by Skye Horn
Thea’s eyes settled onto Caden. She lifted her chin a little higher, happy to see the whatever argument he’d been about to make disappear from his features. As he assessed her, she straightened her back, able to regain some of her lost composure. It was enough for her to bury the worry she felt for her friends and family. If she was meant to survive this, she didn’t want to show any more weakness than she already had. It was only a matter of time before Adrian told Caden about her breakdown, so there was no reason to give them more reason to see her as vulnerable.
Caden bowed his head to her and then motioned toward a room beyond his. “I’ll have the servants attend to you.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Thea shook her head, tugging the blanket tighter around herself.
“The water will be icy,” Adrian argued, seeming to find his own voice again.
“Then I’ll warm it.” Thea laughed, rolling her eyes at them both. “Here I thought I was the one born in a land without magic.”
That seemed to bring a strange tension to the room that made Thea’s eyebrow lift as she asked, “What?”
“We don’t have access to elemental magic here,” Adrian explained, voice low.
“How is that possible? It’s in your blood.” Thea looked at them, sure she must look as confused as she felt.
“The Goddess doesn’t favor us as she does your people.” Caden shrugged, as if this fact didn’t bother him at all. “We can use other types of magic, but no one has ever taught us the elementals. It’s actually forbidden.”
“My people?” Thea asked. “We are all one land.”
There was a stifle of laughter from the men beside her and she felt her cheeks burn. “Something funny about that?”
“Just the fact that you sounded like you believed that,” Adrian said with a shrug. “Now seriously, go bathe.”
He pushed her a little too forcefully toward the door causing her to trip over the blanket as it wrapped around her feet, but she caught herself before she could fall and add to her embarrassment, glaring a back at the two smirking men.
“Fine,” she snapped before sliding the door shut behind her.
Chapter 4
Thea couldn’t deny that the bathing chamber was extravagant. It felt like something she might have learned about in the history of the Romans in high school. The prince had a natural pool of water off his bedroom, and although Thea didn’t understand how they’d pulled it off without indoor plumbing, she made a note to herself that before returning to Ivandor she would find out so she could have it installed in her own castle. Especially since it was big enough to comfortably fit her wings.
Once she’d warmed the water, Thea stripped out of her nightgown and sank into the steaming liquid, submerging herself up to the shoulders before untying her hair from the painful braid atop her head. There were multiple vials of beautifully smelling liquid soaps along the edge of the stone pool, which Thea helped herself to. She took the time to waft each one beneath her nose before settling on one that was sweet like vanilla. It made the water a milky color when she poured it in, and the immediate soothing that it brought to her travel-worn skin was enough to make her sink deeper beneath the water.
Thea wasn’t sure how long she’d had her eyes closed before she heard the door to the room slide open once more and found herself staring directly at Adrian. She pulled her wings around herself, noting the flush of his cheeks as he entered, and bit back the growl reverberating in her chest.
“Apologies,” he said, eyes lingering on Thea for a second longer than she felt comfortable with. She did her best to hide beneath her dripping-wet feathers. “Morrigan has summoned you, and I am to escort you.”
“And you couldn’t have knocked?” Thea glared, voice tight as she thought of tossing the vials of soap at her peeping tom. “Get out!”
He winced and took a step back toward the door, hastily setting down the towel and stack of clothing he was carrying on a stool.
“The Goddess will be angry if you do not hurry,” he warned, and Thea rolled her eyes, sending a rush of water toward him with a burst of magic. Immediately, he was soaked to the bone, and for the briefest thought, she imagined he might charge at her. Strands of his chestnut hair dripped with water and in the one step forward that he took his boots made a disgusting squishing noise that told Thea his socks were just as wet as the rest of him. “You—”
“—should be more scared of me than Morrigan,” Thea warned, narrowing her eyes at him. No matter how kind he’d been to her as she broke down, this behavior infuriated her. He couldn’t just barge into her bathing chamber like this. She was a queen, for the Goddess’ sake. A queen who had enough male-driven drama going on in her life between a broken soul-bond and marriage proposal. There was no need to add this vulnerability to the list of her worries. She immediately decided she would need to be more careful around him.
