Page 25

ALIX

I lie on my side in the semi-darkness, listening to the rain pelt a steady tempo against the windows. My internal clock is beyond fucked up by now, but I think it’s like 2PM, which makes it roughly two in the morning, Ellender time.

Like the rest of the house, Daemon is asleep. He lies on top of the covers facing me, like we could be talking, except for his closed eyes and steady breath. I can’t help but notice that he doesn’t sleep deeply. His eyes move behind loosely closed eyelids, and I get the feeling that if I made any sudden movement, he’d be up in less than a second. He’s constantly on edge, never fully relaxed.

Did prison do this to him or was he always a light sleeper?

I sigh and begin slowly edging toward the far side of the bed. No sudden movements.

I swing my legs over the side of the mattress and onto the floor, then look back to check that Daemon’s eyes are still closed. They are. My trip across the room takes longer than it should, because I stop every few feet to make sure I haven’t disturbed him.

I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this—I’m not doing anything wrong. Except that I assume if Beatrix wanted me to bring Daemon with me to talk to Aurelia, she would have said so. Since she warned me about the portal and told her story, I trust her.

Miraculously, Daemon never opens his eyes as I ease the heavy door open and step out into the hall. I throw one nervous glance at King Thorne’s door right beside mine, and hold my breath as I tiptoe down the hall.

Because of the rain, I’m not afraid that Thorne or any of the courtiers he brought along will wake up and attack me, but I still don’t want to be alone with any of them, especially the king.

I’m not sure how to reach the tower that I’ve only seen from the outside of the house, but I doubt it’s hard or Beatrix would have been more clear in her instructions. Sure enough, I find a second staircase at the end of the hall, this one thinner and obviously only meant for one person to walk up at a time.

My entire body tingles with anticipation as I ascend the stairs. I stop when I come to a closed wooden door with little purple flowers painted on the worn wood.

I raise my fist to knock, then pause.

I can’t help but be aware that the gate is right outside. No one is around. What would happen if I didn’t knock. What if I turned around and left right now? Part of me wonders if everyone would be better off.

With a deep breath, I knock twice.

Immediately the door swings open. I jump in surprise, especially when I see that no one is waiting on the other side.

“Come in,” Aurelia’s high pitched voice rings out from somewhere out of sight.

My heart still racing, I step into the room and the door swings shut behind me.

I’m standing in a perfectly round room. The walls are covered in colorful paintings and shelves with hundreds of knickknacks and lovely treasures and there are rainbow braided rugs on every inch of the floor. On one side of the room is a round table and a tiny kitchen, like the fairytale version of a hotel kitchenette. On the other side, bookshelves filled with thousands of volumes rise from floor to ceiling. Between the shelves is a ladder, which I assume leads to a bed.

“Be right down!” Aurelia’s voice rings out from above. “Make yourself comfortable, Alix.”

I bite my lip. This is weird, but I guess no more weird than anything else in Ellender. I doubt the same girl who painted kittens on her windowsill is coming down here to slit my throat. So I cross the tower and take a seat at the little table.

A second later, Aurelia’s feet appear on the ladder. She’s wearing bright pink genie-style pants and a matching pink blouse with blue stars embroidered on the collar. Her short hair is pushed back from her face with a ribbon.

“Hi,” she says, grinning as she reaches the floor. “Beatrix said you would come by.”

“She did?” I laugh. “I wasn’t sure myself.”

Aurelia just smiles and dances across the room to the little kitchen. “Do you want some tea? I was going to make myself some.”

“You don’t have coffee, do you?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so, but I can give you an extra teabag.”

I smile. “Sure.”

She returns my smile, then turns toward the sink and fills a kettle with boiling water, then rather than putting the kettle on the stove to warm, she flicks her fingers at it like I’ve seen Daemon do before. Instantly, condensation appears on the sides of the kettle and steam begins to rise from the top.

“You do magic,” I comment, pointing out the obvious.

