Page 36 of Crowning of the Sword

He seemed genuinely puzzled, and she gestured around them. “It’s here.”

“Oh.”

“Art isn’t necessarily to be understood. Just… experienced.”

“Did you like making it?”

“Yes.”

“An experience.”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

She wasn’t sure if he did, not really, but it didn’t matter. “You can have it if you like.”

His brows lifted, pleased. “Thank you.”

She didn’t want to say anything, but the facts were there, nudging at her. The sun hadn’t moved from its point in the sky and yet she knew time had passed, a lot of it. She should be back at the castle, waiting for Cole. She could just keep this perfect, peaceful afternoon in a secret crystal tucked in her pocket, and occasionally take it out and marvel at its beauty before she hid it away again.

“I think we should go back.”

He didn’t say anything, and when she blinked, she was back in the forest by the columns, clad in her flowing gown, diamonds and pearls at her ears and wrists, the press of her collar against her throat.

Her heart sank, and a thrill of foreboding came over her. Lily and the guards had gone, and her abandoned canvas lay on the ground, shredded to ribbons.

Chapter 30

Unease pricked at her as she followed a guide back to her room. The hallways were unusually quiet, which only increased her nerves. The floorboards creaked with her every footstep, and from the corner of her eye she fancied she saw shadows shifting and dark fingers reaching for her. She took the last few hallways at a run, her heart pounding, and was relieved when she saw her bedroom door, two guards at attention outside. They opened the door for her without a word, and inside she found Lily restlessly flitting back and forth across the rafters of the ceiling, her glamoured wings shimmering bright in the candlelight, the chandelier swaying from the breeze she created. Rufus worried at a bone in the corner and when he saw Ember, he gave a pleased little snort and a quick wag of his tail, before returning to the far more interesting bone.

“Oh, Ember,” Lily cried, flying to Ember, and throwing her arms around her. “I didn’t know where you were. I thought perhaps someone had taken you.”

Which, of course, they had.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry. It all happened so fast.”

“The prince is …”

Lily broke off as the door crashed open and Cole burst in, a tornado of smoke whirling about him as though he were in the centre of a storm. He wasn’t just angry. He was furious, apoplectic. Ember backed up quickly as he advanced on her, and Lily took her hand as if to give her courage. That sweet little gesture of support was enough to make her stand her ground. She was back now. She was safe.

“Where have you been?”

“In the castle,” she answered, a little pertly. “I apologise for making you worry.”

“In the castle?” he repeated in an awful mimicry of her, his voice high and quivering, every word laced with derision. “And where, pray tell?”

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“You were with him,” he snapped. “You were with that foul servant, my Blade. Only one place in the castle I cannot go and that belongs to him, only one place I cannot find you and that is by his side.”

She raised her hands in placation, and he slapped them down, and then his hand shot out and he took a handful of her hair, forcing her head back. Her neck cracked and she let out a yelp of pain and terror. He shook her, once, twice, like a dusty mat. Her initial fear turned to anger, and she jerked away from his grasp, pushing Lily behind her.

“Don’t touch me,” she hissed. “Nothing happened.”

“Where were you?” he screamed at her, but she refused to be cowed.

“In a crystal on a table in a hallway,” she replied, almost lazily. She was weary of his unpredictable temper, bored with his moods. He wanted her at his side when he felt like it and pushed her away when he didn’t, but she wasn’t a toy to be thrown aside when he didn’t feel like playing with her. It all felt so horribly familiar, and she resented it.

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