Adrian scoffed, but turned on his heels. “Get dressed,” he snapped as he slid the door shut behind him, making the entire wall shake.
As soon as he was out of the room, Thea let her wings relax around her. Her emotions were once more all over the place. Why had she even let him bring her here in the first place? She supposed part of her wanted to find someone, anyone, who might give a damn what she was going through, but this wasn’t the way. This entire kingdom had grown up in a different world to Thea’s. That included Adrian, and it especially included the crown prince. She needed to get her bearings on the situation before these two strangers dragged her into their world. Her kingdom needed her, and if she were being honest, she also needed her kingdom.
Raising herself out of the water, she walked across the slippery floor to where Adrian had just stood and grabbed the towel off the chair, noting the warmth of it with a pang of regret. Perhaps she hadn’t needed to soak the poor soldier. He was following Morrigan’s orders, after all, and she knew exactly how terrifying it was to deal with either of the Goddesses. She shuddered at the thought of her last encounter with Ainé and dried her hair with the towel, listening just in case anyone else wanted to barge in, but no one came.
After a few minutes, Thea had a damp braid hanging around her right shoulder. She had pulled on the dress that Adrian had left for her, but there was no mirror in the room, so she couldn’t tell how she looked. If she was only meeting with Morrigan, she supposed it did not matter.
Tucking a stray hair behind her ear, Thea moved to open the door of the bathing chamber, taking a deep breath before she did. She left the poor excuse for a night gown lying on the bathroom floor without a second thought, knowing one of Caden’s servants would put it back wherever it belonged.
“Nice bath?” Caden asked from an armchair in front of his massive fireplace. He had turned himself sideways in the chair, dangling his feet over the arm. In his hand was a book Thea didn’t recognize.
“Pleasant enough, thank you,” she said, trying to force a small smile of gratitude. It hadn’t been him who had walked in on her, and as far as she could tell, Adrian had left the room. “What are you reading?”
“Nothing interesting.” Caden shrugged, tucking the book beneath him in a way that sparked Thea’s curiosity, but the look in his eyes told her he would give no further information about it, as did the way he quickly changed the subject. “Look, Adrian is impulsive, even ridiculously unthoughtful sometimes—”
“You’re really selling him to me,” Thea grumbled, smoothing her dress down for something to do with her hands.
“But he means you no harm. He just doesn’t know how to act around pretty girls.” Caden laughed as Thea rolled her eyes. “You look just like your father when you do that.”
This made her tense as she stared at him in surprise. “You knew my father?”
“Well, he was my uncle.” Caden shrugged again, but it must have been as uncomfortable as it looked, because he straightened himself out properly in the chair. “He taught me how to fish when I was a boy.”
Thea took this almost human quality of
her father and tucked it away. The idea of the man she’d faced in Ivandor teaching a little boy how to fish was nearly incomprehensible, but there must have been good in him once, right? Amara seemed to think so.
She felt a tinge of pain at the thought of her sister as she lowered her eyes to her bare feet.
“How old are you?” she asked, wanting to get away from the dangerous topic that threatened her emotions as quickly as possible.
“I’ve just turned twenty-six last month,” Caden said, looking wistful. “And if my math is correct, you are nineteen.”
“Not yet. I’ll be nineteen at the end of summer.”
Caden was shaking his head with a small smile. “No, your birthday was just after the midsummer festival. I remember because I begged my father to let me travel to meet you since my mother had no other children before she died. I was young and believed we could be like siblings.”
Thea’s heart twisted. Was he lying or truly caring? He must have cared a little to at least remember her real birthday, which was something no one had shared with her yet. How could someone who’d grown up in Blackmire care about her at all, though? She had assumed her uncle had raised him to view her as an enemy, but his words contradicted that theory.
