Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Caius
The air was crisp, the snow falling in delicate flurries around him as Caius trudged across the white expanse to the Onyx Mountains.
The missive from Auraelia hadn’t said much, but it had said enough that he’d jumped out of bed and threw on the first thing his hands made contact with in his wardrobe.
I left you something at the border at the foot of the Onyx Mountains. Consider it a gift from me to my cousin. A reminder of what she started and what I intend to finish.
-A
He still wasn’t sure how she’d manipulated the crystals to send him something when that wasn’t their intended purpose, but the blatant malevolence in her words had piqued his interest.
The Onyx Mountains marked the border between the Court of Emerald and the Court of Garnet, but the actual boundary line was on Emerald's side.
As he approached the foot of the mountains, Caius summoned the wintery air around him and moved within it until his feet touched down just outside of Emerald territory.
Darkness clung to the area like a heavy blanket, making it hard to make out one shape from another, but the distinct smell of charred flesh filled his nostrils and churned his stomach.
Begrudgingly, he followed the foul smell until he came upon a person-sized roll of fabric dusted in a light layer of snow.
Squatting next to the emerald-toned wrapping, Caius carefully pulled back one of the loose ends. The stench hit him with full force, and he had to turn away as his dinner threatened to reappear.
What the fuck?
Swallowing down the bile that had risen in his throat, Caius turned back around to examine what appeared to be a body. The skin was black in some places, the lips cracked and bloody, but there was no mistaking the blonde hair that peeked through the grime and glimmered beneath the moonlight.
Kyra.
Shock rattled through him as he stared down at the lifeless corpse. He’d seen what Auraelia had done to Davina and had felt it to an extent on his own body. He’d heard what she and Daemon had done to the Court of Pearl’s assassins.
But this?
This was an entirely new level that he’d never expected Auraelia to surpass. In the few conversations he’d had with her and from the observation missions that Davina had sent him on over the years, never in his wildest dreams had he thought that Auraelia held this level of viciousness within her.
But as he looked over Kyra’s body, he knew, without a doubt, that Auraelia now held a darkness within her—one that could rival Davina’s if she gave herself over to it.
Slowly, his shock turned to excitement, and a smile pulled up the corners of his lips.
Maybe she actually could do this.
Perhaps Davina would actually fall.
Clinging to that thought with everything he had, Caius placed the fabric back over Kyra’s face and brought her back to Garnet.