Page 75 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

Gray’s eyes darkened, shadows slithering from his fingertips. "We cannot wait for her fickle games to play out. I need to break the curse. Now. Certainly before we return to Bearswillow. And what if the stars tell her to find me while we’re gone?"

"Then fortunately, for us, it is notyouwho Eudora wishes to speak to. Our journey will not affect you getting the answers you seek. In fact, it may even be beneficial for you to be absent when Eudora calls upon your mate."

"She refuses to speak to me?" Storm clouds suddenly gathered over the beautiful ocean, the glistening waves dulling as the sun was blocked out.

"She’s agreed to speak to Azalea. I’m certain dear Lea will relay the information you are asking for."

Gray looked at Lea warily, his shadows floating up and wrapping around her protectively. "I refuse to leave my mate alone with a witch who demands unreasonable bargains and speaks in riddles.Ineed to learn how to break the curse so I can kill my father.Iwill pay Eudora’s price for that information. Not Azalea," he said through clenched teeth. "I am the one who demands answers."

"The witch said how to end the curse is not the answer youneed," Tanad bridged his fingers together. "That there are other questions that must first be asked."

The underside of Lea’s arm tingled, her moonflower birthmark burning as if it was on fire, and she tried to rub the sting away.Odd, Lea thought as she sent healing energy to the area. "We need to know if I am the one from the prophecy," she said, still rubbing at the sensitive skin. "If I’m Queen Emmaline’s granddaughter, and the true heir to Desia."

King Tanad sat back in his chair, his eyes widening in disbelief. "If that is your question, my darling girl, you need only ask me. This is not the first time we have met, Azalea. Nor will it be the first time that you have met Eudora."

Chapter 50

Lea

"Whatthehelldoyou mean?" Gray said, jumping from his seat to pace in front of the table, his fingers flexing and extending as he tried to control his shadows.

"I apologize, Commander, but I assumed you knew. The resemblance between them is uncanny, is it not? And as for her magic," Tanad tapped his temple, "it is identical to Queen Emmaline's. It’s remarkable, actually, how it feels almost exactly the same."

"Are you referring to the fact that Queen Emmaline had both day and night magic?"

"I’m referring to the fact that Queen Emmalineandyour mate have primary magic. Magic of the earth—and the sky and the wind and the sea. Power that can create just as it can destroy. It is the magic of the gods, capable of more than we could possibly imagine. Though, as it appears that your mate has been blessed by the goddess," he waved about her body, "her primary magic is tied to the moon. To the darkness."

Lea’s mouth hung open, and the room spun as she tried to process the king’s words. She’d met the king before, as well as the witch who prophesied the downfall of the Black King? And what did he mean primary magic? Wouldn’t that be something she knew about?

But as she dissected the types of power she could feel building inside her, several pieces of the puzzle of who she was clicked into place. She knew she had day magic, as well as magic of the night. The primary magic must be what was hidden so deeply beneath the floor in her chest, the magic that had allowed her to save Queen Emmaline’s baby, to force its heart to continue beating until Adelaide removed her from her mother’s womb. It was the magic that had rocked through her entire being, the dark, raw, unruly, and wild power that felt like it might consume her whole. It didn’t feel as if it could create. It felt like death and destruction, and the more she used her shadows, the more accessible that wicked magic felt.

But what was that small bit of darkness inside her that felt wrong? The foreign shadows that mixed in with her own night magic didn’t have the same feeling of pure, unadulterated power like her primary magic did? They felt different.Other. Somewhere mixed within them was something that didn’t seem to belong to her.

"I don’t understand," Lea croaked. With another wave of his hand, a cup of fragrant floral tea appeared in Lea’s shaking hands, the seahorse-patterned china clattering in a high-pitched jingle.

"My dear, not only did I know your grandmother, but I knew your mother. Your birth mother."

Lea nearly dropped her tea as her breath was stolen from her lungs. "My birth mother washere?" Lea couldn’t believe it. She’d known Emmaline’s maid had fled to Calir, but she’d never thought they would have come to the castle.

"She grew up here, actually. I can still picture the day Delphine showed up with a brand new baby in her arms, asking for our help. I hired her as a maid, and she lived here until her death many years ago. She never told me who your mother really was, but I knew. She had the same piercing blue eyes as you. The same eyes as Emmaline."

Lea was dumbfounded. Her birth mother had walked these halls? Had grown from a child to a woman within these walls? "So she had primary magic as well?"

"No. Your mother’s power was something different. It was odd, and exceedingly rare. Your mother had the gift oflife."

"Impossible. No one can create life," argued Erik as Gray sat back, assessing the king.

"Not create, necessarily. She couldn’t heal. Couldn't set bones or kill infection, but she could grab a soul locked in the reaper’s grasp and hold it at bay. She couldn’t bring back the dead, but she could hold death off long enough for the healers to do their work. It was remarkable, actually. She helped many soldiers survive what should’ve been fatal wounds, saved countless mothers during birth, as well as children suffering from what should have been deathly high fevers."

Lea couldn’t breathe. She actually felt like she was suffocating as her heart beat rapidly in her chest. It was exactly what she had done for her birth mother the night Emmaline had been murdered.

"The oddest thing about it, though," said the king thoughtfully, "was that the magic did not match her essence."

"What do you mean, her essence?" Gray walked behind Lea, placing a hand on her back and pushing soothing energy into her chest. Her heart slowed a bit.

"Usually, one’s magic feels as if it is a part of them. Ingrained wholly and completely within them as much as their blood and bone. But with your mother, it felt foreign in her body, as if she was controlling someone else’s magic. I've never felt anything like it before." King Tanad took a long sip of his tea, then looked at Lea. "Not until I saw you today."

"Me?" Lea asked. "I don’t have that power." But did she? Memories of ripping Queen Emmaline's baby from death's grasp flashed through her mind.

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