Chapter Twenty-Nine
THE SPY
Aydrielle’s gaze knifed into Dom’s, boring into his golden eyes as she greeted our group.
My chest tightened. I directed my focus on a teapot.
If he had entertained her last night, it was none of my business.
My heart raged. I took a deep breath, willing myself to ignore their interaction, pasting a blithe smile on my face.
My breakfast nearly choked me when she seductively licked her fingers.
I swallowed my rising temper. If I possessed claws they would have extended.
Instead, I ground my teeth as frigid ice threatened to spear out of me.
What Dom chose to do and who he chose to do it with shouldn’t concern me.
My mind conjured an image of Dom’s hands all over Aydrielle’s voluptuous body.
I could almost hear her moaning his name.
My mouth turned dry. The floor beneath me started to freeze.
Aydrielle spun toward me with a calculated smile.
I bared my teeth. I had to get a hold of myself before we met the queen.
For a moment last night, I thought he might have held more than just respect for me.
I had been wrong. I had misread his behavior.
He had the chance to make a move and chose not to.
Even under the thrall of that venom. Disappointment made a home in my chest, constricting it.
Jealousy burned on the fringes. Dom’s presence called to me constantly and it took everything in me to stay away. Gods, I needed space.
Dom cleared his throat. “Shall we?” He gestured for me to go first through the doorway.
I felt out of place, my fingers fidgeting with the hilt of my daggers.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. Between my confession the night before, Aydrielle’s blatant desire for Dom, and my attendance with the queen, agitation and anxiety threatened to overwhelm me.
Aydrielle led us up a set of stairs to a room with an intimate seating area.
Coral adorned the walls and framed the doorways in a kaleidoscope of color and texture.
The queen reclined in an antique settee, gilded and covered in midnight-blue velvet.
Tapestries softly billowed along the walls, depicting mermaids in various geological locales.
Dom and I bowed upon our entrance and the queen waved her hand, dismissing Aydrielle and the other servants.
“Please, do sit,” she directed us. My relief at Aydrielle’s departure was palpable. My murderous thoughts dimmed. Dom shot a curious glance my direction that I chose to ignore.
We sat down on two ornate chairs with high backs and matching ottomans facing the queen. Dom started, “Thank you for meeting with us. It’s an honor to have a moment of your time, and a privilege to learn from your experience.”
The queen inclined her head in appreciation. “What do you wish to find here, Prince?”
Confusion bristled my brow at her address.
Dom moved on without correction. “A darkness consumes the land, and it withers. King Nolan’s power grows as he harvests more magic from his people.
We have come seeking an alliance. I know you have won wars in your past against powerful realms. Would you allow your armies to fight again, alongside us? ”
Queen Thaleia assessed Dom, her mind rapidly processing before carefully responding.
She slowly stood, her finger tracing the outline of the settee as she swept around it.
“It has been a very long time since we have seen war. But rest assured, we have remained prepared. The lands have been dying for a while now. But it’s getting worse.
The glacial hinterlands, north of Yarit, are an ancient area most sensitive to magic and its fluctuations.
There is a darkness that has come, and as it consumes, it sucks out life and light.
The evidence is laid bare in the glaciers. But it spreads.
“We have been separated from the realms of Haluma and Yarit ever since the last water wielder was purged by King Nolan. With Ruin involved, we can bridge the chasm that has separated us. We share a common enemy, General. I will lend you my army, that together we might destroy King Nolan and his Nokts.”
Dom and I exchanged a glance. “What are Nokts?”
“They are the embodiment of darkness, created to combat the original guardians, now long gone. Their magic goes against the created order. They are dark creatures with distorted features and membranous wings. Many release acid as a defense. There are Nokts and there are Astrals. The words themselves imply their origin of allegiance—darkness and night, light and stars. Everyone in the realms aligns with one or the other. This is greater than King Nolan. This is a war between the gods we are all caught up in, and there is no neutrality.”
I started. If this was true, then what was I? What was Dom?
“We’ve encountered Nokts. They are hunting Rue.” Dom lingered on me. His jaw tightened—in anger or fear, I couldn’t decipher.
