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48

Lore

I t took days to set things right in the city, and it would’ve taken longer if Lord Briscalar wasn’t leading the charge. My lords and ladies surprised me, stepping forward to offer more than they were asked to deliver. I hoped this would help us come together as one people, though I knew it would take time and guidance to bring about the future I envisioned.

Time I may or may not have.

We’d even been too tired each day to explore Isodine’s diary.

Finally, with only three weeks left before my birthday, things were settled enough that we could take time for ourselves.

We lounged in our room all day and ordered food to be brought to our suite, eating it in the sitting area with the spread before us on the low table. We hadn’t allowed anyone inside the suite other than her ladies to collect our soiled clothing, and Faelith, who came to take the nyxin for regular walks.

Reyla nestled on my lap, feeding me food off the platter.

Once we’d finished, she rose and scooted into the bedroom, returning with the small book and the velvet bag. “See?” She settled on my lap and smoothing her fingertip across the Evergorne crest on the front cover of the small book. “Dragons.”

I frowned at the book. “I see ravens facing each other with their tails and wings flaring out behind them.”

“Dragons.” She nibbled on her fingernail, speaking around it. “Though I believe you see ravens. We need to figure out why we don’t see the same thing.”

Was this also related to the curse or a simple mistake? Although, who’d confuse ravens for dragons?

“What’s this?” I flicked the velvet bag she’d also placed on her lap.

“My gift from the Halendor head librarian.”

I lifted my brows. “When did you see the Halendor head librarian?”

“She visited with Valera and left this for me. I didn’t meet her myself.” Reyla held up the bag. “I put it inside here because it’s invisible. I could feel it, but I couldn’t see it.”

“Intriguing.”

“I tried a nullification spell on it, but it didn’t come into view, so I assume whatever she gave me is spelled in some other way. I believe the spell also disguises what it is because it feels like a long, thin rock.”

“Not the most exciting gift, then.”

With a shrug, she untied the ribbon she’d secured at the top and spread the fabric wide. Her wide-eyed glance shot my way before returning to the bag. “Would you look at that?” Upending the velvet pouch, she slid out the contents—a silver dagger nearly the length of her palm with a small red stone on the handle.

“Even more intriguing.”

Reyla pinched the hilt and lifted the dagger into the light of the fire. The blade seemed to drink in the glow rather than reflect it, the silver pulsing as though alive. Shadows coiled along its sharp blade in ghostly smoke trapped beneath its surface.

The red stone on the hilt throbbed, catching my breath. It wasn’t a steady rhythm but erratic, mimicking a heartbeat. Reyla tilted her head, angling the blade so the light caught strange etchings on its spine—markings too intricate and uneven to be decoration but too deliberate to be scratches.

“Do you feel that?” she whispered.

I nodded, though I couldn’t name what it was. The air had thickened around us, carrying a tension that pressed against my skin. The dagger wasn’t only a weapon; it was something ancient.

And it was waiting.

Such an odd thought. Waiting for what?

“Why make the effort to bring this to me?” she asked. “Do you think it could be related to the curse?”

“Why do you suspect that?”

She shook her head, still staring at the blade. “I’d be foolish to discount it. Everything feels bound to the spell.” With a sigh, she slipped it back into the bag. “Funny how I can see it now, touch it, and identify it.”

Truly spelled, then.

“I’ll keep it close at all times. You never know when we might need it.”

“Clever.”

After setting it back on her lap, she tilted her head, tapping her lips. I dutifully gave her a kiss, though it was more heated than anything delivered by duty. Moaning, she cupped my face .

I was soon lost in her, only coming to the surface when the small book fell off her lap and thudded on the floor.

“You’re much too distracting,” she said, all flustered as she scooped the book up and returned it to her lap. “Keep doing that, though, would you?”

My laugh rang out. “It would be my pleasure, my queen.”

“Ours, Lore. Ours .”

She lifted the book up to the key, and it fit. The lock clicked, but she lowered the book back to her lap, not flipping back the cover.

“Do we truly want to know what’s inside?” she asked, her voice pensive.

“We need to, don’t we?”

“We might find something that could be hurtful.”

“For me, you mean.”

She snuggled back against my chest. “I could look at it when I’m alone and let you know if you need to hear what’s written inside if you want.”

“Read it. I can handle whatever it might deliver.”

“Alright.” She flipped open the cover and feathered the pages.

