I felt an answering grin come with his praise.
From behind me, I heard a second set of hands clapping. I turned around to see Kaia standing there. When had she snuck in?
She immediately noticed the blade in my hands, her eyes wide and eyebrows raised. “Explain.”
I quickly told her the high points of my story, and as I did, her expression beamed with what could only be pride.
“I knew it,” she said softly. “Violet would be so proud.” Kaia started to turn back to her office before she paused, adding, “She was your godsmother, you know? Sworn to protect you if anything happened to your parents. She was so honored that your parents chose her.”
Andrei had briefly mentioned that many months ago.We shared a bond, or at least we had when she was alive. Surely bonds like that faded when one of the two parties died?
I had no idea what to do with the fact that everything continued to involve her, fifty years after her death. Talk about a lasting legacy—her journal, the dreams, now even the sword I held.
Slowly, lovingly, I sheathed Anamlae.“We’re going to do great things together.”
I felt a hum on my hip in agreement.
I wasin a room that I knew at once I’d never been in before but was as familiar to me as my own. A woman burst through the door, slamming it behind her, only to stop short.
“Oh, it’s you. Hey, kiddo,” she said, staring at me. “I’m glad you’ve finally got my sword, but you’re taking your sweet time with it.”
“Taking my sweet time with what, Aunt Violet?” I hesitated only slightly on her name, but she heard it and grinned.
“With figuring out what’s wrong with the prophecy, of course.” She sat down in a chair and pulled her boots off.
“I don’t suppose you’d simply care to tell me?” I asked.
She raised her brows. “Where would the fun in that be?” Her head raised, a look of concern in her eyes. “Go, kiddo! Before?—”
Griff snorted in his sleep, rolling over, his arm tightening around me. I settled into his embrace and fell back into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
It’s finally happened. Mam left Father. Why she ever married him and accepted the mating bond in the first place, I’ll never know. Father, of course, seems to give zero shits, parading “Uncle” Andrei around in front of everyone. To Andrei’s credit, he’s trying to keep a low profile. What the fuck does he see in Father? Mates seem way more trouble than they’re worth. I pray I never find mine.
— From the journal of Violet Andrever
Iwas making my way to the library for what was certain to be another fruitless session of reading through books when Violet’s words from my dream fluttered through my mind.
Figure out what’s wrong with the prophecy.
Between the missing lines, the obscured words that only I could see, and the cryptic statements, I knew there was something wrong with the prophecy. But I was no closer to figuring out what that was than I was to figuring out how to fix the Veil.
I stopped abruptly when something occurred to me.
I’d spent all this time reading about the Veil but I’d never tried to examine it myself. Spinning on my heel, I went back the way I came and found a staircase that took me to the ground floor.
Having learned to avoid using the main entrance to the castle if I didn’t want to get involved in a long, boring conversation with arandom courtier, I had found several other paths to get outside the castle walls. I pushed open the door to the side entrance that led to the gardens.
“And just where are you heading off to?”
Griff’s voice stopped me in my tracks before I could step outside, even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong. The door swung closed with a creak.
I looked over my shoulder as he came alongside me. “Walking outside,” I said.
“I can see that. Walking outside where?”
