Page 80 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
Why is it so hilarious?
Wrenlock’s smile made him look handsome in a much more boyish way than his usual charm, and he perched on the arm of my chair, reaching out to cup my cheek with one of his hands. His thumb brushed the last droplet of water from the corner of my nose as he sighed my name. “Aura, I hate broccoli. If I was human and the stores ran out of it, I’d rejoice.”
Gazing up at him, my grin softened into a comfortable smile, and my breathing started to even out into a rhythm that matched the calm motions of his chest as it rose and fell.
Falling into his eyes and landing on the warm surface of his steady chestnut irises felt like coming home in a way that was still indescribable to me, but with his hand on my cheek, a flood of warmth that could not be replicated by anyone or anything else began to flow through my limbs. I could’ve sworn some of the water left in my hair began to evaporate.
Someone cleared their throat. I couldn’t tell if it was Morgoya or Batre, but I inhaled a sharp gasp of air and broke the stare with the High King’s Hand. He dropped his touch from my face to my shoulder as I turned towards the two women.
Whoever it was, they were right. On the hillside, I was ready to dive through portals of unknown origins and land in dangerous, faraway places simply to remain by Lucais’s side; but by the fireplace, I was daydreaming about supermarket trips and dinner plans with Wrenlock.
I needed to pull myself together.
“Think about it like this,” Batre chimed in. “What determines the value of money? It’s not the paper it’s printed on. It’s what the owner of the memory—or the money, in your case—is willing to trade it for.”
“Because you could, theoretically, trade one very important memory of your own life for something worth several less important memories to others and appear to be quite well off financially,” Morgoya stated. “When in actual fact you’ve lost a great deal more than you realise. It’s quite nuanced,” she added, “but this is the basis of the concept. Our currency is memories, and we have a place in Faerie called the Memory Bank. That is where your soulmate has gone.”
A flash of shock crossed my face before I could stop it. Morgoya had decided to forgo subtlety in order to make a point, and I felt a wave of heat emanate from Wrenlock’s hand in reply, still resting atop my shoulder. Because he was seated behind me, I couldn’t see his expression, and neither of the women met his gaze.
My throat grew tight so I tried to clear it as I readjusted my position, folding my legs beneath me, and settled back into my chair. “His mother was on the other side of the ward,” I confessed, although I was pretty certain they already knew. “Do you think he’s trading in the memory of his mother tonight, or banking it?”
“Neither of those things,” Morgoya uttered quietly, looking down at her hands folded against her waist. “I think he’s gone to make a withdrawal.”
Give her to me, or Faerie will burn.
It’s a necessary unpleasantness.
I love you, Lucais.
“What was her name?” I found myself asking.
“Raella,” Wrenlock said. I turned and caught a glimpse of his side profile above me as he stared down into the fireplace, but the distance was audible in the echoes of his voice. He was falling worlds away, deep into the past. “His mother’s name is Raella. His father’s name is Gage. He’s an only child.”
Raella and Gage Starfire,I thought.
Auralie Starfire,a voice taunted back to me in my own head. It was Lucais, his bickering humour barely a whisper in his tone.
I didn’t have time to evaluate the feeling that coursed through me like a display of fireworks at the sound of his voice returning to my mind or his presence emanating from a nearby location once again. I didn’t want to categorise it, or name it, or…potentially scare it away.
“He’s back,” I said under my breath, standing from the armchair. The blanket slid to the ground behind me the same way Wrenlock’s hand fell away when I turned towards the door just in time to see the High King appear in a flash, albeit dimly lit, of grey and gold.
Leaning against the doorframe as if he was bone-weary, his expression was full of determination, and his eyes glowed with the force of a thousand suns when he looked at me and smiled wickedly. “Change of plans, little beast. We’re going to the lapsus tonight.”
twenty-six
The Textbooks
The storm outside barely let up as the High King led the four of us through the palace’s empty halls, the sound of the pouring rain dulling the echo of the sirens as they blared on and on in warning of the threat outside of the wards. Lucais walked with purpose, almost feverish in his desire to keep moving, like a man possessed.
I couldn’t help wondering what memory he had retrieved from the bank. The way he’d saidmamacould break my heart into a million tiny pieces—and I knew that it would if I let it do so, if I wasn’t more careful. A shudder tempted me, but I repressed it because there were things jumping out at me from the darkest corners of my mind, and I wanted them to leave me in peace. I couldn’t allow them to see that I was spooked.
Wrenlock chipped away at the ice that had frozen over my heart after their betrayal, but I was suddenly extremely fearful that Lucais would simply melt it—and I wouldn’t know until it was gone and there was nothing left between us.
My eyes coasted across his strong back, his broad shoulders, the slightly damp locks of his blond hair, and his arms—thecorded muscle I knew was disguised beneath his long sleeves—as he stalked a few paces ahead of everyone else. Shaking my head out of the trance that staring at his physique seemed to put me in, I redirected my thoughts to the portal on the hillside near the Court of Earth, to the frightful encounter with his mother.
Were they close before the war? Why hadn’t he tried to save her?
He did try to save them,I reminded myself. He had tried to save his parents and Wrenlock’s sister. The High King had gone against the advice from his inner circle and attempted to give them their magic back once the Banshees were banished to the Ruins. Wrenlock had told me he almost succeeded.
