Page 58 of Haunted

Kenrik snaps his fingers. A guard emerges from behind a shrub.

“Your Highness?” the guard asks.

“Sound the alert,” Kenrik says.

The man nods.

Niawen grabs Kenrik’s arm. “She won’t harm anyone. She’s my sister. I’m her guardian. She’s everything to me.”

His fingers drop over hers. “I know. You misunderstood. I’m making sure no one will harm her.” Before Kenrik takes off to the courtyard, the guard blows two short bursts into a horn.

“Come.” Kelyn turns to her.

Tension melts away from her features as the crown prince touches her shoulder. “Let’s meet this dragon of yours. Any sister of yours is welcome, even if she is a beast.”

Niawen is visibly relieved. “Thank you.”

After sending another guard off with a message, Prince Kelyn takes Niawen’s arm, and they start across the lawn.

“What’s a dragon?” the young child behind them asks. He could be about four years old. Niawen takes his hand and smiles.

Then she laughs, so lightly, so like a bird singing in the morning that a pain in my chest loosens.

I haven’t laughed like that for centuries.

Now I want to.

I release Albus and fall to my knees. I laugh so hard that I’m giddy and lightheaded.

Her face is the only thing I see.

I laugh some more.

Niawen is the key to thawing my frozen existence.

Winter soon comes, but she will be an eternal fire to keep me warm.

43

The weeks she stays in King Sieffre’s southern kingdom taunt me. Her presence calls to my soul, but she doesn’t know I exist. I’m afraid to reveal myself and my two conflicting halves, one of which makes me a monster. How can a woman as innocent as Niawen, one who is pure light, see anything but vileness in a creature such as me? My darkness is strong. Over the last thousand years, I’ve let it grow.

With her existence, and the renewing hope I’ve received from it, the balance of my light is taking over.

Yes. I can allow my light to take hold once more. Every laugh from her, every confident movement—for she is bold—strengthens me.

As the weather grows colder, Niawen trains with Sieffre’s men indoors. I don’t think this is unusual. The empress—I do not think her name lightly—had men and women under her command. Sieffre’s people think that women training for combat is odd, but somehow Niawen forces her way into their training sessions. They’ve drawn an audience of blushing females. When Niawen fights, she doesn’t use her powers, except her emrys strength so that she’s a match for the men.

Albus has a hard time enduring the cold weather. I don’t use him as often as I’d like, but when I do, he sits on the ledge outside the window to the great hall where the warriors train.

I marvel at Niawen’s cunning and her agility. I never trained as a warrior, but I watched the empress countless times.

Would Niawen be a match for her?

Pure light against pure darkness. Who would win?

I’ve never seen Siana fight her daughter, so I begin to doubt the powers of light against the powers of darkness. Maybe darkness would prevail.

Then worry overtakes me.

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