Page 31

Chapter thirty-one

A True Gem

L ark had extricated himself from me with what appeared to have been a monumental effort. He ran a hand through his still-drying hair as he paced away from his aunt, clearly unwilling to look at her while still in such a state. She watched him with something like amusement. If Gemini Morningstar ever allowed herself to be amused. He took a deep breath and then another, flexing his fingers and clenching them into fists. I bit my lip to keep from snickering at his behavior. Of course, I was disappointed at the sudden appearance of a chaperone as well but his reaction was borderline ludicrous.

“What are you doing here, Aunt Gem?” he asked, still not looking at her.

“You didn’t think I’d recognize my own niece when she popped up in the middle of the street and snatched away my pupil?” Gemini chided, shaking her head so that her wild locks shifted back and forth on her shoulders. “I’m old, boy, not blind.”

“We’ve been gone for days.”

“I had other matters to attend to. Your father, for one. It was fairly difficult to convince him the Court of Friends hadn’t stolen away his most prized hostage while keeping who it really was a secret. But I imagine you didn’t think about that when you conspired to help her escape, did you?”

To his credit, Lark looked properly scolded at that. He blinked at her for a moment before allowing a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Aunt,” he told her. “We meant to send word, but became a little preoccupied.”

“Oh, I can see that,” she rebuked, nodding her head toward where we had been standing, entwined, when she’d appeared. “Is this tea?”

She was reaching for my cup. I nodded and so she lifted it and took a sip.

“I hate traveling,” she said. “Always leaves me parched. Now, what’s all this? I thought you’d be halfway back to Ariadne by now, girl.”

“I told her the truth, Aunt Gem,” Lark said, his gaze narrowing.

“Which is?” she asked, brow raised.

“The same as I told it the first time.”

“Ah, the truth then.”

“You knew?” I asked, lips parting in surprise as I stared at the woman sipping my tea.

“Who do you think helped him get into the Court of Peace and Pride?” she asked. “My name still carries some weight in the royal circles, you know.”

At my confused glance, Lark explained.

“Aunt Gem told Ariadne she was coming for a visit. Your mother likes to fancy herself friends with my aunt but the feelings are not mutual. So she packed us all in her trunks and set off. The Court of Peace and Pride doesn’t allow shadow stepping in their lands, probably out of jealousy that they can’t do it themselves, so we had to travel the old-fashioned way. Three days locked in a trunk with Rook, avoiding using any magic so that they wouldn’t know we were within their borders. Once she was settled in her room, we set off on our mission and all hell broke loose.”

“We didn’t stay much longer after that,” Gemini recalled, still sipping my tea.

“You helped?” I asked, staring at her as if seeing her for the first time. “You helped save me all those years ago and you didn’t tell me?”

“I couldn’t,” she replied with a shrug as though it was obvious. “Ursa never left us alone once throughout the duration of our one and only meeting and my dear brother never knew I was involved. He exiled and then executed his own son for the crimes he committed that day. What do you think he might do to his sister?”

She raised a brow and I fell silent in realization.

“Thank you,” I told her because I didn’t know what else to say.

“Babies don’t thank people for saving them,” she snapped, waving a hand as she set down my tea. “They’re defenseless. But you’re grown up now and you’re not. So thank me by learning how to properly save yourself so that I don’t have to come running to rescue your ass again.”

At that, a form, like liquid night, shot from her palm and slapped me across the back of my hand.

“Ow,” I hissed, rubbing the offended hand with the other.

Lark chuckled, shaking his head.

“I want absolutely no part of this,” he said, raising his hands in surrender as a broad grin split his face. “Call me when one of you is still standing.”

With that, he disappeared into the bedroom.

Gemini waved a hand and all the furniture vanished so that it was just the two of us standing in an empty room, facing each other.

“The absence of that hideous orange really helps to clear the mind, doesn’t it?” she said, lowering herself into a fighting stance. “Now, hit me.”

We trained for four hours. We spent the first two on physical strikes. Punches, kicks, dodges, and attacks. Gemini was fast for her age, though I imagined Fae stamina never quite decreased at the same rate a mortal’s did. She blocked every one of my attacks and dealt a few bruising blows of her own just to teach me a lesson.

