Page 29

The aftermath of the eclipse didn’t just include Taiyo’s newly recovered health and Hellebore’s lengthened lifespan.

In the week following, Taiyo received reports of several Moon Elf attacks that had occurred on the borders. All of them had been wearing plain, nondescript clothes, so they weren’t official movements of their military.

But that didn’t mean Taiyo didn’t swear up and down as he paced their room, ranting about the Moon Elves and their prejudice and belief in their own superiority. He smacked his hand against the reports while telling Hellebore that the Moon Elves they’d caught had to be from the king himself.

Not that Taiyo really wanted it to be an official act from the Moon Elf king, given how much he really didn’t want to go to war.

Hellebore did her best to soothe him, reassuring him that the cured irises had allowed them to send the Moon Elves that had started a skirmish running and their king had easily given Taiyo jurisdiction to do with the ones caught as he saw fit.

Hellebore spent a significant amount of time every day being studied under the guise of checkups by the Sun Elf healers. She kept her complaints in her head, knowing she probably deserved all of it, given her long tenure as an alchemist being the one who usually poked and prodded.

They were all aglow with the thought that the Sunrise Iris and an alchemist who could perform a transfusion could change a human’s lifespan so any elf who did fall in love with a human didn’t necessarily have to lose them to a human lifespan.

They weren’t eager for that to become common knowledge amongst the alchemists, and Hellebore agreed it should be a closely guarded secret. If her aunt had known she could have doubled her lifespan… There were plenty of alchemists who would abuse that information.

Without the desperate need for a cure and finally being dismissed from the healer’s purview, her days were shared with Haruko and Taiyo, who began teaching her and letting her take on some of the duties that came with being queen.

It turned out saving her brother’s life really did wonders for Haruko warming up to a person.

She kept her lab and was able to run studies and experiments there, but Hellebore was tired of plants, so until something else caught her interest, she was ready for a break from being an alchemist and happy to be a queen.

Taiyo certainly loved the fact that she’d begun actually wearing all the beautiful, elegant Sun Elf dresses he’d had her wardrobe stocked with. He made no secret about it. Hellebore had warmed up quite a bit to the more elegant and less practical clothes, purely for the look in her husband’s eyes every time the sun began to set and it painted her in a golden glow.

She’d never cared before about being beautiful, and while Taiyo assured her he loved her in any of her clothes, elvish or alchemist or neither, for the first time in her life, she found herself pulling out nightgowns based on what she thought Taiyo’s reaction would be.

She’d never believed marriage could be anything quite like this. Or that she would have a husband who loved her the way Taiyo did.

It was so much better being his wife and not just his alchemist.

Three months after the eclipse, Hellebore rushed out of the castle one afternoon and into the courtyard, ignoring everyone but the brunette climbing off a horse. She didn’t stop until she ran right into Callahan’s arms as he crushed her to himself.

He laughed. “I told you I’d be coming back.”

She pulled back and swatted at his arm. “I didn’t expect it to be so soon!”

Callahan shook his head and looked her over. “Hels, what have they done to you? You look like a Sun Elf!”

She reached up and touched her rounded ears. “Don’t worry, Cal, it’s just a dress.”

The door opened behind her, and she turned to see Taiyo following her out after she’d left him in the dust the second Phoebe told her in a stammering voice that her brother was in Auror.

“She looks like the Queen of the Sun Elves, Prince Callahan,” Taiyo said, coming down the steps and to Hellebore’s side, looping one arm around her waist. Hellebore leaned into his embrace instinctually. Taiyo continued, “We’re glad to have you here.”

“Oh, don’t speak too soon, elf. I’m here to make sure my sister hasn’t lost her mind. Don’t think you’re off the hook with me.”

Taiyo extended his hand regardless and smiled. “I look forward to proving myself. As well as showing you my gratitude. I’m told I have you to thank for returning my blood and therein saving my life.”

Callahan eyed it for a moment before taking it and shaking it. “You’re welcome. And I expect even more gratitude after you hear the news I’ve brought from Chymes.”

They started making their way inside and Callahan looked around and lowered his voice. “Once the healers at the academy declared her stable enough to travel, I escorted our aunt to our father personally. Even if I hadn’t, we met up with the guards he sent to bring her in not long after we left the academy. So it wouldn’t have been long either way. Her arm was a lost cause by the time the palace healers looked at it, while Father pulled together a trial. It wasn’t hard to convince Emerson to throw her under the wagon just by telling the truth. Of course, Father easily forgave me for the role I played and was happy to pin the whole mess on her and charge her with the crime of possessing elf blood as per our treaty. She was found guilty; not even she could talk her way out of it. Sentenced to house arrest at the palace for the rest of her life, stripped of all titles.”

Taiyo kept his expression neutral and his gaze ahead as Hellebore’s mind whirled, processing everything Callahan said.

