Page 31 of Steeling Light
She didn’t want the kiss to end. I’d been wrong to be afraid to kiss her. I’d been wrong to believe that kissing her would change our relationship in ways I was terrified of. Now that I’m thinking clearly without magical influences, I know that our interruption needs to be an ending.
Nothing has changed. In only a few weeks, our month will be over, and everything will return to the way it was before. That kiss was everything I’ve dreamed of. That has to be enough. Anything more, and it will make leaving so much more painful.
“Thank you,” I say without thinking.
She turns to me again, and a frown creases her brow. “For what?”
I chuckle. “For being you. For showing me what it would be like if dreams were real.”
“What do you mean?”
And this time, it’s me who doesn’t answer. In the silence, we fly and exist. This is a night that I’ll never forget. Sometimes, the closest two people can be is simply reveling in silence because no words could make the moment better.
I just wish that the night could last forever.
Interlude 3
ThecityofSelitharwas painted silver by moonlight the night Adelynne Emlyn returned from Draenyth for the first time. She’d spent the last fourteen years raising and protecting her children in the capital. Fear was constant there. The power of Light provided no protection in a city ruled by the Great Houses.
She was valuable, yet she had no one to guard her against those who would like to take advantage of her. Her beauty was unparalleled, a spotlight on her that couldn’t be removed. Her kindness was a weakness in a city where only strength was valued. Only her wit, ability to charm even the darkest hearts, and her confidence had allowed her to survive those fourteen years.
But she was home now. Without her children. And she was tired. All she wanted was to rest, to give herself time to breathe unfettered by responsibility and fear.
“You’re the obvious choice, Adelynne. We talked about your taking the Crystal Crown before you left. Before you abandoned your home. Before you…”
Adelynne whirled on the Countess of Light. The woman wore all white, a dress covered from neck to toes in shimmering diamonds. Her hair had turned white a thousand years ago. The wrinkles had been there longer. Alyth Corvanne was one of the most ancient Immortals still drawing breath.
She remembered Daegon Rahn, Erevan Morvyn, Rhosyn Cyrus, and Hadric Tarnwell, the first rulers of the Great Houses. She was not the first Countess of Light, but she was the second.
“Alyth, I left to save my children. What else would you have had me do?” Adelynne demanded.
Alyth sighed and clasped Adelynne’s hands. “I would have had you stay far away from that beast to begin with. You certainly didn’t need his money.”
Adelynne couldn’t tell Alyth about the dreams she’d had, of the spider who spoke to her of the future. Those messages were for her and her alone. She’d sought out the man, and even while disgusted by him, she’d agreed to have his child. It was not all that difficult to convince him she was interested in his wealth. She came from very little, after all.
“My desire to have a child who could defend itself is a reasonable desire, and you have said many times that you regretted not having a child.”
Alyth let out a soft breath and walked to the railing of the balcony. She rested her arms on the zircon that had been smoothed until there wasn’t a single edge. “It’s time you took the Crystal Crown. I am far too old to be running the House of Light. I was ready to step down before you left. You are the only one I trust to take over. Please.”
Her wish to give Adelynne the Crystal Crown was well known, and prior to leaving Selithar, it had been what Adelynne had wanted. But now… Now she truly understood the difference in power between her and even the weakest of the members of the Great Houses.
She understood she couldn’t protect her people, and something deep inside her said that violence was coming to Nyth. She’d watched Ainslee and Darian grow up and seen the wondrous things they were capable of. She’d watched Prince Cole train and seen the weapon Casimir had built him into. Already, as a youth, he terrified her.
And wearing the Crystal Crown would mean she was responsible for the people in her House. All of them. Their happiness. Their safety. Their very existence would be on her shoulders.
“We’re the weakest House. If the House of Earth decided they didn’t like me, they could march their armies on the House of Light, and we couldn’t do anything to stop them. We don’t have a wall. We have no allies. We have no warriors who could matchanyonein the Great Houses. How can I take responsibility for all these lives when I have no way to protect them?”
And Alyth smiled at her. “No House, Greater or Lesser, has ever gone to war with another. I have lived a very long time, my dear, and that is a universal truth. Immortals have gone to war, but never with each other. We know that our world was built by the dragons, and they didn’t make mistakes. You don’t need to worry about protecting yourself from our kind. Only humans have ever posed a risk.”
Adelynne started to argue with her, but Alyth held up a hand. “If that’s a fear of yours, then wearing the Crystal Crown is the best way to change things.”
She didn’t answer, instead looking out at the city that had always been her home. No matter what she changed within the House of Light, it would always be the weakest of all the Houses. Her abilities had nothing to do with protecting anyone.
She watched the people walking over the cobblestones and could see the way their heads hung low. The bakers and blacksmiths. The cobblers and tailors. The farmers and laborers. Immortals, all of them, and yet, most of their lives were just as dreary as their counterparts in the human kingdoms.
“What can I do as the Countess of Light?” Adelynne asked.
Alyth cocked her head, not sure what direction her protégé’s mind was going. “You would control the House of Light. Your will would be law.”