The second two hours were a mental drain as she walked me through exercise after exercise, trying to get me to summon even an ounce of physical magic, but it was no use. And when I was exhausted, so tired that I couldn’t even hold an arm up to attempt a magical gesture, Gemini waved her hands again and the furniture reappeared just in time for me to collapse onto the couch.

“I did it once,” I told her as she took both mugs into the kitchen to fetch more tea. Then I corrected myself. “Twice, actually.”

“Physical magic,” she said to verify and I nodded even though I knew she couldn’t see me. “When?”

“Once when I found out that Lark was— when the King sentenced him to death,” I confessed, throat burning at the admission. “And again when he captured me. When I thought he was my kidnapper, when I hated him for what he had done to me and lied about.”

Gemini stilled where she stood over the sink. It was quiet for a moment before she spoke.

“Do you feel as though your magic is stronger whenever you are around my nephew?” she asked carefully and I considered the question.

“I suppose,” I answered with a shrug. “He was the first one to make me think that my ability to read emotions might be more than basic human empathy and now that… connection is so strong that I can hardly read anyone else when he’s around. I don’t even have to try to read him anymore. I just know without focus. And those few times I’ve practiced physical magic were because I was grieving him, a loss of him, of who I thought he was.”

“You’re soul bonded, aren’t you?”

There it was. The matter that I hadn’t even been able to admit to myself yet. My breath hitched as all the air was sucked out of the room. Gemini was leaning against the counter, facing away from me.

“I—I don’t—” I started.

“Don’t lie to me, girl,” she interrupted but it wasn’t angry, it wasn’t snippy. She simply wanted the truth and, after what I’d learned about what she had done for me so long ago, how could I deny it to her?

“He seems to think we are, yes,” I answered.

“And you?”

“I… think I can feel it as well.”

“He thinks? You think? Do either of you know?”

“Um—”

“If what I nearly walked into was any indication, I think you already do. Both of you,” she snapped then, whirling around to face me and approaching where I sat in a few long strides. “A soul bond is not something to be trifled with, girl. It’s rare and powerful. It can make you both stronger. It can give you the strength you need to face what’s coming.”

My lips parted in surprise.

“What’s coming?” I repeated. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen war before, girl. The writing is on the wall, same as it always is. One King gets his power stolen by another whose granddaughter was murdered by the son of the first. It’s always the same, dear. Always the same. Countless more to die to make up for deaths long done or, in this case, never done at all.”

I forgot to breathe as she loomed over me, the voice of reason, of warning.

“Whether it comes from Alban and Ariadne or Perseus and Ursa, I promise you, it will come. And my dear, you seem to find yourself in the middle of it. So you had better not think, you had better know when that time comes,” she said. “And in the meantime, I’ll be damned if you’re to face it all untrained. So get cleaned up and get some rest because we’re starting again in the morning.”

She thrust a piping hot cup of tea into my hands and then disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

I stared after where she had vanished for a long time before I heard the telltale click of a latch as Lark emerged from the bedroom.

“Is she gone?” he asked, peering around.

My gaze snapped to him and then narrowed.

“So you are still here,” I snapped. “You abandoned me to her!”

He shrugged his shoulders, taking the second cup of tea his aunt had left behind for him as he settled into the armchair across from me as always.

“She seemed rather intent on having you alone,” he said.

“So did you,” I snapped, bitterly. “Before.”

His lips curled up into a mischievous smirk.

“And I always will,” he drawled. “But you look exhausted.”

“Oh, thank you,” I muttered sarcastically, though I knew he was right. My eyes were already drooping from my exhaustion.

“You’ve had quite the day. Maybe it’s time for a rest.”

“A shower first.”

I rose slowly from the couch, my muscles groaning out their displeasure as I did. I hesitated, stretching my back, cocking my head to the side, rolling my neck. And as I did, Lark waved a hand and the couch suddenly held a few pillows and a black fur blanket. I looked over the makeshift sleeping arrangement with a narrowed gaze.

“I’ll take the couch,” he told me, already moving from the armchair to the sofa.

“That’s unnecessary,” I replied. “The bed is big enough for the both of us. You’ll be more comfortable—”

“If I get into that bed tonight, Ren,” he started, already raising the blanket and settling onto the couch, “neither one of us will get the rest we need.”

I turned away as my eyes widened and my cheeks blushed crimson, but not fast enough. He had seen and his deep chuckles reverberated against my chest as I scurried from the living room and shut the door tightly behind me.