But then the queen’s gaze lands on me, and I can’t help but observe her more closely. The longer she stares, the more I can’t shake the feeling I’ve met her before.
“And you must be Kalliope.” My body freezes, paralyzed as the last syllable falls from her lips. Odeyssa’s body visibly goes rigid next to me, her body tensing just like mine. Sintharion lazily sweeps his eyes to look over at me, analyzing like he’s seeing me in a different light.
Voraxis must feel the anxiety coursing through me.
What’s wrong?
I—I don’t know yet.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I thought you would recognize me,” the queen adds, humor now lacing her tone. She’s not wrong. Something about her is familiar, but I don’t know what. “Maybe this will jog your memory.” With a flick of her arm, green smoke covers her form, and in an instant, a raven flaps its wings in her place.
It’s the same raven after that nightmare that left my room destroyed. The one that rested on my windowsill andtrulyconvinced me I had lost it because I was talking to a fucking bird. It was her? What the hell is going on? Then, right before my eyes, her wing crosses over her, and the green smoke returns, and I expect the queen to be in her normal state, but once the green dissipates, I’m left speechless once again.
“Alex?”
It seems like a lifetime ago when I saw her running through the courtyard with my notebook. Or when I ran into her at the gym. Was it all a ploy to get close to me?
That’s what this whole damn thing has been. A game. My mind can’t comprehend what my eyes are seeing, and knowing that was her all this time is…unsettling.
“I’ve been awaiting your arrival.” That voice is the same as the out-of-breath girl chasing me down. In an instant, her humanfeatures vanish, replaced by the sharp, unmistakable elegance of her fae form, as if the shift never happened.
At this point, I don’t feel fazed. A little shocked, but overall, I’m just…numb. Detached from it all. Because at the end of the day, there’s no telling what new secrets are lurking around the corner, and I’ve learned to just roll with the punches.
“It’s Kallie,” is the only response I can muster.
“Kallie. Much more modern than Kalliope, don’t you think?”
“That’s one way to look at it, I guess.” My words come out muffled. I’m tired. Exhausted from fighting the never-ending jungle of incessant vines reaching to tighten around my throat. Maybe I should let them. Whatever fight or war I’ve found myself in the middle of, I don’t want it. And yet, it seems, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get away. Forever fated to be in some sort of supernatural battlefield.
“I’ve been wondering when you were going to come my way. However, I am surprised by the terms we are meeting,” she confesses.
“Who are you exactly?” I ask, bypassing her comment.
She lets out a lighthearted chuckle. “My apologies. I’m Aslan, Queen of Viaterra.”
EIGHTEEN
Kallie
Though every morsel of my being is depleted, my mind continues to reel with all the new information. It’s unsettling to know there was yetanotherfae following me when I didn’t even know this place existed. Why not just tell me? The unfathomable amount of dishonesty in this realm is suffocating, deceiving in a way I didn’t know to be possible.
I’m thankful when Aslan doesn’t push the conversation further. Instead, she offers for us to stay for the remainder of the night. Regardless, the only thing I’m looking forward to is a hot shower and hopefully sleeping for a few uninterrupted hours.
Wordlessly, Sintharion turns around, effectively dismissing us from the queen’s quarters. We trek back down the hall, eluding the grand staircase, and I note it’s oddly eerie with only the sound of our footsteps against the mahogany wood.
He stops unexpectedly, and I almost barrel into Odeyssa.
“I hope this will be to your liking. Sorry we couldn’t be moreaccommodating under such short notice.” But the twitch in his body language tells me he isn’t the least bit apologetic. They both lock in on some sort of unspoken standoff, so I barrel past them and open the door.
Immediately, my steps falter as I take in the expansive room. This is way bigger than I expected. My whole dorm could fit in here at least three times.
The first area is like a living room of sorts. A couch rests in the center, accompanied by a matching loveseat in front of the far windows. Chairs of different sizes are scattered over the space. Lastly, on each side are two other doors. My hand falls from the doorknob as I look over my shoulder. “Do you have a room preference?”
“Take whatever,” Odeyssa responds, not taking her eyes off Sintharion, who is staring at her with the wickedest grin. Without another word, I make my way to the nearest door on the right. The moment it clicks shut behind me, my back presses against the cold wood, and I close my eyes, allowing myself a much-needed moment of silence.
Against my will, thoughts ofhimfilter in, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to stop them. Even though the last interaction we had was nothing short of excruciating, a small part of me longed to have him close like that again. The way it was in the beginning. Terrifying in the way you free fall before deploying a parachute. Adventurous like booking a trip with no plan and finding yourself lost in the forest, enjoying the scenery. All-consuming in the way you feel your soul set on fire, like all the stars were hand-picked and stretched across a perfectly clear night sky, laid out in constellations specifically designed for you.
What a mess.
