quite distracting.”
As Evryn retreated with a smothered grin, Mariselle giggling on his arm, the group shifted, and Ryden’s heart leaped as the movement revealed Aurelise standing almost directly before them.
She looked as startled as he felt, her net lowering, her eyes widening as she realized how close she’d come to the royal observers.
She dropped into a hasty curtsy, Lady Willow following suit beside her. “Your Grace. Your Highness. Please forgive the intrusion.”
“It’s quite all right,” the High Lady said as Ryden bowed to the two young women, his eyes remaining fixed on Aurelise, a small smile curving his lips.
Aurelise looked as though she might flee—Ryden could see the instinct in the way her weight shifted—but then something made her pause.
She straightened her shoulders, and he recognized the gesture.
It was the same way she’d steeled herself before stepping into the rain, before wading into the lake.
His quiet, careful L gathering her courage.
“Actually, Your Grace,” she began hesitantly, “there was something I wished to discuss with you, if I might be so bold.”
Bold indeed. Ryden almost laughed out loud, his earlier anxiety easing, delighted at how bold his shy, careful L was becoming. For one reckless heartbeat, he wanted nothing more than to draw her into his arms and kiss her.
“Go on,” his mother said, one eyebrow arching upward
“My brother delivered something earlier today,” Aurelise said, her voice gaining speed as though she feared her courage might desert her.
“He crafted a small crystal drop for the Green Drawing Room chandelier, based on my description of it, and a—well … an idea I had. Relating to my music magic, that is. Just a silly experiment, really, but I wondered if I might be allowed to have it fitted in place of one of the existing pieces. I thought it might …” She faltered, then finished with a simple, “help.”
Ryden’s gaze darted to his mother, who regarded Aurelise with patient amusement. “Your music is quite lovely, my dear, so if that chandelier were to hum a melody instead of prattling so incessantly, I daresay it would be an improvement.”
Aurelise hesitated. “Oh, well, it … that is …”
“Yes, you are welcome to try,” the High Lady continued, waving a graceful hand. “I shall have one of the artificers fetch the piece from your chambers tomorrow and see it installed.”
Aurelise paused again, her gaze flickering between Ryden and his mother, as though something more pressed at the edge of her tongue.
But whatever it was, she swallowed it back.
“Thank you, Your Grace.” She curtsied once more, Lady Willow following her lead, and together they withdrew into the crowd.
Ryden’s eyes followed her as a rush of feeling swelled within him.
Longing, frustration, and the unspoken dread that someone else in this glittering crowd would soon be chosen for him, no matter what his heart already knew.
He drew a steadying breath, forced his thoughts into order, and turned back to his mother.
“If you’ll excuse me, Mother,” he said, “I think I shall join the festivities.”
“Of course, darling. Do enjoy yourself.”
Ryden retrieved one of the enchanted nets, testing its weight experimentally.
The silver threads hummed against his palm, already attuned to the frequency of gleam magic.
Around him, the gardens were still a battlefield of joy, ladies and gentlemen abandoning dignity in pursuit of the dancing lights.
“Finally decided to participate, Your Broodfulness?” Evryn appeared at his elbow, his own net already showing signs of enthusiastic use. “I was beginning to think you’d spend the entire evening smoldering mysteriously at the edges of the gathering. Very dramatic of you, but hardly sporting.”
Ryden’s laugh came easily. “Smoldering mysteriously?”
“Yes. Gazing moodily into the middle distance while the rest of us have fun. Dreaming of your mystery lady of letters, were you?”
Ryden tensed, his guard rising at once. He’d had to take care in his recent interactions with Evryn that nothing in his manner betrayed what he now knew—his ‘lady of letters’ was none other than the sister Evryn had firmly warned him away from. Aloud, he only said, “Perhaps.”
Evryn laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “You truly are smitten with this mystery woman, aren’t you? Oh, and that reminds me. You still haven’t shown me that enchanted letter box. Perhaps once the festivities wind down, we could adjourn to your study and have a look?”
A sharp chill swept through Ryden. His eyes darted immediately to find Aurelise, terrified she might be within earshot, that she might make the connection between an enchanted letter box and her mysterious correspondent.
