Chapter 25 #4
“On King Kaeleron’s orders. A few of us who knew a trade from before we had been enslaved were offered a chance to come here instead and earn a wage for our families in Broken Ridge. We knew what accepting that offer meant.”
But he and others had taken it anyway, so they could provide for their families and keep them safe.
Kael had been right. The history books I had read hadn’t recorded everything.
They had neglected to mention that he had circumvented his own rulings at times to allow people to enter his court and work for him as members of it, keeping his court strong.
But others hadn’t been given the choice to be parted from their families, and time couldn’t erase that but his actions now might, as he slowly reopened his borders to allow people into and out of the Shadow Court for the first time in a long time.
I looked around at the people of Falkyr and saw the changes that had already taken place in my short time away.
The people looked happier, and it seemed a brighter place now, one filled with genuine smiles and a warm air.
This was only the beginning. I knew it in my heart.
In time, Kaeleron would lift the restrictions entirely.
I wanted to be here when it happened.
I wanted to see it with my own eyes and feel it in my heart.
That heart lifted when a female mounted on a beautiful black steed caught my eye. She towered above the carts and the crowd that filled the busy main thoroughfare, heading towards the castle from the main gate of the city.
“Jenavyr!” I hollered, uncaring of how people stopped to stare as I waved my hand, trying to catch her attention.
Her silver gaze swung my way and then she was gone, disappeared in a whorl of black smoke glittering with stars.
I gasped as she suddenly appeared before me, filling my view.
And then her left hand was on my nape and her right was resting over my heart as she lowered her head to press her forehead to mine, so our noses touched.
Her silver eyes slipped shut and I was hurled back in time, to when Kaeleron had done this to me in the woods when I had accidentally summoned him.
And I had stood there, not knowing what he was doing or that he had expected me to do something in return until it was too late and he had been pulling away.
I mirrored Vyr, hoping I was doing it right, one hand coming to rest on the front of her navy blouse while the other cupped her nape.
“It is good to see you, Saphi.” Her voice was low, soft, filled with emotion that stirred warmth in me as we stood there, surrounded by people but feeling as if we were the only two in the world.
“It’s good to see you too, Vyr.” I released her as she let go of me, straightening to her full height, her fall of glossy black hair slipping down over her chest as she smiled broadly at me, how glad she was to see me there in her eyes as they darted between mine.
“Oh, how Kael was insufferable without you.” She sighed dramatically. “He almost levelled the Wastes when you left, you know? I feared Lucia was doomed. I was not sure I could pull him back to us.”
Gods, I had missed her and how blunt and open she was about her brother while he did his best to conceal and misdirect, keeping me from knowing the truth of his feelings.
“Of course, he denied it had anything to do with the colour of the ring that matches this one changing.” She took hold of my hand, lifting it and rubbing her thumb over the beautiful moon ring that encircled my finger.
“I’m sorry. What?” I looked from it to her, sure I looked as puzzled as I felt. “It changes colour?”
Her grin was wicked. Delighted. Terribly mischievous.
“It tracks the wearer of its twin. Focus on the stone and with all your heart and soul, demand to know where Kaeleron is.”
“He’s tracking me?” Mortified and a little angry, I glared at the ring, sure she was just teasing me and that Kaeleron hadn’t placed a tracking device of sorts on me. “Show me where Kaeleron is.”
The round white crystal held between the two quarter moons began to shift like an aurora, slowly darkening to a clear amethyst.
“Lucia shadows,” Vyr said and clasped my hand, squeezing it gently. “But do not be mad at him. As he can track you, you can track him. He only wanted to keep you safe.”
I knew that, but it still stung as I stared at her hand, at that ring she hid beneath it. “How granular does this tracking get? Can he tell exactly where I am? Is there a different colour for each court or country?”
She shook her head. “No. It can only tell him whether you are in Lucia shadows or Lucia light, the mortal realm or the realm your breed call Hell. He removed his gauntlets in battle that day… because he needed to know where you were. I think part of him did not believe you would leave… or perhaps he hoped you would not.”
And when I did, he had lost it.
Had given in to that darker part of himself that had shaken this court more than once in the time I had known him.
How glad had he been when I had summoned him? As pleased to see me as I had been to see him? Vyr’s greeting and the one he had given me played out in my mind.
“Vyr…” I hesitated and then sighed and put it out there, because I wanted to know and holding it inside wouldn’t get me the answers I craved. “What you just did… is it a greeting?”
“It is a tradition. A sign of affection between unseelie. I did not mean to over—”
I cut her off. “Kael did it when he was pulled to me via the bond.”
Her silver eyes widened, shock dancing in them. “Kael did it?”
“Is that so surprising? I know I’m not unseelie, but I figured maybe—”
“It is not that you are not unseelie, Saphi. It is that my brother does not greet others that way. It is not something he has done with people other than me. So, from him it means… a lot.”
I cringed. “I didn’t know what he was doing. I didn’t—I didn’t return it. I just stood there.”
“Oh. Ah. Well.” She smoothed her blouse down to her supple black leathers, fidgeting with it as she clearly considered what to say. “I am sure he was not too offended.”
Her words only made me feel worse.
Because how stiff and awkward he had been said he had been offended, or at least disappointed that I hadn’t reciprocated, showing him that I cared about him and I was pleased to see him.
“In my defence, I didn’t know about it. The library is rather lacking in books on traditional unseelie greetings.” I folded my arms across my chest and then shifted my hand in front of me, my gaze landing on the ring and the stone in it as it faded back to opalescent white. “And tracking devices.”
“Ah, hello.” Chase’s bass voice coming from behind me made me jump.
I turned wide eyes on him. I had been so caught up in greeting Jenavyr that I had forgotten I wasn’t alone.
Chase grinned at Vyr, all easy charm as he extended his hand.
Morden glowered at her, telling me that the two of them had met already and Kaeleron’s sister hadn’t made a great impression on him.
“Chase March.” Chase’s smile held as he kept his hand extended towards Vyr, his usually cool blue eyes bright with interest.
I slapped his hand, pushing it down. “Not for you.”
Vyr regarded my cousin with a cool and somewhat curious slow rake of her gaze over him from his blond head to his heavy black leather boots and back again. “Wolves seem to be multiplying in the Shadow Court. Is this one as feral as the other?”
I stifled a smile as Morden growled behind me.
“Chase is my cousin. I told you about him. He’s now the alpha of our pack.”
Vyr’s expression softened instantly as her black eyebrows furrowed. “Alpha? Your father—”
“They both—” I shook my head, all the lightness and warmth that had slowly filled me throughout our tour of the town becoming darkness and chilling cold that settled into my bones to numb me again.
“I am sorry, Saphira.” Jenavyr pulled me into a tight hug.
I sank into it, my eyes drifting shut as I held her, as I savoured the comfort she offered.
She whispered words I didn’t understand. Ancient fae.
Words I had heard from someone else that dreadful night.
Only when Kaeleron had murmured them against my hair, they had been laced with power and they had freed me of my pain.
“What does that mean?” I pulled back, my gaze lifting to meet hers.
“May Lucia light your path to guide you through the coming shadows and be there for you in the times I cannot.”
Tears threatened to fill my eyes but I held them back.
“That’s beautiful.” It made me want to see Kael.
I almost leaped out of my skin when he appeared beside me in a swirl of shadow and starlight.
His grim expression chilled me.
Even as his words lit a fire in my veins.
“It is time.”