Lora took a step closer to him. “About what I said last time…”
He looked into her bright aquamarine eyes, more fae than when he’d first seen them but just as striking.
Eyden thought he saw the same craving that he felt deep in his heart reflected in her eyes, but he must be mistaken. What did she see when she looked into his eyes?
“I—” Lora started, but she never finished her sentence.
The white curtain separating them from the party jerked open, making Eyden’s heart jump. He immediately stepped in front of Lora, but she peeked around his shoulder at the intruder.
The fae standing in front of them had short blonde, almost white, hair, and her eyes were like liquid gold. Eyden recognised her and he knew she hadn’t stumbled in here by mistake.
“Varsha. I didn’t know you’d be here tonight,” Eyden said, unsure why she’d interrupted them. How much trouble were they in?
Chapter19
Amira
The book Amira had taken off one of the high shelves in the Carnylen library almost fell from her hands. Stumbling from the weight of it, Amira managed to put it on a nearby table. As she shuffled through the pages, she couldn’t help but be annoyed at the lack of information.
For a few days now, she had been coming to the royal library in the palace, and so far she had encountered nothing about witches and their powers, let alone anything about getting rid of them or freeing herself from hercurse.It made sense that she wouldn’t find any spell books out in the open, but it still frustrated her to no end.
Amira had been careful about her dosage of fortae. On her first day, she’d taken too much and the letters in front of her had turned blurry. She had been mad at herself for rendering herself useless.
Today, fortae was keeping her from feeling the deep emptiness that would surely overwhelm her, all alone in a foreign kingdom. Tarnan had been busy the last few days and Amira had avoided her “maid”as much as possible, the judgement on Elyssa’s face making her skin crawl when all she wanted was to feel nothing at all.
Amira had ordered Elyssa to stay in their quarters, and Elyssa had been less than enthusiastic about her command. It made Amira suspect she’d been right and Elyssa wasn’t just here to provide Amira with fortae and earn whatever silver Rhay must have promised her. Yet, as much as she wanted to know more about Elyssa, a voice in her head told her to keep her distance. She needed to focus on saving herself.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, Amira sat on a sunset-coloured armchair. The afternoon sun highlighted all the colourful, ancient spines that lined the bookcases. The library was huge. Even with a ladder, she couldn’t reach the highest shelves.
Amira rubbed her eyes. She was finally away from her brother, Karwyn, and Rhay, yet she couldn’t relax. In her core, her power simmered, ready to escape if she wasn’t careful.
Pushing her chair away from the table, Amira grabbed the thick book to put it back on the shelf. Letting her finger run across the spines on the shelf, she closed her eyes as she took comfort in the pill running through her system until her hand lingered on a strangely ice-cold cover. As she looked it over, Amira realised that the book was fake. She pulled it towards her, and the bookcase started moving.
A narrow cedar door appeared in front of her. Could it be the answer to her questions? She turned the handle, but it was locked.
Amira pulled hard, rattling the handle, desperate to open the door. But no matter the strength she put into it, it wouldn’t move. Annoyed, she kicked the door. A numb pain radiated through her, cancelled out by fortae. Amira pulled back and rammed her shoulder against the door. She dimly felt a sting in her bones. It only fuelled her anger more.
Grabbing a random book from the bookcase, she threw it at the door. It fell on the ground with a loud thump. Still, the door didn’t budge one bit. The more she stared at the door in front of her, the more it seemed to mock her as if to say,You thought there was hope? How naïve.
Slowly, the voice turned into Karwyn’s, then Wryen’s. Haunting her mind, reminding her of howuselessshe was. How utterlycursed.
An unstoppable fire started in her chest. Fortae, the darkness inside her, her hopelessness, it all blended together, throwing her into utter madness. Amira’s heart beat faster, her skin flushing. Rage was the only thing fortae—no,she—allowed herself to feel.
Amira grabbed another book, throwing it at the door and watching it fall to the ground, then another, and another—with no regard for their value, all the while yelling incomprehensible words. She let her anger lead her, let it consume her. There was nothing else she could feel. Nothing else shewantedherself to feel.
Taking a random book, she tore at the pages. It was all useless anyway, no one had the answer she was searching for. There was no salvation.
Her eyes landed on a beautiful vase, gold lines creating an intricate design on the ceramic. Picking it up, Amira felt its weight in her sore arms. With a loud yell, she threw it on the ground. Pieces of ceramic shattered around her, scratching her already raw arms.
Her hands trembled, the darkness itching to crawl out of her. She pressed her hands against her chest, begging for it to stop. The shelves around her rattled, wood creaking, books falling to the ground at her feet. Throwing her hands up, she tried to block them, but the corner of a book scratched her cheek.
Why,why,was she cursed with this power?
Pressing her eyes shut, Amira tried to think of something,anything,to stop her power. A loud creak made her eyes snap open again just in time to dodge a falling bookshelf. In her haste, she stumbled over a pile of books, and, as the ground seemed to swallow her, her power finally drew back.
Amira breathed heavily as she slid to the floor, her fingers touching a shard of broken ceramic from the vase that used to stand proudly on a pedestal. The library around her was a battlefield, the floor covered in books and pieces of paper, one of the cedar bookshelves split open on the ground.
She punched against her thigh as tears burned her eyelids. Who had she become?
