Chapter 20 #2
“It is not about fault, Your Majesty. If you die without either an heir or a queen, chaos will ensue. Civil war will rage, and the blight will go wholly unchecked, all during a cycle of chaos. Aureum may not survive such a catastrophe.”
“Now that you know, redouble your efforts to find Batea and Drakon. It cannot be this difficult to find a flying beast the size of a house,” Theron said, chastened.
Polydorus opened his scroll and his eyes widened.
“On that front, there may be some good news. Lord Leukos reports seeing the trail of the beast near the border of the Between. He followed as long as he could, but the beast became impossible to find as night encroached. The next day he came upon a settlement—a mine, the very one you took from Lady Ino to gift the Viridians—to find it had been largely destroyed by the beast. He continues the hunt north.”
Aurora’s heart sped. Finally, a lead.
“Summon the avatar. Guarantee him safe passage to Altanus so we can give him the news,” Aurora said.
“As you wish, Your Highness,” Polydorus bowed.
“Redeploy the soldiers, Canthus,” Theron ordered before turning his attention to Nireus. “What of the Viridian spies?”
Aurora suppressed a shiver of revulsion. She tried very hard not to think about what was being done to them—what would be done.
“I suspect one will break rank within the day, Your Majesty.”
“When he does, co-ordinate with Canthus to apprehend the ones we haven’t yet caught.”
“Your Highness, given your…friendship with the princess, do you know where she is?” Polydorus asked.
Aurora stilled.
“I do.”
“And?”
“And she’s safe. Flora’s spies won’t find her.”
If she hid with the rest of the dualists under the Dragon’s Spine Mountains, she was in the safest place in all of Trisia. The hideout would go undetected for millennia so far as Aurora knew.
Polydorus eyed her perhaps a moment longer than necessary before nodding.
“Very well.”
She waited for Theron to demand answers but did so in vain. He didn’t push for more out of her.
“There is one other bit of good news, Your Majesty. The scholars believe they know how the ancient spear and shield work. They’re currently testing out their theories,” Polydorus added.
Aurora’s ears pricked up at that. It was one such technology that had not made it to her time. Perhaps if she managed to get a look at their notes, she might be able to bring it back with her.
“That is good news indeed. Give them whatever funding and supplies they need. If that is all, you’re dismissed to your duties,” Theron said, waving them off.
When they bowed and left, save for Nireus, Theron turned to her.
“I have an appointment with my aunt this afternoon, but would you perhaps join me for dinner this evening?”
And give him another chance to find weaknesses in her defences?
She shouldn’t. But…she did want to speak with him.
If nothing else, she could use this as an opportunity to test his resolve.
Was he truly ready to be the man she needed him to be, or was this another farce? Curiosity got the better of her.
“I will.”
He took her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles once more, the softness of the kiss at odds with the bristle of his beard. Theron lingered, his thumb stroking her finger.
“Thank you,” he said, a touch of gentle reverence in his voice.
Her heart fluttered once again. Aurora pulled her hand from his and retreated as hastily as she could while still maintaining her dignity.
She didn’t even remember what she said to him, only that she felt the heat of his gaze on her back when she turned away, could swear she felt it until the door to her room closed.
Perhaps dinner was a bad idea. He was saying all the right things—doing all the right things. But she’d been down this road before.
Aurora slumped into the nearest chair and curled up, hugging her knees.
Was she truly contemplating forgiving him?
No, the idea still rankled her. A few days of change weren’t enough.
She was still angry over how he’d treated her, dismissed her, and driven her into a corner.
The petty part of her needed to see him suffer—wanted it with a vengeance.
Yet he had given her the queen’s throne, and she was touched by that gesture.
Aurora spent the rest of the afternoon trapped in her own mind as it spun endlessly between hope, anger, and cynicism.
By dinner she was frustrated enough to be glad she was finally in someone’s company other than her own.
As Theron dismissed the attendants from the room, Aurora contemplated how to begin testing him. She didn’t necessarily want to fight, but she did want to watch him squirm a little.
“You never gave me the morning-after gift,” she blurted out.
He blinked, as shocked by the news as he was bewildered by it.
“I’m unfamiliar with the custom,” he hedged.
