Page 13 of A Book of Royals and Deities

She giggles but happily gives me a chocolate cupcake and takes the tiara off me. Ziven might be mad I traded a priceless tiara for a cupcake, but that’s a problem for another day. I’m too tired to care. I yawn, leaning back on the sofa to stuff my face with the cupcake with no shame. She eats with me in comfortable silence, and I fold the wrapper up, tucking it into my pocket. My eyes drift to her bandaged arm. “I’m sorry Daegan did that to you.”

She touches her arm and frowns. “He’s meant to be my uncle, like Ziven.”

“Listen to me.” I pick up her hand. “He’s not Ziven. Daegan can’t be trusted, and you must not be alone with him again.”

She sniffles. “He was really mean.”

Fury fills my chest as I hug Hettie to me. Ruelle’s stick tapping on the ground gives her away, and she sighs as she comes into the lounge. “I believe Story might need some rest, Hettie. If youare well enough to escape your guards, again, and run off, then you are well enough for some tutoring.”

She groans. “But the doors are finally open! Why do I have to learn?”

I try really hard not to laugh as I turn her to face me. “I saw loads of fae children coming in here. If you study with Ruelle today, perhaps Ziven might let you go and meet them to play. Your uncle is stressed at the moment, and Ruelle is right. I’m tired. Just for a little longer, can you not run off from Ruelle and the guards?”

“Do you promise to ask Ziven?” She puts her hands on her hips. I nod once and she grins, hugging me tightly before running around Ruelle.

Ruelle looks to the ceiling for some deity to help her before she follows the direction Hettie went in. I have so many questions about how Hettie even exists when no other children were born. Why her? What is different? A yawn stops my train of thought, and I stumble through the rooms until I get to my bedroom.

There are still books laid across my bed, and I gently take each off before I get to the last one. The diary. I sit down on the bed with it, touching the cover. “I never believed in rebirth or spells, but somehow, you set me up for this fate. You loved them both, didn’t you? The sun and moon you wrote about was Ziven and Daegan…” I put her diary in my drawer and shut it. She’s dead and she can’t help me now. I don’t think she would even if she could. I fall asleep without even noticing it, and when I wake up next, there is a knocking at my door. “One second!”

I tug the cloak off and wash up in the bathroom before opening the door. Kyrell and Calix are waiting for me, and I grin asI throw my arms around Kyrell, who happily catches me. He smells like goats and blood, and I’m happy he has been fed. The window in my room shows me it’s night, and I must have slept for most of the day. I look over Kyrell’s shoulder. “Where’s Ziven?”

“Busy with the newcomers still. There have been fights and deaths. It’s a mess.” Calix rubs his chin. “I fucking hate the Sun king, but Mazzis and Ziven alone are struggling to keep order over the ten thousand or more fae flooding to the mansion. We will soon have a food shortage if this keeps up.”

Kyrell lets me go. “You left me with the joy of the party, Cally boy over here, and I begged him to let me come and see you.”

“Cally boy?” I choke on a laugh before smothering it with my hand.

Calix touches his sword hilt. “I told you two hours ago to fucking drop the new nickname, vampyre.”

Kyrell winks at me. “I’ve met nearly all the Moon Dynasty people, and I see why you went for the broody king. I need details, Tory.”

“I missed you,” I chuckle, knowing he is deadly serious about wanting to know everything about Ziven and me. I wouldn’t know how to even begin to explain it all to him though. Entwined mates. I don’t know much about them except for what Etena told me. She said entwined mates were two people who are linked together when they’re born, by the deities, and a mated pair is extremely powerful with the ability to boost each other’s powers. The deities choose the people, and they are linked for certain reasons known to the gods alone. They could be destined for true love, or they could be destined for a deep friendship, or tobe enemies fated to end each other’s lives. Mates aren’t always good picks, but their magic will always complement each other’s. Most choose to be lovers, but not always.