“But that’s not all of it. She got… rowdy during sentencing and the guards had to step in. Even with a bad arm, she wasn’t easy to subdue. When the guards took her down, she started bleeding.” Callahan paused, lowering his voice ever further. “Her blood was black.”

Hellebore came to a screeching halt, and Taiyo quickly pulled all three of them into the closest room, a random sitting room in the empty guest wing of the palace.

“What do you mean, she bled black blood?” Taiyo hissed.

“Exactly what I said.” Callahan raised his hands defensively. “It looked like yours.”

“How is that possible?”

Hellebore grabbed Taiyo’s sleeve, closing her eyes. “The sedative.”

“What?” Callahan asked.

She opened her eyes and let go of Taiyo’s sleeve. “I did it. When I transmuted the sedative into her blood the way Emerson did the paralytic into mine, that’s what caused it. My hand was covered in Taiyo’s blood, so when I grabbed the sedative, some of it got onto the herbs. When I transmuted the sedative, the blood on it went with it. I put the rot in her blood.”

Callahan shook his head. “Well, you’ve stumped every healer in Chymes. They’re giving her about ten years before it kills her.”

“Sunshine?” Taiyo whispered, hand running up and down her shoulder.

“I’m… I’m alright… I don’t… I mean, I didn’t mean to, but… I don’t want her dead, but what she did to you, Taiyo…” Hellebore closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “I don’t know what to feel.”

Callahan shifted his weight. “What I didn’t mention, if this helps, was house arrest wasn’t the first sentence she was given. Originally, she was found to be a traitor, and you know how our father deals with traitors.”

Hellebore was never going to forget the letter their father had sent outlining what he’d do if she broke the engagement and condemned herself as a traitor.

Execution.

“When she started bleeding black and the healers investigated it, he changed it to house arrest, since she was going to succumb to the disease eventually. If anything, you gave her a few extra years. Although, I don’t know if the two of you think that’s worse.”

Taiyo murmured, “I wouldn’t wish that rot on anyone, even her.”

Hellebore remembered how it felt to have the corrupted blood running through her veins even briefly… Taiyo had been living with it for years.

Maybe this was a much better punishment for the crimes she’d gotten away with for years.

Taiyo’s fingers laced through hers and he squeezed her hand gently.

“Well, what’s done is done. I can’t change it now.”

Callahan took a seat on one of the chairs, quickly changing the subject. For someone who would one day be king, he wasn’t very skilled at handling serious and delicate discussions. “Of course, now the King’s Alchemist’s position is open, and guess—”

“Emerson, obviously,” Hellebore said as she sank into the sofa across from her brother. Taiyo sat next to her, arm draped across the back as she leaned into his side.

If she didn’t know how offended he’d be by the suggestion, she’d encourage her brother that he could learn a thing or two about being a king from Taiyo. They still had a lot of ground to cover for Taiyo to win him over.

Callahan gestured at them. “Nauseating. Are the two of you going to be like this the whole time I’m here?”

“Don’t act like I didn’t catch you with a chambermaid in the east corridor last winter,” Hellebore said, and Callahan flushed immediately, pulling at his collar. “Don’t complain, my husband and I are hardly worse than that. Need I remind you exactly what I saw with your—”

“That is enough of that from you!” Callahan snapped. “You are still my little sister and I can only stomach so much in one day. Besides, you’re exaggerating. It was not that scandalous.”

“If it’s not that scandalous, why would you be in such a rush to shut me up about it?” Hellebore raised an eyebrow.

Their father had had a conniption when he’d heard of it. While their father was prone to overreacting, it certainly wouldn’t have been swept under the rug if the girl had been of a higher status. She’d already warned Taiyo they’d need to keep an eye on Callahan if he started flirting with any girls during his visit.

“I’ll have you know there is actually a young lady—actually, no.” Callhan cut himself off, cheeks dusting pink as he waved his hand. “You don’t need to know anything.”

She rolled her eyes and looked up at Taiyo, who was smirking. “He was just about to say whoever is the current object of his affections, he’s serious about this time. He says it every time. I’m waiting for him to mean it.”

Taiyo laughed, hand shifting up and down her arm.

“Maybe this time I do, but you’ve lost the privilege of knowing anything about it since you want to run your mouth.” Callahan glared at Taiyo’s hand on her. “Enough of that too! Seriously, you two are monarchs, why are you looking at each other all doe-eyed?”

“Fine, please, Prince Callahan, enlighten me. What exactly does it mean that your friend Emerson has taken over your aunt’s position?” Taiyo asked, shifting slightly to focus his gaze on Callahan.

Hellebore moved just enough so her ear rested on his chest as Callahan launched into telling them of Emerson’s misadventures in the last three months.

Taiyo’s heart beat strong and steady beneath her. She grinned at what was the beginning of a collection of life she so looked forward to amassing throughout the rest of her days.