by Everly Frost
Serena was the Queen’s champion before me—a Solstice fae like Calida but with a very different temperament. The color of her hair and eyes are identical shades of amber streaked through with gold. She started training me when I was only ten, but I didn’t know she was grooming me to take her place until she asked me to challenge her. Well, asked is a gentle way of putting it.
My fight with her was fierce. Neither of us would yield, but I held back. I didn’t want to hurt her. I still remember the way she screamed at me during the fight. Is this how you would protect the Queen?
After that, I nearly killed her.
Now the pinch of her bronzed lips tells me she’s intensely unhappy. “You should have killed Calida.”
Well, at least her anger isn’t about Nathaniel.
“Hello, Serena,” I say. “It’s been a while.”
“Don’t play niceties with me,” she snaps. As she steps fully into the light, the scar I gave her becomes visible across the side of her slender neck. Our most talented healers worked over Serena for hours to save her life, but no magic could erase the burst of my starlight that cut across her neck that day.
Now the anger on her face is startling. “Calida’s family has been causing trouble for the Queen for years. Calida tried to stab you in the back. She dishonored every fae—even her own family.”
“Then her family will deal with her.”
“Don’t be naïve. If she was willing to dishonor herself in front of a thousand fae, consider what she’ll do in the shadows.”
“It’s not my job to kill my people,” I snarl, anger rising inside me. “I’m here to protect the Queen.”
She casts a pointed glance at Nathaniel. “Well, you’re certainly doing a great job of that.”
Power sparks between my fingertips as my anger rises. “If you want another scar to match the one you already have, keep talking.”
She tips her chin at me. “Next time you face Calida, bring that anger.” Her long coat slides across the pearly stone walkway as she spins on her heel and strides away from me. Her gold-tipped boots smack the ground as she throws back at me, “You’ll need it.”
The power fades from my fingertips.
I wish she weren’t right.
Talsa edges up behind me. “Ignore that witch.”
My eyes widen in surprise. Talsa is reliable, steadfast, and dependable. It’s rare for her to curse anyone.
Her coral hair swirls across the collar of her coat. “She’s right, of course. You should have killed Calida when you had the chance. But even so, it’s not her place to make it sound like it was an easy choice. None of your choices have been easy today.”
I stare at her, pretty sure my mouth is gaping. As rare as Talsa’s anger is, it’s rarer that anyone speaks in my defense. Warmth fills my heart, but then it fades. What I said to Nathaniel is true—fae are subversive. They always have an ulterior motive. And it’s always the ones closest to you whose betrayal you don’t see until it’s too late.
My voice quiets and my eyes narrow. “Why are you helping me today? The Queen’s champion has no friends. Only challengers.”
“But you do have family.” She shifts a little before she glances along the underpass. The only other person here is Nathaniel, who has stepped back into the shadows at the side of the corridor.
Talsa clears her throat. “You risked everything to bring Evander home and save him. You treat him like your blood brother and he loves you like his blood sister.”
“I’m not sure how that obligates you—”
Oh.
The kiss Evander dropped to her forehead.
She’s trying to tell me they’re together. I suddenly think back to the moment when I arrived with Evander from the border this morning. Talsa had frozen in shock and worry. At the time, I thought it was because of all the potential casualties, but her focus was purely on Evander.
“Are you and Evander…?” I dare to ask.
Talsa’s sky-blue eyes light up with her smile. “We’ll ask the Queen for permission to be married at the next Spring Pairing.”
I can’t stop the smile breaking across my face. “That’s wonderful. You don’t need my approval, but I’m glad.”
“I know you thought I should challenge Mia as Captain of the Night Guard,” she says. “But I want children. I want to be a mother. If I take on the role of a captain, I won’t be able to have a family until someone challenges me. This…” She gestures at the indigo uniform peeking from under her coat. “It can’t be my life.”
“I understand.” I bite my lip. “You both hid it so well.”
She grimaces. “We had to. There are a lot of rumors about Evander. We had to be careful.”
I press my lips together in distaste. “I’ve heard the whispers.” Even if nobody dares say them to my face.
“What whispers?” Nathaniel asks, breaking into our conversation.
When I glare at him, he shrugs. “Just curious.”
“Curiosity is the problem,” I snap. “You may have noticed that under the Queen’s matriarchy, the majority of command positions are held by women.”
“It’s a little obvious.”
“Well, Evander is one of the few men to hold a senior position. You see, male fae are physically larger and stronger than women, but their magic is much weaker. Evander is one of the rare men whose power is as bright as any woman’s. It’s one of the reasons the Queen placed me with his family. We were both curiosities. Things for people to stare at and whisper about. Sometimes the whispers are tolerable. Mostly, they aren’t.”
I’m not about to repeat the rumors, but Talsa interrupts me with a blunt: “They say he’s not actually strong, but he sleeps with high-ranking women to gain their favor and steal their powers. There’s even a nasty rumor that he slept with Aura and somehow siphoned off her power so he was strong enough to win his fight to become the Border Guard Captain.”
That rumor was particularly sickening. Evander has always looked out for me. I’ve always had his back. Even if we weren’t born from the same parents, he’s my brother. My love for him is as a sister.