Relief flooded through him when he spotted her a good distance away, laughing with complete abandonment as she and Lady Willow attempted to corner that single moonflare everyone was so determined to claim.
Stars above, had he ever heard her laugh so unabashedly before? It was captivating, the way joy transformed her face, erasing all traces of the shy, nervous girl who so often let her smiles fall unseen, tucked away behind a downward glance.
“I do hope,” Evryn said, his tone carrying a subtle warning, “that it’s Lady Willow you’re observing with such particular attention.”
Ryden forced his gaze away from Aurelise, affecting casual interest in the general crowd. “Merely lost in thought, my friend,” he said with a practiced smile. “And as for that box, we’ll examine it at some point. Perhaps not tonight. We’re all having far too much fun here.”
“Well then, I’m off to reclaim my honor from Mariselle,” Evryn said, much to Ryden’s relief. “She won’t be laughing quite so smugly when I catch that moonflare.”
The next hour passed in a blur of laughter and light.
Ryden joined Evryn, Mariselle, Fin and several of their friends, throwing himself into the chase with enthusiasm, his competitive nature awakening as he pursued the darting creatures through the gardens.
He caught three ribbon-birds in quick succession, their wings dissolving into delicate tokens in his palm.
A particularly cunning foxlet led him on a merry chase through the rose garden before he finally cornered it near the decorative pond.
But always, always, his awareness tracked back to Aurelise. She seemed to have abandoned her earlier restraint entirely, her chase taking her in wide circles around the fountain alongside Lady Willow, the two of them laughing helplessly whenever their nets caught on one another.
As midnight approached and the gleams began their final dance before the spell would fade, the moonflare finally made another appearance.
It descended from wherever it had been hiding, a creature of pure crystallized light.
Every head turned, every net raised, as it began a teasing spiral just above their reach.
What followed was chaos of the most entertaining sort. Ladies abandoned all pretense of decorum. Gentlemen crashed into each other in their enthusiasm. Yet it was Ryden, who’d likely had more practice in the art of gleamcatching than anyone else present, who ultimately claimed the elusive prize.
His net swept through the air in a perfect arc, the silver threads singing as they closed around the moonflare.
For a moment, the creature’s light intensified, filling his vision with brilliant white, and then it dissolved and fell onto his outstretched palm, a small silver token stamped with the delicate impression of a moth.
The gathering erupted in good-natured groans and congratulations. Everyone clapped politely, while Fin coughed something about “unfair royal advantages” that was clearly meant as a jest.
Evryn cursed, not quite under his breath. “I had that thing perfectly positioned—”
“You had nothing,” Mariselle interrupted with a laugh, moving to take her husband’s arm. “If anyone besides His Highness deserved to catch it, clearly it was me.”
“You are aware, darling,” Evryn replied, still catching his breath but smiling down at her all the same, “that I had intended to catch it for you, before His Lordliness so selfishly claimed it for himself?”
Laughter rippled through the group again, easy and bright beneath the last drifting gleams.
Ryden smiled to himself, slipping the token into the small inner pocket of his waistcoat, unwilling to confess that he’d caught the moonflare with much the same intention. He was merely waiting for the right moment to offer it, discreetly, to the one he’d caught it for.
Later, when the festivities began to thin and the night air cooled, he found himself beside Aurelise once more.
She admitted, with that quiet composure of hers, that she had enjoyed the evening.
“Though,” she added, “so much wild activity leaves me rather in need of stillness, to restore myself a little, or I shall not survive another day of this pace. I’ll likely steal a few moments in the music room once everyone has retired.
I know it’s late, but …” She gave a small shrug, a shy smile curving her lips.
“It’s what I would do if I were at home. ”
He found her there later, just as she’d said, already lost to her music, eyes closed, her fingers tracing slow, graceful patterns across the keys.
He said nothing, unwilling to disturb her, and simply set the token atop the piano for her to find.
Then, for a few precious minutes, he stood in the doorway, listening as the quiet melody threaded through him with a gentle ache, before he slipped silently away.