A Body to Kill For,a memoir.
Huh?
Cas looked past her, as if in a daze for a moment. “No, my other sister, Maya.”
Sol turned from the shelves to face him. She remembered Gaven mentioning another sister. How she and his mother had been condemned to the dungeons after Draven’s execution, an order from Irene herself. And although it had nothing to do with her, a pang of guilt pulled at her chest. “I’m so sorry, Cas. I never really got totell you that.”
For a moment, emotion swirled in his features. But the cool mask he usually wore hardened a second later. “It’s in the past.”
Sol decided to drop the subject, walking to a lone table to sit and inspect her findings.
Opening the first book, she was immediately greeted by an intensely graphic love scene. She scanned the pages, but when a “generously crafted member” neared a “velvety soft and moist entrance,” she slammed it shut.
“What kind of books are in here?” She pushed the book away with a finger, feeling her face heat.
Cas pulled it toward him. “Books from all over the world, I think.”
He let the book fall open, dust and dirt flying at his face. Coughing, he narrowed his eyes at whatever was on the pages, then lifted a brow at her. “Is this what the great Crown Princess of Rimemere is into?”
She cleared her throat and snatched it back. “Maybe.” They spent a good hour roaming the place, Sol finally finding her preferred type of novels somewhere along the far-right bookshelves. She stayed away from history or anything related to the Wielders this time. She wanted distractions.
Finally, as the moon beyond the open window loomed at its peak, they decided the walk had served its purpose of getting Sol out and agreed to call it a night.
They gathered their findings and made their way back the way they came when a series of figures in her peripheral made her freeze. The first time Sol had been here, she had spent it in the center of the room with the Ketar brothers and Zeri. Still, the fact she had managed to miss what looked back at her was odd.
At the end of the row of shelves, was a tapestry. Enormous enough to take up the entire wall. It depicted seven individuals. On the right, a man and a woman, both with black hair and sapphire eyes, almost twins, were it not for the man’s darker skin. Between them was a youthful-looking woman, her auburn hair tied back and face lit with a resplendent smile. Next to her was a smaller woman with chestnut hair and golden eyes.
Immediately, Sol ran forward.
To the left was a massive, ebony-skinned man, holding a series of scrolls and wearing robes of deep ivory. In front of him was a woman with violet eyes and hair tightened in a tense knot. Then, stark in the center, sitting on an all-too-familiar stone and gold throne, was her mother. Hair dark as night, eyes a piercing cobalt.
She looked younger, angrier than Sol remembered. Regardless, Sol felt tears burn her eyes as she looked from her mother to Lora, then to who had to be her Uncle Axel and Aunt Mel. Gina, the woman who now belonged to King Semmena, and to the woman who had to be Clarisse, Nina’s mother. Finally, she admired the man behind them, who would be Alix’s father.
Her mother’s Court before Lora had arrived to it.
Sol didn’t have many portraits of Irene. Her mother often painted Sol or Lora, or other strangers Sol didn’t ask about, but self-portraits were scarce. She fought the urge to touch it.
“I’ll never look like this,” Sol whispered. “I’ll never be able to fill this.” Her birthmark pulsed slightly, either soothing her or in agreement.
Cas was beside her but watched a speck on the ground instead of the beauty before them. He shifted on his feet, his boot tracing the delicate patterns on the rug.
She looked at him. “What is it?”
His expression was distant, so much further away than she had recently seen it.
Sol turned back to the tapestry.
Lora. Axel, Mel, Clarisse, and Gina. Alix’s father, whose name she couldn’t quite recall.
She stiffened. There was one person missing.
“He was removed from all Royal portraits after it happened,” he said, not looking up from the ground.
Sol felt conflicted. She felt bad his family had been subjected to such dishonor, and that it followed him, despite it not being his fault. But at the same time, there wasn’t much she could say or do to make it better. He had shown her he disliked talking about it, avoided the topic all together when she brought itup. She didn't think this time would be any different. “I’m sure what happened was a last resort,” Sol said at last.
The room darkened ever so slightly.
“The consequence for demanding to know who his betrothed had sired a child with during his absence shouldn’t have been execution.” Cas's closed fists shook slightly, the atmosphere charging with tension.
