“You were supposed to be here,” the Queen approaches coldly, “with your family. You’re supposed to be mourning!”
She’s upset. Extremely upset. And I truly cannot blame her.
Her cool blue eyes flick to mine and take in my stance beside Keane. “But instead you ran off with her.”
A few soldiers walking near us look back at the Queen, obviously hearing the disdain in her voice. I shift quietly next to Keane and look back at his mother with an open apology, unable to deny that I took her son away.
No,my mind reminds me,Keane did.He wanted the travel. Needed to get away with you.
Regardless, I would stand here and take the Queen’s anger, if only to pull it away from the man beside me.
I offer her a deep curtsy in another apology, feeling as a calm rush of magic surrounds my body, the feeling entirely new.
“Don’t you hide us, Desmond!” the Queen states coolly, removing her blue gaze from mine as she looks to her other son.
“Mother…” Keane sighs and takes a step forward, reaching for her hands, “I’m here now.”
The Queen brings her sharp eyes back on Keane and lets her son take her hands, looking at him in equal parts distress and affection.
“Lady Alexis,” Elena’s soft voice rises from our group, “will you take a walk with me?”
I’m grateful for the offer and the distraction it allows for Keane and Desmond to deal with their mother. I give the Princess a small nod as Keane places the Queen’s hand on his arm and leads her back up the stairs to the castle, his eyes finding mine and giving me a small smile in departure.
Desmond moves to walk with them but turns around in thought.
“Your traveling bag is back in your room, Alexis.”
My bag of magical collections.
“Thank you, Desmond,” I nod, watching as the dark Discerni returns to his family. His fingers twitch slightly at his side as his summoning stealth lifts from us.
“The Bell Grove path, perhaps, Lady Alexis?” Elena’s soft voice pulls me back to her request. I turn in her direction and assess the quiet Bardot sister in front of me.
Elena’s skin is lighter than mine, perfectly complimenting her blue eyes and pale blonde hair under the afternoon sun. She’s just a bit shorter than me, her face and features strikingly beautiful in their coolness as they look over me in their own small assessment. She looks to be my age, about twenty four or twenty five in human years, but I know she’s lived far longer than I have.
Her eyes catch mine as she gives a barely-there smile, a smile that has its own polite quirkiness to it and reminds me that she is not known to entertain social interactions. I give Elena a friendly smile before the two of us set off towards the stables. We walk past the building and towards the dirt path that leads along the Bell Grove.
I turn when I hear another set of footsteps behind us and spot a Discerni soldier following the Princess at a small distance. She doesn’t seem to care. Everything about her is light and airy, as if she’s present in the moment right now but her mind and thoughts are elsewhere.
“It was not our intention to cause your mother grief,” I tell the Princess after a few moments of walking in silence, “we just needed the time alone.”
Elena glances at me with a soft, knowing smile. “I know it.”
I take a deep breath, reminding myself just how much Elena actually does know.
She’s the reason I became a ward under the King and Queen, the reason I grew up in Bardot. She’s the reason I’ve been set on this path, why I traveled for her father on behalf of Hirovale, and perhaps even on behalf of Sianoa, the Ancient she studies for. Her actions,no, hervisions, are what seteverything in motion, and I realize now that I have so many questions for her, so many open-ended trails of thought that have yet to be answered.
But will she even be open to answering them for me?
“I can only assist in the areas that I am a part of,” Elena replies, keeping her gaze on the path ahead of us.
My eyes go wide. “Are you a mind reader as well?”
“Barely,” she smiles in amusement, “but I do hear little thoughts, here and there. Mostly thoughts that are resonating strong enough from the other person. They make their way into my mind unannounced. I do not ask for them.”
Ancients.
“Can you tell me what happened to me in Woodlands?” I ask her softly, yearning for the unknown piece of my life. It was a line of thought that I never dwelt on in the past thanks to Troy’s summoning, but whatever Golem did to help me combat the magic recently definitely seems to be working. My interest has piqued, and every part of me wants to know whatever details she can give me.
