Seventeen
That evening, snow falls gently outside the palace windows, while inside the library, a crackling fire keeps the room remarkably cozy considering its size. It’s the kind of scene that looks perfect from the outside: Aurora paging through books at one of the tables; me curled up in a leather armchair finishing off the final volume from the last collection Aurora gathered for me; mugs of hot spiced chocolate that apparently won’t stain anything if we knock them over. Beneath the snug surface, though, my mind is reaching new levels of paranoia. Did Dash return safely to his Guild, or were the guards who accompanied him instructed to harm him once he left the Unseelie Palace? Or perhaps everyone is lying to me—Aurora, Roarke, the drivers—and Dash never actually left. The Unseelie King could have killed him already.
Stop! I instruct myself as I turn to the last page of the book. I have no reason for these irrational thoughts other than the fact that Dash showed up out of nowhere and then vanished just as abruptly. If that hadn’t happened, I’d be sitting here calmly reading my book and continuing to hope for a chance to use my Griffin Ability on Roarke. No one is lying to you, I whisper silently. That driver didn’t even know who you were. Stop. Freaking. Out!
I breathe out slowly through my mouth and force myself to read the last page of the book. Reaching the end, I snap it shut, having absorbed maybe half of its contents. Half seems good enough to me, though. The book is essentially a list of all the magical creatures inhabiting the Unseelie Court, and it hardly seems necessary to memorize it.
I wrap both hands around my mug and sip the spiced chocolate drink, which does an excellent job at comforting me and putting my paranoid mind at ease. I know there are things that Roarke and Aurora are keeping from me, but I don’t think they’d outright lie to me. If Aurora said Dash was sent home, then I choose to believe she’s telling the truth.
I move my legs out from beneath me and stand up, pulling my dress straight. Bandit, who was snuggled next to me in some furry form, shifts quickly into a mouse and scampers up my arm to my shoulder. I walk along one of the aisles, reading the spines of the books as I go. “Ooh, magical combat,” I say, pulling one of the books off its shelf. “Is this what you were telling me about, Rora? The other skill you wanted to learn, but your mother said only archery was allowed?”
“Hmm?” Aurora looks up with a frown. “Em, you’re getting distracted. You’re supposed to be finishing those other books.”
“All done,” I tell her. I flip quickly through the magical combat book, reading snippets about the mental techniques that can make one’s mind quicker, and about different fighting stances and ways of throwing magic. Perhaps, if I’m forced to stay in the palace for a while, I can come back to this book. I return it to the shelf and scan some more spines as I wander further down the aisle.
When my eyes slide across a thick, colorful spine with the word Dragons, I stop. I pull the heavy book from the shelf and sit cross-legged on the floor to take a closer look at the detailed paintings on each page. “Aren’t they beautiful?” I whisper to Bandit. He jumps off my shoulder and sits on my knee. A moment later, he becomes some type of predatory bird, too fluffy to be fully grown. “Oh, that’s cool,” I say quietly as he cocks his head and peers more closely at the dragon book. “I don’t think I’ve seen that form before, Bandit.”
“Make sure he behaves,” Aurora whispers loudly. “Unlike the chocolate, if Bandit makes a mess, we will have to clean it up.”
Bandit flaps his wings and lands on the floor beside my leg. With a ruffle of his feathers, he shifts form again—and all of a sudden, a dragon sits beside me. “Oh, wow,” I say, forgetting to be quiet now. “Bandit, that’s amazing.” He’s nowhere near the size of Imperia—he takes up about as much space as a large dog—but I’m still impressed.
“Em!” Aurora hisses. “I told you he needs to behave if he’s going to stay in here.”
“He is behaving,” I tell her just as Bandit coughs in the direction of the nearest bookshelf. A tiny spark flies from his mouth. “Oh, crap.” I jump up, grab the book the spark landed on, and smack it against the floor until only a singed spot remains on the cover.
“You were saying?” Aurora asks drily.
