Lora groaned. As much as she loved training now, purely working on her fire was not something she’d choose willingly. For one, it brought her closer to Karwyn’s ritual, and two, it still felt wrong to try and use her fire while her family waited for her to come back. Lora still had no clue if she ever could.
Rhay met her gaze. “I saw what you did in Quarnian, Lora. You can do much more than light a dagger on fire. You’re getting better at calling on it, but you’re still holding back. Why is that? When you’re holding that dagger, you’re giving it your all.”
“The dagger makes me feel safe. The fire makes me feel out of control,” she admitted.
Rhay clasped her hands. “Youaredangerous, love. Be glad for it. Embrace it. Let it be a part of you.”
Lora moved her hands out of his hold. “I’m totally beat. Let’s continue another time, okay?”
Rhay sighed. “First thing tomorrow. You’re in luck, I should go anyway. My father has arranged a meeting with me. It’ll be a joy.” Instead of water, Rhay took a swig out of his emerald flask.
Lora gathered her things, but before she left the training room, she turned back to Rhay. “You know, you’re a good teacher. And maybe if you opened your eyes, you could be a good advisor too.”
Rhay’s forehead creased. She didn’t let him reply as she walked out of the room.
She hadn’t mentioned the door Rhay had told her about, afraid she’d push him too far before he was ready to choose a side. But sooner or later, he would be forced to choose. Lora hoped he would make the right decision, for his sake and hers.
* * *
Since Layken wasn’t lingering by the door, waiting for her, Lora took the rare opportunity to walk around the palace. She had to use every free second. The dagger Rhay had gifted her was hidden in her knee-high boots. Varsha and Lora had taken these last few weeks since the masquerade ball to figure out the guards’ routine and to find the best time to steal one of their uniforms.
The only one they couldn’t understand was Layken. He was here one minute, then gone the next. Lora was tempted to ask him what he was up to, but he had been a sealed book since their strange encounter in her room when she’d been in disguise.
She and Varsha had also updated the palace map. With unskilled hands, Lora had drawn the pathways downstairs and the tunnel access. They were ready to break into that door Saydren had disappeared into. Eyden and Lora would do so at the next event when Saydren and Karwyn were both occupied.
Eyden.She couldn’t shake the burning image of them together. Lora could blame the fact that she could have died in Quarnian, that Eyden had started it, but none of it mattered. It all came down to the same fact: that night, she hadn’t been able to resist.
She could still hear her own words from the end of the night in Chrysa. What would she say to him if there was no contract to speak of?
Weeks had passed with nothing more than runia calls where they danced around their last encounter, but it did nothing to tame the flame inside her. She knew she had hurt him, and he still seemed to look through her disguise. How long could she keep this up?
Her biggest distraction had been the library. Varsha had mentioned it to her some time ago, thinking no one would stop her from going there. So Lora had added a new activity to her routine of training and sneaking around with Varsha on occasion when Layken wasn’t around.
She was trying to find anything to help rid her of the blood contract. Unfortunately, even though she’d turned over a huge part of the library, she’d come up empty. She needed a loophole to get out of it without Karwyn’s consent.
The books still had their appeal. Lora found it quite fascinating to read about human and fae history from the other side. She’d heard it all before. The border spell had been created after the fae swore to never enslave humans again, to never bind them to life contracts so they would be forced to do the fae’s every bidding. Witches had used two powerful artefacts to create the border spell and then split the artefacts between the two worlds.
But the fae wrote it as if it was a big sacrifice on their part. As if they were kind,heroes.As if they weren’t the ones who had fallen under the Dark King’s reign and doomed humanity in the first place—until fae and humans had banded together to overthrow the devious Dark King with his mind control power that only worked on fae, not humans. But even that hadn’t saved the humans in Liraen from a dark fate. Lora shuddered at the thought of fortae, the memory of those drug dealers hauling her out of her cell still present in her nightmares.
With some time to kill before meeting Varsha, Lora took the familiar path to the large library, hoping to find something more useful this time.
As she neared the double doors, voices drifted towards her. Usually, no one visited the library. Slowing down, Lora creeped towards the door, left slightly ajar, and peeked through the slit.
Karwyn was talking to Saydren in hushed tones. Even with her superior hearing, Lora could only make out a few words. “—on Caelo Night. Don’t forget,” Saydren said.
Caelo Night.Lora had come across it in her research. On the first of December, the fae gathered outside to watch the stars burn brighter than any other night. They believed it meant Caelo was closer than ever, watching over them.
She leaned closer to catch more of their conversation, and the door sprang open an inch with a loud creak. Heads turned her way.
Karwyn’s face turned sour as he stalked towards the door and swung it open completely. “What are you doing here, cousin?”
“I was…” Her sentence hung in the air as she watched a third figure step forward in the room. The third fae wasn’t wearing a guard’s uniform. He was dressed in all black, which contrasted with his light brown hair. His dark violet eyes bore into hers in an unsettling way. Lora was sure she’d never seen him in the palace before, but something about him struck a chord.
“Do not linger. Report to me later,” Karwyn said to the fae in dismissal. His presence made her skin turn cold. Was this the infamous spy, Karwyn’s shadow? She now understood Varsha’s description of him.
Lora noticed a twinge of irritation in the fae’s eyes before he gave the king a nod and headed for the door. Watching him leave, Karwyn flicked his finger to get her attention. Her hand burned as it craved the handle of her dagger.
“You did not answer my question,” Karwyn said, crossing his hands behind his back as he assessed her.
