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I stepped back, the knots that had wound themselves through everything shifting into a familiar heat as my magic flared to life. I clenched my hands, holding them behind me.
Before now, I would have trusted Jahn with this. I had planned on telling him about my magic, about all the power that was within me. But, seeing him in yards of black, that fear screaming out of his eyes, I didn’t think I could trust that anymore.
“Do not meet him in the forest, Elara,” he rephrased and all of that fear was everywhere now.
His eyes were only on me, his gaze dangerous as he stepped closer, some of that nervous energy falling away to reveal the proud and strong man my Uncle was, the man who was born to be Ramal.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I couldn’t stop the shake in my voice, stop my shoulders from turning in as I tried to step back.
How had he found out? Of course, if he knew, then so did Father, and so did Mother. I had worried that she would have heard, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t go back, not to the Runturin, not to that life. I had a path forward, I had to take it.
“Yes, you do, girl. Don’t be so daft. Do not go into the forest,” he enunciated the words, making it clear that that was not all that he was saying, “It will not only end your life, but others. So many others. There is more at play here. You must stay here. Do not show what you hold.”
“What I hold?”
First, a dangerous strange Fae emerges from nothing, and now my Uncle warns me from escape. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I couldn’t deviate from my plans. I wouldn't.
“I cannot stay.” I was firm, I needed him to understand. He of all people should understand. He had once been born to be the next Ramal, stripped of that title to be bound as a Catalyst, and then removed from his brother's room to who knows where.
We were both prisoners.
We were all prisoners.
“She will lock me away, Uncle Jahn. As she had Father. You should come with me, we could?—”
“You must stay. We all must stay. There is more coming for you,” he hissed, rushing toward me as he again looked at the doors and wall. “I know there is no way you will perfect that magic of yours if you run. If you die in those woods.”
He knew, he already knew. It should have been a comfort, but the horror and panic that he looked at me with took any of that away.
“But I–” He stopped me with a raise of his hand, a breeze that should not exist wrapping through the room and whipping at my hair. It pulled at his cloak, even the carvings of the trees swayed in the gale.
He had magic.
Magic on his own. But he was a Catalyst.
I could only stare at him, eyes wide. The wind died down and he leaned into me, careful to keep his voice in a whisper.
“Don’t go into the forest, Elara. You will not like how it ends. I cannot help you to master your power if you leave.” I could only stare at him as he darted through the door, but not through the entry that would take him to the wedding, through the one that would take him back to the preparation rooms, to the back entrance and the carriages.
Those knots strangled against the heavy beat of my heart as I stood, frozen in the hallway, watching that door. I could follow him, go out through the exit and demand more answers, or simply vanish now, before the wedding.
I couldn’t leave Aeinya.
I would go, for her, and then I would leave.
Before anyone knew, I would be gone. I would find another way to master my magic.
I would be dancing barefoot in the tall grass.
Go forward in bravery, my dear, holding good in your heart.
At least that I could follow.
Chapter 49
Elara
Alarge altar had been set in the middle of a hall so vast and so white that it had ceased feeling as though we were traveling through clouds and were now only part of them. The white ceiling stretched into a dizzying height of white stone, supported by pillars carved with white snakes that twisted through vines of flowers I had never seen before.
