Elijah spun on his heel and strode off. Gabby followed, and the rest of the governing members of Malovia headed behind.
Lady Magdalina spoke softly to us. “The Circle will be gathering. I must attend. I am very sorry for both of you. But Lucien did what had to be done.”
She swept away then. Her words left a hole in me. Lucien had mused on this possibility for weeks, desperate to save my life. He’d given it all up, for Emma and I.
What was it all for?
The crowd began to filter out of the Field. Soon, it was only my friends who were left in the stands, and Emma and I still on the Field. The pyre continued to burn.
I was free to journey anywhere, but I felt more trapped than ever.
“I don’t know where to go,” I said hoarsely. It was just as much a comment on the state of my soul as it was a note on how I’d been abandoned by my mother. I had friends to stay with, people who would take me in, but not a place of my own. I’d been left penniless and discarded by the royal family.
“You’re staying with me tonight,” Emma replied. “We’re going back to Arcanea University. You need to go home.”
Home. It was a comfort. The university was the one place left where I belonged.
“I have nothing left, not even my own name,” I choked out.
“You have me,” Emma said. “We’re all we need.”
Ididhave Emma. She was enough. Our bond was the only thing I could cling to, in the glaring light of Lucien’s sacrifice.
We’d rebuild our lives together. Though I wasn’t sure if we could ever replace what had been dearly lost.
Chapter Four
Emma
Whenever I thought the world couldn’t get any crueler, somehow, it always did.
Ethan walked on his own, but still, I was carrying the weight of his emotions alongside my own as we returned to the university. Class didn’t start until January eleventh, but the dorms had opened up today for students to move in early.
Good thing, too. Ethan and I needed somewhere to go, and it was too overwhelming to be smothered by friends and family right now.
Our friends remained at a distance. I nodded to Stefan, and he took the lead, whispering to the others we needed space. They cleared out of the stands of the Field on their own, presumably to head back to the Slasky mansion.
Arthur’s face was completely stricken. Like me, Lord Lucien had been his favorite teacher. I guess the two of them had spent a lot of time together last semester, when Arthur had used a few credit hours for an intense fae history dissertation. Lucien had spent the whole semester teaching Arthur everything he knew about the fae. All that knowledge would now live on in my brother. Vara put her hands on Arthur’s shoulders, guiding him away as his expression appeared stunned.
I kept an arm around Ethan’s waist as we hobbled back. I was afraid the shifter would crumble against me. Watching him be forced to go through that… it was too much. I couldn’t get the image of Ethan’s sword spearing through Lucien’s body, the anguish on my mate’s face as he realized he’d killed Lucien in one blow. It was a special kind of hell.
My heart lurched and twisted, but I forced my own feelings aside for now. Ethan had endured so much suffering since he’d been imprisoned, and he needed me to stay strong.
We left the Field behind us and shuffled through the streets of Dolinska with our heads down. I expected the press to be swarming everywhere, but there were no cameras in sight.
Elijah had probably forbidden them to film any more coverage. Ethan had won. Anything that put the crown in a bad light, the news media wasn’t allowed to broadcast, and this trial had nearly made a mockery of the monarchy altogether.
Gabby and Eli would make us pay for it, but at the moment, I couldn’t be bothered. What we needed was to rest, and regroup. We’d figure out a plan later.
Before I put a hand on my dorm room door, Ethan grasped my wrist. “Is it safe?”
He was worried there might be an assassin or a curse waiting for us inside, but I shook my head. “I used the Unseelie protection spell my grandmother taught me. No one can get in or out unless they’re a friend. And I’m carrying an apple branch on me from now on, to absorb any curses if someone tries to hex me. We’ll be fine.”
Ethan nodded shortly. Yet when I opened the door, I gasped. My furniture had been completely rearranged. My bed was facing the window, in a different direction than it had been when I’d left it last semester, and my dresser was by the bathroom door now. Various other little items, like my shelving units and my bookcase, had swapped places.
Tygrys, my faerie folk, was buzzing eagerly around the room like a busy bee. The miniature tiger with monarch wings and curly antennae fluttered and chuffed. When he saw me, Tygrys let out a loud coo. I held out a finger, and he perched on it with a twisting tail.
Professor Mara had saidmalyludwyenjoyed rearranging furniture. I didn’t feel much like laughing, but a giggle escaped my lips anyway. “You’ve been busy, haven’t you, Tygrys?”
