Bound as one.
“I’m not sure I truly hated you, though I sure tried.”
“That you did.” He dropped to the floor like he had back then, tugging me onto his lap and holding me, resting his chin on the top of my head, his arms warm around me.
A flit, and he took us to the roof above, tugging me tighter into his embrace.
The mountains rose in the distance, their snow-tipped peaks glowing beneath the moon. The woods spread at their feet, dense and whispering. Far below, the castle gardens slumbered, paths winding through frost-kissed blossoms and bare arbors dreaming of dawn.
Overhead, the stars scattered like spilled salt across an ink-dark sky, and the full moon hung heavy above it all. Round, luminous, and eternal. A promise. A witness. Its light poured over us, soft as breath.
And for a moment, the world felt still.
Like it, too, was watching.
Chapter 46
Reyla
“Will you hold court today, my queen, my king?” Lord Briscalar asked when he joined us for breakfast the next morning.
Faelith had taken Farris outside to play, and they’d recently returned. While Faelith was tidying our bedroom and bathing area, Calista was puttering around the sitting room, straightening this and that. Doing almost nothing to hide that she was listening to our conversation.
I nearly smiled at how obvious she was being.
“We’ll hold court in a few days.” Lore took a bite of a horig cake, groaning with his eyes closing as he chewed. When his eyelids opened, he cocked an eyebrow at my frown. “Nowhere near as good as yours, my pretty bride. In fact,” he laid it back on his plate, “I find I can’t eat any but the ones you make for me.”
That lifted my mood.
The lord went through his plans for Lore’s birthday celebration, but I only half-listened. I kept running through all thepossible clues I’d more or less discovered, trying to see if any might actually tell me what to do.
I ran through the three riddles fromEmber’s Shadow, plus all the other bits people had spit out then stared off into the distance as if they’d said nothing at all.
My head was spinning with all the fragments of information. I pressed my palms against my temples, trying to make sense of it all.
“Can you think of anything else we might need, my queen?” Lord Briscalar asked, his twinkling eyes telling me he knew very well I wasn’t listening.
“Don’t forget to include Farris in the celebration,” I said, just to see how the lord would respond. I could do more than one thing at a time.
My pet sat beside my chair at the table by the window, his snout resting on my thigh as if he was utterly devoted to me. He was, to some extent, but I suspected he was equally devoted to the slices of rusher lying on my plate.
Leaning back in his chair, the lord gave me a doting smile that held only a hint of tease. “You’re so right, my queen. Such a delightful idea. Should we dress him to match the theme?”
Whatwasthe theme?
“Would Farris enjoy that?”
Lore snorted.
“Well, I’d initially thought of the theme, ‘The Very Serious…’” While he rattled on, I thought about the riddles, only resurfacing when the lord spoke again. “Do you believe Farris would be willing to participate in that?”
“Oh, um, yes, I’m sure he would.” The fates knew what I was committing my pet to. “We could hold the party in the ballroom.”
“That was my thought as well, my queen.” Lord Briscalar ate a bite of horig cake and chewed, swallowing. He directed his penand paper to take a few more notes before he sat back in his chair and studied them both. “You look well. Yet you also look strained.”
“We’re worried about the curse. We only have one more day,” I said.
He stared forward blankly. “Please don’t fret about this. One day is plenty of time to sure this party is the best any court has ever seen.” His eyes drifted to the wall behind me. “One hand only may turn the key, who bears the shadow and the sea. Speak not of what you long to see, but ask where the beginning be.”
