Page 55 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

Olea put me in a gown of green satin, long-sleeved and simple, to my relief. It still pushed my breasts to my chin and nearly suffocated my waist, but at least it fully covered my midsection and legs. She wiped my face and recast the paint on my cheeks and lips, leaving my eyes with less kohl than before. She brushed my hair out long and let it fall in waves around me. Finally, she placed a simple crown on my head, not much more than a band of gold two fingers wide. As soon as it rested there, I felt a gentle vibration. Olea turned me to the mirror, and I watched flowering spill out of the crown. Vines and blooming buds traveled down my hair and all across my dress, adorning the fabric. The pattern swirled and moved with my breath against the swish of my gown. The largest blossoms gathered atthe hem, but other than that, the image never appeared to still. I was a living garden, the Earth incarnate.

“How?” I didn’t normally enjoy dresses, but this one warranted appreciation.

Olea shook her head, admiring her work in the mirror. “I dinna know, lassia. I only heard that Cas brought et back after one a’ hes great adventures. Supposed te display the wearer’s power, should he or she be worthy. Et looks splended on ye.”

I took one last look at my image and exhaled. Flowers streaked my hair, and hues of orange, fuchsia, and deep red traveled around my green covered body.

“Olea, what is the queen like?” I asked, fiddling with the large purple rock that sparkled on my finger. When I first met Olea, she mentioned the Rexi had never been on Fae land before—maybe that’s why I didn’t remember her.

“The Rexi?”

I nodded. If she thought the question strange, she didn’t show it.

“I dinna know much, mess. Formidable, te be sure. She only arrived but a few days before ye, and she rare attends banquet.”

The Rexi arrived a few days before me. Having never been on Fae land in her life.

She knew I was coming.

Olea ledme to the top of the grand stairs that emptied into the foyer. Cas waited there, casually leaning against a stone pillar. He’d tied his dark hair low at the nape of his neck, and he wore a simple black warrior’s jacket with a few buttons undone, revealing the contours of his chest and a few swirling lines of a tattoo. His eyes glinted upon my approach, admiring the gold onmy head and the purple on my finger. He bowed, hinging low at the waist. Before I could attempt a curtsey, he reached up to my hair and plucked a purple iris. He fastened it to his jacket and a dazzling smile stretched over his features.

The prince turned and extended his arm to lead me down the staircase. I placed my hand on his biceps, signaling a pause.

“We need to talk.”

“Oh dear, that sounds ominous,” he said back casually.

“I asked Olea what the binding is.”

He closed his eyes and inhaled. “You don’t need to worry about that. I have the best minds in Viribrum working out how to undo it. And until then, Ezren won’t be going anywhere. Nothing will happen to you,mi karus. I promise.”

I shifted my weight. Though he’d intended his words for comfort, they addressed the wrong concern. “That wasn’t really what I meant, Cas. Olea also told me about the Salanti thing. That the binding may only happen if the two are… meant to be Matched, or whatever.”

Cas’s face turned serious. “Salantiis an antiquated concept—one that cannot be proven without blood sharing, which is now achoicefor females in this court,” he snorted. “There was a time when it was not, when each suspected Salantiwould have been forced to blood share and Match to see if their blood strengthened. Be grateful we live in more modern times,mi karus.While the binding is something completely out of our control, choosing to Match—choosing to cement that partnership—is not.”

“Is there another way to test it? Without choosing to ‘cement the partnership’? If I amsupposedlymeant to be Matched with someone, that feels like important information for us…” I drifted off, feeling transparent. A primal part of me needed to know if Ezren was my Match, even though I understood little of what itmeant. But what good would knowing do? If we weren’t Salanti, then the blood sharing would do nothing. And if we were…

Cas interrupted my spiraling thoughts. “There is an imprecise way to tell. It is said when Salanti find each other they omit a… potent smell to attract the other. Supposedly, the scent is fairly undetectable to the couple, almost subconscious, but god awful to those around them. There is another matter of Salanti being able to communicate mind to mind that is a tell, but it typically manifests after the blood sharing.”

A memory of Leiya commenting on my scent flashed through my mind. A moment later, I saw the image of Ezren standing in a river, his shirt sticking to his skin, telling me I’dcalledfor him when the Earth split.

If I had been unmoving before, I was a statue from the palace halls now.

“But,” Cas continued, “I scented nothing of that nature omitted from either of you earlier in the dungeon, and I’m pretty sure you’d know if he could read your thoughts.” Cas lifted my chin, his fingers just grazing my skin. “I would put it out of your mind,mi karus. Likely your heritage wanted to bind, nothing more.”

I chewed my bottom lip, unsure if that sentiment confused me more or less. Putting the Ezren thoughts aside, I refocused on the immediate issue. Dinner.

“Also… my mother. The Rexi. What is she doing here, Cas? She never bothered to come to Viribrum before, as far as I can remember. What does she want from me?”

Cas’s snort rang hollow. “NowthatI don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.” Something more lingered in his gaze.

I did my best to look afraid and timid rather than the angry and confused I felt. “And what about Fayzien? No matter what Gia says, I know he hurt me, Cas. In Argention, he stripped menaked and sent his power through me. And I have strong reason to believe he killed the family that raised me.”

Cas’s mouth formed a grim line, the lack of shock on his face leaving me stunned. “Yes, don’t worry, I’m dealing with him, too.” The confirmation that itwasFayzien who murdered my family sent a burning trail down my throat. But before I could say another word, he took my arm in his and led me down the stairs. We veered to the left, the doors of the great banquet swinging open before us.

As we walkedinto the hall, a mustached servant tapped his staff to the ground, and the reveling quieted. He announced us by name and title, and we walked through the crowds of courtiers that were bustling with excitement a moment before. This transported me right back to Spring Day. Except instead of the Matron guiding me through the chaos, Cas did. This time I was even more picked over, like a prized mare being led to auction. The hall glittered with rows of long candle-laden tables that led up to one horizontal head table facing them all on a dais. Cas noticed me eyeing it and whispered in my ear, ‘The table of the crown.’ In the middle sat the king, Darlan. And next to him, his honored guest. The Rexi Neferti, Queen of Nebbiolo. My birth mother.

The silence became near deafening by the time we approached them. Cas unwound my arm from his and bowed deeply, shooting me a look on the way up. I took the hint and curtsied, extending my right foot far behind and touching my knee to the ground. I dipped my head in deference and let my emerald satin skirts pool all around me on the stone floor, at which point the magic running over my dress developed a mindof its own. The vines that traveled down my skirts extended beyond the hem in an instant, parting slightly at the root and hissing like dozens of forked snake tongues seething at a threat. My mouth fell ajar at the malice of it, and I stood in a hurry. The silence grew louder.

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