She nods. “Most everyone does. It’s only Vernallis who have had their powers so diminished by the curse.” To illustrate her point, she flicks her fingers again and the unlit candle sticks on the table flare. The plates and bowls stacked on shelves along the wall come to life, spinning and dancing for a few seconds before falling back down, quiet and inert.

I gape at the unmoving plates, then look up at Aurelia. She crosses the kitchen again, now holding the steaming kettle. Two mugs fly off the shelf of their own accord and land on the table in front of us, then with a final flick, she makes the tea pour itself. “Sorry, I never get the chance to show off. Almost no one ever comes to the house, and I think you’re the first person ever to visit my room—aside from Beatrix, that is.”

I swallow against my dry throat. I’m still working through the shock of the dancing plates. But then again, nothing should really surprise me anymore. “So you’re not from Vernallis?”

She shakes her head. “I was born after the curse, but my mother crossed into Thermia to have me.”

I nod, taking a sip of my tea to hide the fact that I have no idea what to say. Clearly, Aurelia knew I would be coming to talk to her and was waiting for me, but I don’t know how to begin and she isn’t exactly taking the reins.

“Beatrix told me I should come talk to you,” I say finally.

“She’s meddlesome like that, but in this case, she’s right. There’s things you should know before you sacrifice yourself to end the curse.”

I swallow another mouthful of the scalding hot tea. “I already know this situation is weird. When I first agreed to it, I didn’t know marriage was part of it, and now I’m only considering it because of the curse.”

“Do you really think you can break it?” she asks.

I open my mouth, starting to say “I don’t know” but stop before the words come out. Instead, I say, “King Thorne clearly doesn’t love me, no matter who he thinks I am, and I don’t love him either, so…no. I don’t think I can break it.”

It feels like I’m admitting to something terrible. Saying out loud that I don’t think there’s anything I can do feels final in a way that fills me with a mix of grief and frustration.

“I want to tell you a little story.” Aurelia fiddles with the sleeve of her blouse, her eyes cast down at her tea. “It’s not long, I promise, and I’m not great at storytelling anyway, but I still think you should hear it.”

I nod, taking another sip of tea. “Shoot.”

“I’ve lived in this tower my entire life,” she begins. “Beatrix isn’t my mother, but for the last ninety-nine years, she’s the only family I’ve ever really known. Did she tell you she used to be a lady in waiting at the palace?”

“Yes.”

“Beatrix was the companion assigned to my mother when she arrived in Vernallis to marry the future king. Prince Thorne had spent years searching for the perfect bride, and the entire kingdom was shocked when he chose a commoner rather than any of the noble women from one of the other three kingdoms.”

My breath catches, remembering the story that Daemon told me. “So your mother was the one to cast the curse?”

She smiles a little bitterly. “Eventually. The king chose her because she was a powerful sorceress, and though she wasn’t noble, she came from a long line of strong magic. The king also has strong magic.”

“I’ve never seen him use it,” I interrupt, my heart starting to beat faster.

Aurelia shrugs. “The curse drains the power from the land little by little—not inherently, but because Fae were never meant to live in constant darkness. We need the sun to thrive, which incidentally is why Dyaspora is such a brutal punishment. The cold and forced labor aside, that far north, the sun only shines for a single hour a day. It makes a perfect breeding ground for the types of creatures that thrive in darkness and weakens the Fae prisoners.”

“You seem to know a lot about it.”

She gestures vaguely to the thousands of books on her shelves. “Being alone all the time, I’ve had a lot of time to read. Anyway, King Thorne chose my mother because she was likely to have powerful children. He’d grown up surrounded by doubt in the line of succession and desperately wanted a strong son to put all questions to rest.”

“What about you?” I can’t help but ask. “I’m assuming he’s your father.”

“He is,” she says, like it’s no less important than commenting on the weather. “But he doesn’t know I exist. And anyway, Vernallis practices male-primogeniture. Women can only inherit the throne if there is no male heir, and in this case, there is.”