“Blank,” I said, disappointment tainting my voice. “I thought?—”

“Not blank at all.” She frowned up at me. “Don't you see her writing?”

I held Reyla’s gaze steady.

“Oh.” Her mouth formed a circle. “Interesting, isn't it?”

“Why?” I was able to croak out.

“I assume I can see what’s there because what she's written could relate to the curse. I've found the curse doesn't allow anyone at Evergorne to speak more than random hints that must slip through the spell. And it chokes you off whenever you try. Maybe it prevents you from reading much about it. ”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.” No wonder multiple generations hadn’t been able to discover much about the curse’s origins. That could be why each king had verbally passed information to his heir, rather than writing it down.

A frown knit her face. “Maybe the spell is weakening, either because it's been such a long time or because…” She huffed out a breath. “Or because we're on the cusp of something wonderful.” Her eyes closing, she hugged the book against her chest. “I'm going to believe this is why. Let me read it to you. Blink after the first few lines if you understand what I'm saying.”

I blinked to confirm I understood where she was going with this. Would Reyla’s words make sense, or would only she understand what Valera's mother had written?

“To my beloved Isodine.” Reyla's soft voice broke through my thoughts, swirling through the room. “Valera's mother's name.”

“Yes.”

“ Beloved. Valera told me your father gave her this. Did he love her?”

“As far as I knew, my father loved no one but my mother, but I was ten when he died.”

“Did he love Erisandra, or did he only wish he could?”

I shrugged. I couldn't tell her why I'd needed a willing bride, nor why we’d done all we could to ensure Reyla loved both of us. We weren’t allowed to speak of our love and the first part of the curse would only break when a willing high fae bride loved us equally and declared it.

“When my dear husband died, I was bereft,” Reyla read in a lilting voice. “I mourned his loss.” She paused, looking up at me. “Do you understand?”

I blinked.

“I’ll continue then.” Her voice lifted an octave. “We weren’t fated mates, but he'd filled my heart. It broke when he died.” She swallowed and turned around on my lap to face me. Tears shimmered in her eyes.

I knew she was thinking of the man she'd loved and lost. She’d told me they hadn’t been fated mates either.

All I could do was stroke her back and curl forward to kiss her cheek. Share the loss with her. I felt no jealousy. How could I when she was mine, and she loved me enough to break the first part of a curse?

“I feel bad for her,” she whispered. But she stiffened her spine and continued, speaking in a hushed tone. “I kept busy with my daughter and my illustrious position at the library. It was a satisfying life even if a sad one. Then Theon came by to express his condolences.” She glanced up at my face. “Note she isn’t calling him King Theon.”

“Perhaps they were good friends. It’s not that uncommon to drop titles in a situation like that.”

“Maybe.” She continued to read. “We talked, and he was sweetly endearing. I couldn't imagine why his queen was unfaithful. How could she betray such a dear man?”

There it was. I'd heard the same rumors, though never spoken to my face. At the time, all I could do was internally grimace. I’d told myself she hadn’t been with the advisor. She was with my father all that time.

“He came by to visit with me again. And again. We would sit in the upper part of the library and talk about our shared love of books. He was well-read, as one would expect in a king, especially one as solemn as Theon.” Reyla looked up at me. “Are you still understanding my words?”

“I don't know if I'm hearing everything you're saying.”

“Good point. The curse could block some of them out. I'm going to trust that you'll hear what you need to. I'll read them all.” She frowned at the book she held between us. “We took long walks together, and despite the difference in our ages and despite him being married to Erisandra, I fell in love with him. I didn't expect to find two men to adore in one lifetime, and I fought it. How could I not when Theon was married? We were together in every way a pair could be, even one sanctioned by the fates.” She sent me a stunned look. “They were fated mates. Fated mates!”

“Why didn’t he put my mother aside to be with Isodine?”

“Do you think he believed only your mother could break the curse? If she loved the advisor, who was actually him, he may have felt he only needed to make her love him as well. Does the couple need to be fated mates to break the curse?”

I shrugged because I didn’t know. “What else did she write?”

“Now that I love him, something has changed,” Reyla read. “Where before I wasn't aware of the curse, now it haunts me. People say such odd things, then don’t appear aware they spoke.” Her breath caught. “That’s like me. Do you think…” Her head tilting, she slowly blinked. “That could mean…” She tapped the open page of the book. “I bet Isodine was the same as me, the only one who could’ve broken the curse for your father.”

