Chapter 30 #2
A small smile tugged at her lips as she nodded.
“We could open our borders to those who want to escape the brutalness of the war. Women, children, the elderly. Whomever you decide. I would see to their care personally. And we have the resources to feed them since Lord Harland stopped ship—ments.” The word was broken into two, Blyana’s expression twisting into a mix of confusion and concern when Auraelia’s eyes shot wide, her fists clenching in her lap. “Are you alright, Your Majesty?”
Thunder boomed overhead as storm clouds rolled before the sun, blacking it out again. “What do you mean Lord Harland stopped shipments?”
“He sent a missive—”
“How long ago?” Auraelia demanded.
“About a week. Is everything alright?” Lady Blyana’s brows drew together as she searched Auraelia’s face.
Lightning crackled between the clouds, lighting up the sky with white light tinged in blue. “No, Lady Blyana. Everything is not all right.”
Auraelia took a deep breath in through her nose and held it until her lungs screamed.
There was nothing she could do—not yet anyway—and if he’d sent a missive to the Court of Topaz under the guise that the order had come from her?
She blew out the air in her lungs and drew in a ragged breath.
The crimes Lord Harland committed were mounting by the day, and she wasn’t sure how long she could let this continue before her anger took over.
“Your Majesty?” Lady Blyana hedged. There was a slight tremor in her hand as she grasped Auraelia’s.
Auraelia closed her eyes and released a shaky breath.
“Lady Blyana, I appreciate and accept your offer of refuge. Please, make yourself at home. We’ve set up a suite for you in the castle's east wing. Once you’re settled, please see my emissary to finalize the necessary details to set this plan into motion, and I will meet with you both later.
If you’d please excuse me, I have another matter that I need to attend to.
” Auraelia rose, and Blyana followed suit, dipping into a curtsey before Auraelia turned and stalked up the path back to the castle.
Beneath the tightly coiled anger was a question that niggled at the back of her mind. If Lord Harland stopped the shipment of supplies, where were the money and resources designated for the exchange going?
Stopping as she reached the doors, Auraelia turned toward the same guard who had escorted Lady Blyana to the gardens. “Find Lady Ophelia and bring her to the council chambers. Now.”
His eyes widened a fraction before controlling his expression and bending at the waist. Not bothering to wait and see if he did as he was told, Auraelia continued on her way, her boots clicking on the stone floor as she hastened her steps.
“Your Majesty, I had no idea,” Lady Ophelia repeated for what, Auraelia was sure, was the hundredth time since she’d entered the council chambers.
“Then where is it?!” she seethed, throwing her arms out wide before slamming them on the table as she stared down her Mistress of Coin.
Auraelia’s temples throbbed, her headache escalating into a migraine as her magic burned beneath her skin, begging to be released.
Taking a ragged breath, she tightened her hold on her power.
Internally, she grabbed the threads in both hands and shoved them deep down until it was just a steady thrum in her veins.
Lady Ophelia’s face paled, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as she seemed to search for a plausible answer. “I gave the money to Lord Harland; he’s responsible for the shipments, Your Majesty. Always has been. I’m not sure what happened.”
Her jaw ached from how tightly she was clenching her teeth. Everything always came back to him. He’d wormed his way into every facet of her court. Tried to take her down from within, and she’d just been letting him.
Let him continue to wreak havoc.
Allowed him to spin lies in her name to hide the atrocities that he had been committing.
Enough was enough.
Daemon told her to let him be. To let him believe that he was getting away with it. And though he may have been right in the beginning, there was no way she could let it continue. She needed to do something.
“Lady Ophelia, please meet with Lady Blyana and Mister Aramis in the east wing to remedy this situation. You’re dismissed.”
Ophelia’s eyes widened as she hastily pushed back her chair and sank into a low curtsey before hurrying from the room.
Slowly, like a bead of water sliding down a glass, her magic began to flood her veins.
Sweltering heat filled her body as her lightning raged beneath the surface.
She may not be able to take out the man responsible, but the next best thing was only a few floors below.
She hadn’t had the courage to do what needed to be done when her mother had been murdered.
Hadn’t been willing to sink to that level.
But this was war.
An example needed to be made.
If that meant blackening a part of her soul, then so be it.
