Where the purgatory have you been?Valorre’s frantic voice filled her mind. He was close enough that she heard the pound of his hooves on the forest floor. In a matter of heartbeats, he reached her.You disappeared. You disappeared!
“I’m all right,” she assured him as she caressed his silky neck.
His panic lessened only the slightest bit.I kept my distance and gave you privacy while you were mashing bodies with Teryn, and then…and then you were gone. You were just gone.
If her poor familiar wasn’t so upset, she’d be more amused by hismashing bodiescomment. Or perhaps more embarrassed.
“I know. I’m sorry to have worried you. That’s why I came here first.”
Although Valorre’s worry was great, there was someone else who was probably equally as frantic.
Valorre’s emotions flared with jealousy, which he demonstrated by scraping his hoof in the soil. He nuzzled her shoulder several more times, a tad more aggressively than usual, before he finally relented.Go on, then. You should tell him you’re not dead. He…was doing something strange earlier.
She pulled back. “What do you mean something strange?”
Valorre gave the emotional equivalent of a shrug.Something with dead people.
That was enough to leave her equal parts perplexed and concerned. She gave Valorre a final conciliatory pat before worldwalking straight to her bedroom.
She caught Teryn pacing before their bed, his thumbnail between his teeth. He jumped upon seeing her, blinking several times as if he wasn’t sure she was real. His eyes were wild, his hair more mussed than before.
“I’m safe,” she said.
Her words broke the spell on his surprise, and his expression eased. He rushed to her and folded her against his chest. “Thank the gods. I was about six seconds away from waging war on Syrus myself.”
The comfort of his arms, the scent of his skin, the cadence of his heartbeat against her ear, soothed all the fraying edges of Cora’s anxiety. She wished the moment could last. Wished they didn’t have to talk about what had happened or what would come next.
But she couldn’t put it off.
They didn’t have time for that.
She pulled slightly away and locked her eyes with his. His energy constricted. The furrow between his brow hinted at a worry he was desperate to voice. Did it have something to do with what Valorre had mentioned?
“What is it?” she asked.
He framed her face with his hands as if he couldn’t bear to release her. His throat bobbed. Once. Twice. His voice came out strained. “I…I need to tell you something. Something I’ve done. My means were questionable, but I think it can help us.”
“I’ll listen,” she whispered back. “Afterward, I have something to tell you too. I have a plan. Or…the beginnings of one. It might make the Elvyn hate me, but it’s the only way to truly protect the people of Lela.”
Conviction flared in her chest. She knew what she had to do.
Darius may have been wrong about her in many ways. They were nothing alike. Freeing her darkness hadn’t filled her with hatred. Bitterness didn’t compromise her ability to love.
But he’d been right about one thing.
Lela belonged to her.
48
For the first time in Mareleau’s life, there was such a thing as too many sweets. And too many gifts. They filled nearly every surface of her bedroom, from the dressing table to the nightstand and a good portion of the floor. Two marble dress forms boasted bejeweled robes in the Elvyn fashion, which were so heavy and ornate they had to be hauled in by a trio of servants. Decanters of wine, kettles of tea, and plates upon plates of desserts and confections in bold flavors unlike anything she’d tasted were clustered upon the tea table.
After the tribunal’s begrudging acceptance of her, she hadn’t expected much from her interactions with the Elvyn people, but within an hour, visitors had begun to call. It turned out not everyone was as curmudgeonly as those who’d attended the meeting. Thanks to the translation charm on the bracelet Fanon had given her and Cora, she could easily communicate with them. Her servants and palace staff rarely said much other than to pay their respects, but they always bowed at the waist or bent at the knee in her presence.
Edel Morkara’Elle.
She’d heard that title so many times since the meeting ended.
Perhaps being the mother of the Morkara wasn’t too much of a step down from being queen. It certainly came with perks.
