Lady Axlya laughed. “Of course you didn’t realize,” she said, picking up her tea cup again. She took a long sip as she studied me from over the rim. “The earth fae may be more fertile than us, but they are also far more prudish. It seems you’ve inherited that trait from them.”
“I’m not prudish,” I said, a little defensively. “I’m just waiting for the right male to give myself to.”
“And you’ve decided Einar is the right male, then?” Ilsa asked pointedly.
Embarrassed heat crept up the back of my neck, and I wished that the coffee table was higher so I could crawl underneath it. “That was… an impulsive decision,” I said, trying not to sound as flustered as I felt. “I was emotional and stressed, and I needed someone to take it out on.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Lady Axlya declared. “Having sex with someone merely means you are sharing your body with them, and taking pleasure from them in return. It doesn’t have to mean you are giving yoursoulto him, Adara.”
I blinked, surprised at Lady Axlya’s matter-of-fact views on the matter. She clearly didn’t view sex with the same gravity as the fae I’d grown up with. “Are you saying that you wouldn’t care if I slept with Einar?” I asked carefully, trying to figure out where she was going with this.
“Oh, I certainly don’t approve,” Axlya said. “But I can see the two of you have an attraction, and my centuries of sitting on the throne have taught me that forbidding two people from sleeping with each other will only ensure they do exactly that. Get him out of your system if you must, Adara, but if you intend to take the throne, you must move on from him. It’s already bad enough that you are half-dragon. Taking a dragon for a husband will spell a death-sentence for your legitimacy.”
An angry retort sprang to my lips, and I had to clench my jaw to keep from blurting it out. I knew Lady Axlya was right, that the fae hated the dragons and I needed to lean into my fae heritage as hard as possible if I wanted their favor. And yet, it was my half-dragon blood that allowed me to defeat King Aolis in the first place, along with the primal stone full of dragon fire magic Einar had given me.
How could I pretend none of that mattered?
Kalis saved me from having to respond. “While you are right to caution Adara against consorting with dragons,” he said, leaning forward with a gleam in his eye, “I, for one, have been looking forward to seeing a display of fire magic from Adara. It’s been at least four hundred years since we’ve last seen a fae who could wield fire.”
“True, and no one in our court has actually seen Adara use her magic. Not even Cascada,” Ilsa pointed out. “How do we know she can do what she says?”
I lifted my palm before Lady Axlya could respond, calling to the ever-burning spark inside me. It answered eagerly, as if it were waiting for this moment, and my small audience gasped as a ball of flame sprang to life in my hand. Even the servants in the room stopped what they were doing to turn and watch, and I smiled as I made small tugging motions with my other hand, pulling strands of flame from the ball and coaxing them into a sinuous shape. The flames flickered in Lady Axlya’s gaze as I fashioned them into the rough, but unmistakable form of a fire serpent.
“You may disapprove of my dragon heritage,” I said quietly, “but it’s an undeniable part of me.”
I let the flaming dragon twine sinuously through the air for a few more seconds, then vanished it with a snap of my fingers. A faint plume of smoke drifted toward the ceiling, the only sign that it had been there, and I sat back, satisfied.
“Impressive,” Lady Axlya said. Her face was the surface of a lake in the stillness of dawn, and just as impossible to read. “But can you do the same with your water magic?”
My face fell at that. “No,” I admitted. “My ice magic is the only thing I can control.”
I pointed a finger at my half-filled cup of tea, and the dark liquid rose from the cup, already crystalizing. I focused my attention on it, first willing it into the shape of a ball, then forming the layers. Icy petals unfurled, revealing the shape of a rose, and I gently coaxed it to land in the center of the table, right in front of Lady Axlya.
Ilsa’s eyebrows rose. “It seems you have a talent for sculpting,” she said, tracing one of the petals with her forefinger.
“Yes,” Axlya agreed. She waved her hand, and the ice instantly melted back into tea, arcing through the air before splashing back into my cup. “Pity your tea has gone cold, though.”
She smirked, and a surprised laugh burst out of me. “Yes, I guess that might have been a waste of perfectly good tea,” I admitted, then dutifully brought the cup to my lips and took a sip. My eyebrows shot up as scalding liquid flowed over my tongue, and I nearly dropped the cup. “It’s hot!”
Lady Axlya laughed. “You didn’t think I would force you to drink lukewarm tea, did you?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.
“I didn’t realize you could make the water hot,” I admitted, staring at the cup in wonder.
“Of course I can,” Axlya said. “You are able to make the water cold—that’s how you’re turning it to ice in the first place. I have full mastery over all aspects of water magic—making cold water hot is the least of my abilities.” She tilted her head as she studied me. “It seems this is another way in which you favor Olette.”
“Oh?” My heartbeat picked up at the mention of my mother.
“She, too, had a strong preference for ice magic,” Kalis explained. “Once she had her coming-of-age ceremony and unlocked her fae beast, she was able to use the other aspects, but ice was her favorite.”
The affection sparkling in his eyes made my heart ache for the father I’d never known. I wondered what it would have been like to have been raised the way my mother had. It seemed strange, the idea of having multiple parental figures, but perhaps that was because I’d only ever had one. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have that many adults watching over me and giving me love and guidance as a child.
“I have to say, learning that my mother’s magic might be similar to mine gives me hope,” I said, steering the subject back to less emotional matters. “Prentis told me that once I complete the ceremony, I should be able to use the other aspects of my water magic that I’m struggling with now. In fact, I was on my way to ask you for help when Prentis’s men found me. I need to complete the ritual so I can rid the kingdom of shadow magic once and for all.”
“But didn’t you already accomplish that when you killed the king?” Kalis asked. “According to Cascada, Slaugh and the others have lost their powers.”
Ilsa scoffed. “Yes, but Adara thinks Cascada is lying about that.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “Or so you said during your court presentation.”
I hesitated, wanting to approach this as tactfully as possible. “I’m not saying Cascada is being deliberately untruthful. But General Slaugh and his shadow soldiers could have deceived her. They pretended to give up when Einar and my friends attacked the castle and came to my rescue, but in reality, they were paving the way for me to kill the king.”