“Okay, Bandit,” I whisper to the small dragon after I’ve replaced the book on its shelf. “While this form is seriously awesome, it isn’t appropriate in the library. Let’s save it for another time, okay?” He blinks, then shifts back into mouse form. “But I want you to know that you make a spectacular dragon,” I whisper as I place him into my pocket. I’m wearing a sleeveless dress that seems Japanese-inspired, along with gloves that reach almost to my armpits. The dress has little pockets, but they were so small when I first put this dress on that I could barely fit my hands into them. So I pulled out one of the first spell books Aurora gave to me and almost squealed with delight when I managed to successfully enlarge the pockets so Bandit could climb inside. I just had to be sure to keep my hands in the pockets as I walked to the library this evening so no one noticed the odd lump on my right hip.
With my mind on combat magic once again, I wander over to the nearest window. After looking over my shoulder to make sure Aurora is once again absorbed in a book, I quietly open the window. I raise my hand and wait until I’ve amassed a small amount of power above it, shivering a little as the chilly air drifts over my bare shoulders. Then I peer outside and choose a tree to aim at. I lean over the windowsill and hurl the magic forward. The glittering sphere strikes the tree, sends a small explosion of snow into the air, and rips one of the branches right off. I clap a hand over my mouth as my lips stretch into a smile. Perhaps I’m not as useless as I thought. I may not be able to shape my magic into anything exiting, but at least I can toss raw power around if I have to fight my way out of here one day.
“Em!” Aurora calls out. “Seriously! What is wrong with you this evening?”
I shut the window quickly and face Aurora, confused by her anger. She doesn’t normally mind bending the rules. I half-expected her to join me at the window and start throwing her own magic out into the night. In fact, that’s exactly what I was hoping she would do. I might have learned something useful from her. “I’m sorry. I just … thought I’d try it.”
“You don’t need to try it. Magical combat isn’t a necessary skill for either of us.”
“Well, neither is dragon riding, but we both want to do that, so—”
“Em!” She gives me an exasperated look.
“What? Why are you so testy tonight?”
“I’m just—” She cuts herself off with a shake of her head. She pushes her hands through her hair. “I’m just looking for something, and you keep distracting me.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeat quietly. “Uh, maybe Bandit and I should go to bed.” And before we get into bed, I can throw some more magic from my balcony without Aurora getting upset.
“What is Bandit doing in the library in the first place?” a voice asks from the library door.
I look around and see Roarke striding in, his footsteps silent on the carpeted floor and his black robe-like coat rippling around his ankles.
“Uh, he’s hiding in my pocket,” I answer. “And behaving himself. Obviously.”
He watches me for a moment before replying. “Good.”
“Have you heard from Dash?” I ask. “Did he get back to the Guild safely?”
Roarke folds his arms across his chest. “No, I haven’t heard from him, and I don’t expect to. It’s not as though we exchanged amber IDs.”
“But—”
“But my guards did tell me they successfully dropped him off far away from our court where the faerie paths are accessible and he would easily have been able to get himself back to his Guild.”
“Okay.” I bite my lip before adding, “I suppose he must have returned safely then.”
Roarke tilts his head. “Why are you so concerned about him? Were the two of you lovers?”
“What? No!” Heat burns my neck and
cheeks.
“You seem to miss him a lot now that he’s gone.”
“He was my friend. Of course I miss him.” More than I expected, actually. In this palace where I’m still not sure who I can trust, Dash was the one person I could be completely honest with.
“But you have Aurora now. She makes a wonderful friend, doesn’t she?” Roarke looks across the room at her, then frowns. “Aurora, is everything okay? You look like you might be ill.”
She slams the cover of a book shut and swallows as she looks up. “I … I’m sorry.” She lets out a breathless laugh. “You know I can’t stand some of these history books. They’re so horribly gruesome and graphic when they talk about the way people died.”
“Then why are you reading them?”
She pushes the book aside and pulls another one closer. “I’m looking for books for Em. She still has so much to learn. Anyway, we can definitely give that one a miss. I’ll find something less gruesome.” She opens the next book and bends her head over it.
