44. Chapter 44
Chapter forty-four
We entered through the front doors of the Alabaster Palace, and no sooner had I dripped rainwater onto the marble floor than Audrie appeared before us both.
“You look different.” Her head tilted to the side like a bird examining something.
I blushed but smothered it when I looked at Kaed. The water had completely washed away any hint of what we had just done together.
He looked fierce again like the prince and not whatever dark creature he’d just been. Maybe I had actually been hit by falling rocks in the ruins tonight, and everything I’d just experienced had been some sort of delusional imagining.
“Where is Gavrin?” he asked, his tone abrupt.
Audrie didn’t answer for a moment, still taking in the sight of me.
“Audrie.” Kaed’s voice landed heavily in the marble foyer.
She slowly pulled her gaze from me to Kaed. And then her eyes bugged as if she’d just noticed her lord and Crown prince standing in front of her.
“Study,” she said as quickly as possible.
Kaed left without another word.
“I have no idea what’s going on, but I will need you to tell me everything.” Her eyes said And I mean everything.
I laughed and took her arm. “First, let’s get me a towel and some tea.” I grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrung it out to shower the floor in droplets for emphasis.
Audrie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Towel. Then tea. Then talk. Because there is no way research is more important than whatever this is.” She waved a hand over me as if I were some sort of curio.
Audrie’s room was chaotic and organised all at once. Her things had been moved to the Alabaster Palace soon after I’d arrived; there was a trunk with clothes spilling out of it abandoned in the middle of the floor as if it had happened only yesterday.
Her books, of which there were many, were in every corner of the room.
The small shelf above the mantle creaked under the weight of her collection.
The vanity unit had no room for brushes or creams, only books.
There was a fork, however, and I glanced to see that her hair was down and missing it.
Books claimed every space otherwise. There was barely even room for the basin, which had been shunted to one side.
Poor Turnip was even curled up on a book as he dozed with a gentle snore.
There were a few potted plants that trailed down in curling ringlets amongst the tomes.
“I thought they’d like the plants, like the garden in the library.”
I smiled at her. “Books have feelings now?”
She looked uneasy.
“I’m teasing. They look happy.” Her shoulders rolled, and she smiled as I took a seat on the chaise lounge that was only partially obscured by loose parchment and manuscripts, some half open, some crumpled from where Audrie had possibly fallen asleep on them.
I shoved the texts down and tucked my feet under me as I reached for the cup of apricot and cherry infusion that was steaming before me.
The sweet tea warmed my bones as I took a sip.
Audrie had perched on her bed, legs crossed and folded under her.
“Soooo,” she drawled, an impish look in her eyes.
“So?” I looked up from my tea.
Practically bouncing on the bed, she said, “Tell me. Everything. Something. Anything. What happened and why is he in such a good mood?”
“That’s him in a good mood?” I threw my head back and laughed at her assessment. Kaed’s mood was rarely good.
“Well, good is a strong word. Better mood.” She chewed on a ginger biscuit.
But I didn’t really know what to tell her.
I knew what she was looking for. The details, the how and the what.
What happened between us. We’d arrived like drowned drakes at the door.
Together. I wasn’t bound. I wasn’t thrown over his shoulder.
He wasn’t storming through the house threatening to throw me in a cell or some such.
So something had changed, for me, anyway.
Somewhere along the way, I’d managed to free myself of the yoke of being taken.
There was and had been a part of me that was just willing to be out of Shadowfall, to be somewhere else.
It was not where I had planned, but was it really the wrong place to be?
I’d left Shadowfall with the hopes of finding my mother, my parents, or at least a record of them.
Kaed had offered so much to me in just the past few hours.
He’d lost his mother so we had that in common in some way.
Both bereaved and bereft of that maternal touch.
My heart clenched at the pain across Kaed’s face at the memory of losing his mother and sister.
So much had changed that I was struggling to keep up.
Kaed had offered to help with my search for family.
I didn’t know what that entailed, but I trusted him on it.
And now I was sitting with a friend, in her room, drinking tea.
I had Denora. I had Gavrin. Even Turnip was a better friend than most I’d had back home, cantankerous as he was if woken prematurely.
And then there was Kaed. I wasn’t sure what was taking hold, but something stronger than anger had begun to weave its way into me.