I blink, confused, until it clicks. “You mean, Daemon? But he’s illegitimate, right?”

“It doesn’t matter. If King Thorne were to die, Daemon would immediately become king. It’s just how things work here.” The corner of her mouth tips up in a mischievous smirk. “I guess I could always fight him over it.”

My stomach lurches. “Would you?”

She grins. “Probably not. I doubt I’d win anyway, but it doesn’t really matter. This is all hypothetical and not the point of my story.”

I wave my hand at her. “Sorry, go ahead.”

“My mother traveled to the palace from her home in Solistine expecting to marry a prince. Beatrix told me how sad my mother was when she realized that there was no instant connection between them and no soul-bond. She thought maybe she could force the bond to appear, but instead she ended up pregnant ahead of her wedding and the king carried on with his mistresses up in his private tower.”

“Asshole,” I mutter.

Aurelia cocks her head to the side, like tell me about it. “Obviously my mother was shattered and she left Vernallis with the help of her lady in waiting.”

“So she cursed the entire country?” I ask.

I try to keep the note of judgment out of my voice but it’s hard. Just like the last time I heard this story, my immediate thought is that it’s understandable to curse the king, but why punish thousands of other people along with him? They didn’t do anything.

“I don’t know why she did that,” Aurelia says quickly, obviously following my train of thought. “At least, I don’t think she meant to curse everyone.”

The cup in my hand shakes. “Is she still alive somewhere? Maybe we could ask her?”

Her expression shutters. “She died giving birth to me. She had to know she would die when she decided to cross into Thermia for the birth…they have their own issues in that kingdom. But she still did it, and gave me to Beatrix for my safety.”

My heart drops. “She didn’t happen to leave you a detailed journal or something, did she?”

“No, sorry, but I do know something that might help you.” Aurelia grimaces. “She cast the curse in front of Beatrix, and I’ve memorized it after all these years. She cursed the kingdom to be judged on the content of their true character and show on the outside who they are on the inside. She said that the curse would only break when the King of Vernallis admits he is powerless and sacrifices whomever he loves most.”

I blink at her. “Wait, that’s exactly what it says?”

She looks equally confused. “Yes…”

“I thought he had to find true love?”

“He does…and then he has to sacrifice her.”

I jump to my feet, spilling what’s left of my tea in the process. “Oh my God. So you’re saying it’s never been about the love. He’s been marrying all these women over the years to…sacrifice them?”

Aurelia looks startled as she stands too. “Yes. Didn’t you know that? I thought that’s what we were talking about.”

“No!” My heart starts to race, and my palms sweat. I need to get the fuck out of here.

I stride toward the door, not entirely sure where I’m going, but then stop and whirl back around. “Wait, you said you could help me. If you thought I already knew I had to ‘sacrifice’ myself, what did you mean?”

Aurelia rubs her palms nervously on the sides of her voluminous pants, like her palms are sweaty. “I was going to tell you that my mother cast the curse to punish the king, not to punish the court. I’m sure she wasn’t expecting it to last one hundred years. So, I have to assume that the person she meant for him to sacrifice would have been someone she knew. Someone who was already in Ellender at the time the curse began.”

“So, not my Nana,” I conclude.

“Right. I could be wrong. As I said, I never knew her…but if I’m right, then there’s nothing you can do either way. If you die, it won’t matter, so if I were you, I’d walk away now.”

“Walk away?”

Aurelia leans forward, her wide eyes seeming to convey more than her words. “Don’t wake anyone up and don’t say goodbye, just leave. There’s a portal in the garden.”

I chew on my lip, watching her without really seeing anything at all. I’m shaking and my pulse is thrumming way too fast. Is that what I should do? Just walk away now without saying anything?

“Thanks,” I mumble distractedly. “For telling me.”

“Alix!” she calls after me, a hint of anxiety in her voice. “What are you going to do?”

I don’t answer her, because I don’t know yet. I’m running on adrenaline, following my heart rather than my head down the long stairs.

