Page 110 of Null & Void

You have found every crack and corner of my blackened heart, but still, I cannot get enough of you. I will never stop filling my heart with everything about you, my Firecat.

Even though I don’t have your heart, you’ve had mine for a long time.

But it’s not real love unless you feel it too. I won’t force you, but I will wait for you. I have no choice, because you’re it for me.

I made the necklace with help from a traveling jeweler in Waadi.

I still had to make the pendant, the firecat. She was hard to carve because I wanted her to be as special as you are.

The necklace is a gift and a promise. I promise I’ll keep trying to be the man deserving of your heart until the day mine stops beating. Longer, if the Divine allows it.

Yours, Riley.

I read his letter five more times. My fingers trace the words where his pen scratches the paper hard enough to make an indent. The piece of fabric it was wrapped in smells like him. I hold it against my nose and mouth, breathing in the scent of him.

Reluctantly, I wrap it back up and slip it into my pocket. It occurs to me only then that the keys are no longer there because the pocket they were in has ceased to exist. Not wanting to lose my necklace or letter, I put them on the bed and shift back into the king to test a theory. The searing pain shoots through my bones and stretches my skin. There, in the pocket of the pants I wear as the king, are the keys. As if I’m not going to lose shit like this…

Yet again, shifting back to myself is easier. I quickly put on the necklace and pocket the letter inside the fabric. I grit my teeth and shift into the king again, sending a silent prayer to the Divine to look after my necklace and letter.

“All good?” Tovi asks, giving me a disgusted look up and down as I walk out to meet her as the imposter king.

Unable to speak my answer, I can only nod. I have his heart, is on the tip of my tongue, yet I cannot say it aloud. And she doesn’t push.

The four guards escort Tovi and I to Eryn’s rooms with no questions asked. When we arrive, I offhandedly say that Tovi can keep her cloak and usher her in.

Turning to the four men, I send the Gifted Patron and one non-Gifted, to get Lottie. I make it clear the Gifted Patron is to relieve her, and the other man can bring her here. The fewer Gifted Patrons around me right now, the better. When the two of them leave, the last two guards take up sentry by Eryn’s doors. I instruct them to knock when Lottie arrives.

Finding the sitting room empty, I proceed to the closed door of Eryn’s bedroom. The young prince searches my eyes as a smile tugs the corners of his lips when I enter the room.

“So that’s what he looks like without his violet eyes?” Eryn says, his eyes wide.

“Can’t see through my tricks?” I tease, flicking my hair sassily.

Eryn scrunches his face. “Oh, that’s so disturbing.”

Bitty had arrived before us and filled Eryn in. Conscious of the time this has all taken, I send them both to get Riley and Beans. Tovi borrows some of Eryn’s clothes and shoes. They don’t look right but are an improvement on the silky shirt and pants she was wearing. She left the cloak in the sitting room already. The two of them climb out the window as my rage bounces around my ribcage. It’s broad daylight—they could be spotted at any moment.

Thankfully, they reach the bottom safely. Tovi salutes me with a rude gesture before the two of them take off running.

Silence. The chaos stops momentarily, the only sounds are Eryn and I breathing.

“This is madness,” Eryn announces into our quiet contemplation.

“There’s more,” I say as I turn to face him. “He…he looks like you.” I shake my head. “I saw the real him after I stole his power. He’s got your hair, but everything is…lighter. He’d be shorter than you for sure.”

I suddenly realize I can show him. I step away, bracing myself. Groaning, I double over with the uncomfortable pain and pressure of the shift.

Eryn comes to the same conclusion I did. “He’s not pure Erduborn.”

“Maybe half Mievaborn. Would make sense why you pass as Erduborn, since your mother was too.”

“And why you pass as Mievaborn because of your mother, right?” Eryn says, studying me.

I scoff, rage rising. Eryn rolls his eyes and drags me to the mirror in his washroom.

“He’s about as pale as you are. We all have the same small, sharp nose and ears,” he says as he points to my features while I am in the imposter’s natural form.

A flash of burning ice engulfs me. This man is my father. Eryn knows it, and somehow, I know it too with a certainty that defies all logic and sense.

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