Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
It’s finally happened. Mam left Father. Why she ever married him and accepted the mating bond in the first place, I’ll never know.
Father, of course, seems to give zero shits, parading “Uncle” Andrei around in front of everyone.
To Andrei’s credit, he’s trying to keep a low profile.
What the fuck does he see in Father? Mates seem way more trouble than they’re worth. I pray I never find mine.
— From the journal of Violet Andrever
Iwas making my way to the library for what was certain to be another fruitless session of reading through books when Violet’s words from my dream fluttered through my mind.
Figure out what’s wrong with the prophecy.
Between the missing lines, the obscured words that only I could see, and the cryptic statements, I knew there was something wrong with the prophecy. But I was no closer to figuring out what that was than I was to figuring out how to fix the Veil.
I stopped abruptly when something occurred to me.
I’d spent all this time reading about the Veil but I’d never tried to examine it myself. Spinning on my heel, I went back the way I came and found a staircase that took me to the ground floor.
Having learned to avoid using the main entrance to the castle if I didn’t want to get involved in a long, boring conversation with a random courtier, I had found several other paths to get outside the castle walls. I pushed open the door to the side entrance that led to the gardens.
“And just where are you heading off to?”
Griff’s voice stopped me in my tracks before I could step outside, even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong. The door swung closed with a creak.
I looked over my shoulder as he came alongside me. “Walking outside,” I said.
“I can see that. Walking outside where?”
I crossed my arms, turning to face him. “I don’t know yet. Am I not allowed to go outside?” I hated that he treated me like a child. The frustration, at both him and the whole situation I found myself in, boiled over and I was itching for a fight.
“Princess…” There was a warning in my nickname. One I wasn’t going to back down from.
“Champion…” I echoed it right back to him.
He sighed heavily, rubbing between his eyes. Coming a step closer, he put his hands on my shoulders, his eyes softening as he looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
I stared into his hazel eyes and I weakened. What I wouldn’t give to rest against him right now. Let him take the burden, even just for a minute. But that wasn’t fair to him. He had enough of his own burdens. He didn’t need mine.
“Everything?” My voice came out small. I looked away from him to stare at the stone floor.
“But if you mean in this immediate instance… not having any fucking clue about the Veil. I’ve read every book Finn can track down.
The only thing I can think of is trying to examine the Veil itself.
So here I am”—I gestured to my surroundings—“going to inspect the Veil.”
If I could figure out how to do it.
Without waiting for a response, I shook off his hands, pushed the door open, and stepped into a drizzle. The seasons were turning, winter becoming spring, and the early rains had started.
He followed me out the door.
I glared at him. “I’m staying inside the castle wards, Griff. You don’t have to come with me.”
“Humor me,” he said as he came alongside me, his hand moving to my lower back, warm and steady.
I let his touch ground me, ignoring how much I liked it.
“Where to, Princess?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. Where would be the best place to do this? The Veil was a dome over the entire kingdom, set high in the sky… “The ramparts,” I announced.
We climbed the stone steps, slick from rain as the drizzle picked up and turned into a shower.
The temperature wasn’t warm yet, and with this rain, we were going to be soaked before too long.
We walked along the walls, the soles of my boots occasionally slipping, but Griff’s arm shot out and caught me.
I was torn between rolling my eyes at him—it wasn’t like I was going to tumble off the wall—and liking the feeling of his hand on my waist.
I paused when we reached an overlook built into the walls. There was more space here and we wouldn’t be in anyone’s way.
“What’s your plan here, Princess?”
“Commune with the Veil?” I tried to sound certain but it came out as a question.
He settled in to wait, rain plastering his hair to his head, and leaned a hip against the ledge. He looked entirely unaffected by the rain. “Carry on.”
I strode to the edge of the wall, staring up at the sky, all too aware of his eyes burning into my back. I tried to clear my mind, but all I could think of was his gaze.
I turned back to him with my hands on my hips. “Don’t you have anything better to do than watch me?”
“No.”
Shaking my head, I turned my back on him once more and tried to block out his presence.
Easier said than done.
I was always aware of him, drawn to him. Even before he started sleeping in my bed.
