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“Not me,” he said with a shake of the head.

Thane? No… there was someone else, not a lover but family maybe. She couldn’t recall.

“Look at me.”

She turned her head, met his stare. The hate was gone, his features softened.

“In the tower, I put you in that red dress for a reason. It’s what you wore the first time I saw you, remember? It was at my Uncle Balneir’s party. War’s father.”

Layala shook her head.

“You hadn’t left your territory in a thousand years. You hid away from everyone.”

“I don’t want to hear this,” Layala snapped.

You were the most beautiful being I’d ever seen. You still are,he said in her mind.

“Don’t try to win me over with flattery. It won’t work.”

Vesstan cleared his throat and tapped his staff once on the stone. “Perhaps we should get back to magic. Layala, will you do something simple for me? Grow a blossom in your palm.”

“Did I say you could speak?” Hel glared at Vesstan. “We’ll get to magic when I say so.”

“Don’t talk to him like that.”

“Are you going to stop me?” A serpentine smile crossed his lips. “I’d love for you to try.”

Layala jerked her sword free and held it ready.

“No, you don’t get to rely on a sword today, love.” He flicked his wrist and it ripped free of her hands and flipped end over end into the growing shadows of the setting sun.

Seething, she clenched her hands at her sides. He wanted her to attack him, so she’d look like an incompetent child. If only she could turn to shadow like he suggested.

“Control, little rabbit.”

“Stop calling me that,” Layala snarled.

“Then stop acting like one. You need to be calm and controlled in any situation.” He appeared to her left and circled, trailing his fingers along her shoulder blades. She shuddered and hoped he wouldn’t take control of her again. “Against any foe, so you can have a focused mind. There are gods on Runevale who would break you in seconds—who would love to humiliate you. Some could command you to jump off a cliff and you would if you don’t gain surety in yourself. You are the goddess of night—one of the most powerful beings in all the realms. You fear no one and are never commanded by anyone.”

Layala lifted her palm again and stared at it, ignoring Hel even though he was toying with a piece of her hair now. To spite him she thought of a flower, simple magic, as Vesstan said. She hoped it pissed Hel off she’d listen to the old mage over him.Her power bloomed in her core, and she mentally lifted the lid of the box, and the warm sensation of it trickled out into her body.It’s alright, we don’t have to hide anymore.

In her mind, she pictured a midnight lily blooming but without the deadly vines. Above her palm a spark of a dark cloud started and grew into a swirling mass. Inside a bud grew, and she couldn’t help but smile, and then it opened into a full dark purple lily. With a single breath she blew away the cloud and grinned triumphantly at Hel.

Vesstan gave her a modest smile and a barely perceptible nod. Even Piper looked proud.

However, Hel looked less than impressed. “You made a flower. Congratulations. I’m sure your enemies are quaking in their boots.”

“I stayed calm. I win.”

Chapter12

LAYALA

Layala slid open the stable doors and was hit by the smell of hay and manure. The training session didn’t open her up to any new powers but her one triumph of the night was that her magic flowed freely within her even now. She’d spent most of her life trying to hide it, wishing she didn’t have it, and it was strange to feel its strong companionship not under threat. She walked away from training with the confidence that she didn’t need to keep it locked up anymore. All the times she was told to hide it or pull it in, even Fennan had told her to rein in her magic once in the battle outside Doonafel because the pale ones could sense it, but now she was free to be herself. Why hide from Hel and his minions when he was already here?

Fennan, Leif, and Piper were at a meeting with the new training recruits, and hopefully she wouldn’t even notice Layala’s absence or there’d be another day of silence. Thane was in a meeting with the night guards explaining new rules and where they were expected to be, and how to prepare for the upcoming graduation ceremony so hopefully he wouldn’t realize she was gone either. He had plenty on his plate and being her personal guard didn’t need to be added to it. She’d insisted on training with Hel and Vesstan without him so he could resume his kingly duties, and with his mother gone, the ceremony was now his responsibility along with a hundred other decisions to be made.

Last she saw, Hel was right beside Thane introducing himself as the High King’s cousin to the guards and acting like he was simply a wealthy lord from the countryside. His audacity made her want to gag.