He was only a child then, the little voice in her head reminded. You have no idea who he is now.
“Perhaps all of our lives would have been different if that were the case,” Caden mused, seeming too lost in his own thoughts to see any of Thea’s surprise.
“I don’t think us having met would have changed the monster my father became,” Thea said, voice much colder than she’d meant. “He killed thousands of innocent humans and Fae alike.”
“I’m sorry. I know we have different experiences with your father. I was only a boy and did not understand the wrongdoings of our kingdom at that time.”
Thea stared at him, eyes widening slightly, just as he realized what he’d said and slammed his mouth shut.
“Come. I will escort you to dinner. Adrian is putting on dry clothing and will meet us there.”
His words were rushed, and he nearly tripped over his own feet as he came toward her, but Thea was still mulling over his words.
The wrongdoings of our kingdoms.
There were two possibilities, Thea considered. One, Caden was tricking her and trying to make her believe he was on her side. This was definitely possible and she’d be an idiot to trust a stranger yet again, but wasn’t she here to learn from Morrigan, who she’d once thought was her mortal enemy? She still didn’t know what to make of their newly formed alliance, but this was different. The second possibility was that Caden truly believed there was wrong in this land and that made him a potential ally. It was too good to be true, Thea knew, but still the flicker of hope sparked inside her as she let him lead her out of the bedroom and toward dinner without another word.
Adrian wasn’t sure why he’d gone into her bedroom at all. He’d heard her sobs loud and clear through the closed door, but he could have pretended that he didn’t. Or better yet, he could have just not cared about her emotional turmoil. What could possibly have upset her so much anyway? She was a queen. You couldn’t get much higher up in the land of Faerie unless you were a Goddess. He had to admit, though, that he’d never seen magic act the way it did with her. It was almost as if it were drowning her or tearing her apart from the inside. Was this what her Goddess did as punishment for disloyalty? Adrian wasn’t sure, nor did he wish to find out any time soon, but still, her plea to make it stop haunted him even as he stripped out of his now-soaking-wet clothing and shoved his shoes in front of the fireplace hoping they would dry.
You promised you’d come back to me, she’d said, but Adrian knew her words were not meant for him. Who had they been meant for then? Amara perhaps? He’d heard of Thea’s half-sister. Morrigan had voiced her displeasure about the girl for many months, but neither he nor any of his other comrades had been sent to capture the traitorous daughter of Malachi. The words had seemed more intimate than those spoken to a sister, though, and Adrian found himself wondering about the Queen of Ivandor more than he felt comfortable admitting as he dressed in fresh clothing. He was still angry at her for attacking him with water magic, but also impressed by how quickly she’d reacted to his unwanted presence in the bathing chamber. It had been rash of him to just barge in, and perhaps he’d deserved the reaction, but he’d never admit that to her.
Slipping out the door of his chamber, dressed in fresh clothing and weaponry, Adrian made his way down the corridor toward the dining hall. The king would not be pleased he was not the one to escort Thea to dinner, but Adrian prayed Caden would talk him out of the trouble Thea was forcing him into. His toes squished uncomfortably in his still-waterlogged shoes as he walked, but his anger faded with each step he took. No matter how much she annoyed him, it was clear Thea had experienced some sort of trauma, and who was he to judge her on that? She had shut herself off from him, but again, who could blame her? She trusted them as little as they trusted her—Caden aside.
As he reached the dining hall, Adrian did one last check of his weaponry, smoothed his hair back away from his face, and pushed the door open, slipping inside. Everyone was already seated, paying little attention to him as he took his place against the wall next to the other guards, but Caden tossed him a small corner-lipped smile and Thea glared in his direction with eyes like daggers.
