53. Elorie
Elorie
Gold runs in rivers over Letia’s skin, starting from the spot the aeraliss ring once sat on her finger, all the way up her hand and arm. It threads across her shoulder to her heart. One vein creeps up her neck, climbing her hairline and then cutting across the apple of her cheek.
Greer and I sit beside her on her bed, examining the gold veins that are unlike those of my mate’s eyes or magic. It’s liquid sunlight, streaming. Glowing. It courses through her with a pulsing current.
She flips her hand over, and I take in the fine lines on her palm. One in particular splits into many threads.
“How is this possible?” I shake my head, running my finger over the gold on her skin, finding it warm to the touch. “You’re the only one who had this reaction to the aeraliss?”
Letia nods. “Everyone else is fine. Not so much as a rash.”
My gaze cuts to Greer’s. She shrugs, not knowing what’s happening any more than I do.
“I can’t believe Wilder took the ring off. What if you hadn’t been able to stand the magic of Vaelier?”
Wilder waited until this morning to break that news to me. And I made sure to tell him my thoughts on him risking my friend’s life.
“You didn’t see me before, Elorie. Something was wrong. I was in so much pain. Even if it had killed me to take the ring off, there was no other choice. Either he was going to remove it, or I was going to do it myself.”
She frowns, her gaze falling to the strange marks on her arm. I know she’s right. I just hate that I wasn’t here for her when she needed me. Especially when I was the one who pushed the rings on the villagers in the first place.
“No one could have anticipated this,” Letia says, likely reading the guilt in my downturned lips. “And everyone else is fine—surviving—because of the rings on their fingers. There was no way to know I would have this kind of reaction.”
“Letia’s right,” Greer says, folding her arms over her chest. “Callum double-checked the journals. While they say that the aeraliss can have limits to its effectiveness, there’s no mention of anything like this.”
I pick up the two pieces of Letia’s ring, perfectly cracked down the middle. “I wonder what could have caused it. Something in your blood, maybe? But you’re not Fae.”
Letia shakes her head. “Wilder confirmed I’m human. My blood is mortal.”
“Even if she was Fae, it shouldn’t have done what it did.” Greer plucks half of the ring from my hand, gripping it in her fist. “It’s not like obsidian to us. It stings a little, resisting my magic, but it isn’t unbearable.”
I clutch the other half of the ring, feeling the same push Greer described. She’s right; it’s uncomfortable, but not painful. Nothing like Letia described.
“There’s more.” Letia pulls her knees to her chest. “There’s something I haven’t mentioned to Wilder or anyone else because it doesn’t make sense.”
“Letia.” Her name is a curse. “Anything could be helpful.”
“Maybe not this. I still don’t understand it.”
I set the ring down, facing Letia on the bed while Greer stands propped against the windowsill.
“I promise I won’t judge you. What else is there?”
Letia sighs, her gaze darting between us. She crosses her legs, wringing her fingers together in her lap. She practically glows with her gold veins and unbound blonde hair shimmering brighter than I’ve ever seen it.
Wilder said she hasn’t left this room since everything happened. She’s worried the humans will think it might spread if they see how the aeraliss affected her.
“I’ve been tired lately.” Letia doesn’t look up; her gaze remains fixed on the spot her ring used to sit. “It’s nearly impossible to stay awake longer than a few hours. It’s like the aeraliss changed more than these veins. It’s like it altered something inside me.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s this knot in my chest.” She presses her hand to her heart. “Like there’s something else in there that’s fighting against me. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You should have told Wilder.”
Letia shakes her head. “That’s not all. When I’m sleeping, I’ve been having these vivid dreams. Almost like I’m not dreaming, but I’m somewhere else. My body here is asleep, but I’m somehow awake in another place. A place that feels more real than this one. And he’s there.”
“He?” My eyes widen. “The Fae from Alyssium?”
“What Fae?” Greer’s eyebrows pinch.
“Remember the story I told you about when I almost drowned?” Letia asks, and Greer nods, her eyes widening in realization. “I see the Fae who saved me, and it’s like he’s right there again, like he was when he pulled me out of the water. Except he’s in my mind and far away.”
My stomach turns as I consider that. As I recall how Malachi reached out to me in the prison. A vision that was as real as it was not. But Malachi is only able to do that because he wields gods-touched powers. It’s not possible for another Fae to be that strong.
“I know how it sounds.” Letia sighs. “I don’t even know who he is. But I’m positive it was him. And I know you think I imagined him when I woke on the beach, but I didn’t. He’s real; I can feel him. I can see him. Short white hair. Eyes so sharp, his stare is deadly. And the runes…”
Her fingers lift to her throat, grazing around her neck.
“It’s like he was hung by them. They wrap his throat like a rope.” She shakes her head.
“Are there any hints as to where he might be? Has he said anything?”
She frowns. “I can’t hear him. It’s like I’m in a bubble, so his mouth will move, but I can’t hear what he’s saying. Sometimes it’s like he sees me. His eyes will move my way. But then he’s gone. Like he left the room. It has to be connected to this, doesn’t it?”
Letia stretches her arms out, gold swimming brightly.
“I’m not sure how.” Greer steps forward. “But I can’t imagine another explanation. Is there anything else you remember from when you were in the water?”
“No.” Letia’s eyebrows scrunch. “Could something have stung me, maybe?”
“Nothing I’ve ever heard of.”
Letia’s eyes drift down at Greer’s answer. Letia is human; she shouldn’t be able to survive on land saturated with magic. But, then again, the aeraliss shouldn’t have reacted this way. None of it makes sense.
“I suppose we’ll worry about that later.” Letia pulls her arms in, rubbing them. “Did you get what you were after in the Mortal Realm?”
