Pretty words, but in reality, I would help her for one simple reason. The Stone was more than a relic my father could use at will to intensify his power. It was, had always been, much more than that, and my father should have told me. Told Kael.
Gyorians with honor did not lie, and he’d done so in grand fashion. Did Kael know this when I confronted him on that road? If so, why did he not tell me?
“We will retrieve the Stone, but it remains with me until I understand more.”
Or until you tell me the full truth, I added silently.
“We?”
“If I sent you from Gyoria, would you return?” I asked, knowing the answer already.
“Aye.”
“And be killed for your efforts.”
“Likely not.”
Those two words were chilling. Even Lyra allowed for the possibility that she could be overwhelmed by my father’s men, and for certain by the king himself, if he chose to make good on his threat.
If I kept her close, controlled the terms, perhaps I could learn the entire truth too.
“Wewill retrieve it. But I’ll have your word, you will not attempt to take it from me.”
A vow I didn’t expect her to keep, though breaking it could reveal her true character.
She hesitated for the briefest of moments.
“You have my word.”
“Gather your belongings.”
“Uh, Terran. Just one particular problem: We don’t know where it is.”
“Youdon’t know where it is,” I clarified. “My father may have kept important things from me, but I am the Prince of Gyoria, and his son, and have a strong suspicion where it might be.”
Better than a suspicion. I was certain I knew where he relocated it to. But knowing would be easier than retrieving. Or than learning the full truth from Lyra about what her king had learned from Princess Mevlida’s appearance and the cause of the present imbalance.
Those revelations would come later. First, I had to keep Lyra alive and retrieve the Stone without raising my father’s suspicions.
No easy task indeed.
10
LYRA
“Absolutely not.”
When Terran told me to gather my belongings, I hadn’t expected him to lead me to a door in the very same corridor which I had previously occupied. Perhaps that was the reason he’d told me to hang back while he looked out first. And then shuffled me into… his bedchamber.
Somehow, from the moment we entered, I could sense it was his. And after our encounter, it was the last place I wished to stay. Knowing my own limits was a strength, my parents said. And in this particular case, Terran was a limit. Innuendos and harmless flirting were one thing. Being alone and sufficiently tempted into actual relations with someone who had occupied my thoughts throughout the years more than I wished to admit was another.
He stirred my ancient Aetherian blood like no one else. A Gyorian. The son of Balthor. My enemy. And yet…
“You have little choice.” He closed the door behind him.
I glanced around the expansive chamber, expecting it would have been cold, severe, perhaps sharpened by stone and steel. But this… this was something else entirely. The fire was already lit when I stepped inside, casting a warm glow over dark walls softened by deep-green tapestries and shelves filled with worn books and small, strange relics. A low-slung leather chair sat near the hearth, creased as if someone spent time here. A large, arched window overlooked the cliffs and forest beyond, the kind of view that made you feel untouchable, removed from the chaos. It wasn’t just a chamber. It was a sanctuary.
“What is the smell?” I asked.
