Einar’s leg brushed against mine, offering me comfort. Warmth spread through my limbs as the anxious thoughts in my head receded, and a rush of gratitude filled me. I didn’t know how he’d convinced Axlya to let him into the room when she barely tolerated him, but I was so thankful. Einar might drive me crazy, but he also grounded me in a way that no one else seemed to be able.
As Lady Axlya continued speaking, I found my gaze drawn to Tamil more than the others, though I wasn’t sure why. Her snow-white hair was cut into a short and choppy windswept style, her wintry eyes as piercing as a falcon’s, her angular cheekbones sharper than ice picks. Yet I sensed a nobility of spirit in her that the others seemed to lack. She was simply… more.
Either that, or it was her ice fae nature that drew me to her.
“So the rumors are true, then?” Lord Aigean demanded when Axlya had finished. “King Aolis is dead?”
“Yes,” Lady Axlya said. She turned to me, and I had to fight the sudden urge to squirm in my seat like a child who had been caught doing wrong. “Adara here is the one who killed him. She is the child from the prophecy that foretold of a fae with the power to banish shadow magic from our kingdom. And I believe she has succeeded.”
Murmuring broke out from all three mirrors as the three leaders spoke with their advisors, who were partially out of frame. Finally, Lady Ria spoke. “We would like to hear Adara’s testimony regarding this matter. King Aolis might have been corrupt, but he was one of us. And prophecy or not, regicide is a serious crime.
I glanced at Lady Axlya, who inclined her head. My intestines knotted themselves into a ball as I stood, and with my hands clasped behind my back to keep from wringing them, I told the water fae court the entire story. Of how I was the long-lost daughter of Daryan and Olette, hidden away in the earth fae realm and raised by Gelsyne, my mother’s closest confidante. Of how I’d had no knowledge that Gelsyne wasn’t my true mother until after I’d manifested my powers, Slaugh had stolen her away, and I’d traveled across half the kingdom to rescue her from his clutches. And of how, with the dragon the Radiants had chosen as my protector at my side, I’d confronted Aolis, learned the truth about his involvement with shadow magic, and used our combined powers to defeat the king once and for all.
“But,” I went on, after being interrupted for the umpteenth time, “Lady Axlya is incorrect about one thing. I haven’t succeeded. Nox, the shadow demon who has been controlling King Aolis and through him, General Slaugh, now lives inside my foster mother, Gelsyne. She is using the general as a puppet, and if we allow Slaugh to take the throne,shewill become the ruler of Ediria by proxy. If that happens, King Aolis’s death will have been for nothing!”
“I have to say that this story sounds highly convenient,” Lord Aigean said after a long, fraught pause. He gave me a supercilious look as he raked his eyes down my body, as if I was a piece of riffraff that had been dragged into the hall, and he wasn’t sure why I’d been allowed to remain. “An unknown girl claiming to be the long-lost heir shows up at the same time all the shadow creatures vanish, kills King Aolis, takes the credit, and makes a play for his throne.”
“Wait a minute.” Einar’s deep voice snapped through the chamber. “What do you mean, the shadow creatures have disappeared?”
“He means exactly that,dragon.” It was Lady Ria who spoke this time. “News has been spreading across the lands that the forests and lakes previously claimed by shadow creatures have all but been restored.”
“My lords and ladies,” Lady Axlya intervened in a deceptively pleasant voice. “I may be mistaken, but it seems you are suggesting that, in my advanced age, I am so far gone as to be incapable of recognizing my own kin. That I would not be able to tell if Adara was an imposter, rather than the child of my late granddaughter, who was beloved by usall.”
Her gaze sharpened as she met the eyes of the clan leaders, and an uncomfortable silence filled the room. “We do not mean any disrespect,” Lord Aigean said, choosing his words with care. “We are merely exercising caution. After all, we already made a grave mistake when we chose Aolis as our next king. We cannot afford such a grievous error again.”
“I know that better than anyone else,” Lady Axlya said. “It wasmychild who was taken and held hostage by Aolis when he came to power, not yours.”