I just hope my heart knows where it’s going.

DAEMON

Alix reaches down to shake me awake, but I’m up before any words come out of her mouth. “What’s wrong, Peaches?”

She leans back, startled, as I sit up abruptly. “I was going to say, wake up.”

“Yeah,” I prompt her. “I’m up. What’s wrong?”

I can tell there’s something wrong immediately. I can’t smell her actual fear, but I might as well be able to. The scent of sweat on her palms and the back of her neck is strong, and she’s shaking more than when I pulled her out of the icy lake.

“I met Aurelia,” she says.

I blink, startled. Whatever I was expecting Alix to say, it wasn’t that.

I know my mother has been keeping Thorne’s daughter here; I guess this family has a soft spot for secret bastard children. I met her once when she was a young child, over ninety years ago, but haven’t seen her since I’ve been out of Dyaspora. She’s my niece, technically, but I have no idea what she looks like.

“What happened?” I ask, after a moment. I can’t understand why meeting Aurelia would cause Alix to panic, but my adrenaline is high knowing she’s upset, and instinctively, I want to destroy whatever’s hurt my…whatever Alix is to me.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” she mutters, wringing her hands. “I shouldn’t have woken you up because now I know it’s going to turn into this whole dramatic thing, but I couldn’t just leave. Not without at least warning you that the curse isn’t going to break unless we do something.”

My heart pangs, and before I realize it, I’m standing too, blocking Alix from pacing and forcing her to look at me. I don’t know what’s going on, but all I heard was the word “leave” and now I feel just as panicked as she looks.

“Slow down, Peaches,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady. “What happened with Aurelia?”

“You know who she is?” Alix asks. “She’s Thorne’s daughter…which I guess makes her your niece. That’s kind of weird, but?—”

“Get to the point,” I growl.

“She told me about the curse and her mother. It was never about the king getting someone to fall in love with him. The curse is only broken when the king sacrifices the person he loves most.”

My eyes widen, and then it’s like a lead ball drops into the pit of my stomach. The beginnings of horror start to dawn on me, but still, I need her to be specific. “Tell me everything.”

She nods, launching into a play by play of her conversation with my mother and later with Aurelia. There’s a buzzing in my head as she talks, and it’s all I can do to let her finish before I lose it completely and drag her outside to the portal whether she wants to go or not.

I can tell there are holes in this story—probably ones she has no way of filling with her limited knowledge of Ellender. That’s a problem I can deal with later. Right now, all that matters is getting her out of here.

Without a word, I reach out and grab Alix around the waist, pulling her into my arms. She seems to think I’m trying to embrace her and she goes limp for a second, before realizing my intention.

“Daemon! Put me down, what the fuck?”

I ignore her, instead crossing the room in two strides to reach the window. It’s the same window that I smashed mere hours ago and repaired with magic before falling asleep. The glass splinters again as I march toward it and launch into the sky, barely even aware of the rain as I fly down to the garden.

There’s a portal to the human realm behind the Ashwater Estate. It’s likely the entire reason my ancestors built the house there, and it’s the one I used to use to help Fae escape from Vernallis. It won’t drop Alix back in Ironhill, but it will at least send her to the same continent. Even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t care. The middle of the fucking Pacific Ocean would be safer for her than Vernallis.

I swoop low over the house and the rose gardens and finally land next to the stone wall at the very back of the property. We’re secluded here and invisible from the house—though I’m all too aware of our proximity to Thorne.

Anger surges through me again at the mere thought.

I allowed him to come here and left Alix alone with him. I brought her straight to him without even questioning why. This is my fault, but now I’m going to fix it…at least, for her.

“Daemon, stop it,” Alix barks, covering her face from the rain. “I’m trying to talk to you.”

“I heard you,” I growl back. “And now you’re leaving.”

I put her down, and she stumbles on the uneven ground. Instinctively, I throw out an arm to steady her. She looks over my shoulder toward the pond, and her eyes widen.