“The day after a marriage, the groom gives the bride a gift. Usually, a rose cutting given by the husband that the couple plant. If it grows, it means—” A long, happy marriage, good health, and a great number of children.
Aurora fought back a blush and wished she could have turned to smoke and drifted away on the breeze.
She really should have spent the afternoon planning what she was going to say instead of letting her fool mouth decide for her. “Never mind.”
His smile was far too satisfied by half.
“No, please do tell me.”
“Forget it.”
“If you like,” he said. Except he said it so lightly and easily she suspected he would find some way to drag it out of her.
She did her best to tamp down the squirming embarrassment in her chest as she bit into a deliciously cooked piece of duck.
Think, you fool. You want answers and he’s right here.
“What would you do if I decided to go home, to my time?”
“I would ask you if you would consider taking me with you,” he said, smiling.
“It was a serious question.” She frowned.
“It was a serious answer.”
And yet he’d been so quick to say it.
“You’re telling me you’d give up everything just to follow me? What about your kingdom?”
“Our kingdom. But yes, I would. I would appoint a successor, and I would go with you.”
“I don’t believe you.” She speared her next bite with perhaps more force than necessary.
He levelled her with a serious stare she felt all the way to her toes.
“I vowed I would chase you across the Tapestry. That there would be no goodbyes. I meant it when I said that,” he said, his voice full of conviction.
She remembered, along with his searing kisses.
“You said it thinking you could keep me here.”
“I know better now, but I stand by my words.” He leaned back in his seat and sipped his wine.
“Even if I never forgive you?”
“Even so.” He nodded.
She chewed on her next bite. He must be lying. There was no way he would give up his precious crown and all the power it gave him.
“I’ve only time travelled once and only by myself. I don’t even know if I could take you with me.”
“Then I suppose you’ll need to practise.” His voice deepened on the last word, causing her damned heart to flutter again.
“Yes.” It was all she trusted herself to say.
“Then we should begin your lessons anew. It’s well past time someone taught you to recognize and respect your limits,” he mused.
“And what are you expecting in exchange?”
He raised his brows at her. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” She frowned.
“Nothing.”
“You’re confusing me,” she grumbled, crossing her arms.
Since when did he do anything without another motive?
“Did you want me to demand something?” he asked, unable to hide the heat in his eyes.
Yes.
NO.
Triad spare her. Her heart wasn’t her only traitorous organ today. Much as she hated to admit it, she remembered what he’d vowed to extract from her in exchange for her last lesson.
“You’re not acting like the man I know,” she said, doing her best to put such thoughts from her head and focus instead on her meal.
“I promised to change.”
“I meant for you to change your priorities, not…”
The things she could begrudgingly admit to herself that she liked about him.
She liked he was pushy sometimes, that he gave no quarter.
It gave her permission to push back, to fight, to be angry and passionate and weak, to bite him even as she kissed him.
She didn’t like or trust this new man in front of her precisely because he was determined to erase himself and become whatever she wished. That wasn’t what she wanted.
“Not?”
“Not your personality,” she finished.
“You like my personality?” he asked, hopeful.
“You know what I mean.” She dismissed him with a wave.
A somewhat tense silence followed as Theron frowned at his plate.
“I…I admit I don’t know where to go from here. I’m afraid that I will do something, say something, and I will snuff out the light in your eyes—that I will lose you forever…if I haven’t already. I would do anything, give anything, to mend what I’ve broken.”
“Then…” What did she want from him? She wanted…
to feel safe. To know that no matter what happened, he would take her side, choose her, believe her, trust her.
“Then prove to me I’m more important to you than politics.
Your devotion to being a good king rather than a good man has been at the heart of every betrayal.
Prove that you will put me and my needs first. And prove it to me in such a way that the whole of Aureum knows it, too.
I want your whole kingdom to hold you to account. ”
His smile was as calm as it was baffling.
“Your wish, my command.”
Aurora didn’t know what to make of Theron tonight. He was all that was agreeable and calm. So much for pushing him into slipping up. Instead, she was the one caught off balance. Was this another trick?
“You don’t trust me or believe my words. You doubt me, rightfully. But just as you opened my eyes through action, I will do the same. I will prove to you that you can trust me.”
“I won’t hold my breath.”
“I understand.”
Anger was a hot flame in her heart.