Page 55 of The Reaping Rose

“We can have one added for your father if you wish. A pillar so you have someplace to visit and remember him.” I know from her thoughts that it bothers her that she wasn’t there for his burning.

“I remember him in here.” She places her hand over her heart, closing her eyes for a moment before looking up at me. “But I suppose, maybe when all this is done, that might be nice.”

When all this is done.

I can only hope there will be a time beyond this. When my mate will know peace at the other end of battle.

“Where are the pillars for your parents?” She looks around again, noting my sister’s sitting alone on this side of the clearing.

“The royal line is marked with pillars at the foot of the mountain so the people can come pay their respects.”

“Your sister is part of the royal line.”

I brush my thumb over the corner of Elorie’s mouth when she frowns. “That is argued by some because of the choices she made. I don’t agree, but I understand. Our mother and her father argued about her impulsivity. It was always bound to cause friction, though I never saw it coming to what it did.”

“Her father?” Elorie’s eyebrows furrow. “You mean the king? Your father.”

“The king was not my father,” I admit, fortifying the shell of magic around us so that no one might overhear our conversation.

“I didn’t know that.”

“No one does. My mother married King Redson the moment she found out I was conceived to hide my father’s true identity. Since she was queen, the crown would be mine regardless of my paternal bloodline, so she saw no reason to speak of it and allow rumors to spread through the kingdom.”

“But she told you the truth.”

I drag my hand through my hair. “She told me as a warning. The strength of our magic is often relative to those in our bloodline. Apparently, my father’s magic was strong enough that she feared if I channeled too deeply into mine, I would put myself at risk.”

“Like when you nearly Cleaved trying to save her?” Elorie’s eyebrow ticks, and I nod. “How powerful is your father?”

I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know. The truth of his identity died with my mother.”

“You never asked her?”

“The queen kept many secrets, especially from her children. I asked once, and she simply walked away.” I grip Elorie with my magic when worry fills her expression.

But when I open my mouth to say more, another thread sparks with a message from Atlas.

“Is something wrong?” Elorie asks, noticing my pause.

“My court needs me.” It’s one thing after another lately, and I’m beginning to get a picture of what my mother dealt with while I was away in Andare, training and galivanting from one manor to the next. “Let me walk you back to the palace.”

I could press my palm to the air and slip us from one place to another, but I’m in no rush. Not now, when Elorie is speaking to me. Not now, when I hold out my hand, and she takes it.

Elorie’s fingers lace through mine as we leave the courtyard, and for the first time in days, we take a step forward.

Chapter 19

Callum

The Quietus archives make the library at the Ley Court seem unimpressive. Winding stone staircases surround the room. Vines drape from the ceiling, dotted with pink and orange flowers.

To the eye, the territory is thriving. Greenery is lush and teeming with magic. It’s vibrant. Yet when I stood at the edge of a stone-carved balcony earlier, the wind sent a breath of death to my senses. A whisper of the Well’s slow approach from the west.

It’s yet to reach this shore, but it’s coming.

From Rior’s reports, there’s already a split in Everquell up north. The vein tore through the center of the territory, rendering it completely uninhabitable. Creatures spilled from the shadowy maw, forcing Fae to abandon entire villages and seek refuge in Zealeh and Andare. Both territories are being flooded from the sides with monsters unlike anything we’ve seen.

Rior told me it’s worsened since the failed Rite in Lyrichia. Whatever Malachi did with the orb cracked something otherworldly open. The Well rages with this fresh power to drink, and since the magic of the realms connects Lyrichia and Vaelier, no territory is safe.