“I don’t really know what to tell you.” I shrugged, my shoulders rolling forward.
Audrie shot me an impatient look. Try harder, a single raised eyebrow implored.
An awkward laugh bubbled out of me, and I found the fringing of the chaise incredibly interesting at that moment. “I don’t think I can hate Kaed.”
“I suppose that’s a step above most people in this city. And progress for you.”
“He said I was free.” I looked up at her through my lashes that were now finally dry after the rain. It was the first time I had said it since Kaed had told me.
I was free to leave if I wanted.
“I’m not sure what that means,” I said honestly.
Audrie just watched me.
“I’m not leaving you. I—” My throat dried.
“I just don’t know what role I play here.
I have things I need to find out for myself.
And I don’t know if that’s here. If it’s somewhere else.
If it’s with Kaed. I just … A lot happened today, and I think everything has changed.
” I sighed like my voice was caught on a stray breeze.
“That doesn’t mean you don’t belong here. With us.” Audrie chewed the inside of her cheek when she’d finished.
Maybe she was right. Could I find a place here? Would Kaed even want me after he’d had his fun? I didn’t know what it was we were doing.
“I …” Where to begin? I’d already told the last person I thought I would ever tell about my family. Telling Audrie should be easy.
I blew out a breath and tried again. “I don’t know my family,” I blurted, and dragged my eyes to Audrie to read her reaction. But she just waited. I cleared my throat to continue. “I need to find them. This is all I have.” I held out the necklace. “And Kaed, he’s promised to help me.”
“I can help too!”
My lip trembled as I smiled up at her. No hesitation. No restraint. Just a beaming smile on her face.
“You’d help me? If I stayed, you’d be my historian?”
Audrie leapt from the bed and threw her arms around me. Thankfully, the tea was long since drained.
“I can’t tell if you’re happy about the research or that I will try to stay longer.”
“Both.” Her rosy lips were joyous on her face.
“What specifically are we researching? I mean, it does complicate things that Aurora is gone. Timing-wise, it’s unfortunate.
But it’s still probably a good place to start in the library.
Though …” She was talking mostly to herself at this point as I was beginning to lose my grasp on what she was rambling about.
“The king took all the Auroran books to Hayden. I don’t even know what records he’d have allowed to survive. You said you had a book?”
She was pacing and looking at her ceiling like it held answers to her musings.
“Audrie”—I took hold of her wrist to slow her steps—“what are you talking about?” Why was she suddenly going off about a lost city?
“You’re Auroran. And I know the city is gone. But there should still be some records. Maybe Ash can get some from Hael’s—”
The room was buzzing, and Audrie’s voice was far away. There was a ringing in my ears that felt like needles.
“Imogen?” Audrie stopped in front of me. “What is it?”
“I’m … I can’t be. How—” A high-pitched note rang in my ears, drowning out the sounds around me.
Audrie clasped her hand over her mouth slowly. “You didn’t know?”
I blinked.
“How? How could you not have—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt that out. I …”
I thought I might cry, but there was only a strange hollow feeling inside me.
If I were Auroran … the book Eryk had given me. Had he known? Had anyone else known?
“How can you be certain?” If I were Auroran, that meant my family, everything I’d hoped for, was already gone. So long ago.
Audrie chewed the inside of her mouth as she debated how to do this. The heaviest blow had already been dealt. Being delicate wasn’t necessary. “Pale hair and violet eyes aren’t exactly common in the Corners, Imogen.”
My gut went cold, but I think I already knew that truth. People had always looked at me differently. I thought it was my fae heritage. My lack of magic. But even here, where people didn’t know me, they’d looked. Their gazes lingered.
“Why would no one tell me?” My voice was barely audible. Someone could have told me … Kaed could have told me.
“We … we thought you knew. I-I …” She swallowed. “I suppose …” Audrie hesitated. “It’s unusual not to know where you come from ... And that Aurorans are mostly blonde. Maybe everyone assumed you knew already. And …”
I swallowed against it all but it kept landing on me like earth being shoveled onto my chest.
“To most people, the Aurorans lost the war and literally disappeared. Maybe it’s superstition, but people don’t speak about Aurora … They don’t want to disappear in the blink of an eye too. On top of that, they were labelled traitors to the Crown once it was won by Tir.”
Kaed’s crown.