“She was not his willing bride,” I croaked out, gasping as my throat closed off, severing my wind.

Reyla stroked my neck, and my wheezing gasp escaped. “Don’t do that. Keep speaking in riddles or blinking. I can’t bear to see you in pain.”

I nodded, then added a blink.

“She wasn’t his willing bride, but she was the one the fates sent to him to end this.” Her sigh rang out. “But it didn’t happen because he was still with Erisandra. And so the curse renewed itself again with you.”

“The fates have fucked up our lives.”

“Hmm. You’re right.” She continued to read. “We were lost from then on. He couldn’t set her aside, not while his other half loved Erisandra, his willing bride. The two argued about it all the time.” She looked up. “She’s referring to your father’s night. How sad. Part of him loved Erisandra while the other loved Isodine.” Lifting the book, she read some more. “She refused the divorce and even if she’d agreed and Theon and I could wed, he refused to make any effort to get to know me. We lost. His birthday came…and there was nothing I could do to save my beloved Theon. But you… Reyla .”

My wildfire's eyes widened as she looked up at me.

“My name is in her diary,” she said. “Valera told me her mother had some gift for foretelling, that she knew I'd come here one day and that…” She pinched her eyes closed and when she opened them, tears trickled down her cheeks. “Maybe she knew I could end this.”

If only I dared dream.

I stroked the tears off her face, hating that she cried for me, while torturously loving that she did.

“I will end it. I promise, Lore. There’s a reason I’m here. The fates wouldn’t bring me to you only to steal you away. I love you. All you were and all you are today. I married you. You. Lorant was right to call me wife, just as Merrick was. I didn’t know it then, but in my heart and on that day on the ship, I was marrying all you are and all you will ever be.”

“You have no idea what it meant to me when you stood on the deck and agreed to be my wife,” I said, my voice low and gutted. “It was so much more than you being a willing bride who could—” I swallowed back the tightening of my throat. “You know.”

“Break the curse.”

I blinked. “All I could see was you. Only you from that moment on. I didn’t care if I was only given six weeks with you. It would be enough.”

“Never enough. We deserve more. We should have a full lifetime.” She tilted her head, a tendril of her moonlit hair spilling over her shoulder. Her lips curved in that knowing smile she reserved for us. “Tell me what you felt then. I know what I felt.”

“Irritation at the part of me who couldn’t help but snarl.”

“Irritation is much too light a word for my feelings back then.”

My laugh snorted out. “I could tell.” I tapped her cute nose. “I knew how much I infuriated you, but I couldn’t stop from pushing you to flame, over and over again.” I held her face, staring into her eyes. “But the wedding . Standing beside you on the ship. Watching you say vows you thought were meant for someone else.”

She blinked, a flicker of confusion mingling with curiosity in her eyes. “I was stunned already, falling for the proxy when I knew I was marrying another man.”

“You were falling already?”

Biting down on her lower lip, she nodded. “I couldn’t help it, though I tried.”

I grinned. “I sensed that as well.”

“You made sure to remind me of that more than once.”

I held her gaze. “I was falling for you already too.”

“Not the snarly part of you,” she said in a mocking tone.

“All of me.” I pressed my fist to my chest. “I could not stay away. Like the tide surging up the shore, my love for you never ends. Our wedding was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Her brows lifted, her lips parting, and I almost smiled at how easily she could appear disarmed by my words.

I brushed my fingers along the column of her throat. “You thought I crafted that dress and those jewels for no reason at all? It was not done out of duty.”

“Such an embarrassing moment for me. Tempest gave me a nice dress, and I stuffed it into my bag. I tried to spell it smooth, but my magic is more inconsistent than I'd like. I felt wretched, but mostly I was worried about disappointing my husband.”

“Let me tell you what I saw. The Reyla standing in front of me was fierce enough to challenge me and brave enough to defy me. But when I saw you that evening, dressed in a gown too simple and rumpled to match your fire, I knew I—” I paused. “I knew I couldn’t keep myself from giving you something worthy. Something that might only somewhat come close to showing you the way I already saw you.”

Her breathing halted. Her fingers squeezed mine, and tears shimmered in her eyes.

I pushed on, the words spilling out faster. “That moonlight… It was all I could control when standing in front of you. Creating that dress meant giving you a piece of the night itself, the same night I’ve always drawn my strength from.” I grazed her jaw with one fingertip, tilting her head to drink in the love in her gorgeous brown eyes. “Not once did you thank me for how luminous the dress made you look.” I was such a tease.

