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Her tone is light, but she’s concentrating too hard on carving a bit of pheasant off the bone. It would seem my guest has already discovered she can only wander so far from the palace.
“I can take you.”
“No.”
The word is harsh, commanding, and Nevon sits back in his chair with a huff while Railan watches me with calculating eyes. I shouldn’t have said it, not in front of Elora. But the idea of her being alone with Nevon anywhere in this realm, especially where I cannot see her, has me gripping my spoon so hard I’m in danger of bending it in half.
“Railan can take you.” Railan’s eyebrows shoot up. “If he has time.”
“It would be my pleasure.” He turns to Elora, who’s studying me. “Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow would be fine.” She drags her gaze away from mine and offers Railan a warm smile. “Thank you.”
Kaia fills the silence with talk of her upcoming solstice festival and the rituals her priestesses are hard at work preparing. But I hardly hear a word she’s saying, my eyes fixed on Elora as she wraps her pretty, full lips around a bite of carrot.
This woman is my own personal torment, and I remind myself I need to stay as far away from her as possible.
Chapter Fourteen
A breeze sings through the high grass, teasing the hair coming loose from my braid and tickling my neck. I pull up the fur-lined hood of the cloak I found in my wardrobe to shield myself from the worst of the chill.
It’s colder here in the Shadow Realm than it was when I left Rhagana. The gods don’t seem to notice, though, with Kaia in her stunning, shimmering gowns and Thieran in his swirl of black robes.
Railan and Nevon wore the same to dinner the night before, but it didn’t look as imposing and otherworldly on them as it does on Thieran. Or perhaps it was less the robes and more the way he was looking at me. As if he wanted to consume and obliterate me all at once.
I shiver at the memory, drawing the cloak tighter around me and banishing the thought from my head. Instead I turn my attention to the palace, studying it from my new vantage point.
It’s an impressive structure, jutting out of the ground as if carved from the rock it sits on. It looms three stories above the earth, and towers spear up into the pale gray sky at every corner, fat and round.
I can’t see the tower that used to be mine from where I stand, but I imagine they’re all the same, with their winding staircase and circular rooms. These, at least, have windows.
I’ve not been able to wander far from the palace in any direction. More wards and protections courtesy of my captor, no doubt. But no matter how far I go, it seems to call to me, beckoning me back. It’s a disconcerting feeling to be so enamored with the place I most want to leave.
I’ve spent days exploring the inside to test Kaia’s promise I can go where I please as long as the doors are open. I’ve barely seen a fraction of it, the hallways twisting and turning into new passageways until I’m certain I’m lost and will never find my way out again.
Most of the rooms I’ve encountered so far seem to belong to the other dark court gods, their symbols carved into each door. They seem to sit unused, since the only other people I’ve encountered are two of the three judges and the servants. Which is just as well. The fewer gods I run into before my escape, the better.
It’s not the inside of the palace I need to concern myself with, anyway. It’s the outside. I won’t find my way back to Rhagana for Meera and my things if I can’t explore beyond Thieran’s protections. How to get past them without an escort is a problem I can concern myself with another day.
I feel the ripple of power on the air seconds before Railan appears beside me. He’s almost as tall and broad in the shoulders as Thieran, but his quick, easy smile makes him far less intimidating. Thick, white locs swing forward to frame his dark face when he bends to press a kiss to my knuckles.
“My lady,” he says easily, straightening and turning to survey the expanse of smooth, shiny rock stretching out from the palace until it fades into waist-high grass.
“In some Acarian territories, it’s against the law to use a divine title with a mortal.”
“Is it?” he wonders, lifting a brow. Then his frown fades into another kind smile, and he shoots me a wink. “Good thing for both of us we’re far from Acaria.”
“How far?”
“Far enough to keep the living and the dead separated.”
I snort, and he chuckles softly.
“Present company excluded, of course. Now.” He gestures in front of us. “What would you like to see today?”
Shifting on my feet, I grip the edges of the cloak in my fingers, stroking the soft fur. I’ve been practicing how to say this next part since Thieran decreed Railan follow me around the realm like a guard.
Keeping my voice light, I look up at him. “I’m sure you have plenty of better things to do today. I thought maybe you could just escort me beyond the boundary.”