“Yes.” I think.
Esen isn’t exactly what we were looking for, but she’s here. Thankfully, she’s been able to restrain the void so as not to drain any magic from our realm. Although, from the way the mark on her face stirs, I wonder if that’s difficult.
She spends most of her time at Perame’s side. It might be guilt or curiosity, but she’s often found in a chair beside Atlas’s, silently waiting for Perame to heal.
“I heard Perame woke this morning,” Letia says.
I open my mouth, but Greer responds faster. “For a few minutes.”
“That’s good. Perame is on the mend, and you have what you need. There’s hope.” Letia’s eyes light.
“There is.” I try to grasp the optimism she so easily clings to. “We need to leave again soon, but hopefully things will be better by the time we return.”
If I survive.
Letia reaches for my hand, squeezing. We don’t need to voice our fears when each time I go, the risks are higher.
“You’re going to Lyrichia?” Letia asks, and when I nod, she glances at Greer. “How was it over there?”
Greer frowns, pulling up a chair and sitting. “The same, but also… not. Solace and Echme are mostly unaffected, but there was something in the wind. Things are changing.”
“The Well is spreading,” I whisper.
Greer nods. “Echme forests should be unpassable. We shouldn’t have made it out the other side. The creatures in those trees are rumored to be unlike anything in the Ley Court.”
“Worse than the whispers?”
“Far worse,” Greer confirms.
“But you survived.”
“Exactly. We passed through with little trouble, aside from that of the king’s guards. We crossed only one creature, and we killed it with a single blade.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Letia’s eyebrows pinch.
“When the thing you fear runs from something worse, no.”
Letia’s cheeks pale.
“We might not have found Malachi in physical form, but he was there,” Greer says. “He was everywhere. Hearing everything. Our travels, our thoughts. Whatever he’s done since we’ve been gone seeps deep into the fabric of the realm.”
“That explains why things were so terrible on Alyssium.” I sigh.
“How was traveling with Atlas?” Letia asks, and Greer’s back stiffens. “He’s always been so nice. He came to see me earlier when he went to check on Perame.”
Greer’s eyebrows scrunch. “He did?”
“He said my room was on the way, but I think he was worried about me. He has a big heart.”
Greer clears her throat, not responding to that. She didn’t want to go on the mission with him, but my Fae senses scented him on her when I hugged her yesterday. Something happened she refuses to tell me about, and it takes everything in me not to push.
“Traveling with him was fine” is all she says.
“Speaking of Perame.” I stand, changing the subject for Greer’s sake. “I should go see how she’s doing. What the overlord did to her was—” I shiver, not able to finish that sentence.
Greer’s teeth clench. “I can’t believe they still have instruments like bleeding blades over there. It’s a miracle she survived.”
“She wouldn’t have without Esen.” None of us would have.
Letia yawns, leaning back against the bed frame, and I frown. Her eyes flutter as exhaustion hangs heavy.
“Let me know if you need anything.”
She smiles, her gaze hooded. “I will. And I’ll be there tonight, even if the guards have to drag me away when I fall asleep on the dance floor.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“And miss your mate becoming king?” Her smile widens. “I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Wilder has welcomed us here. He treats you well, and he’s been kind to me. I’m so happy you found him, Elorie. You deserve love like that.”
Love wasn’t something I thought I needed.
Letia was the romantic one of the two of us.
The one who held out hope for true love that could fight through anything.
I wonder if she feels the same now. She didn’t love Benjamin, no matter how many times she said it.
But she cared for him. She planned to build a life with him. Now he’s gone.
Does she still believe in love? Will the fates grant her that? Or are these golden veins, brighter than the sun, proof of something else woven for her?
When we leave Letia to her nap, Greer heads toward the training ring, and I find my way toward Perame’s room. Esen is walking out when I reach it.
“How is she?” I ask, pausing at the doorway.
“She just fell asleep.”
I nod, following Esen’s gaze as she glances out a window at the other side of the hallway. “How are you doing?”
“I’m…” Her eyebrows pinch as if she’s not used to being asked such a question. “I don’t know that I’ve thought about it.”
She swallows hard, staring out at the lush forest. Birds chirp, fluttering through the branches. A warm breeze drifts through the hallway, and Esen closes her eyes, breathing deeply.
“I’ve never seen a place like this.” Her eyes open. “I’ve never been anywhere with such…”
“Life?”
“Hope.” Her voice is wistful. “The way you look after each other—care for each other—it’s not anything I’ve known. I see why you fight for this, Elorie.”
“I fight for you too, Esen.” I reach out, squeezing her hand. “The realm can be more than this. We will heal it, make it whole. And then I hope you find what it is you’re looking for. A life worth living.”
“I already have.” She sighs, squeezing my hand in return. “Thank you.”
“You did this, not me. You got us back here. I promise I’ll repay you.”
“You owe me nothing.”
“You deserve everything either way.”
She gives me a tight smile, glancing at the fractured aeraliss ring in my other hand. I collected it from Letia’s room, since Wilder wants to have his alchemist run some tests on it.
“Aeraliss?” Esen’s eyebrows pinch, her face slightly pale.
I hold up the ring. “You recognize it?”
“Farseth was mining it back home. So was the queen. He said it would come in handy when the Arch reopened, that he refused to be at the mercy of the Fae next time. But he didn’t explain what he was talking about. He wouldn’t even tell me what aeraliss does.”
“It protects humans from magic.”
Her gaze meets mine. “Why would that matter if the Mortal Realm barely has any?”
“It wouldn’t.” My stomach sinks. “But if the Arch opens, that isn’t the only realm they’d have access to.”