Roarke watches her for a long moment before returning his gaze to me. “I came here to suggest we practice the vows again. Your pronunciation needs to be perfect, Emerson.”
Movement catches my eye as Aurora’s head snaps up again. I look at her, and she stares back, her expression unreadable. “What?” I ask.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Roarke asks her. “Perhaps you’re reading too much.”
A smile lifts one side of her mouth. “No such thing, dear brother.”
He chuckles. “I suppose not, if you’re as fond of books as you are.” His eyes find mine, and he tilts his head toward the library door, suggesting we head that way. Though with Roarke, I know it isn’t really a suggestion. I allow him to take my arm and place it on his as we leave the library. “She’s definitely acting strangely this evening,” he muses. “I think perhaps she’s jealous of us.”
I can’t help laughing. “That’s ridiculous. Why would she be jealous?”
“You’ve become a good friend to her in a short space of time. She has her ladies-in-waiting and cousins and other noblewomen to keep her company, of course, but lately she’s been spending most of her time with you. I can tell she prefers it that way.”
“Really?” As we ascend a stairway, I lift the bottom of my dress to avoid stepping on it and tripping myself. “But I’m so … uneducated and unrefined.”
“True, but you don’t have anything to hide, and you’re not playing games like many of the other ladies. You’ve been honest from the start about why you’re here and what you want. That’s refreshing.” His words send an uncomfortable shiver up my spine. Thank goodness he doesn’t know the truth: that I’m playing a game far more dangerous than any of the other ladies here. They risk gossip and a bad reputation if they fail at their games. I’m probably risking my life if I try—and fail—to escape this union.
I try to shake off my trepidation and convince myself that, as Roarke said, I have nothing to hide. “So you’re suggesting,” I say to Roarke, “that Aurora’s growing jealous because you and I will soon be spending more time together?”
“Yes. I’m taking her new best friend away from her.”
“Perhaps she’s jealous because I’m taking you away from her. The two of you have always been close, haven’t you? It’s probably strange for her to imagine her brother married instead of available to spend his free time with her.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s it. I’ve courted other ladies, and Aurora’s always made it very obvious when she doesn’t like one of them. If that’s the way she felt about you, you’d know by now. She would have made your life very unpleasant, and she certainly wouldn’t be giving you lessons in magic, archery and dragon riding, or hunting down the best combination of books for you to read.”
The guards ahead of us open the door to Roarke’s suite. Roarke lowers my arm and gestures for me to walk in ahead of him. “Well, I’m relieved she likes me then,” I say as I enter the sitting room. “I’m not sure how I would have survived the past few weeks without her.”
I take a seat on the couch while Roarke retrieves the scroll with the vows. “Why don’t you recite the vows as you remember them,” he says as he sits beside me. He unrolls the scroll but doesn’t give it to me. “I’ll take note of where you go wrong and let you know what needs to be corrected.”
I tilt my head back with a sigh. “This is going to be so romantic by the time we say it on the actual day. Such a big surprise.”
He gives me an amused look. “I wasn’t aware you were looking for romance, Lady Emerson. I can certainly try harder, if that’s what you’d like.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You really don’t need to bother. I was joking. As you’ve pointed out before, neither of us is in this for the romance.”
Roarke shifts closer, discarding the scroll on the floor. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” he whispers as he leans toward me. I look away, and he presses a kiss against the side of my neck, sending a shiver along my arms. I silently curse as I shut my eyes. Why the hell did I have to bring up the topic of romance? Although … perhaps Roarke is right. As he drags a trail of kisses along my neck, I wonder if perhaps I should be making an effort with him. Maybe I’ll find that I actually like him. Maybe Mom and I will end up staying, and there’ll be no need for an escape, and we’ll live here happily for the rest of our—
But that image of the king in his cavern and the man with his head bending, bending, bending to the side plays out against the back of my eyelids. I hear Dash’s voice in my mind, reminding me why the Unseelie King wants me. You can make their dirty work easier … These people are not good.
