Page 47

CIANA

“ I t’s not working, Ciana.” Dawn sounded distraught and looked especially pale in the moonlight that flooded an open balcony on the top floor of the royal palace in Teneris.

“So many humans are still missing, and they aren’t safe out there.

Rha offered a fortune to anyone who brings them here.

But other than the four of you, no one else came.

Lucia is stuck in the queen’s sarai , probably being pumped with wine against her will every night.

And no one knows where Elaine is.” She heaved a long, heavy breath. “I’m worried sick about Elaine.”

Concern for the gentle, soft-spoken Elaine had been pressing on my chest, too, ever since the traders dragged her out of our cage.

“I’d run out into the desert to search for her, if only I had a single chance of finding her,” Dawn said.

“You’d have a million more chances of dying out there than of finding her. The desert is harsh on its travelers and unforgiving for the slightest mistake. Believe me, I know.”

We sat in silence for a while, gazing out into the night. The moonlight sparkled in the crests of the dunes, and it looked as if the sky above sprinkled the desert with starlight.

“It’s hard to believe that something so beautiful at night can be so deadly during the day,” Dawn sighed. “People may be suffering out there right now, and all we can do is just wait.”

Prince Rha had spoken to Kurai at length. An entire army of royal spies had been scouting the desert and the nearby cities, gathering whatever information they could about the pleasure traders.

The word out there was that humans had been taken to the City of Ashgate where they would be sold to the highest bidder. But the exact location of the city remained unknown.

We couldn’t go to the temple in search of Melanie’s notes either. The Queen of the Alveari Kingdom had put a claim on the Temple of the First Priestess, permanently stationing her guards in it.

But there were also things that gave me comfort.

Peter and Maria seemed to be recovering well from their ordeal.

Shyanne happily returned to her gardening with the Joy Vessel Keepers in the sarai .

Malis and the men, who helped Kurai free us from the traders, had successfully collected their reward and were free to leave Teneris.

However, they accepted Prince Rha’s invitation to stay for as long as they wished, exploring the city life that they had been denied to experience before.

A palace servant arrived on our patio to announce that dinner had been served in Prince Rha’s private dining hall.

“Are you coming?” Dawn asked me, getting up and smoothing down the long skirt of her green-and-yellow dress. “Shyanne will be there. Even Peter and Maria said they’d come.”

I’d seen Shyanne often since our arrival in Teneris, but Peter and Maria kept mostly to themselves. Dawn assured me they’d always been a private couple and didn’t interact much with the others even before their failed escape attempt.

“I’d love to,” I replied. “But Kurai wants to have dinner with me alone tonight. ”

Dawn’s bottom lip slipped out in a pout, and a wave of déjà vu flushed over me. Despite her being three years older than me now, I kept catching glimpses of the little girl I’d left back in our world barely two months ago.

“He’s keeping you all to himself too much,” she complained. “Tell him I love you, too, and he’s not the only one who needs you.”

I laughed, hugging her. “He said he had a surprise for me. I can’t possibly miss out on a surprise, can I?”

“Are you getting used to having tendrils of your own? They can be handy,” she winked with a naughty smile.

I’d told her about our journey from Kalmena in every detail by now. In return, Dawn had been sharing with me everything she knew about having a relationship with a shadow fae as a human woman.

Apparently, my tendrils were a sign of the mating bond that had formed between Kurai and me. My love for him created it. And now, not only could we connect our bodies and emotions, but a part of his magic was also mine, allowing me to have my own tendrils.

In turn, our human ability to have sex whenever we wanted granted Kurai the power to make his mating cluster appear at will. That was the “handy” part that Dawn referred to.

Anticipation fluttered in my lower belly, making me even more excited to spend the morning with my very own Joy Guardian.

“The tendrils take some time getting used to,” I replied. “I even forget I have them sometimes.”

“Me too. But then, other times, they feel as natural as my arms or legs. You’ll get used to having them, eventually. Promise me we’ll have breakfast together tomorrow night. You can bring your man along if he can’t spare you. I happen to like him too.”

