Chapter 47
Chapter
Forty-Seven
-brIDA-
Gasping for air, I lay on the cold stone floor. Any warmth that had been here was now gone. The shadows had fled, where to, I would likely never know. Rising to my feet, I strode to the center of the room where I could see him fully.
I leaned down, pressing a light kiss to his brow. The idea of just leaving his body here was almost too much to bear. I reached for his hand and placed it against my cheek.
“You were the light in my darkness, the mirth in my sorrow, the joy in my loss. Rest well, my eternal king.” With a final squeeze, I gently laid his arm and hand next to him and made my way to the door, never once looking back.
He would want it this way. I told myself.
Gods, he had deserved so much more. Compared to the life of the average human, Alvar had been privileged, blessed by the Primals.
He had lived centuries in a palace, not touched by the troubles that faced humans beyond Azmeer’s walls.
But anyone who took the time to speak with him, anyone who had been afforded the opportunity to get to know him, understood that he was a man of merit, of character.
Few men had ever been like him, and we were unlikely to see his kind again. Especially in what was to come.
Asana sat waiting in the atrium as I made my way back inside, Dainan nowhere to be seen.
“He needed some air.” Her voice was reassuring as she made her way towards me. Despite everything, Asana had stayed true to herself. She was calm, collected, confident. Her stride was purposeful, her words curt, and her clothes black.
“I’m sure you have many questions,” Asana said.
She raised her hand to pause me as I attempted to interrupt, “Before anything else, you need to know that this is how he wanted it to be. The day of the weddings, Alvar did not die in the throne room. He was close, but not quite there. The shadows slowed the progression, almost cauterizing his wound. But the dagger used on him was not of our world. It would be a slow death, and he wasn’t yet finished. ”
I nodded as I gestured to where she had been seated.
“Alvar sensed something between you and Dainan. Before the night of the ball, but that night only confirmed it.” Her raised eyebrow informed me that Alvar hadn’t kept anything from her.
“Azmeer has been dying for some time, and Alvar had a mind to research why that might be. In his research, a name kept appearing, Quiala.” Asana was calm and poised. Forever a gifted speaker, no matter the circumstances.
“As you know, once Alvar got an idea into his head, he would see it through.” Her lips tugged at the corners. A smile forming from a memory. A private moment the two of them had shared. How many years had she loved him? How many would she go on without him?
“He is…” I paused, clearing my throat, “was, a very stubborn man.”
“Indeed.” She nodded her head. “Alvar, ever determined, sought to find Quiala and yearned to see what had become of it. Was it suffering the same fate as Azmeer? As Eldara? And if so, why not?”
I was so fixated on Asana’s words that I almost didn’t notice when the doorway grew darker. Not yet ready to reveal himself, Dainan too was listening.
“I hadn’t shared this part of my life with Alvar. All he knew was that I wasn’t from the continent of Eldara, but he never pressed me in all of our years together. But as he dug deeper, I knew I needed to tell him.”
I held her gaze, encouraging her to continue with her story.
“It had been a long time since I had returned home. To be honest, I doubted I would remember the way.” Her hands clasped themselves, steadying her as she carried on. “I shadow-stepped us to Hadash, and we wandered through the caves.”
“Yes, I am now familiar with this journey.” I tried to forget the water in the tunnel. “Were you picked up by Navaros?”
“You saw the ferryman?” Asana’s face stilled. “What was the cost?”
“Marius paid it. Seven hundred years. For each of us.”
“A steep price. Navaros likely knew the value of what was on board his ship. But no. As soon as we landed in the water, I shadow-stepped us to Ildara. Naturally, we were greeted by guards as I landed us right outside of the castle. This is where I grew up, you see, that was until I followed Marius through the gateway.”
“How do you two know each other?”
“He is my father’s brother. My uncle.” She smiled, “There was a large age gap between them. Marius is closer in age to me than to my father by, oh, a few hundred years.” She smiled.
“I was fond of Marius, so much that when I saw him sneak off in the night, I followed him. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I knew it would be an adventure. Everything with him always was.”
“Tell me about it.” I heard myself say, even though I knew those words weren’t my own.
Asana’s brow furrowed, but her lips pulled at the corners, forming a small smile. “Alvar spoke with the guards, charming them as he did with everyone else, and was granted an audience with Melia.”
