Chapter 19
Chapter
The ball raged on. Hundreds of lights floated above the Inner Court, and music echoed through the marble columns.
The scent of wine, roses, and heated bodies mingled in the air.
Guests danced and laughed, gliding across the marble floor like colored shadows.
Only the white marble statues of nameless gods were still, just gazing through the crowd.
I still didn’t know whether I wished to be there at all.
I stood before the entrance, hearing the music and the hum, and for a moment I wanted simply to leave. But this was meant to be an ending, the closing of everything that had begun in that palace. I moved toward the great steps. The herald halted me, straightened like a string.
“Lady, any special announcement?” he asked.
I hesitated. I did not know what to say. The silence lengthened, and people within the room began to turn. I felt their looks: inquisitive, cold, judging.
I leaned forward and whispered in his ear, and he intoned in a sonorous voice, “Nerissa Veymaris, Heiress of Thalrock. Daughter of Victor and Sarah Veymaris. Lady of Water and Sea.”
The words spread through the hall like a wave.
For a moment there was silence, and then a murmur ran through the crowd.
“So it is true... another heiress with power...”
I ignored the whispers.
I descended the steps slowly, one foot after another, feeling their eyes upon me. My gown swept down the stairs like an ocean shadow, and my hair, loose and wavy, caught the candlelight.
The hall glittered with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
Each gem was meant to signify authority and might, and yet, without a single one, I felt stronger than ever.
I stood at the edge of the hall. Alone and lost. Without thinking, I glanced around the room, I didn’t know who I was looking for.
He appeared on my path like a bachelor of shadows. Dricus. He was dressed almost entirely in black, with subtle red accents that emphasized his element. He bore no Elementars, only a severe elegance, simplicity, and that aura of dangerous calm. He bowed gently.
“I am glad you have finally accepted who you are.”
I found no words for him. We just looked into each other’s eyes. Everyone in the hall watched us. Two heirs of the elements.
Then I saw him. Aidenar stood by his mother.
Cassandra cold and perfect as ever. He was without a smile, without his frivolity, just looking at me.
For the first time since the accident, he noticed my existence.
Velena was speaking to him, but I knew he didn’t listen.
The music stopped and a new melody began to play, pulling me from my thoughts. Dricus extended his hand to me.
“May I?”
I agreed. It was better to dance than stand alone like a wild exhibit for people to judge. His energy greeted me quietly as we stepped onto the floor. Dricus studied my face, likely noticing the scratch from the accident.
“You never told me you have been helping him.”
“Someone had to,” I replied.
“He might have killed you. Idiot,” his face grimaced.
“Do not overstate it,” I sighed. “You know how difficult control can be when you are just learning. I have done worse things myself.”
He looked at me, surprised. I wanted to change the subject. “Dricus, are you having strange dreams?”
He lifted a brow. “What do you mean?”
“Figures in black. A man. Does he speak to you?”
A shadow crossed his face and fled at once as we moved across the floor. “I dream of many things. Beasts, flames, war. Nothing clear. And you?”
“I have visions. Odd ones. Perhaps it is this city.”
We danced on as though nothing had passed between us.
Dricus held me close. I felt his trained body beneath the black coat.
But his power remained behind a wall. He would not let it out.
Just as he locked away his feelings. Always closed, always guarded, always in complete control.
Maybe this was how it had to be. Maybe no one could save him from that loneliness.
When the music ended, we stood a moment longer. I curtsied to him gently. Dricus kissed my hand.
“My Lady.”
But I was not. I belonged to no one.
After the dance I went in search of wine.
The only remedy against the court’s ceaseless scrutiny.
I threaded between tables, past couples and knotty groups of lords, until I reached the fountain at the square’s edge.
Among the crowd I saw Velena Salvadore, her gown set with diamonds, topazes flashing at her throat, her hair arranged in intricate curls.
She smiled as if she already had a cutting remark.
“Fortunate you have the power,” she purred as I passed. “Pity your Family must still beg for scraps and service.”
Fury rose hot within me. I had had enough.
It was time to show Velena her place. I gathered saliva in her throat until she seemed to have no air to breathe.
Her eyes widened, perhaps she understood what was coming.
I felt her begin to gather power from her stones as if to blast me apart.
I couldn’t wait. I was already reaching for the water from the fountain.
I’d had enough of her games, she wanted to see what I was capable of, then be my guest.
Before she could do anything, something choked her power, and I let her breathe. I turned around and saw Aidenar standing right behind me. He gently grabbed my arm.
“She is not worth it. Be above this,” he said, looking at Velena with the contempt one reserves for a misbehaving child. Then he walked away toward the gardens, calm as if nothing happened.
I couldn’t take it any longer. His coldness. His indifference. I followed him.
We walked through the garden alleys, the same paths I knew from our training. The wet earth smelled of herbs and moss, the lamps cast warm circles of light. I approached him quickly.
“Is that it?!” I shouted as the music faded behind us. “Are you going to ignore me forever?”
He halted, turned slightly, and something in his profile both angered and disarmed me.
“It will be better for us both,” he said quietly, and turned to go.
“Asshole!” I shouted, unable to pretend any longer. I ran after him. I couldn’t let him leave without an answer. It wasn’t a wise decision but I hadn’t come here for common sense.
