Page 15 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

ODESSA, PRESENT

A sharp knock sounds on my bedroom door. “Dessa, are you in there?”

I look up at the door and freeze, my eyes widening.

I’m sitting on the floor of my bedroom, wearing nothing but a corset and panties, and surrounded by clutter. Next to me lies the crumpled silk gown I was wearing earlier, and in my hand is the exact green glass bottle with the little ship inside that I was admiring yesterday.

The bottle is the source of my confusion. I don’t know where the hell it came from, and moreover, I’m not exactly sure how long I’ve been sitting here pondering it.

After leaving the meeting with the emissary, I practically ran all the way back up to my third-floor bedroom and shut myself inside. I leaned against the closed door, panting. What the hell am I doing? Is this the best idea I’ve ever had? Or is it slow, drawn-out suicide?

I reached behind me and tugged on the laces of my tight gown, shucking it over my head and tossing it on the floor where it landed among dozens of other discarded gowns.

My room is—to put it kindly—a mess.

Everything from the floor to the furniture is covered in a mulch of clothes, old papers, and shiny trinkets.

There are piles of books, packages from nearby shops that lie unopened, empty cosmetics bottles, and loose beads from broken jewelry covering nearly every surface.

I’ve always had a weakness for collecting beautiful things…

I’ve just never been good at keeping track of them all.

Because of the mess, I didn’t immediately notice the ship in the bottle sitting innocently on the windowsill, reflecting gleaming green light all across the walls.

Once I noticed it, however, any other thought flew from my mind.

I have no idea how it got in here, and I’m not sure if I’m excited or disturbed to see it.

Now, the knock on the door sounds again, and Alix’s muffled voice shouts from the other side. “It’s me! Are you in there? I came bearing gifts!”

I jump to my feet, bottle still in hand. “One second!”

It takes more than a few seconds to wade back through the mess and reach the door. I kick a turned-over vase and a pair of trousers out of the way, and pry the door open. “Hi!”

Alix stands on the other side of the door looking bemused.

Her hair is braided away from her face, and she’s still wearing her human clothing—denim trousers and an oversized blue sweater.

In her arms, she’s carrying a large paper bag and at her feet an enormous gray cat is rubbing up against her leg.

Alix’s gaze flicks over my lack of clothing and she cracks a smile. “I’m getting déjà vu.”

I sigh and step aside to let her in, pausing to pet her cat—Sushi—under the chin. The cat allows a mere ten seconds of affection before nipping the tips of my fingers and bounding into the room after Alix.

“When did you get back?” I ask, shutting the door.

Alix tiptoes carefully over the mess to reach my bed. “A few hours ago.”

I blow my tangled hair out of my face. “I didn’t realize I’d been up here so long. I was just going to get dressed and…”

“You got distracted,” she finishes for me with a grin as she sinks onto the corner of my bed and her cat leaps into her lap. “No worries.”

I replace the ship on the windowsill, then bend to sift through the clothes on the floor until I find a robe. I pull it on over my underwear and pull the belt tight. “How was your visit with your mother?”

She rolls her eyes. “Same as usual. She’s been trying to sell my Nana’s house for over a year now and can’t grasp that the town where Nana lived is condemned, so the house can’t even technically be sold.

The government will buy the property just to get rid of the headache, but they’re not offering what my mom thinks it’s worth, and she’s going absolutely ape-shit over it. ”

“I thought this was Isabelle’s house, not your mother’s.”

Alix laughs hollowly. “Oh, it is. My mom isn’t even getting anything out of it, so this tantrum is 100% organic.

I honestly think she’s just bored now that Nana has been traveling a lot and I’m ‘ living in Europe .’” She draws quotes in the air with her fingers.

“She’s really on the warpath now, too, because I accidentally let it slip that Nana is coming to visit me. ”

I perk up at that. “Belle is coming here?”

“Yeah, she’ll be here for Christmas again this year.

I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to find excuses not to invite my mom.

We might have to revisit the idea of telling her where I really am…

but that’s a problem for future-me.” She sucks in a huge breath, having said all that without breathing.

“ Anyway , sorry. That’s why I missed the meeting, but Daemon already filled me in on what happened. ”

“So I suppose you came up here to ask if I’ve lost my mind?”

Alix shrugs, petting Sushi absently. “I guess, but I also just wanted to show you my latest haul.”

