Page 13

CHAPTER 13

Sage

After walking through the twisting, dimly lit passages of the magical grove, we arrived at a large, imposing archway cut into the trunk of the massive tree-castle structure that towered over the Garden.

Above, wide branches reached around and through stone structures, acting like supports or open-air hallways, and lights glimmered from windows, illuminating intricately carved windowsills and balconies.

Ahead of me, the archway opened to a wide hall. It was the now familiar, yet still incredible half-stone, half-wood impossible blend. The walls were a mix of the wood and stone, and the floor was marble, polished to a gleam. Intricate chandeliers hung from the ceiling filled with magical fae light — noticeable because the lights didn’t flicker like a flame would.

Rider strode forward, leading the way. Lord Quill followed, one step behind his Lord Commander, and Onyx fell into step beside Quill, while Zinnia pressed a hand against my back and urged me forward, walking with me.

Hopefully she’d stay by my side for the whole encounter. I might have been a nobleman’s daughter, but I was human. I knew how to behave before the King of Erellod and his nobles in the human realm, but I had no idea how to behave in front of the High Priestess.

And Talon’s order that very first night I met him in the bathing room under the Black Tower, that I don’t look at my feet even when presented to the High Priestess, only applied if I was a Guardsman.

Which, at the moment, I wasn’t.

I tightened my grip on the blanket wrapped around my shoulders, my knuckles turning white with the strain, and resisted the urge to look over my shoulder and seek comfort from Ash.

I wasn’t sure he’d offer it. Our walk to the throne room felt more like an official procession with Talon and Ash as the rearguard, and if that were the case, he probably wouldn’t react to me even if he wanted to.

I didn’t know if the guys were doing it on purpose, but if I was smart, I’d use our arrangement to appear strong and not like I was a prisoner being marched to the dungeon — which was the other possible interpretation for our positions.

With my death grip on my blanket, I squared my shoulders. I didn’t want to be strong. I was scared and sore and exhausted. But I didn’t want anyone else thinking I was an easy target. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but I also didn’t want to invite an attack by letting people know how upset I was.

Wells might be dead, but some of the men got away. Maybe if I acted like Ember, the woman who’d walked into the courtyard and commanded the attention of every man there, my attackers would give up on their plans to bond with me.

The thought made my insides squirm. It went against everything I’d been taught. Even spending a rotation as a man couldn’t eliminate the fear of reprisal for being a woman who wasn’t afraid.

But there weren’t any other options.

The hall ended at two heavy doors intricately carved with vines and blooming flowers. Two guards stood at attention, their armor gleaming in the magical light, their fabric colors matching what Onyx wore, indicating these men were Knights of the Order of the Sacred Grove.

As we drew near, the guards pushed open the doors, revealing a massive chamber beyond. The throne room.

It was enormous. I couldn’t believe how large and majestic it was. I could barely make out the woman on the throne at the other end of the room, and no one in the crowd standing before the throne’s high dais. The sides of the room were wreathed in shadows, and a mix of tree trunks and marble pillars, standing in two even lines and creating a wide central aisle toward the throne, held up a ceiling that soared high above us.

Just like the hall, the throne room continued the blending of wood and stone walls and gleaming marble floor. Large, arched windows lined the walls, their stained glass depicting scenes of fae women being pleasured by multiple mates, and flowering vines framed each window, their blooms pulsing with that soft, magical light.

Rider paused briefly in the doorway as if to make a statement about our arrival — but more likely to let me close my gaping mouth before reaching the High Priestess. Then he continued his steady, confident stride forward.

The front of the room was just as awe-inspiring as the rest. It ended with a recessed area as wide across as the center aisle, and in the recess stood a high dais with a massive throne sitting on it and a spectacular, large stained glass window behind it. The window was a starburst with streaking gold, orange, and red glass, and it gleamed with a brilliant light as if the sun shone through the window even though it was night.

Just below the window, the focus of that light, was the High Priestess’s throne. It, too, was shaped like a starburst, with golden strips of various lengths and sizes protruding from behind it. More of the flowering vines that I’d seen everywhere in the sacred grove, entwined around it, trailing around its base and curling over its arms and back.

Sitting on the throne and somehow not dwarfed by the large structure, was the most beautiful — and powerful — woman I’d ever seen.

Her eyes were so pale I couldn’t tell what color they were and her hair cascaded down in shimmering golden waves, catching the light with every slight movement. She wore a shimmering white gown, the bodice cut wider and lower than mine, her full modesty only maintained by the radiant white mating marks glowing so brightly around her neck and trailing into her cleavage it was difficult to see her pale flesh.

Beside the throne stood three large, powerful fae men, two on the right, one on the left. One of the men on the right was dressed in a green and gold tunic, while the other two wore variations of the armor the knights at the door had worn.

All three had bare arms, exposing the radiant white bands ringing their biceps, the proof that they were the High Priestess’s mates.

At the foot of the dozen stairs that led up to the dais, stood four knights holding polearms. I noticed two more knights standing at doors on either side of the recess’s edges, and when I glanced beside me, I noticed another knight standing in the shadows near the wall.

The crowd that had stood before the throne at the bottom of the stairs parted as we approached. There were dozens of them, mostly men, but I did notice four women, mainly because the men had moved to ensure the women had unobscured views of me. They all stared with hungry and judging gazes, and whispers rippled through the crowd.

The urge to hide squeezed my insides. I felt like prey.

Who was I kidding?

I was prey.

They all wore fine clothes. The women and some of the men wore flashy jewelry around their necks and wrists, in their ears, and woven into their hair.

This was the fae nobility. Even if I hadn’t looked like I’d been beaten and drowned, I wouldn’t have belonged, and they knew it.

And one, perhaps more, of these men could have been involved in attacking me.