“Always a charmer.” I laughed through my words. “Worked on you, didn’t it?”
“It took a while,” she admitted, “but yes. Alvar was the great love of my life.”
A shadow slithered across the floor before making its way up my arm to nuzzle my cheek. I’m okay. I thought to the shadows. Its hiss caught me off guard as if understanding my thoughts.
“Alvar saw that this world, magic here, worked differently. He and Melia came to an agreement that the two of them would work together, to mend the bridges of what had been broken centuries before. The day of the wedding, when everything was in chaos, I threw myself over Alvar, and shadow-stepped us to Kaiver. He told me we needed to come here.”
There was little I could do to say or comfort her.
Asana, like the rest of us, did not understand how she fit into this new world, a world without him.
Her place, her role, her magic. Alvar had once told me that our magic is unruly when we visit a court that is not our own, but what of a world that shared core elements, where magic ran freely.
“I hoped that Melia would have been able to do something, anything to help him. This was the best they could do.” Asana’s hands fiddled with her dress. “Alvar wanted to say goodbye to you. You were very special to him.”
Her words possessed no malice, nor envy, just pity and kindness. Words echoed from someone who loved him, and someone who knew how much poorer our lives would be without his presence.
“A great change is coming, one the likes of us have never seen.” Her face softened. “Know that I will do everything in my power to help you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Asana rose from the bench, “Azmeer remains in great peril. Rai is callous, and a pawn in a game he does not understand. We will see him brought to justice.” She bowed her head at me before making her way to the exit.
My thoughts lingered on Azmeer. The cracks Alvar had seen, Kadian, Oz, and those stuck behind its limestone walls, surrounded by nothing more than the city and its barren wasteland. Did they know what was coming?
Kadian… I hope you’re safe.
Shadows slithered across the floor, moving as a unified wave until they crawled up the edge of the bench and formed into the man that sat there.
“If I too did not love Alvar this much, I would be a jealous male.” His thumb slowly caressed my cheek, his warmth seeping into my bones.
Placing my hand over Dainan’s, I whispered, “We will miss him and honor him.”
With a slight nod, Dainan pulled my hand to his lips, placing a small kiss atop it. “I had needed a few moments to compose myself, and discovered something I’d like to show you.”
“I believe,” I rose, “that you will find it increasingly difficult to not find me by your side.”
Dainan smiled, never letting go of my hand as he led me from the atrium.
Faint light danced across the walls from the mother-of-pearl sconces that lined the halls, and the echo of both of our footfalls made my heart skip a beat.
How many times had I paced in my cell? How many times had I yearned for him to walk beside me?
After minutes of comfortable silence, we arrived at a beautiful courtyard. Blooms, unlike anything I had ever seen, shone in the light. Flowers in every shade of pale blue and white, all highlighted by the… “There are two moons here?”
The sky. It was a marvel to see the world was as bright as the peak of day.
Dainan smiled as he moved closer to me, pulling me into himself.
“It sounds childish in a way to say that when I wanted to escape the darkness, I followed the light that led me here. For what am I if not the embodiment of darkness?”
Running my hand down his chest, I whispered, “Darkness itself is not malicious, nor does it seek to ruin or harm. It can provide solace, calm, and peace.”
A low hum emanated from Dainan’s chest, “I was not alone when I found my way here. The queen was here, marveling at the sky.”
Returning my gaze upwards, the familiar stars that I had spent so many nights wondering about flickered faintly, as if their essence remained, but they themselves were gone. “Is it always like this?”
“According to the queen, who we will discuss more of later,” Dainan said, lowering his voice, “it is an anomaly but does happen on occasion. She said it is viewed as a blessing of mates. In the morning, they will grace the skies as two suns.”
I ran my fingers along his arms, desperately yearning to touch him. “Is that so?”
Raising his hand, Dainan pushed a few strands of hair behind my ear, my ear that marked me as a human, “It is.”
“I still…” I cleared my throat, attempting to put together everything I was thinking, everything I had felt these past months.
Clenching my hand in his shirt, I steadied myself.
“I am still coming to terms with everything that has happened, and is in the process of happening to me. In the cell, I have had endless time to think.”