I give Nathaniel a bitter smile. “Lies, of course. My world is only pretty on the surface.”
“I’m beginning to see that.” His gaze suddenly flicks past me toward the end of the underpass that leads out to the city. A breeze wafts through the corridor, cooling my cheeks as shadows move in the distance.
Nathaniel prowls past me. “It’s time for us to move.”
When we exit the underpass, I’m not surprised to find Nadina and half a dozen Day Guards waiting for us, but I am surprised when she approaches me with her hand on her hip where her weapon rests, as if she thinks she’ll need it. The other guards are doing the same.
“The Queen has ordered us to escort you to the palace,” Nadina says. “She wishes for you to rest. I will continue to watch over her today. Mia will guard her tonight. The Queen will call you when she wants to speak with you.”
My stomach sinks. It’s a veiled order to stay away from the Queen until she’s calmed down. Imatra may not have publicly criticized me, but she’s definitely upset.
I don’t react.
“Very well,” I say.
I start to walk past Nadina, but I freeze when the guards quickly surround me—front, sides, and back. Normally, I would walk at the front, leading the others. Now I face a Day Guard’s back while Nadina takes up position on my righthand side. The other Day Guards step up to surround Nathaniel and even Talsa. Their hands rest on their hips, where their weapons are concealed.
Nadina faces forward, but her head is turned to study me, a hard stare.
She’s waiting for me to retaliate against their aggressive move.
My jaw clenches, but I swallow my anger. The Queen has ordered this. If I hit back, it will be like a strike against the Queen.
I hear Evander’s voice in my head, the way he used to calm me as a child: Stay frosty, Aura.
I sense Nathaniel’s gaze burning
my back as we’re escorted back to the Inner Sanctuary. He’s perceptive enough to sense the changed mood and the way I’m suddenly being treated as a threat.
Many fae fill the streets now and the two Day Guards walking ahead of us nearly lose their voices shouting for people to clear the way. The fact that I’m being escorted won’t go unnoticed, but I hold my head high.
Nothing has been easy today, but I’ve got through it so far.
I can get through this too.
Chapter 13
When we finally arrive at the bottom of the stairs to the Queen’s Tower, Talsa breaks off from us with a pointed stare at the Day Guards blocking her way until the women step aside to allow her to leave.
She swings back with an overly cheery and equally pointed declaration. “I’ll see you at the Ball tonight, Aura. Since you’re still the reigning champion, you’ll need to be there.”
The Winter Ascending always ends with a city-wide celebration. The Queen opens the palace to the most powerful fae while there are smaller celebrations hosted throughout the city for everyone else. The party starts at midnight and goes until dawn. Sunstream fae hate that it happens at night when they would normally be sleeping, but they can catch a half night’s sleep before it begins and then see in the new day when the sun rises.
I turn to face Nadina. “Thank you for your assistance. I can take the Fell creature from here.”
She opens her mouth to object, but Talsa’s loud reminder mustn’t have slipped completely over her head. I’m still the champion. The Queen’s mood will pass and then Nadina will be beholden to me again. She has been the Captain of the Day Guard for longer than I’ve been champion. Her respect for me has always been unwillingly given, but she understands the hierarchy.
“Very well,” she says. “We will follow.”
I exhale my first clear breath since we left the coliseum. Making it to the top of the staircase and to Nathaniel’s door, I spin to him with a command. “I will come for you at sunset. Make sure you close your door. The Day Guard will stand guard outside it.”
“Aura.” There’s a warning in his voice as he stops at the door to his room, practically dwarfing the open doorway in his thick coat. The Day Guards gather behind him, scowling at him because he isn’t entering his room like I told him to.
“Never out of each other’s sight,” he says, his dark eyes refusing to let me go.
“What?”
He sighs. “Try stepping into your room. You’ll see.”
I scowl at him before I stride toward my own door.
He remains in his doorway watching me.
I step into my room. At least I try.
Oomph.
It’s like hitting a wall.
Rubbing my chest, I step back from the doorway, glaring at the open space that I can’t seem to move through.
Nathaniel takes careful steps toward me. It’s like watching a bull trying to tiptoe.
“I was hoping I was wrong,” he says. “But the dragon was clear: From now on, you will walk side by side, never out of each other’s sight. You will eat, sleep, and breathe together.”
“That was a metaphor,” I say, a deep, unhappy denial. I shake my head violently. “He didn’t mean it literally. He couldn’t have.”
“We could separate before the Law was sealed, but not now.”
He actually sounds sorry. I guess the idea of sleeping near each other is as repugnant to him as it should be to me.
I find myself gripping the doorway as the full impact of the Law starts to sink in. “Well… what about when we need to bathe?”
He leans in close. “That’s a conversation we need to have not in front of witnesses.”
Dear stars.
I try to ignore all of the staring guards. I can’t even…
“Your room is larger. It has a couch,” I say loudly, striding back to his room. “You will be sleeping on it.”
I throw my head back with a haughty stare at the guards as Nathaniel steps inside. I close the door firmly behind myself, shutting out all of the prying eyes in the corridor, including Nadina, who stands with one hand on her hip and both eyebrows raised.
