Page 86 of A World of Ruins

The side of my lips quirks as I fight my own battle not to tear up. ‘I still love to carve – when I’m not fighting against my enemies, of course.’

He chuckles briefly with a nod. ‘And you still love strawberry pies. Even when I tell you that too much of it will upset your stomach.’

I gasp dramatically, swatting his arm as we begin laughing. It quells my nervous heart to see him content. It was always Idris’s job to make his siblings happy. He just never realised I was trying to do the same thing.

As our laughs fade, his expression softens into something melancholic. He glances at the ring on my finger and sighs. ‘I would have liked to walk you down the aisle, Nara.’

‘I know,’ I whisper. ‘Maybe one day, if the world is better and healed, we could do it all again.’

He nods, not looking me in the eye, as if he knows that might be too much of a far-fetched idea.

A lump bubbles inside my throat, and I try desperately to swallow it.

Idris kisses the top of my head, telling me he will see me in the throne room, and leaves.

I sigh, smoothing down my gown, and follow him shortly afterwards.

I’m near the throne room when I hear gentle footsteps behind me. I pause. So do they.

I slowly turn to find Ruvyn. His hands are behind his back as he rocks back and forth on his feet.

I huff out a laugh. ‘Ruvyn, I told you already. You don’t need to treat me any differently.’

After I wrote to Arlayna to make sure Ruvyn’s mother was safe, he decided to stay with me out of gratitude, respect and a keen desire to now serve me.

‘It’s hard not to, Lady Nara,’ Ruvyn murmurs, bowing his head as a soft strand of dark hair falls over his left eye.

I start to protest, but Lorcan appears from far down the hall.

‘Nara.’ He inclines his head before sliding his gaze at Ruvyn.

Ruvyn takes the hint that Lorcan wants to speak with me and retreats to the other side of the hallway, far out of hearing distance but not so far that he cannot see me.

‘Are you all prepared?’ Lorcan asks. He’s still wearing Aerian clothes.

‘Yes,’ I lie, and he believes it.

He nods, allowing an awkward spark to linger between us as if he is uncertain where to go from here.

I stare at him, like I always do, unsure of what to think. Since finding out that Hira was his real mother, he hasn’t spoken about it, and I wonder if it is because he feels that he cannot.

To this day, I still remember him telling me about the mother he thought was his. How she died in childbirth and never met her. Knowing it was Hira rather than someone else makes all the sense in the world.

They might not resemble one another in their looks. In fact, they couldn’t be more opposite in that aspect, but their phoenix side . . . they embodied one another through fire, and now they will never get that again – all because of Aurum.

‘We’ve made sure that the perimeter of the castle is guarded by shifters,’ he starts to say. ‘I know we do not have actual guards that can—’

‘Why are you here?’ I blurt out, shaking my head at my inept way of speaking to him. ‘I mean . . . after everything, you could have returned to Aeris, yet you chose to stay here with us.’

He releases a somewhat tiresome sigh. ‘The Aerian leaders weren’t all that impressed after I decided to come to rescue you,’ he says. ‘Instead of mourning Hira, I came here. I wanted to mend things with Darius, but . . .’

‘It’s proving more difficult than you thought,’ I say as he shrugs, pretending it doesn’t bother him when it does.

Darius is still coming to terms with who Gus was to him and the role he must step into now that Aurum or Sarilyn isn’t here.

‘He does need you,’ I tell Lorcan. ‘I think . . . he needs you more than anyone. It’s just that—’

‘He’s struggling.’

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