“Will do.” I lingered, keeping her in my arms a little longer.

Dawn was the family I never hoped to find in Alveari. Whatever happened now, I’d do everything not to lose her again. “ Say hi to His Highness from me, baby cousin.” I kissed her forehead.

“I’m older than you,” she reminded with a soft giggle.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” I waved her off playfully, releasing her from my hug. “Enjoy your dinner, and I will see you at breakfast tomorrow night.”

Kurai met me in the grand hall of our fancy new home. I couldn’t even call this place a house. Even “mansion” was a grossly inaccurate word to describe the palace-like structure with mosaic floors, pillared archway entrances, and golden filigree frames on crystal windows.

“Morning, my love,” I greeted him, and he beamed in response before returning my kiss.

“Nights seem to be endless without you,” he murmured against my lips.

I smiled, basking in his affection like a cat in sunshine. “But with me around, you don’t get much work done.”

Prince Rha granted Kurai full access to his palace library and to the Archives of Teneris, and Kurai had been spending all his spare time poring over texts and experimenting with different vessels blown from glass or carved out of crystals.

“I have something for you,” he said.

“I can’t wait to see it.”

He led me to the observatory attached to our house.

It was one of my most favorite places in the queen’s mansion.

The round room was topped with a high glass dome, allowing us to see the stars at night and the sun during the day.

The gold-and-marble wall panels could be folded into six square pillars, turning the room into an open space that led out into one of the public city squares.

The walls were closed now, giving us privacy.

A low table was set with dinner and surrounded by a pile of comfy floor cushions for sitting.

In another sector of the round room, a tub stood, filled with steamy water.

A little further away was a long, cushioned lounger with a tray of fragrant oils standing next to it .

“This looks like a set up for a perfect date. Is that what you had in mind?” I smiled, with tingles of anticipation already rushing all over my body.

“More than that.” He squeezed my hand, leading me to the stand in the middle of the room.

A single hexagonal vile stood on the stand.

“What is this?” I turned to him.

“You once said you wanted your man to change this world for the better.”

“Oh, I said that in the heat of the moment, honey,” I said quickly. “I know it’s impossible for one man to change the world.”

“But all changes start somewhere. And someone has to start them. I have thought hard about all I knew of the origins of our Joy. It’s impossible to prove where our First Priestess came from without the access to the library in the temple and the translation of the texts attributed to her.

But even from what I’ve read and from what I’ve learned from you, I don’t believe that Joy was ever meant to be locked in the temple for the use of the select few.

I don’t believe one has to pay to use it or be denied access to it if they aren’t rich enough.

We all need joy and happiness as much as we need the air to breathe.

My people can survive for a long time without air.

But without joy, one doesn’t live but merely exists. ”

His cheeks glowed from the passion in his words. His eyes shone like brilliant green stars. Touched by the power of his beliefs, I stroked the side of his face, then picked up the vial from the stand.

“It’s empty,” I said, admiring the iridescent shimmer in the six facets of the glass. By now, I’d learned to recognize a presence of magic in the shimmer like this one.

“It is, but you can fill it. If you wish.”

I met his eyes and found the answer to my unspoken question in them.

“You’ve figured it out?” I exclaimed in wonder.

“I believe I have.” He nodded. “I figured that if some of our assumptions were correct, and the First Priestess was indeed a human, if she was the one who created the Source of Joy in the temple, then she must’ve filled it with her own joy first. And if that theory is correct, then our Source of Joy didn’t start by some divine entity like we blindly believed all this time.

It came from a human woman, just like you…

” He stroked the side of my face tenderly.

“And if she could do it, using the knowledge she’d gained by observing our leilatha harnesses on her first visit here, then I could try to replicate it too.

You see, Ciana, blind trust in the divine paralyzes our minds.

By believing that the Source of Joy came from the gods, we failed to look closer and recognize what we ourselves could do. ”

I turned the glass in my hands. “You really think it’ll work?”

“There is one way to find out.” He ran a hand down my arm, circling the golden rosettes of my harness with the tips of his fingers.