“What?” she blurts out. “No. That wasn’t why I told you. If I wanted to just leave, I would have.”

“So you want to stay and be ‘sacrificed?’ I thought I told you, you can use as many fucking euphemisms as you want but they all mean the same thing. He’s going to kill you.”

“I know,” she spits, obviously growing angrier by the second. “I’m not fucking stupid.”

“Good, then you’re leaving. Let’s go.” I try to herd her toward the portal, not even taking the time to think about what this will mean. Never seeing her again feels impossible, but it feels worse to consider letting her stay for another second.

Alix plants her feet on the half-frozen ground, refusing to go another step. I could move her, but I’d have to pick her up again. I let out an angry breath. “Don’t you understand that I can’t let you stay here now? It wouldn’t help anyway.”

She raises her chin to glare at me. “No! What about the curse? Aurelia said?—”

“I don’t give a fuck what anyone said, I only care about you. You just told me Thorne is the one trying to hurt you, Alix. What were you expecting me to do with that information?”

“I-I don’t know. I thought you’d know what to do. I told you because I think we can fix it. Aurelia thinks the curse wasn’t meant to last this long and that the person Thorne loves most would have been someone her mother knew.”

I shake my head. “Maybe that’s true, but I have no idea who that would be.”

“But we could at least try to find out.”

“No.” I run my hand through my hair. “I will try to find out, I promise I won’t give up on this, but you’re not going to be here for it. You need to go home. Now.”

She glares at me, clearly plotting her next argument.

I don’t understand why we’re fighting about this. I don’t understand how she could want to stay knowing that the danger she’s in isn’t abstract, it’s sleeping right next door.

“You owe me,” she insists, her voice cracking slightly.

My heart sinks. I forgot about her money. I glance over my shoulder toward the house. “Wait here for a second. There’re hundreds of priceless things in that house, I'll go grab you?—”

She makes a small fist and punches me hard in the chest. “I don’t care about the money, you fucking asshole.”

“You don’t?”

“No!” she chokes. “I mean, you owe me more than just sending me back home without even thinking about it. Things have changed, and I?—”

I close my eyes, unable to keep looking at her, and tilt my head back so the rain pours over my face. “All this changes is that I can’t keep pretending it makes sense to keep you here. I should have let you leave the moment I realized you weren’t Isabelle, but I was selfish. Then, when I knew there was no chance Thorne could ever truly love you—because if he did, he wouldn’t have been able to just stand by and watch every time you got hurt—I should have let you go.”

“Then why didn’t you?” she demands.

I swallow thickly and look back at her. She’s soaked, just like I am, and I can’t tell whether the water pouring down her face is tears or raindrops.

I know exactly why I couldn’t let her go. Because I love her, and I deluded myself into thinking I could keep her here with me.

Odessa’s warning echoes in the back of my head, taunting me.

You’ll fall in love with her and you’ll risk everything to keep her, but I don’t know if she’ll love you enough to stay.

Well, fuck Dessa, she was wrong.

Because I did risk almost everything to keep Alix, but I’m not willing to risk her, and I won’t let her stay.

I realize I’m been standing in silence for too long, letting her question hang between us. She glowers at me, clearly thinking I’m unable or unwilling to acknowledge the truth of my feelings for her. Nothing could be further from the truth, but telling her now, right before I send her away will only hurt her and I can’t do that.

Alix shoves past me and marches angrily toward the house. “I’m going to get Aurelia, and you can talk to her and?—”

I grab her arm and pull her back to me, dragging her into my arms. Before she can protest, I bring my hands to her cheeks and pull her face to mine.

She gasps in surprise against my mouth, but I don’t let her go—exploring her lips, her taste, for the last time.

Alix relaxes into the kiss, and I walk her back away from the roses, never breaking our kiss.

At the edge of the pond, I squeeze my eyes shut tighter and pull back. “I’m sorry.”

And then I shove her back into the glittering pond.