chapter twenty-two
AURA
My sister no doubt made her potion last night and was asleep in her cottage. I would have liked to visit her, if I could leave this place. I could heal Phillip and send him back to her as a showing of good will between us, but Luna and I had burned a bridge that couldn’t be so easily restored.
Even if I sent him to her, she would still come for me. She wanted to be free.
She thought that if our life forces were severed, so might the curse of slumber be severed, but I didn’t think she was right. We were too controlled by the celestial bodies to be independent of them. The curse had been with us from birth. If we weren’t bound to one another as sisters, we would still be bound to the heavens; a price of the magic that flowed into us that night. And if one of us died once the bond was broken? Well, it didn’t mean the other would be free of the curse of slumber.
I understood her desperation.
I felt it, too. At one point, our strange lives and how we lived them suffocated me. But over time, I came to embrace it. It was part of me, part of us. Of course, I had the easier curse to bear, as most humans slept during the night and thrived during the day. However, I didn’t like not being able to rouse in the middle of the night, as was proven the night before.
Phillip did something incredibly foolish while I slept. Ever the gallant prince, he sent all the humans away from the palace, unbeknownst to me. I’d woken and yelled for my lady’s maid, but she never came to my chambers. There were no scullery maids, no butler, no one cooking in the kitchen. Not even a single stable boy remained.
Not a single human was in the palace or on the grounds, except for Phillip.
I found him sitting in his room, eating an apple, his feet propped up on a table and a smug grin on his face. “Need help lacing your corset, Princess?” he said with a smirk.
Incensed, I shoved the toxin in his veins toward his heart, speeding it up to a dangerous, nearly deadly level. “Whatever is the matter, Prince?” I said viciously. His eyes widened and he clutched his chest. “It seems that all my servants have run away. Since it was your doing, it looks like you’ll be the one cooking this morning. We’ll need to break our fast.”
I let him go and told him to scurry off into the kitchens. After all, I was hungry, and it was his fault there was nothing prepared for the morning meal.
I dressed myself and found him slicing an apple. He’d managed to bake hard, lumpy bread that I wasn’t sure was edible. “I hope this taught you a valuable lesson,” I sniffed.
“Which is?”
“Not to make decisions that might kill you. If that terrible excuse for bread doesn’t, I easily could.”
His jaw ticked, making me smile. “You could heal me, you know. If you sent me back to Luna, she might forgive you. But you and I both know that if you kill me, she’ll never stop hunting you. And she’s determined. She probably met Malex last night. They probably worked their mojo and have a spell or concoction of some sort, and she’ll be coming for you soon.”
“She’ll probably kill me in my sleep,” I grumbled. “But then again, she shouldn’t. And if she shows up, you should tell her that I am the only one who can remove the toxin from your body. I control it. If I die, so will you, and I won’t be there to slow down the symptoms.”
His hand stilled.
I laughed. “She thinks killing me would take it all away, doesn’t she? That’s not how it works.”
He shook his head. “What?” I asked.
“You two have been tearing each other apart for so long. Don’t you ever tire of it?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “I wish she would see reason. I wish she wouldn’t have erected a wall in her dreams. But most of all, I wish for peace between us.”
“Tear it down, then. Smash it.”
“What?”
“The wall. It might take days, but tear it apart.”
“She would just build it back,” I argued.
“What if she wondered about what was so important to you that you would tear it down every night? What if that message could reach her?”
PHILLIP
Malex wanted me dead. He lied to me and Luna about his blood turning me fae, and instead gave me a vial full of charcoal-tinted molasses. I’d even been willing to do it, forsaking everyone and everything – my family, the crown, my kingdom – to become the thing my parents taught me to fear most. Only, I fell prey to a fae trick instead.
Why was he lying to her?
“Why would Malex care whether your lives are bound?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “You said he wanted Virosa.”
“He already has a kingdom,” I insisted.
“Technically, his father has a kingdom. And while he has duties to it, maybe he wants to step out of his father’s shadow and rule one of his own.”
“It seems too simple,” I said.
“Most motivations are simple. They boil down to greed or hatred or revenge... lust or love. But I would’ve known if I’d met him before. I have all the memories I’ve ever made, even from infancy. Humans may not remember things until they’re toddling around, but the fae are different.”
I remembered her vast garden and what lay beneath it. “The fae certainly are different,” I mused darkly.
“You’re judging me. I can see it on your face.”
“Wouldn’t you do the same if the situation were reversed?”
She shrugged one shoulder dismissively. “I would.”
She took a bite out of the hard bread I’d made and tried to chew it. Then she smiled. “I think I’ll have some apple instead. Come with me. I have an idea about how we can learn more about Luna’s mysterious friend.”
I followed her to her chamber balcony. “Peace,” she called. The dove perched on the stone and cooed at her. “Find the fae they call Malex and follow him. And for goodness sake, stay out of sight for once.”
The bird ruffled her feathers and flew toward the forest.
“I should’ve chosen a different animal for my familiar.”
“How does it work?”
“I can see what she does and tell if she’s in distress. Much like my sister and me, I’ve bound my life to Peace. She won’t die as long as I’m alive, but if I die, that protection will be removed and she’ll be vulnerable.”
“Is the same true for Ember and Luna?”
“Yes. She can see through Ember’s eyes and feel what she feels, and as long as Luna lives, so will her evil cat.”
I smiled. “Ember isn’t evil.”
“Peace thinks she is. She’s always clawing at her, trying to eat her. What a sight that would be if she ever caught her, a live bird fluttering around in her belly. Peace wouldn’t die just because Ember ate her.”
“Wait…” I said, confused. “You mean Ember wouldn’t have been hurt by your roses?”
“She might have gotten sick, but she wouldn’t have died. You should have stayed inside the cottage, Prince. How many times did my sister warn you about the dangers that lurked outside her walls?”
Wincing at the thought, I watched the bird until it flew out of sight. “Will she find him?”
Aura’s voice was chipper when she answered, “Of course.”
I was suddenly tired, the toxin causing my strength to wane. I slumped against the railing.
“Come, Prince. You should lie down,” Aura said.
“You should heal me. It’s the right thing to do.”
She shook her head, a calculating look on her face. “Not yet.”