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6 AELIA
Torches flickered around the healer’s laboratory, and the smell of sage and eucalyptus filled the air. A tall, slender, sylph woman with mousy brown hair and sharp features welcomed us.
“My King, what can I do for you this evening?” She bowed her head.
“We need you to sedate young Baylis here.” He gestured to Baylis, who stood with her hand clasped in front of her. A blue silk gown hung from her lithe body. When had she gotten so thin?
I took her hand in mine, and she gave me a brave smile.
“It’ll be alright,” I whispered, squeezing tight.
“Come here, child. Lay on this bed, and I’ll administer the valerian root.”
Baylis did as she was told and lay on the bed. I pulled a chair next to her as the healer dabbed the sedative on her lips.
“Not too much,” I said, throat going dry with anticipation. “I need her sedated, not asleep.”
The woman nodded. Her hair glinted in the firelight.
Baylis’s eyes flickered and relaxed.
I took a deep breath, calming my body. I needed a clear head if I was going to be successful. Tharan ran a loving hand over my back before kissing my cheek softly.
“I’ll be right here the whole time.”
At his words, a calm settled over me. Tharan was the partner I’d longed for but never had.
“Thank you.”
He took a seat behind me.
A breath escaped my lips. I reached out with all my might, knocking at the door of Baylis’s mind, noticing it was the same door as the one we had at the River House in the Midlands. Red with silver numbers. I pushed the sentimental feelings bubbling in my chest down. This is a job, Aelia. Stay focused.
The door unlocked, and a cheerful Baylis greeted me, “That was quick.”
“It is easy to enter the mind of someone you love. The psyche recognizes it as safe .” I stepped inside. The foyer of the River House greeted me with a curling staircase and dark wallpaper decorated with lush greenery and exotic birds from far away kingdoms. It was warm and inviting, just as I remembered it, with dark wood and plush leather sofas. The smell of cinnamon and oranges wafted through the air.
“Yule,” I said under my breath.
“It was always our happiest time.”
I took my sister’s hand, and she led me up the stairs to a door I didn’t recognize, carved with intricate flourishes and eagles.
“I think this is where we need to go, but it’s locked, and I have no key,” she said, pointing to the intricate brass knob.
I held my ear to the carved wood, but only silence echoed from beyond. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
“I think you’re right.” Slowly, I reached for the handle. Within the confines of a person’s mind, I could manipulate anything I wanted—even locked doors. I focused my power on the knob, slowly turning it until I heard a click . Pushing the door open, we entered a storm of memories.
The wind whipped, and paper flew around us violently—the contents of Baylis’s memories torn apart in perpetual chaos. Thunder rolled, and lightning cracked, but no rain fell.
The raging wind gnarled my hair, obstructing my vision. I took a deep breath. Calming this storm would take all my power and more.
“What’s going on?” Baylis shouted over the wailing wind.
“Someone has set a trap in your mind. I triggered it when I opened the door. They knew I could do it. This trap was set specifically for me, so I wouldn’t be able to piece your mind back together.” The gusts carried my voice far away.
Narrowing my eyes, I focused my power, trying to tame the storm, but it would not yield. Erissa was a powerful wielder, and my powers were no match for hers.
While I tried to contain the storm, Baylis grabbed random papers as they flew past her. Good. At least we could put some of her back together.
Lightning cracked, illuminating the chaotic library. The spell fought against my magic, intensifying its attack and pushing me toward the door. I grit my teeth, grabbing onto the nearest table for support as I focused my power on quieting the raging wind. Power surged through my bones like fire.
A foreboding growl echoed from deep within the library of her mind.
I swallowed the sense of dread rising in my gut.
“Grab what you can, Baylis! We need to get out of here!”
Baylis nodded and feverishly grabbed at the parchments. I did the same, hoping to find something useful.
The growl grew louder.
Through the darkness, two glowing eyes appeared at the end of one of the rows of books. The creature stalked toward us.
I barely had a handful of papers, but that would have to do.
“Baylis, back toward the door, slowly.”
She did as I commanded.
The creature inched closer. Lightning flashed and two giant fangs came into view. The enormous jungle cat lowered itself into a striking position. My heart raced. We couldn’t die in her mind. If we did our bodies would linger on without consciousness. I had to time everything just right and get Baylis out before her own mind devoured her.
Every hair stood on end.
The creature’s claws clicked on the wood. We were so close to the door. All we had to do was shut it before the creature lunged.
“Baylis, run!”