Nathaniel perches on the edge of the couch.
The room is unlike mine in so many ways. Not only are the walls soundproof, but the decor is pure luxury. The walls are painted a pale blue interlaid with silver filigree. A massive four-poster bed rests on the righthand side covered in a blanket made from the softest wool. The pillows and sheets are spun from the smoothest silk and the drapes hanging around the bed are transparent. They’re deliberately designed that way so that silhouettes are easily visible through them. The left side of the room has a plush couch with intricately carved wooden legs and so many pillows that Nathaniel has already knocked two of them onto the floor.
Massive closet, massive bathroom, massive mirror on the wall deliberately placed to reflect everything that could possibly go on in that bed.
Massive great damn mistake.
“You said you can’t sleep in cluttered spaces,” Nathaniel says, resting his hands on his knees.
I’m surprised by his concern, but he’s right. I really didn’t think this through. “I’ll make it work.”
I throw off my coat, slinging it over the carved wooden chair beside the door as I head to the bathroom. Of course, it doesn’t have a door. This room was built with only one purpose in mind. The Queen may appear demurely beautiful in public, but like every other powerful fae, she doesn’t deprive herself of whatever she wants.
Sometimes I think I was born into entirely the wrong race. Thank the stars for Evander and his father, who both believe in hard work and trust above gaining power.
A deep clawfoot bath sits at the far side of the bathroom, along with shower facilities, two snowy-white sinks, and yet another very large mirror. I splash my face with water and wipe away the dust, gripping the edge of the sink and leaning over it for a moment.
The battle comes back to me in flashes, worse than my fight with Nathaniel this morning. I didn’t have time to process that fight afterward. I had to keep going, but now…
Splashes of sand. Golden and glittering.
Calida’s scream of rage.
The snap as I broke my arrow.
Heatwaves shimmering across my vision.
The crunching sand beneath my feet as I ran straight at her arrow.
Dammit.
I process my traumas far better in my own empty room.
All the bright, shiny things I’m surrounded with right now glint everywhere I look. Even the soap sparkles.
A hand on my shoulder snaps me back to the present. Nathaniel stands beside me. The room is warm and he left his coat behind. It bothers me that I was so affected by the fight that I didn’t hear him approach me.
His deep brown eyes meet mine in the mirror. “Maybe we should relocate to your room,” he says softly. “I can sleep anywhere. The floor will be fine.”
I don’t like the way the dark rings under my eyes look worse in the harsh lighting as I look back at him.
“I said I’ll make it work,” I snap, irritated at how thoughtful he’s being.
Despite my attempt to wrench out of his hold, he doesn’t let me go. “Stop,” he says. “You’re hurt.”
I edge away from him, but his hand deftly strokes down my shoulder to the cut across my bicep where Calida’s arrow sliced across my arm. I shiver at the unexpected warmth from his touch and the soft glow rising from my skin that makes the rest of the room dim in comparison.
“You need a healer,” he says. “Or at least a bandage.”
“So do you,” I shoot back at him.
He glances at his own arm, where Evander’s blade cut him this morning. The blood has clotted, a jagged line of crimson across his skin.
His eyes darken for a moment, the tension around his mouth increasing.
Before I know what he’s doing, he spins me so that my back is pressed against his chest. His right arm slides around my stomach, draggin
g me so close that I can feel all the muscles of his thighs, stomach, and chest. I shiver at the glow between us, the way it brightens and wanes in time with my rapidly increasing heartbeat.
“Look,” he orders, before I can lift my boot and kick his shin to make him let me go. “In the mirror.”
Standing like this, our left arms are positioned side by side.
Our cuts are nearly identical.
He sustained his wound fighting Evander. I got mine fighting Calida. We both darted right to avoid a killing blow and ended up with cuts across our left biceps.
“We have the same wound,” I breathe. “What does it mean?”
His cheek presses to the side of my head. His right arm softens around my waist, his hand curling around the top of my opposite hip. He seems distracted, but he focuses on our wounds in the mirror again. “Probably nothing. Maybe something. I don’t know.”
Remaining pressed against him, I turn my head away from the mirror, facing the bathroom wall. “I glow because we’re bound together, don’t I?”
“No,” he whispers. “I don’t think so.”
I frown but don’t pull away. “But the Vanem Dragon saw me glow and he said that we were already—”
“Binding is darkness, Aura. We’re bound to kill each other. The energy around us is the darkest possible magic—the very opposite of light. That’s what the dragon sensed.” His voice lowers. “I think you glow because…”
He slowly shakes his head and falls silent.
“Because why?” I ask.
He dips his head and turns me very carefully to face him. While one hand wraps around my hip, his other travels up my side and across my shoulder blades to release my braids, his fingertips easing my hair loose.
He’s so intent about it, his focus completely on my hair, that I don’t pull away.
I know I can. Any second now… I will.
“Look,” he whispers, turning me to face the mirror. Every movement he makes is precise and cautious. The way he touches me… it’s like he’s handling porcelain.
I frown at my reflection. Even with the glow between his chest and my shoulder and hip, I look tired and drawn.