I open my eyes. “Roarke, I don’t know if I—Holy crap!” I gasp and scramble backward on the couch as a dark shape rises up behind Roarke. It spreads in slow motion like a villain’s cape ready to settle over his shoulders. Roarke shoves away from me, spins around, mutters a string of words I can’t follow, and with a flash of bright light, the dark shape splits apart into a thousand drifting curls of smoke before vanishing.
I press my hand against my chest as my thrashing heart refuses to slow down. “What … the hell … was that?”
Eighteen
Roarke hurries into his bedroom and returns with a necklace in his hands, which he places over my head without hesitation. He steps back and lets out a long breath. “You already know what that was. Or at least, you’ve seen one before.”
I swallow, looking down at the pendant resting against my chest. It’s the same as the one I’ve seen Aurora wearing often. Silver with a black stone at its center. “Some kind of shadow creature,” I say in a shaky voice as I look up at Roarke. “From that place you and Aurora took me to.”
He nods. “You haven’t asked me anything about that day.”
“I didn’t think of it until … until very recently. There’s been so much going on. So many new things to occupy my thoughts.”
“That creature,” Roarke says as he takes his place beside me on the couch again, “is the same kind of creature that killed a man out in the gardens a couple of weeks ago. It sucked the life out of him. Not just his life, but his magic and his youth as well.”
“And it would have done the same to us now,” I whisper.
“Not to me. I was protected.” He reaches for a chain at his neck, a chain hidden beneath his clothing, and pulls it free. At the end of the chain hangs a pendant very similar to mine. “And now you’re protected too,” he adds. “The magic embedded in the amulet wards off the ink-shades. I asked Yokshin to make one for you, and he finished it earlier today. I should have given it to you the moment we first walked into this room, but I forgot. I’m so, so sorry, my—”
“You forgot? And what about everyone else inside this palace? They should all be wearing these amulets.”
“It’s fine, Em. The creatures aren’t supposed to be in the palace. What happened a few minutes ago—and what happened to the guard—isn’t normal and won’t happen
again. Whoever let this one slip through will be in a great deal of trouble when I find out who—”
“But what if it happens again?”
“It won’t.”
“And how are they getting here? What are they? What was that shadowed place? Why couldn’t Dash and I open faerie paths doorways, and why did everything disappear behind us when we found our way back into the magical world—”
Roarke holds one hand up. “Just listen and I’ll tell you everything. I’ve wanted to tell you everything since the day I first took you there, but I had to know I could trust you.”
My chest continues to rise and fall with shallow breaths. “How do you know you can trust me now?”
“I don’t. Not entirely. But I’m hoping desperately that you’re on my side, because I so badly want to show you everything and explain it all to you. Because you and I, Emerson …” He grips both my hands in his as a smile stretches across his face. “You and I are going to rule that world. I will be its king and you will be my queen. Not just a princess, but a queen.”
“I … I don’t understand.” I try to remember exactly what I overheard while I was hiding in his bedroom, but my memory doesn’t include much more than the words ‘claim’ and ‘territory.’ “There are already two rulers. Seelie and Unseelie. Are you saying that the shadow place doesn’t belong to either court?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s a different world entirely. A world that didn’t even exist two decades ago.” Roarke shifts closer, and I reach for a cushion and hug it tightly. Bandit squirms against my hip, and it’s oddly comforting to remember that he’s there. “Do you know what happened back then, Emerson?” Roarke asks. “About eighteen years ago?”
“I’ve probably been told, but I don’t remember.”
“Powerful magic ripped through the veil that separates the magic world from the non-magic world. But after the gash appeared in the sky, it didn’t stay that way. It wasn’t simply an enormous doorway between two worlds. It split further, and the two worlds began to consume one another. An ancient monument managed to stop it, but you know what, Emerson? I always wondered where the pieces of each world ended up. They couldn’t have just disappeared, could they?”