The figure wove between the oaks, but her feet left no trace in the snow. Her hair floated as if she were underwater, translucent strands shifting in slow, weightless waves.
I staggered towards the trees before realising I was moving.
“If your legs are tired, princess,” Riven drawled, snapping me back to reality. “You could always rest them on my shoulders.” He shot me a wink.
“Shut up, Riven,” Orin ordered, shoving his shoulder and Riven stumbled back with an amused chuckle.
“Go, I will wait with Lyra while she catches her breath. When you lap us, we will stay together,” Orin said.
Towards the ghost.
A warm hand on my shoulder startled me. I whirled, almost colliding into Orin’s chest.
“Easy now,” Orin said soothingly, running his hands gently over my shoulders. “Focus on where you are.”
“I was…” I trailed off, looking back over my shoulder, searching for the ethereal woman.
“You were humming and walking after something no one else could see. You were having an episode. I know.”
An episode.A bitter taste rose in my mouth, but Inodded. The palace guards were trained to watch me for signs of my madness, to report me for bloodlettings.
“I worry about you being without your… treatments,” he said in a hushed tone.
I stiffened under his touch.
“I know they were rough for you. But you did seem less…troubledfor a few days after them.”
“You’ve been gone for seven years, Orin. Trust me when I say I was more troubledafterthem,” my voice trembled.
“What doesthatmean?” His eyebrows drew together, his hands stilling on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it,” I muttered, trying to peer around him.
Suspicion darkened his features. His hands gripped my shoulders tightly.
“Lyra?” He demanded. “How did it get worse?” But I couldn’t tell him. I didn’t want him to know how I had suffered through the priest’s lust.
“Why did you leave me?” I asked instead, ignoring his question. It made me sick to my stomach even thinking about what the priest took from me. I couldn’t tell him.
“Aldric caught me sneaking out of your room the night before the last Ascension. He gave me two options. It was either death by the king’s hand or sacrificing myself.” He sighed, leaning his forehead against mine. “It broke a part of me to disappear.”
“It broke me too,” I whispered.
“If you keep seeing things or hearing things that aren’t there, promise me you will find somewhere private and…” He trailed off.
I gave him a stiff nod, but bile rose in my throat. He wanted me to slice a blade through my ownflesh.Gods, no.The idea made my skin crawl, like something vile had slithered under it. The thing growing inside me since my last bloodletting had begun to feel like a part of me. I could feel it, swirling in my chest behind the cage I had shoved it in. But it felt like it would protect me, which was more than anyone else had ever done for me. The sound of boots against snow made us jump apart. I turned to see our squad rounding the barracks, another squad closely behind them.
They grew closer and we started jogging again. The woman in the trees still watched me, beckoning me with her song.
“Are you alright?” Dreya panted beside me.
“Just not as fit as all of you,” I puffed. It wasn’t a lie.
“A life as pampered princess will do that,” Hadley rasped, rolling her eyes.
“Yet here we are,” Roman said, nodding towards the snow. “Running in the cold like we’re all the same.”
I kept my eyes forward, forcing my legs to move with the others. But as we passed the grove again, I couldn’t help it. I glanced back.