Auraelia slammed her fists onto the table, then stormed down the hall between the council chambers and her suite, throwing open the door with enough force that it ricocheted off of the wall. When she stepped inside, she was met with the concerned gazes of Aiden and Piper.
“You’re really going to go through with it, then?” Piper asked, her gaze hardening as it met Auraelia’s.
“I am. Maybe then Lord Harland will understand that I’m not some meek little girl that will just let him take apart my court piece by piece.”
“You’re sure this is the path you want to take, Rae?” Aiden asked as he took a hesitant step forward, careful to keep an arm’s length between himself and Piper.
“Do you see another way? Do you?” The latter was directed back to Piper, whose eyes went vacant and hazy for a moment before she blew out a resigned breath and shook her head.
“I didn’t think so. You don’t need to be a part of it. But I’m tired of people underestimating me. It’s time to send a message. To Lord Harland. Davina. Goddess, to all of Ixora at this point, because I can’t be sure who is on my side and who is just waiting for me to fall.”
“So what’s the plan, Lightning Girl?” Aiden asked, a sly smile taking over his face.
Auraelia met his smile with a menacing one. “I think it’s time I paid Kyra a visit.”
“Is it always this fucking cold down here?” Aiden snapped, rubbing his hands together as he trailed closely behind Auraelia, his breath visible with every exhale.
Despite the thick wool of her tunic and cloak, the chill surrounding them as they descended toward the dungeon had Auraelia’s skin pebbling, the flames in the sconces that illuminated the path doing nothing to ward off the icy bite to the air.
“Not typically. But then again, we don’t tend to house prisoners, and it is winter,” Piper retorted, her tone as cold as the air around them.
Aiden began muttering incoherently under his breath, and Auraelia rolled her eyes.
She didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with their squabbling.
She needed to stay focused on the task at hand.
Pulling on the shimmering blue thread representing her connection to the air around them, she pushed her magic out until a sphere of warmth surrounded them.
“Better?” she asked sardonically.
“Much,” Aiden replied, a tad too cheery for her liking.
She was about to kill someone, and he was happy as a clam because he was no longer cold. With an exasperated huff, Auraelia quickened her pace down the steps.
She hadn’t been down there since she came with Daemon, and the flashes of his hands on her in the stairwell, the heat of his body as he stood protectively behind her while she confronted the woman responsible for murdering her mother, sat like a heavy stone in the pit of her stomach.
She wanted him there with her.
He was her grounding force. Had been since they first met.
Though she hadn’t realized how much of a role he’d played in her life then, she now felt his absence like she would a missing limb.
Without him there to keep her mind off of the rage and revenge that filled her, she wasn’t sure what she would be capable of…
or how far she would dive into the darkest parts of herself.
The door to the dungeon was slightly ajar as they came to the bottom of the steps, a cold breeze seeping through the crack and cutting through the warmth her magic provided.
An eerie silence met them as she cautiously pushed the door open, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, her magic coiling tightly as if it was waiting to be unleashed.
Much to her surprise—and annoyance—there was no guard present, but Kyra was still in her cell, sitting on her cot with her back propped up against the wall.
Auraelia halted in the shadowed doorway for a moment to assess the woman beyond.
Kyra was so still that she seemed lifeless.
Her hair was a matted mess, her clothes dingier than they had been the last time she’d seen her, and there was a distinct stain on her clothing from where Auraelia had struck her.
Only the faint puff of air coming from between her lips signaled that she was still alive.
A pang of guilt shot through her heart with the sight, but it faded away as a choked, sinister laugh trickled out from the cell.
“Finally, come to finish what you started? Or are you going to run away again, like the scared little girl you are?” Kyra’s eyes were closed, her voice hoarse, and the harsh rasp sent her into a cough that seemed to overtake her whole body.
Stealing her spine and adopting an air of nonchalance that she didn’t feel, Auraelia closed the distance to the cell. “I see you didn’t heed my advice,” she said, gesturing to the festering wound on Kyra’s leg.
A menacing smile tugged on Kyra’s lips as she cracked her eyes open and peered at Auraelia. “Your healers must have lost their way to my cell.”
Auraelia shrugged and sat in the chair that was still sitting where she’d left it. “Must have.”