Elwyn
“Do you think he’ll like it?” Rosy pink creeps over Elora’s cheeks and freckled nose. She’s chosen my beaded navy gown to attend her first ball. A lump forms in my throat.
She hands me her mask made of navy satin and tiny beads, and I take my time tying it gently around her. “He would be a fool not to.”
Her grin widens as she spins around, one she so rarely gives, and I wish to bottle it up.
“Go on.” I gesture to the door where Cade is waiting on the other side. I take an extra moment to fluff her curls and pinch her cheeks. “No need to sneak around tonight.” I wink, and she rolls her eyes, but it’s all of these tiny moments that make up who we are together. She kisses my cheek and lets out a long breath before opening the door.
I catch a glimpse of Cade as Elora walks out. His eyes are wide and his face now matches the color of her lip paint. She grabs his arm as he leads her down the hallway, to her first Autumn Moon. There’s no promise Cade will become Elora’s arranger, but the two of them have been inseparable all their lives. It only seemed right to have him escort her tonight.
I lean against the doorway, clutching a hand to my heart. My daughter, nearly eighteen, is growing into a woman before my eyes.
Not much time left.
“I know,” I whisper to myself. “I know.”
Before Elora and Cade disappear completely, she turns one last time and smiles. That wide smile again, and this time, I commit it to memory, not letting myself forget it for a second.
An hour later, I sit with Cade’s mother, Alice, around her small table drinking wine and eating leftover biscuits when shouting erupts from the castle.
“What was that?” Alice stands and pulls the small curtain from the window near her door. “Did you hear it?”
“I did,” I say. I squeeze beside her and glance out as well.
More shouting erupts and Alice jumps back a ways.
“Must be a rambunctious party,” Alice says, but I’m frozen against the window. My eyesight blurs, my hands shake, and everything is lost to a fog of white before my vision comes.
Three men around a fire.
King Silas. Prince Roman and… I can’t identify the third man.
“Long live the king,” the stranger sneers.
Silas downs his drink and then he’s clutching his heart. His skin breaks out into a sweat but neither man moves to help him. Not his son. Not the stranger. The two of them sit side by side as Silas crumples forward. He gasps and claws for Roman’s boot, but the stranger steps in front of the prince, shielding him from his father. He whispers something, something I can’t hear and then ? —
“!”
I come to with a gasp of air. Alice is holding onto my forearms, her light brows cinched together. “A vision?”
I nod, unease swirling deep in my stomach.
“We need to go find Cade and Elora.” Alice’s frown deepens, but she doesn’t argue as I begin to put on my cloak.
The squall of snow makes it difficult to see as we trek to the castle but the shouting from earlier intensifies.
Something is wrong.
The frigid air burns my lungs as I begin to sprint, each step a promise that I’m that much closer to getting my daughter. I make it up the main staircase and weave around the guards with ease. I’m almost to the ballroom when a heavy hand wraps around my arm.
“You are the Head Enchantress?” a guard asks, his voice deep.
“Yes.” My skin prickles as I glance quickly at Alice. She watches, her blonde hair tucked under her knit cap as she cocks her head to the side. The guard’s grip tightens around my arm.
“I’ve been instructed to take you to the prince.” He pulls me from the ballroom doorway.
“And where is the king?” Alice calls from a distance but the guard remains silent.
But he doesn’t need to tell me where the king is because I already know.
The king is dead.
Inside the castle is pure chaos. Women are crying, men are shouting.
“It was a setup!”
“Long live, King Silas!”
My nerves get the best of me as I enter a small meeting room where I’m instructed to wait. My knee bounces thinking of Elora. But I relax a little knowing she’s with Cade.
She’s safe.
“Lady .”
I stand as Prince Roman enters the room.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Your Highness.” I drop to a low curtsey but the energy in the room thickens, making me fear what I’ll see when I straighten myself. “I only just heard?—”
“Please sit,” Roman says.
I take a deep breath and face the prince.
Only, he’s not alone.
The man from my vision stands at his side. His snowy hair and piercing blue gaze stirs something in me.
Don’t trust him , Corbin says. I’m startled by his abrupt appearance in my mind, but I push him away. He knows better than to use our bond now, after all these years of keeping my Dyrsjel lineage a secret from Elora. But his urgency has my hackles raised.
“Lady , you have been my father’s Head Enchantress for all my life,” Roman says. His hands tremble as they reach for a pitcher of water. “But it’s time I let you go.”
My eyes widen and fear plummets in my stomach. “I beg your pardon? Silas would never?—”
“Well, he’s dead,” the blonde man says cooly. “And Prince Roman will be named King, so I’d think it wise if you listen to what he has to say.”
I glance between the two men, my stomach somersaulting.
“Starting immediately, Enchantresses will no longer sit on the council.” Roman’s voice is hollow, rehearsed.
My nails dig into the wood tabletop, splintering the tender flesh under them.
“No Enchantress may use her magick, unless specifically requested by me. If anyone, Seer or Healer or Plague decides to go against this new law, the punishment will be the most extreme.” Roman’s voice wavers as he speaks his last words. His green eyes meet mine. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” I nod, sliding my fingers into my lap.
Roman dismisses me and it’s not a moment too soon. The air in my lungs has seemingly run out, my head beginning to spin.
Almost to the door, I gather my skirts in my hands, when the blonde man steps into my way. He can’t be more than a few years older than Roman, but his narrowed eyes look not at me, but through me.
“One more thing, Enchantress,” he says, dropping his voice so it’s a whisper between us. “I’ll need you to bring me the Awakening Stones.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands, but I nod anyway, making him believe I will do just that. His lips curl into a smile that has Corbin, my crow, screaming in my head.
Get out!
Get out, !
No man has ever touched the Awakening Stones. Has ever dared taken them from a Dyrsjel as only we have the power to control them. They are the tether between this world and the next. Between Enchantresses and Mother Gaia.
What could they possibly need them for?
“You’re dismissed,” the man says, as if he has some kind of authority over me.
I breeze past him and don’t stop until I’m bursting through the ballroom doors. Elora and Cade are in a corner talking to Alice. My shoulders relax but the fear in my heart does not.
I watch Elora and Cade again, their hands wrapped around each other.
I think of her fate. Of who she was born to be.
I think of my own fate. Who I was born to be. What I was born to do.
There is no other option but the one that keeps Elora the most safe. We have to leave as soon as possible.
We have to flee.