The queen faced me, drumming her fingers.
“Of course the King would covet your magic. Your proficiency of your elemental magic is not common, and your mastering of it without a Prime is impressive. But there is much more to you than what you know up to this point. I sense that there is light in you, but there is a similar veil to that which covers our world. It smothers you. For your sake, I hope you figure out how to break through it.” Sadness lined her eyes when she turned abruptly, causing hundreds of bubbles to cascade around her shimmering body.
Her cryptic words settled heavy between us as she paced.
“And you, Dominus, the prophesied General of the Liberation. Your curse is an acrid secret that burns in my throat. Even now, your blood is poisoned.” She softened her tone further. “You are dying.”
Dom tensed, then closed his eyes as he bowed his head. He did not refute her.
My heart buckled. The room shrank around me.
Her three words lanced through me. I stared at him, disbelieving.
I just found him. My friend and comforting anchor from when I was a little girl.
Until this moment, I had not realized he had become that to me again.
Her seismic words threw me off-balance and shoved me toward a truth I’d refused to acknowledge. I swayed, hollowed out.
This whole time he’d shouldered the weight of his impending death and pursued freedom for his people at the expense of himself. I understood the sense of duty, even if I wanted to stab him for it. How long had he suffered in silence? My pulse thundered in my chest. I could not lose him again.
“What is the nature of your curse?” the queen asked. I scarcely breathed.
Dom shifted in his seat. “It happened shortly after I was born. We believe my shadows are a result of the blood curse. My blood is progressively being subsumed by it, turning it black, like char. My metal affinity has helped keep it at bay, but it’s getting harder to contain.
I have been told by my healers that my heart won’t be able to handle the poison once it hits a certain threshold.
And I believe that level is close to being reached.
” Regret and grief replaced the light of his amber eyes, dulling the life within them.
It all made sense. The reason they sent us out with an elixist. The vials of tonic. His veins that darken, then disappear. Why he had shadows before his metal magic emerged. It was his greatest secret and shame. The powerful general of the Liberation was quietly dying.
I dared not move for fear of breaking apart completely. I couldn’t find my breath.
The queen regarded me. “You didn’t know.”
Dom turned to me then, his eyes glazed with pain, his shoulders dropping in resignation.
I didn’t think. I simply moved. My heart took over where my fears roared restraint.
I refused to leave him any longer in his isolation, in defeat.
He had stayed with me in my anxiety, empowered me in my own weakness.
He could have abandoned me to the lies I had swallowed.
I would fight with him. I would destroy for him.
My affinity reached out as my arms embraced his body. As soon as we touched, his shadows flared, enveloping us in a warm and tender darkness, shielding us from the queen’s observation. We clung to each other as breath demands air—committed, inseparable, unflinching.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to weep. Nolan had stolen everything from me. He would not get Dom too.
“You never told me,” I rasped into his neck. I didn’t know who was shaking, but it made me grip him tighter. The runes on his throat and collar appeared on his skin, shimmering in dark silver. The darker his shadows became, the brighter his tattoos shone. They were hauntingly beautiful.
“I didn’t want to burden you. My life has been mapped out; I’ve always known I’d die. I’d just hoped to defeat Nolan before it happened.” He rubbed my back. His strong hands belied his weakening state. I intended to console him, yet instead he comforted me.
“I’ll help you find a cure. There has to be one.” I would destroy Nolan, the realms—even myself—trying.
“There is none, Liora.” Anguish dripped off of him. My old name on his lips tore me open further, exposing a raw vulnerability I wasn’t ready for.
“Actually, there might be a cure you have not discovered.” The queen’s voice sliced through Dom’s shadows. Immediately, they dissipated, reabsorbing into his hands.
We both stared expectantly at the siren queen, rebounding from the brief moment of intimacy. I clutched his hand in my own, unwilling to release our connection.
Her smile was soft, sad even. “This can help guide you toward your cure.” Her elegant tail swept her toward a side table. She opened a drawer, emitting a few bubbles along with a tiny shrimp that pumped its body racing for cover.