Her laugh came out soft. “I think I managed to fumble out something to that effect before you barked at me about wasting time.”

A rumble escaped my throat. “I had to say that, had to thrust the wall back up between us. Do you have any idea what it did to me to watch you wearing the dress and jewels I’d crafted only for you while knowing I had no right to touch you the way I longed to? I couldn’t expose that weakness. Not then.”

“You tucked flower petals into my hair.” She grinned now, bright and teasing, and I was so grateful she was no longer crying. “That doesn’t exactly scream untouchable bodyguard to me.”

I exhaled, dropping my forehead to hers before speaking. “That was a selfish thing on my part. Completely, irrevocably selfish. Those petals? They were nothing but excuses. A reason to stand closer to you, to pretend, even for a stolen moment, that I was more than the shadow trailing your light.”

“Lore,” she whispered, her tone full of emotion. “You were falling for me then.”

“I didn’t know what the feeling was.” My voice roughened, my grip tightening enough to betray the feelings that had lashed through me from the moment I met her. “All that part of me knew was that the idea of anyone else standing beside you, speaking vows I would kill to say for myself, was unbearable. When we repeated the words together, everything else—the curse—” I choked off but continued, shoving the words up my throat. “The lies, my divided soul—they all disappeared. For the first time, I felt whole. It wasn’t duty or honor or even fate that kept me beside you on that deck. It was the beginning of love.”

She closed her eyes, letting that sink in. Her hands came up to rest against my chest. “I…” Her eyes opened, and something in her expression softened. “I thought you envied that part of you that was Merrick.”

“Merrick loved you from the moment I met you. But the part of me that was Lorant craved you. Adored you. Would’ve and still would do anything to see the light of love in your eyes. Every bit of me dreamed of you whether the moon or the sun had risen. All of me would’ve fought fang and claw to keep you by my side all the time, Reyla. From that moment on, you became my reason for existing.”

She bit her lip, tears threatening to spill again, though she tried to blink them away. “So that moment, when we stood and spoke those vows?—”

“It was everything, Wildfire,” I said, my voice raw. “I accepted that I would love you that day. Part of me fought it?—”

“No,” she breathed with a smirk.

“Even as I swore vows I thought would crumble the second the truth unraveled, I knew one thing. That I would love you with every breath, every touch, and every battle we endured. That moment was the start, Reyla. Everything else has been built on that foundation.”

Her tears fell, but she laughed as she wiped them away. “And here I thought that part of you hated me back then.”

“The only thing I hated was being powerless to claim you the way I wanted to. I stood on that deck, pretending I didn't give a damn, while you shone like the moon herself wrapped in the dress I’d put my heart and soul into crafting. Every bone in my body screamed at me to stop the facade and share the truth even if it killed me. I was desperate to keep you with me forever.”

Her smile trembled, and she fell into me, her arms wrapping around my chest in a hug that felt like home. Her voice, thick with emotion, pressed against my soul. “You did claim me. With flowers in my hair and moonlight caressing my skin.”

I nudged her head up. “What I felt then, Reyla, grew into this. Into us. I’m yours, now and always. But that day and on that ship? You were mine long before either of us admitted it. Don’t ever doubt it.”

Her lips curved upward. “At least this explains your horrible temper.”

I barked out a laugh, kissing her forehead, a crush of love jolting through my chest. “You’re never going to forgive me for that, are you?”

“Never.” She grinned, then dropped her voice, resting her head against my chest again because it had always belonged there. “I’ll remind myself it’s because you loved me too much even back then.”

“I—”

“King Lorick,” someone cried out in the hall. “King Lorick!”

“Lord Briscalar.” Reyla slid off my lap and tugged her nightgown down around her thighs. “I should grab my robe.” She scooped up the diary and velvet bag holding the small blade and scooted into the bedroom while I rose and walked to the door, wearing only soft pants hanging low on my hips.

I found a red-faced Lord Briscalar standing in the hall, sputtering. “What is it?”

“I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, my king. My queen!” He peered past me to where I could feel my wildfire coming up behind me. “I knew you’d want to hear this as soon as it was discovered.”

“Tell us.”

“It’s about the queen mother.” The lord’s wild gaze met mine. “She escaped from her rooms.”