She bolted for the door, her blonde hair nothing but a streak of gold in my periphery. The cat’s eyes fell upon Baylis, and it moved to strike. Back arched, it leapt toward my sister, claws reaching for her, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
Balling my power in one hand, an eerie glow lit the room, swirling like a storm within the orb.
Just as the cat was about to reach my sister, I flung the orb at it, hitting it in the abdomen and knocking it backward. The creature’s mighty body slid across the floor before crashing into a massive wooden bookshelf, which tipped over onto the animal.
I had enough time to slip back through the door and lock it.
I let out the breath I had been holding in, resting my back against the door.
“That was close.”
The creature’s claws pierced through the door next to my head. I squeezed my eyes tight. A bone-chilling roar echoed from beyond, vibrating my entire body.
“Too close,” Baylis said, running a hand through her hair.
The creature dislodged its claws from the door and returned to guard Baylis’s memories.
“How many pages did you grab?”
“Just a handful.” She held up a stack of parchment.
“Let’s go into the dining room and see what we grabbed.”
We headed down the creaky stairs to the large dining room, where our mother’s beloved crystal chandelier hung, a reminder of the family we used to be—of Yuletide feasts surrounded by friends and intimate dinners with just the three of us.
We spread the papers out on the table. Each page was a fraction of a memory—like putting together a puzzle without a reference picture.
“Let’s see what we have here.” I picked up the first page, gripped Baylis’s hand, and focused my power on the memory. We were transported to the night of the attack on Elyria. Fires blazed around us. My beloved home, burning to ash. The smell of charred flesh and the sound of desperate screams filled the air. My chest tightened.
A horse with no rider ran past us, saddle riddled with flaming arrows.
I had never seen this before—the result of my weakness. I sank to my knees, the weight of my actions pressing into my flesh, heavy and leaden. Baylis touched my shoulder just as the memory faded away.
Back in the dining room, I wiped the tears from my eyes and took gasping breaths. “I knew it was bad, but I…”
Baylis rubbed my back. “It’s not your fault, Aelia. There was nothing you could have done.”
The blood turned to ice in my veins. She didn’t know. How could she? Gideon wouldn’t have told her—or perhaps he had.
“Gideon didn’t tell you?”
Her brows knitted with concern.
“Tell me what?”
I wasn’t sure how much I should tell her. Gideon wouldn’t have passed up the chance to disparage me in an attempt to turn my sister against me. Perhaps those memories were lost in the storm. “I gave him the information he needed to infiltrate Elyria.”
Baylis’s expression went blank as she mulled that over.
“I want to be mad at you, Aelia, but I know the Highlands would’ve found a way in whether you gave them a tip or not. They are, and always have been, a warring kingdom. They wanted the Midlands. I suspected as much when Gideon agreed to marry you.”
“You did?” I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
“Yes. Why would the Ironhearts marry a lesser kingdom when they could have married into an elven bloodline and secured their reign for thousands of years? Instead, they chose to ally with a poorer kingdom. A kingdom that just happened to be rich in the one thing they didn’t have—fertile soil and enough cattle to feed the continent. They wanted Moriana’s breadbasket, and they were going to take it one way or another.”
A calmness washed over me. For five years, I had carried the weight of my guilt like a yolk around my neck. My breaths came easier now, and my burden lightened just a bit. “Thank you,” I said.
Baylis gave me a reassuring smile; her gray eyes sparkled in the dazzling light of the chandelier.
“Alright, let’s see what else we have here.” I ran my hands over the parchment, trying to sense what lay within. Some were from our early years, and others were too private for me to explore—nothing from her time with Gideon. Shit .
“Anything?” Baylis bit her thumbnail nervously.
“Not that I can see.” I scanned the parchments, hoping something would catch my eye. At the end of the table sat two torn strips of paper. Reluctantly, I picked one up, focusing my power on the words. It was a memory of Baylis playing with her dogs. I let out a sigh of relief before grabbing the next one. The paper fizzled with heat. I scanned it with my mind—a lover’s touch.
I had never known Baylis to take a lover, but that didn’t mean she didn’t do so in secret. While my sister gazed at the papers, I focused my mind, diving into the snippet of a memory.
A room full of dark wood with bloodred curtains. This was not Elyria, or at least no place I had ever been in Elyria. The smell of leather and mahogany swirled in the air. The sound of wine being poured drew my attention. Gideon drank red wine. He loved it. It was the only alcohol he’d put into his body. I tried to expand the memory, but it fought against me. The edges of my vision blurred, but I needed to see who poured the wine. A cold hand traced my jaw before running down my collarbone and over my shoulder. I didn’t have to see the source of the touch to know it was Gideon. My guts twisted inside me, but Baylis’s didn’t.
