Chapter 27
Bloody and Broken
Cora
Since moving into the manor of Darkmoor, I’d spent a great deal of time in the library.
Silvana had mentioned it was her favorite place to be, but it was because she loved the view, while I could spend forever here with just the books.
Everything in Whitbourne’s library had been monitored and by some slim chance something made it through, there were always eyes that made it back to Keres.
Whispers of how we’d been consuming things he didn’t approve of, and before I knew it the texts would be gone.
Those eyes made the hidden items in my room that much more of a treasure—items I wasn’t able to retrieve before leaving the castle. A secondary anxiety settled heavy on my heart.
It used to be more laid-back, but that was before he had a female he’d turned himself, escape.
She’d used the library to learn about her magic, and in turn, used that knowledge to run.
I wasn’t sure if he’d ever found her, but I knew he tried for ages—his ego never letting him escape a known failure.
The books there now were nothing to be excited over after so many years. The history of Kostbare, the four courts, some types of magic—nothing violent, of course, but also nothing entertaining. Nothing fictional or romantic.
Raiden had hoards of everything at our fingertips.
So many stories to escape into. I knew I should be taking the time to learn, maybe practice my magic since I hadn’t been able to fully tap into it in over four hundred years without drawing attention to myself and having to kill a maid or two, but all I found myself able to do in my down time was curl up in the high-back chairs and devour story after story.
“Never took you for the romance reader, witchy girl,” Bastian said as he walked into the library with Allie. “Alina said I could find you here. I’m grabbing food for Allie and I, and everyone should be here soon for the meeting. Do you want anything?”
Willing my face not to give away any sort of blush as I stared up at the male, I shook my head quickly. “No, no food needed. Not that hungry today.”
Bastian smirked and nodded. “Got it. I’ll be back, ladies.”
Dropping my eyes back to my book, I attempted to ignore the woman in front of me. I knew she was a visionary, and it wasn’t as if I had the best of track records with them.
“Hello, Cora,” she said with a soft smile.
My eyes flicked up to hers and I swallowed down the rude response that was aching to slip from my lips. The sort of response that shoved people away from me and left me in a decent place to keep them at arm’s length.
“Um, hi.”
A soft laugh fell from her lips. “Don’t worry, Cora, you’ll find that you can trust those of us here, even with your more in-depth secrets. They’ll be happy for you, for you both.”
An aching sense of foreboding set deep into my belly and I stared at her, eyes wide. “I’m not sure I know what you mean, Allie.” She began to open her mouth, but I shook my head. “Stop. Just, stop. Please. I just… I don’t… Just no, Allie.”
Slamming the book shut, I stood from my chair and walked away as Raiden and Silvana entered the library. Half expecting Allie to speak up on how I’d just reacted, my teeth ground together as I shoved the book back on the shelf where I’d found it. She said nothing though, much to my surprise.
I’d noticed in my short time around the visionary, that words seemed to just roll off of her. Unsure if they were absorbed, or if she was just that into her own visions of the future, that she couldn’t be bothered with the present.
I’d read about visionaries over the years, and there were some throughout time that had spent too much time looking ahead, that they never returned.
Lost in the planes of their own minds and futures, they spoke in riddles and prophecies.
Allie didn’t seem to have those tendencies, she just seemed different.
Although that could change if they ever decided to turn her.
Shaking off the message behind her words, I found myself at the window as the rest of the group sauntered into the library.
Raiden and Silvana sat at a far table, Raiden shuffling through notes and mumbling unintelligible words to Silv. Bastian returned with Micah and a tray of food for Allie, who seemed equally pleased to see them both.
“Just waiting on Feathers?” Bastian asked, to which Raiden nodded.
A small tug in my stomach hit at the words, but before any more words could be exchanged, a solid onyx-colored raven swooped into the library and in a flash, he was shifted and standing beside me at the window.
“Ask for me?” Cedar questioned with a chuckle, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes the way Silv hinted that it used to.
The more time that went by, the easier I was finding him to read, which also served to set me on edge.
He’d been different since our fighting lesson outside the gardens.
As if we’d reached some sort of understanding and he was trying not to block himself off.