There was something about him, something about the strength and grace that radiated from him, that made me desperate to crawl into his arms and feel his hands on more than just my waist or arm. But he had yet to make any sort of move, even though he held me every night until I fell asleep.
I took a deep breath and shoved my churning emotions aside. I wasn’t solving the problem of my handsome Champion in this moment.
Closing my eyes, I stretched out with my awareness, spreading it far and wide. I felt the wards of Valdris, keeping us safe. I could even sense the wards I’d put up in Terraleth and Maraleth. But nothing that felt like the Veil. Not that I truly knew what it felt like.
I kept going, stretching farther and farther upward, until I had reached my limits. And there, shimmering like a dome in the sky, almost out of reach, I found it—a woven blanket of light.
It was miraculously crafted. I could sense the seven channels that had been woven together to create it, the alchemy of which had created something completely new.
No longer were the rainbow of colors represented within the fabric of the Veil, but instead, it was a glowing, pure, bright light stretching from every corner of Serentyn.
But there were ragged patches, tatters that should have been whole, where the light dimmed and turned gray.
Some of them were merely a discolored off-white, but there were also darker patches, showing up like storm clouds.
The tatters pulsed and fluttered, as if trying to rejoin the rest of the Veil and become a solid fabric once more.
Try as I might, I couldn’t see anything that gave me a clue as to how to fix it.
Disengaging, I slumped over, resting my elbows on the ledge. They were instantly soaked, the fabric of my shirt becoming cold and clammy. Griff’s hand came to my upper back, rubbing soft circles.
“I don’t know what to do.” The admission came out soft, my voice wavering.
“You’ll figure it out,” he replied calmly.
“How can you be so certain?” I pushed waterlogged hair out of my eyes before looking up at him.
There was a steady rain now, light but cold, soaking through my clothes.
Griff was similarly drenched. His black leathers were molded to his frame, outlining every muscle.
I could just see the open vee neckline of his shirt beneath his leathers, the black fabric plastered to his skin.
His sandy hair was dark, rivulets of water running down his jawline.
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You’re too stubborn to do anything else.”
I wasn’t sure if the fact that he believed in me wholeheartedly helped or just put more pressure on me.
I started to turn away, but he reached out and very gently cupped my face with both hands, holding me in place.
Even with the chill of the rain, warmth pulsed between us as that now common jolt flowed through me.
He was so close I could see the raindrops clinging to his eyelashes before he blinked them away.
“You can do this,” he said, his voice intent. “I don’t know how, but I know, deep down, that you will. You’ll solve this, Lexa.”
“And if it takes years?” I asked weakly.
“Then we keep fighting. For years.” There was no hesitation. He was fully prepared to do whatever needed doing for however long it was needed.
I wished I had his conviction.
Brushing his thumbs over my cheekbones, he searched my eyes.
My melancholy faded away until I found that I no longer cared about anything other than his gentle touch.
My gaze focused on his mouth, and I arched toward him.
For a second, it seemed he would do the same.
But then he pulled back and released me, mask once again on his face.
What. The. Hell.
My face was cold, missing the warmth of his hands.
Why was he always pulling away from me?
He formally offered me his arm, once more every bit of the Champion. Griff the man was fully hidden again.
Keeping my sigh internal, I took his arm, and we walked back to the staircase to descend to ground level, both of us completely soaked. At this point, all I wanted was a warm bath.
He escorted me back to my chambers, ever the gentleman. Once we reached my door, I tilted my head to look up at him, searching his eyes for any hint of his true feelings. But he wasn’t letting anything leak through.
“I’ll see you at dinner.” His hand swept down the length of my spine, causing every nerve ending to combust. He brushed over my hip, his grip tightening briefly.
My body tingled every place his hand touched, and I found that I was no longer cold. Instead, everything was so warm that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam coming off me.
I couldn’t deny that I wanted him. Wanted to act on this attraction. If his hand felt that good through layers of clothes, I couldn’t imagine how it would feel on bare skin.
This desire couldn’t be all one sided, could it?
A bath was what I needed.
A cold, cold bath.