Chapter Thirty-Eight
Avari
Time drifted differently here. Every hour stretched like a punishment. I feared my newest adventure could last decades. It had taken me thirty years to get a grip on my fire, and assuming I even had any shadow powers, they had yet to reveal themselves, aside from the feral clumps around my throat.
Not to mention, I only released the hold on my fire under River’s guidance, and I wasn’t sure I could ever do it alone.
Hours had passed since I learnt of his betrayal, and the ludicrous need to justify it still gnawed at me. It was clear that he needed to help his brother; with such a loving family, helping each other surpassed any other virtue. But why did it still hurt so much?
Even betrayal couldn’t quiet the ache of his absence. Not all wounds bled.
Contemplating whether he had faked the attitude change towards me, the sweet gestures and protectiveness, I couldn’t even focus on the situation at hand.
How fucked in the head was I to think about him instead of the fact I was stuck in a kingdom I never heard of, with a supposed father I never met before?
The concept of a family dinner with people I didn’t know sent shivers down my spine as I tried, and failed, to rein in my social anxiety. The only way to end the discomfort was to face it head-on and crash afterwards. I just hoped there wouldn’t be a crowd of people to meet.
As my thoughts traced back to the banquet, my blood pressure spiked again. Socialites, councilmen, nobles, lords… It was all too much. But family dinners usually only included their members, right?
A gentle knock sounded on my door. I opened it after a couple of calming breaths.
‘Hi there,’ a grey-haired girl with eyes like I’d never seen before greeted me with a small, almost shy wave.
The cardinal red of her eyes caught all my attention, glowing faintly like embers under glass.
I froze, and she laughed, clearly used to the reaction.
‘I’m Miriam. Father asked me to fetch you. ’
Miriam gestured for me to follow, and though I didn’t necessarily believe my supposed blood tie to the Lord of the Isles, the girl’s essence wrapped around me in a cloud of calm and familiarity.
Being so different, it went against my better judgement to start believing the lord’s promises, but looking at the girl with her soft, red gaze, I felt my walls begin to crack.
Slightly taller than me, she walked with her head high, radiating warmth in this land of gloom.
‘I’m Avari,’ I said, searching for something else to say.
‘How do you like it here so far?’
Consternation and anger came to mind, though I knew they weren’t directed at the land or its people but at the circumstances of my arrival.
I would love for their claims to be true. It would mean that after thirty long, lonely years, I finally had a place to call home and people to turn to.
‘Is it always so…’ I bit my tongue, not wanting to offend the smiling princess of shadows.
‘So…?’ she prompted.
‘Dark?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. I thought father explained how the lands work. It’s not always dark, though many of our creatures prefer it that way. Besides, you arrived on a particularly dreary day. We normally get far more vibrant moonlight. It’s like a day you’re used to, just slightly more opaque.’
The claim shocked me. ‘So you don’t get regular sunlight here?’
‘Shadow lands tend to be peculiar.’ The girl giggled. ‘The isles are sentient, you know?’
‘Sentient? The land itself?’
She nodded, amused. ‘We get seasons, but rarely a pattern. And we do get some sun in spring and even more in summer, though we haven’t had a summer for a few years now.’
The new information tilted my world off-axis, like the lands themselves, breaking every law of nature. That must have been why the vegetation looked so different. With flora this strange, I wondered what the fauna might be like.
As we neared the dining room, our short conversation and the revelations that fascinated my witchy mind distracted me from the rising panic.
I had already met most of the people there: my supposed sire, my abductor, the red-eyed girl; there also were two other men, one of whom looked forced to attend.
His weary, hollow eyes told me all I needed to know about his eagerness to make my acquaintance.
Looking his way, Miriam hurried to his side and placed a hand on each shoulder, squeezing. ‘Avari, meet Luke. He’s the son of our father’s most esteemed council member and my fiancé.’
‘Nice to meet you, Luke,’ I managed, barely above a whisper. He gave a half-assed wave and promptly looked away.
Miriam had clearly made him come. There was such an enigmatic contrast between them that I couldn’t imagine how their relationship even worked.
‘Ava, lovely. Nice of you to finally join us,’ the lord quipped unceremoniously with a smirk he failed to hide.
‘Don’t even start. How was she supposed to know we have dinners at six if you never told her?’ my supposed half-sister snapped at him in my defence.
He flashed us a wide smile. ‘Well, now that you’re here, let us celebrate this joyful day—my youngest finding her way back home!’ He cheered, raising a glass of what, I assumed, was wine. ‘Don’t just stand there, child. Come on, sit.’
As he patted the chair beside him, all I could think of was how, weeks ago, River had done the same.
Mind scattered, I forced myself to stop thinking about him, but it was still too raw, too soul-bruising.
Reluctant but powerless to refuse, I sat where he indicated and glanced around.
I had to admit the rough cement walls, accented with wooden beams, dried bouquets hanging from hooks, and a stone-tiled wood-burning stove created a cosy atmosphere.
It was difficult to compare it to Fogoya, but it was certainly warmer than Ortensia’s dining hall, its beige walls as bleak and lifeless as my mother’s personality.
‘Tell us a little bit about yourself, girl,’ the ruler of shadows said, curiosity gleaming beneath command.
Panic gripped my chest in a tight vice. Every pair of eyes turned to me, waiting, not judging, just expectant.
‘Um… I come from Ortensia. I command fire and witchcraft, and I didn’t expect any of this in my wildest dreams.’ I gestured toward the table, though I meant something far deeper.
Miriam’s unforgivingly mesmerising eyes followed mine, holding me in place. ‘So, out of the two, which one did you prefer?’
Confused at first, I quickly realised what she meant. ‘I much prefer the Fogoyan terrain.’
‘Surprise, surprise.’ A devilish grin spread across my kidnapper's face before he dissolved into laughter. ‘Just the terrain, huh?’
The man was utterly insufferable. I could have scorched the stupid smile off his face. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I’m merely observing that you still carry a tinge of the Fogoyan King’s scent. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?’
It must have lingered after our hug when I returned from the Cave City, or from the moment he needed to drown me in his essence to mask my pheromones. But I wasn’t about to explain myself to him.
‘What is it to you?’ I hissed, barely keeping my temper in check. My newfound vortex of power was as volatile as it was useful.
‘And just as short-tempered as he is. Interesting.’
It was a game to him, but I refused to play. ‘I’m not… You know what, you’re just trying to get a reaction, and I’m not giving you one.’
‘Wow, it only took her minutes to figure you out, Alec.’ The younger-looking man beside him chuckled. ‘I’m Timothy, by the way. Your cousin.’
Flames raged under my skin, but I gave him a curt nod before turning my focus inward to rein in my essence before I burned the room down.
Not wanting to delay what mattered most, I finally asked, ‘Why can’t I feel my dragon here?’
Most of the dinner companions stared at me in disbelief, except Miriam’s fiancé, who remained completely unfazed.
‘That’s the thing about the Isles,’ the lord explained. ‘Your bonds won’t carry weight here unless the land accepts you as its rightful inhabitant. Think of it as a time-out. It’ll return to normal once you wield shadows.’
I swallowed hard. Another test. Another cage to earn my freedom.