“Speaking of Lady Cascada,” Tamil interrupted, her gaze landing on the fae in question. “You were there at the castle, weren’t you? Perhaps you could shed some light on this matter of the shadow creatures disappearing.”
Cascada nodded. “The account Adara gave the court today is correct,” she said in a serene tone absolutely nothing like her usual acerbic personality. “King Aolis was corrupted by the shadow magic he and his guards wielded. They used that magic to weaken me and the other hostages so we would be pliant to his demands.” Her voice trembled, and the emotion was so real I almost forgot she was a lying bitch. “I was so grateful when Adara finally slayed Aolis that I was happy to join my fellow hostages in holding off Slaugh and his cronies so she and her friends could escape.”
She flicked her gaze toward Einar for a split second, and I could have sworn her eyes were black as pitch at that moment. But they were cornflower blue once more as they turned back to the court, eyes wide with emotion.
“But Adara wasn’t there when the shadow magic vanished. I saw it leave from Slaugh and Gelsyne’s bodies like noxious clouds being purged from their pores. Adara may not believe me, but…” she shrugged, splaying her hands wide in a what-can-you-do manner. “If that wasn’t the case, how did I get here? Why would General Slaugh have let me go when keeping me and the other hostages would have given him the leverage he needed to keep the other house rulers in line?”
Cascada glanced at me then, and my anger for her faltered like a guttering candle. The hurt look in her eyes was so profound I began to second-guess myself. Was there even a remote possibility that Cascada could be right? That Nox and the shadow magic reallyhadvanished from Ediria, and my work here was done?
I desperately wanted to believe that was true. But I didn’t dare. Not until I could verify it with my own eyes.
“See?” Lady Ria’s scathing tone snapped my attention back to the nobles. She and Aegian were looking at me like two cats who had found the hidden stash of cream, while Tamil was more reserved, a troubled look in her eyes. “You were right, Lord Aegian—Adara’s story was entirely too convenient to be believable.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “If you weren’t so insistent that claiming the throne before General Slaugh does is the only way to save the kingdom from shadow magic, then perhaps your claims would be easier to believe. But as it stands, you sound more like an opportunist than anything else.”
The mocking smile Lady Ria gave me sparked an impotent rage in me, and an intense urge to reach through the glass and throttle her seized me. The flames in my chest roared to life, sparks kindling in the palms of my hands, and before I could stop myself, I raised my hands, letting the sparks ignite into full-fledged gouts of flame.
“You want convenient?” I sneered. “I’ll show you convenient.”
Their eyes widened as I let the flames fly, shooting balls of fire at each of their faces. Even Tamil, though she was the only one who hadn’t mocked me. The clan leaders’ eyes widened as the flames struck true, and the ice sheets evaporated in an instant, clouds of mist swirling upward.
Lady Axlya raised a hand, twirling her fingers through the air. The mist responded to her magic, coalesced into a trio of clouds that burst above the mirrors. The frames rapidly filled with water, and with a snap of Axlya’s fingers, the water froze, coalescing into perfect sheets of ice once more.
But the fire had done its job. The clan leaders were gone, the frozen surfaces reflecting only my own heaving chest and flushed cheeks. My eyes were wild, the flames still raging from my hands, and I hastily put them out, realizing that I must look like a deranged lunatic to the remaining court members.
“Well,” Kalis murmured, the first to break the tense silence. “Ihavealways wondered what would happen if someone broke one of the mirrors.”
I turned to see him staring at me with a bemused expression. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one. Lady Axlya’s face was as still as the surface of a frozen lake, and with just as much emotion, while Ilsa looked nonplussed. Prentis and Cascada were both staring at me like they couldn’t believe what I had done and were waiting for Lady Axlya to sever my head from my shoulders.
The only one wasn’t looking at me as though I’d lost my mind was Einar. I’d expected to see him smirking or even outright laughing at my blatant show of disrespect. Instead, his expression was stoic, the maelstrom of emotions swirling in his eyes the only sign that he was feeling anything. He was both impressed and proud that I’d had the balls to stand up to the water fae court… and judging by the heat in his gaze, more than a little turned on, too.
Heat flared between my legs, and I had to look away as the phantom mark on my neck throbbed once again.