She… she felt attraction, possibly even love.
The memory spit me out before I could investigate further. Was this a trap set by Gideon and Erissa to turn me against my sister, or was this affection she felt real?
Baylis stared at an old memory of us at a Yule celebration, utterly calm as if we hadn’t just been attacked by a giant cat lurking in her mind. Was she a part of this? I shook the thought from my mind. No, don’t be stupid, Aelia. Baylis is not your enemy. She’s your sister. She’d never intentionally hurt you.
I tucked the sheet of paper into my pocket. The memory belonged to me now; if she hadn’t remembered it before, she wouldn’t miss it now.
“I loved this Yule,” she whispered, running her hands over the inscription on the parchment, trying to absorb the memory.
“Do you want to go in?” I asked.
Baylis held the paper to her chest.
“Yes.”
“It’s your memory. You don’t need me to enter it. Just focus on it.”
“Will you come with me?”
“Of course.” Despite what I had just witnessed in Baylis’s memory, when I looked at her, all I could see was my innocent sister.
Taking her hand, I closed my eyes and focused my waning power one last time. When I opened my eyes, we were sitting around a roaring fire in the parlor. Typically, when I entered a mind, I took the place of the memory holder, but with Baylis here, I took my own body.
The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and pine filled the air. My heart stopped at the sight of Caiden slouched in a plush armchair, Baylis’s dogs asleep at his feet. His golden hair was tied behind his ears—a crown of holly around his head.
I sat next to him—my cheeks round with youth. This was the first Yule Caiden spent with us. The jitters I’d felt then reverberated through my body. We had been friends for years prior, and this was the first time he’d come to visit for the holiday. I swallowed hard.
Caiden passed me a gift wrapped in delicate tissue adorned with silver birds.
“You shouldn’t have,” I said, cheeks flushed.
“My mother wouldn’t have let me come empty-handed.” He gave me a dimpled smile, melting my heart.
I gently unfolded the wrapping, taking great care not to rip it. Inside, a wooden box with a golden lock sat.
“You’ll need this.” Caiden handed me a tiny gold key.
Nervously, I inserted it into the lock. The box cracked open, revealing a silver necklace like cracking lightning. A note perched on top of the jewelry. May this spark courage whenever you need it. Caiden.
My heart lurched into my throat. The memory was bittersweet. Before I left for the Highlands, I buried the necklace, along with everything Caiden had ever given me, in the garden of the River House. I wanted to forget Caiden, just as he would eventually want to forget me.
“It’s too much,” I said, hiding the scarf I’d knitted for him.
“No, it’s not.”
I bit my lip, pushing back the tears welling behind my eyes. “I, uh, made this for you.” I handed him the scarf wrapped in tawny parchment.
His eyes brightened. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Yes, she should,” my sister said, shooting me a coy smile.
I stared daggers into her.
Caiden unwrapped the heavy scarf made of thick wool—blue with the crest of the Stormlands woven into it.
“It’s wonderful,” he said.
I searched his eyes for a hint of a lie, but only genuine happiness stared back at me as he wrapped it around his neck.
“Thank you,” he said.
Butterflies flitted in my stomach.
The memory cut out.
“Well, that hurt.” I piled the papers together, ignoring the pressure behind my eyes.
“You were so happy,” Baylis said, reaching for me. Her voice filled with concern. “I don’t understand. I thought you’d want to relive that moment.”
I stared at her for a moment. Her once disheveled hair now perfectly pinned back like she wore it when we were younger. When had she done that? Even I couldn’t manipulate two realities at once.
Exhaustion tugged at the corners of my senses. “I know you thought you were helping, but I need to let him go.”
“Sorry. I just wanted to remember something good.” Her eyes flitted to the floor, and she crumpled a piece of paper in her hand.
“It’s okay.” I leaned in, kissing her on the forehead.
We exited the way we came in.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the healer’s chambers with Tharan at my side. The grit of sand filled my mouth—an unfortunate side effect of reading minds. I wanted to tell him what I saw in her mind, but that would come with many more questions, including some I wasn’t ready to face yet.
Baylis slept silently in the healer’s bed. Her eyes danced beneath closed lids.
“She’ll be safe here,” the healer said. “Why don’t you get some rest? It’s nearly half past two in the morning.”
I went to stand, but my legs collapsed underneath me.
“I’ve got you,” Tharan said, scoping me up and carrying me to his chamber.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8 (Reading here)
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
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- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
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- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
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- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
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- Page 42
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- Page 44
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- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53