As if she could.
“I didn’t want to take away from your time with Drake. But it’s fine, really, I’m?—”
“Caelian!”
The sound of Sarelle’s frantic voice carried down the hall a moment before she burst into the library.
“Cae!” She flew into the room, her dark blue skirts hoisted around her, cheeks flushed and rosy, chest heaving. Her wide, sapphire eyes darted to Creslyn. “Oh, Cres. You’re here, too. Good. This is good.”
“Sarelle, what’s wrong?” Caelian closed the distance between them, a line of worry pinching between her brows.
“Yes, what’s happened?” Creslyn pressed the back of her hand to Sarelle’s pink cheeks. “You look as though you’ve been running for your life.”
An accurate description.
“I was, I mean…I am.” Sarelle sucked in a breath. “That is to say, I did for a time, then stopped once I realized I was safe.”
“What in the stars are you talking about?” Caelian swept past her and pulled the library door shut. “Are you in some kind of danger? Do I need to fetch Ariesian?”
“No!” She practically shrieked the word, glancing over her shoulder as though she expected him to barge into the library at any moment. “No, please don’t. Though I’m certain he’ll be furious when he finds out. That being said, I have no intention of telling him. At least not yet. First, I have to?—”
“Sarelle.” Creslyn bit their sister’s name off the tip of her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest. “Focus, please. And tell us what happened. You’re positively frantic.”
“Okay. Right, okay.” Sarelle inhaled deeply and her eyes fluttered closed. Smoothing her hair away from her face with her hands, she let her shoulders relax. Her breathing evened. And when her eyes opened once more, they were as clear as midnight waters. She held up her hand, the curious little animal skull ring on display, and her gaze latched onto Caelian. “It worked.”
“What?” Caelian gasped.
Creslyn looked between them, her brows lifted in surprise. “What worked?”
“The ring.” Sarelle flipped her hand over, admiring the silver skull with the pale green stones for eyes. “The ring worked.”
Caelian blinked in wonder, a tremor of shock coursing through her.
“It was a gift from Prince Aspen,” she explained to Creslyn, whose expression bordered between impressed and horrified. Caelian gestured to the piece of jewelry in question. “Sarelle claimed she had not heard from the prince since he gifted it to her, and since the last time they spoke, he left her with a rather ominous parting, so I suggested the ring might have a bit of magic.”
Though truthfully, she hadn’t fully expected it to work.
Creslyn reared back, bewildered. Then she grabbed Sarelle’s hand and inspected the ring in question. “And does it?”
Sarelle’s eyes glittered with wonder as she hoarsely whispered, “It does.”
“Fascinating,” Caelian murmured, at the same time her twin questioned, “How?”
“Well, I chose not to discuss the weather, as the day was already quite splendid and left me wanting for nothing.” Sarelle flounced over to the settee, and when she sat, an iridescent cloud of stardust cascaded around her. “Instead, I thought I might be so bold as to ask for something I wanted. Since Prince Aspen claimed if I was ever in want of anything, I have only to ask.”
Creslyn nodded slowly in understanding, dropping onto the rounded arm of the settee. But Caelian was torn between swelling within a bubble of excitement and falling into a pit of dread. Because no matter the outcome, she had been the one to make the suggestion.
“And what did you ask for?” she ventured quietly, her voice cracking like splintering wood in the hearth.
“I feel as though it’s fairly obvious.” Sarelle shrugged, her shoulders rising and falling with ease. “I asked to see him.”
Caelian stumbled back a step, not daring to consider that her sister would be so bold. She gripped the edge of one of the high-back chairs to keep her balance. Creslyn, on the other hand, was devouring Sarelle’s every word.
“And itworked?” she squeaked, nearly bouncing with delight.
“Yes!” Sarelle tossed herself back against the settee, a wild smile plastered across her lovely face. “The green stones glowed, the world around me faded away, like someone poured a glass of water over a fresh painting. All the colors blurred and ran together in a mess. Then I was transported to the deepest part of the Darkbriar Wood.”
“What!” Caelian and Creslyn cried in unison.