Males always know—they can sense their entwined, smell her scent—but Etena said it isn’t the same for females. I was drawn to Ziven since we met, and I thought it was because we hated each other. But it was this. This entwined fate between us. I’ve never had anything to claim as my own, and now I have a dragon and a broody king. I need time with my best friend, and I know just the space to spend some time. “Do you want to come and see the library they have here?”

Kyrell goes to answer, but Calix cuts him off. “No. He shouldn’t go walking around.” I frown and stare at Calix. He sighs and rubs his chin. “No one’s in the library. It’s the only place that Ziv’s commanded that no one’s allowed to enter. None of the new fae can go in there so it is safe, as we must protect the ancient books. But Kyrell shouldn’t be walking around alone.”

“He won’t be alone. You and I will be with him,” I remind Calix. “And Ziven won’t even notice us taking a short trip there and back.”

“If he does, I know Story will calm him.” Kyrell wiggles his eyebrows at me.

Calix groans. “By the deities—fine. Come on, then, and for fuck’s sake, vampyre, don’t lower your hood until we are inside the library.”

The ground floor below where Maeve used to be is completely covered in rocks, but someone has made a makeshift staircase out of wood that goes to every level in this place. I’m guessing one of the powerborn has a skill over elements and helped withthis. The glass is all gone from the pathways, and instead, there are fae everywhere. Kyrell tugs his cloak tighter as we walk through them, but he needn’t have worried. They all stare and point at me, some going as far as bowing. I want to tell each and every one of them not to do that, but I can’t risk stopping with Kyrell at my side. Ziven has well and truly dropped me in it now.

My eyes drop to the rocks covering the entrance to the Decidere. “I’m guessing there’s another entrance to the Decidere?”

“Yes, in the forest, there are many, and we have a few tunnels here too,” Calix fills me in. I still haven’t gotten over how Maeve was right in front of me the entire time, and I never noticed her. I knew she was a dragon statue, and I stared at how beautiful she was, but she was mine. She was waiting and watching me in the Decidere with the other dragons. I truly felt I wasn’t worthy of a dragon after the Decidere ended and I came out without a dragon…but now I ride Maeve. So much has happened since I was a scared blood slave who wanted to die. I’m glad I decided not to die in the end, and a lot of my decision to fight is because of Kyrell. He might not look like my bright, alive best friend anymore, but he is here, and I will fight to the end to keep him safe.

He has died for me once before. I don’t think I could take losing him again. My mother might be gone for all I know, and I haven’t seen her in so long that sometimes I think I’ve forgotten what her face looks like. Kyrell is my family. My brother. I touch his arm, the coldness of his body so easily felt, even through clothes. I remember how cold a vampyre feels from Emyr, and I push down the fear his name strikes in my chest. “How are you feeling now you’re like this?” I ask him when we come to the silent corridor to the library, which is guarded by Sun fae who let us pass.

“Different and empty.” He touches his stomach with his hand. “When you first wake up…everything’s different. My senses as a vampyre are like a fae, but I’m faster. Sometimes it feels like I just forgot how to feel warm and I might suddenly remember. Everything else about my body, I can get used to, but the cold? It doesn’t end. I feel it in my mind and soul.”

“I’m so sorry,” I tell him softly. “I wished to see you again, but I wouldn’t have wanted this vampyre life for you. I did everything you asked, you know? I lived, I dated, I made the most of the chance you gave me and fought for life. You told me to burn it all, and I might not have tried to do that, but it happened.”

He places his hand on my arm. “You will change everything, Story Dehana. I will be proud to watch.”

The doors to the library are heavily guarded. Surprisingly, they’re guarded by a team of ten Sun Dynasty guards, including Etena. She tenses when she spots us, her hands clenching as her eyes flicker over Kyrell, then Calix and me. Etena looks tired, a little less perfect than she usually is. The sun marking on her neck catches my eye now that her long hair is braided back. She is all in tight brown leather clothes, and a sword is strapped to her hip. “Did Daegan send you here?”

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