Definitely still angry then, Adrian thought, watching as her attention shifted back to whatever Morrigan and the king were saying to her. She looked more like a lady and less like a rabid animal now that she’d bathed and dressed in proper clothing. Although, he thought she might literally bite his head off if he ever said those words aloud. She also looked completely at ease at the table, no sign of nervousness or wariness on her face. From this distance, he could see her toes tapping against the floor, but that appeared to be the only sign of discomfort she showed. Otherwise, her back remained straight, eyes fixed on the king with a stare that made even Adrian feel uncomfortable. Thea’s dislike for him was nothing compared to what she felt for King Rayan.
“Your Goddess has taken control of your kingdom,” the king said with a sneer, stabbing his fork into a piece of meat on his plate and shoving it into his mouth. Half the kingdom starved while their king feasted, but Adrian had long ago learned not to voice his disgust with that fact.
“She is not my Goddess,” Thea responded coolly, but the tapping of her foot ceased momentarily before starting again.
“Father—” Caden started to say but was silenced by the loud screech of a raven swooping down from the skylight to sit on Morrigan’s shoulder. She traced a finger down the spine of the creature, stroking its feathers delicately like one would a newborn babe.
“My scouts report your friends have found refuge in Grimwalde.” She tapped a finger beneath the beak of the bird affectionately before it soared back into the air. “Your great godfather was kind enough to protect them, despite the death sentence it brings upon him and his kingdom.”
“If you know they are there, then surely your sister does too,” Thea said. Her foot had ceased its obnoxious tapping and her eyes were focused on Morrigan now. Adrian listened intently, wondering who these friends of Thea’s might be. He knew that Grimwalde and Ivandor were close, but he had not been aware of the kinship between the king and queen themselves. By the look of surprise on Caden’s face, it was clear he hadn’t known this about his cousin either.
“Surely, but Grimwalde still stands. So perhaps she doesn’t care.” Morrigan tapped her fingers against the table before leaning back to stare at Thea.
“It’s not as if they matter,” King Rayan said, practically rolling his eyes with his tone.
Thea’s palm slammed into the table fast and each of the guards, including Adrian, tensed, hands shifting to their swords.
“I realize you believe yourself to be of a higher importance than me, but I swear to you—”
“Child,” the king spat, rai
sing to his feet, but Thea met him in full stride. Even in a dress, she looked ready for the fight of her life. Adrian’s fingers twitched against his sword and Caden’s hand reached out for Thea’s forearm.
Get her under control, he thought, agonized over the thought of having to get in between her and the king. He knew he shouldn’t even be hesitating. He was sworn to protect his king, but the idea of actually having to made him sick to his stomach. He prayed for the day when Caden took the throne and changed it all.
“Enough,” Morrigan said, sounding annoyed. “Rayan, sit down and Thea, remember you are my guest. I will not have you threatening anyone.”
Thea glared, but retook her seat. The king, however, was crimson red as he twisted his hands into fists.
“This is my kingdom,” he said, but the look Morrigan gave him was deadly.
“A kingdom now occupied by your Goddess, or do I need to remind you?” she asked, and silence fell on the entire room as the king sat slowly back into his chair. Adrian could see the arguments forming behind his ruler’s eyes but no words escaped his mouth.
Despite the tension in the air, there was a look of relief on Thea’s face at the news that her friends were safe, and no matter how much Adrian hated to admit it, he enjoyed seeing that relief. Whatever grief she’d experienced earlier, perhaps knowing of their safety would bring her peace.
“Your training begins tomorrow morning,” Morrigan continued, letting the king simmer in his seat as she watched Thea closely. This was the news Adrian had been waiting for. They’d briefed him on his part in this portion of the plan, and if he was being honest, he was still furious about it, but there was no arguing with a deity.
“My training?” Thea asked, eyeing the Goddess with a lift of her eyebrow. Adrian noticed that she hadn’t touched her food, but rather, had her hands neatly folded into her lap. Did she intend to refuse sustenance from an enemy? She would need her strength, and a bowl of porridge wasn’t enough to provide it.