When I caught up with him, I stopped his body with water. An unpleasant, accentuated feeling, for I rarely used my powers this way. He groaned with pain. I stepped around him until we faced each other.
“Look me straight in the eyes,” I said, trembling, “and tell me you want nothing more to do with me. Tell me you took what you wanted and I am nothing to you now.” I released my power from his body “Say it!”
He was silent so long the night held its breath. He looked around the garden and laughed to himself.
“Before I met you, I had everything I ever wanted. I was living a great life. And then you destroyed it.”
“I destroyed your life?”
“Yes,” he said. “Because nothing else tastes the same. Nothing and no one can satisfy me. My thoughts cannot escape you.”
I stood breathless.
“Liar,” I said hoarsely. “I’m just another noble girl. Another vote.”
“Vote?” he repeated, disbelief sharpening his tone. “That’s what you think you are to me?”
He stepped closer, his fists clenched. I could see muscles of his forearms standing out as he fought for control.
“I don’t want your vote. I don’t want your power.” he said with full anger. “I want everything you are.”
His confession spilled, raw and ragged. “When I slammed you against that wall I thought I had killed you. I roared for healers until my throat bled.
“I see your green eyes when I close mine.
I wake up reaching for the fire of your hair.
“Tonight, seeing you walking down those stairs, my knees trembled. I wanted MY hands on your body. I want MY name on your lips.” His voice fell to a whisper fierce as prayer. “In my mind you are MINE, Nerissa. Only mine.”
Silence crashed between us, thick as velvet.
“Then take me,” I said before fear could silence me.
He needed no more. He seized me hard, sudden, inevitable. One arm locking my waist, the other cradling my neck. His eyes melted from silver to molten starlight. “Nerissa,” he breathed, half plea, half command.
His lips claimed mine, gentle then hungry.
I rose on my feet, thigh sliding along his hip.
His hand followed the bare skin beneath my slit dress, gripping, guiding.
The wind was raging around us. I knew he was losing control.
I felt him hardening against my body. Heat branded me where we pressed together.
I knew he was the answer to everything I needed.
For so long, I’d lie to myself thinking I felt nothing for him.
Everything around us vanished—the garden, the music, the fear—only us mattered.
Then we heard screams from the Inner Court.
He groaned against my lips, unwilling to release me. I clung harder not letting him go, this aroused him even more. Then a voice carried clear:
“Lord Cavareth!”
“Fuck.” He rested his brow against mine, breath ragged. His arms stayed locked around me. But the voice from the lane grew nearer.
“Lord Cavareth, your presence is requested!”
Aidenar rolled his eyes and whispered, “If it’s my mother’s speech or Mermont’s toast I will slaughter them all.”
The servant who burst upon us was pale and shaking. One look at him told us this was something serious. Aidenar’s body chilled in an instant.
“Forgive the interruption, my Lord,” the servant stammered, flustered upon seeing us, “the Lord must come.”
“I hope it’s important,” Aidenar said, but we knew from the servant’s pale face that something was desperately wrong.
Aidenar nodded, then looked at me so fiercely with his eyes, I felt as if I might dissolve in them. We hurried back to the palace.
We entered the Inner Court and committed a mistake. My presence at his side drew some eyes. The rest of the company stared terrified, toward the tables and what lay there.
A man was laying on the ground. I recognized his golden hair. Oh no.
Cedric.
His body convulsed, foam flecked his mouth, thick and red.
Cassandra stood like a rock, but her eyes were blank.
I immediately knew what it was. I could feel it in my veins. Plague.
Aidenar knelt by Cedric at once. He rolled the boy’s sleeve and found black blotches on his forearm. He rolled it farther and revealed the bite, a black, filthy wound oozing pus. The sight made blood run cold. Everyone gasped, as if afraid that simply breathing the same air would contaminate them.
Aidenar bowed his head a moment in thought, then commanded, “Take him to the medical wing,” he ordered. “Give him a nightshade tea, something for fever. If the wound’s cleansing doesn’t help, sever his arm. If there is no improvement in two days, summon me.”
The words landed like a verdict. For the first time I saw him not as the reckless boy but as the lord he was born to be. His shoulders squared beneath an invisible crown.
Cassandra’s whisper cut the quiet. “Kill him now.”
I gasped.
Aidenar met her gaze without an ounce of pity, colder than she.
“If you were bitten should I kill you at once?” his voice was steel. “I gave him two days of life and hope. At least that’s what he deserves. If you think he’ll spread the Plague, we could all be dead by now. He worked all evening. What was supposed to happen already happened.”
He wasn’t sentimental. He was reasonable and brutally fair.
He rose and strode toward the palace, speaking to the captain of the guard about strengthening patrols, closing gates, and checking the rest of the servants. His movements were quick, precise, as if he had long practiced issuing orders.
He didn’t look at me. He didn’t seek me with his eyes. Only when he was leaving the square, did he stop mid-step, and the wind caressed my cheeks. It was his goodbye.
Something in him had changed. The frivolous boy who once tossed jokes like coins was gone. Life had touched him differently now, with the weight of duty, decisions, and with what was inevitable.
I returned to my chambers with a head full of sorrow. The Plague was no longer a port rumor or a story from distant lands. It affected us here and now and no one was safe.
Cedric. He was so young, full of life, he did no harm to anyone. I had to find Mirabel. I had to check if she was alright.