“Oooh!” My eyes widen, and I hasten to sit beside her and reach into the bag, pulling out handfuls of glittering plastic treasures.

“What are these?” I ask, holding a silver disk up to the light.

“I raided my mother’s basement and found most of my old CDs. You put them in here—” she stops petting her cat long enough to pull a yellow plastic device out of the bag and hold it out to me “—and they play music.”

My brow wrinkles. “How?”

She shrugs. “Something about the grooves, I think? I don’t really know, but it’s the only way I can think of to play music here until I can figure out how to get electricity.”

I nod, pretending I know what she’s talking about.

I love everything about the human world. I’ve always been fascinated by it, and now that Alix has been living here for a year, I’ve learned so much more about human culture than I ever dreamed. Still, much of what my friend says is slightly beyond my understanding.

“I wish I could figure out how to get internet here,” Alix goes on, speaking more to herself than to me. “I thought maybe there would be a magic workaround, but until I can explain Wi-Fi to Daemon in a way that he understands, we’re stuck with battery-operated devices.”

I nod again. This time, I really do understand.

Well, almost.

I don’t know what “Wifey” is, but I do know what she means about Daemon’s magic.

All Fae are born with basically the same magical ability, albeit in varying degrees of power, but training from an early age dictates how they’ll be able to use it. The four kingdoms of Ellender all specialize in training different skills.

In Hydratta, they teach creation magic; conjuring something out of nothing.

In Vernallis, they tend to practice will-based magic.

Daemon can compel nearly anything to happen—a door to unlock, the weather to change, a broken object to mend itself—but the limitation is that he needs to understand what he’s trying to accomplish.

If he doesn’t understand this “Wifey” that Alix wants, then he can’t create it for her.

For that, she’d need someone from Hydratta…

“Have you asked Kastian to help you?” I blurt out.

Alix looks up at me. “No, I was thinking I’d ask Aurelia. Why?”

“Daemon and Aurelia both have will-based powers. I doubt either of them could conjure anything for you out of thin air, but in Hydratta they teach that kind of magic. You should ask Kastian about it.”

Alix furrows her brow. “Would Kastian have enough power to do that?”

“Undoubtedly,” I grumble. “He was trained really well as a child…I mean, I’m guessing he was.”

“Huh. Okay, I’ll ask him. Thanks.”

I press my lips together into a flat line, wishing I had never brought it up. I don’t want to think about Kastian right now—or ever, really—but it seems like my mind is inserting him into every possible conversation without my consent.

Sushi leaps off Alix’s lap and begins trying to catch the dots of green light on the wall reflecting through the bottle on the windowsill.

Alix takes advantage of his movement and my silence to shove a haphazard pile of clothing off the bed and lean back against my headboard.

She crosses her bare feet over each other and fixes me with a shrewd look. “So, are you going to make me ask?”

I sigh and swivel to face her. “No, but I’m not going to let you talk me out of it either.”

“Daemon thinks you’re being impulsive by agreeing to this engagement.”

I scoff. “He would know; he’s not exactly the most cautious person I’ve ever met.”

“We just want to make sure you’re not trying to sacrifice yourself for our sake. We don’t need Hydratta’s help for Vernallis to thrive. We just need more time and?—”

“This isn’t about anyone else,” I interrupt. “It’s about me. I love living here, but I’m bored. I feel like I’m not doing enough.”

“You’re doing more than enough,” she argues. “And technically you don’t even have to do anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“I love having you here, obviously, but I don’t want you to think you have to work for us if you don’t want to. You could do anything. Travel, or spend some time in the ocean. Whatever you want.”

I ignore the ocean comment because that topic is far more than I feel like getting into now…

or possibly ever. “I don’t mind working.

I like helping with the kingdom. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

I don’t have a real title or official responsibilities, and everyone else has managed to find a role here.

Fox is running the army, Jett’s the spymaster, Kastian is the advisor. ”

“You’re an advisor too,” she insists.

“You don’t need a second advisor. You need an emissary. Isn’t that what we’ve all been saying for months? Hydratta is a wildebeest.”

“A wildcard?” Alix corrects, smiling.

“Yes, that. We don’t know nearly enough about them to determine if they’re a threat to us, and given the King’s history with Kastian, I don’t think we can rule out that they are.”

Alix nods. “True.”