“We did, yes.” Raiden cleared his throat, his eyes dipping towards me before looking around at everyone else. “Now that we’re all here, we can dive in.”
“Yes, let's,” Silv added, her hand resting atop Raiden’s. “Cora, we have questions.”
Struggling not to roll my eyes, I just stared at my sister instead, unsure of what to say aside from, ‘Yeah, of course you do.’
Trust them. Eirdis’s words echoed through my mind as I looked around the room, everyone’s gazes upon me waiting for some sort of magical answer I didn’t possess.
“I think it best if I start at the beginning, if that’s all well with you, My Lord.” My eyes darted to Raiden as he gave a small nod. My back against the far wall, I tried to think of where to even begin as Cedar took a step closer to me.
Out of everyone here, he was the one who’d seen the most and experienced some of the darker moments with me within my own mind. Silv had been next to me in the beginning, but I’d taken those thoughts from her.
“Deep breaths,” he whispered, and I found myself nodding.
“I’m unsure how much Silv has begun recalling and sharing thus far, and I can only speak for myself, of course.
” My hands pressed against my tights, an uneasy feeling coursing through me that I did my best to shove behind that wall I so dearly coveted.
“Keres showed up almost a full four winters after our father sold her off. It was in the middle of the night, but Mother knew he, or someone at least, was coming. I’m unsure of how, if she had a missive or a feeling, but she knew.
She made me promise her something she had no true right to ask of a girl of ten, and then I hid.
They both died, killed by his hand, and before I knew it I was on a horse, watching our small town and all of its residents burn together in a pile of ash. ”
A deep breath and the warmth of Cedar’s body next to my own, I continued.
“Keres did his best to seem… kind to us for the first few winters. He’d come to collect me because she’d been…
obstinate and he thought with me by her side, she’d be more amenable.
” I smirked. “Games, trinkets, shows, everything a girl of ten could want. But when Silv neared her twentieth year, things changed. I didn’t know it yet.
I was only a child myself, but that was when he decided he wanted her by his side, undeniably and completely.
He had me… guilted her into giving him time and attention, until I came to realize that they were thinly veiled threats that if she didn’t accept his offer, it would be me in her place. ”
Shadows flowed around the library floor, thin mists that could be harmless or could mean certain death. No matter how much Silv held on to him, they didn’t vanish, but I continued on because they’d asked it of me and he hadn’t made a move for the story to cease.
“Keres wanted children, as I’m sure you all now know.
He thought that Silv and I, being born children, was a better way to ensure that happened.
Anyone powerful, he coveted, of course. He’d travel far and wide throughout his court to collect those he deemed worthy.
But something about Silv just… kept him happy.
Determined. He was mostly bearable when she was there with us in Whitbourne.
She took the brunt of his ire, but eventually, she snapped and I had to get her out of there or watch her die, so I chose a side.
” I cleared my throat, my eyes turning to my sister, my one and only reason to do anything over the entirety of my four hundred years alive.
“I cast a memory spell on her, hoping beyond hope that it would work, and I marched her bloody and broken body across the border into the Court of Wolves.”
Clearing my throat, my throat felt thick.
“Keres didn’t cross boundaries then, didn’t dare risk starting a war within the four courts by crossing boundaries he had no true right or permissions to cross.
The Eternal Outcasts weren't as organized then. The group was much smaller, and he knew he didn’t have the bond that the three leaders, you, Raiden, that the others had.
He was the outcast amongst you by his own design. ”
My gaze swept the room before turning to the floor, but it was Micah who interrupted the silence, pushing the story on. “What happened when you returned?”
“Keres… he locked me in a cell beneath the ground for almost four moon cycles. He’d visit every few nights with a small offering of blood to keep me alive.
” I faded out for a moment, the world growing darker before his warmth brushed against my hand.
“He told me that I’d brought it upon myself.
That I’d chosen a side and until I realized whose side I should’ve placed myself on, that was where I’d stay—and I did. ”
“That was the darkness?” Cedar asked, his voice gentle and full of understanding when I simply nodded, my gaze refusing to meet his, lest I break down completely.