Daje glares in his father’s direction. “I amsurethere was a guard,” he growls, leaning so far forward that the edge of the table digs into his torso as anger contorts his features. “I amsurethat they beckoned Rhea and I towards the beach under the guise that Nox wanted to speak with us. I amsurethat I spoke to Rhea as we walked under the night sky. And I amsurethat I awoke to blood tainting the pathway,both mine and hers.”
My stomach drops as I shake my head. “You were ambushed by someone?”
Daje’s eyes snare mine, their hue the brightest I’ve ever seen them. “Yes.”
The councilmen begin chattering over each other as I sit back against my chair. It is only now clicking in my head that in order for all of this to have happened, it means there are mages working with King Dolian. What would motivate them to do that?
“What is more likely, Son? That you and the lady were attacked out of the blue the same night she pens a goodbyeletter? Or that perhaps, with your guard lowered around her, she took advantage of you to aid in her own escape?”
“She wouldn’t have done that—”
“And you know her?” his father cuts in, spearing Daje with a menacing scowl. “Well enough to predict her actions? Her whims and desires?”
“She was my friend!” Daje shouts, slamming a fist on the table and lurching from his chair. “And Nox entrusted me to keep her safe, and I—” He stumbles backwards, a hand running over his head and then down his face. He stares at his father, unspoken fury floating between them before he spins on his heel and marches out of the room.
My father stands from his chair and reaches a hand out towards my mother. “I think this council needs a break. We should adjourn for now.”
Surprisingly, Kallin agrees. “Our job, first and foremost, is the protection of this kingdom and the people that reside within it. If that expectation cannot be met under the current state of affairs, then we will act as we need to in accordance with the rules that are laid out for our kingdom.”
The threat pierces my father’s chest, but he does a good job of hiding his reaction. Our laws are written to retain a balance of power between sovereign and councilexceptin moments when the council feels their ruler is not acting in the kingdom’s best interest. If the majority votes to remove my father as king, there is nothing he can do to stop it.
I stand from my chair and move to join my parents when Kallin speaks at my back. “Princess Bahira, I understand you have only just returned, but we expect a full report of what you have learned in the Shifter Kingdom. As well as if relations with them are still onfriendlyterms should this event with Lady Rhea turn into something more.” Trepidation slithers down myspine, and I don’t spare the councilman a glance before exiting the council room with my parents.
I follow them down the hall, heading deeper into the palace and ignoring the way our presence—or more accurately,mypresence—draws the gazes of those we pass. “Where are we going?”
My father waits until a pair of guards walks past us to answer. “To see your brother.”
Chapter Five: Bahira
Irunmyfingersthrough Nox’s hair, pulling the wavy strands away from his forehead. It had apparently only been a day since the guards found him on the beach after the ball, passed out in what my parents had described to me as a crater in the sand, its diameter at least ten feet wide.
“Wake up, idiot,” I whisper, earning a snort from Cass who leans against the wall next to the door, officially off duty but standing in as Nox’s personal guard anyway.
“I’m sure being called that will coax him right awake,” he drawls, though his levity is only a fraction of what I’m used to.
I snort before I sit back in the chair propped at the side of the bed. “Tell me again what happened.” Cass has already run through the events of the ball and what happened after, when Nox learned Rhea was missing. It explains the state of the council room and the destruction of the Mirror, the latter a piece of information that gutted me to learn. I knew I had to tell Kai—or more specifically, Siyala—about Rhea. Anything beyond that, however, I hadn’t decided on. With the possibility of talking to the shifters now gone, it’s suddenly all I can think about. Would Kai try to reach out through the Mirror when a week or two or three went by without word from me? Would he evencarebeyond needing the information for Siyala? Or would my silence encourage him to move on, if thereiseven anything about us to move on from? I ignore the way the thought slices through my gut.
Cass clears his throat when he finishes his full recap of events again, and when I shoot him a glance, he’s a few feet closer than he was before. “You alright?” he asks, a single brow drawing up. “You looked as if you were in a daydream.”
“Sorry. There’s just a lot on my mind.” Tilting my head back, I look up at the ceiling, tracing the long wooden beams that cross the room. The astringent scent of the healing wing is layered in every breath, this part of the palace one I grew familiar with as a child but had never seen Nox step foot in. Perks of him having strong magic and all.
“He’ll be okay,” Cass says softly. “Galen thinks he just expended too much magic.”
At the uncertainty of his tone, I ask, “And what doyouthink?”
“I don’t know. A part of me has always thought of Nox’s magic as infinite. Something ever present. To assume that hereached an otherwise unknown limit, enough so that he needs to fall into a deep sleep in order to repair himself, isn’t exactly a comforting thought.”
I hum in agreement, closing my eyes as I draw in a deep breath.
When Nox first began training with his magic as a child, he was reckless with it. He’d draw it out and toss it around as if it was a toy. When the council suggested he train more extensively, trading in classroom time for more hands-on manipulation practice, he had eagerly agreed. The lessons seemed excruciating, Nox often gone for the entirety of the day, but he learned to control it far beyond most could at his age. When his shadows were discovered, the council theninsistedhe dedicate even more time to controlling it. So the idea that he somehow slipped and drained his body of power is unsettling indeed.
“There’s also the fact that I can’t sense his magical signature.”
At that, I open my eyes and lift my head to look at Cass, growing wary at the tight lines that bracket his mouth. “At all?”
“Well, I can if I’m right at his side, but it’s like there’s somethingwrongwith it. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but for an entire day to pass and have it still be off…” He gives his head a shake. “Perhaps he just needs more time to rest, like Rhea did when she first came here.”
Thathadbeen an interesting fact to learn. Something about how Cass described her magic had tugged at my mind, but I couldn’t quite place why it sounded so familiar other than the fact that it is akin to Nox’s.
