Page 15 of The Coveted
Twenty-two years later, here I was.
When I awoke in Daelon’s arms, all I knew was that the morning was quiet and still. I burrowed deeper into his skin on instinct, and his grip around me tightened in response. I knew I was safe when I felt the energetic shield that surrounded him like a fortress. I knew it protected me, too.
But then I remembered. I remembered where I was, what happened last night, all of the things I said, the way I tried to seduce him multiple times…
Fuck. Me.
I slipped from his grasp and sat up, my head pounding and body heavier than usual. It was like I was having a magickal comedown. The world was very still, the energy of this castle much less alive than I’d thought under the influence.
Daelon stirred, reaching for me before opening his eyes. He also took a moment to fully come to. “Hey,” he said cautiously.
My head was spinning. I cycled through anger to sadness to confusion and back again as I searched for how I actually felt. Daelon was right. While the events of last night may have been manipulated by my energetic, rose-tinted glasses, they were certainly real. They meant something.
But I was still so damn angry. I still wanted to punish him, and I didn’t know how to work through these dark feelings he’d unleashed with his betrayal.
His face fell as he took in my expression. “Áine, I—”
Before he could say anything more, I teleported. I thought that in doing so I would feel better, knowing that he would be left all alone like he’d left me—wondering what was real, what I truly felt, if we could ever recover—but as I stumbled into my bedroom, all I felt was heartbreak. The image of him hurt only hurt me more.
Sometimes I really fucking hated being a caring person. Oh, to be a sociopathic narcissist without a care in the world like the Witch King.
Before I could dwell on any of it, Taryn was all but breaking down my door. When her eyes landed on me, taking in my no-doubt frazzled appearance in Daelon’s oversized shirt, she sighed a breath of relief.
“Thank the King!” she exclaimed. “Where in the hell have you been? Do you have any idea the trouble I would’ve been in if I’d lost you? I didn’t know whether to tell someone you didn’t make it back, or go looking, or mind my own damn business.” Her eyes were wide, her energy twisting and turning around her with heightened anxiety.
“I’m sorry. I reacted poorly to the elixir, so…” I paused, realizing that no one could know about Daelon and me.
“You left with Daelon,” she said, her brows creasing as she worked through this puzzle. Realization soon struck her. “Oh. I see.”
“He put me to bed. I was in my room the whole time,” I said slowly, searching her eyes. I wanted to believe my instinct that Taryn could be trusted, but in this place, with a fascist king who was distracting his people with pleasure and vice, barring them from discussing the Kingdom’s bloody past, it was hard to know if anyone at all would break their duty to conform.
Several beats passed before she finally nodded. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Áine, can you keep a secret?” she asked.
I paused, caught off guard. “Always.” It was the least I could do, seeing as she’d just agreed to do the same for me.
Her aura did a funny thing in that instant. It brightened and glowed white, and for the strangest moment I could’ve sworn it was my own energy reflected back at me.
She fiddled with her hands, glancing at them as if looking for courage. “I don’t know who you are. Not really. But I have this feeling that I can’t explain. And I promise that I’m not one of those mystical nutjobs or heretical, religious zealots, so I don’t really know how to explain this without sounding like the person my parents always thought I was, deep down. Maybe this doesn’t make any sense. The power you have, and I know you have a lot of it—which is the reason you’re here, the reason Lucius has you under lock and key—it’s like I can feel myself within it. I’m not an energy reader, so I don’t understand how it’s possible. It’s like just being around you has reminded me of a home that I never even knew. It’s just…insideme. Like it was waiting. It’s a feeling I think would get me killed, but I thought maybe… you might understand.”
My witchy hangover melted away, and in a surprising turn of events, I felt the same floating, otherworldly feeling of connection bloom in my heart. But this time, it was not from elixir. It was pure and raw, like something was finally falling into place exactly when I needed it to most. In that moment, I remembered my dream, or was it a prophecy? An astral projection? A psychic message from my mothers? It was hard to tell the difference in the witch realm, when everything blended together in ways that were rarely clear. Whatever it was, its message was still working its way through my consciousness. As soon as I thought I understood it, it tumbled out of reach again.
“You think I’m crazy,” she muttered. “Forget I said anything, please.”
I shook my head. “No, not at all.” I searched for the right words, not knowing what was safe. “I feel it too, Taryn. I don’t understand what exactly is happening yet, but I think we’re connected somehow.”
“And Daelon,” she said, her eyes cautious still. “He’s not like the rest. That’s why he and I clicked.”
I sighed, reluctantly nodding my head. “I need to see Amos again.”
She pressed her lips together, pausing for a long moment. “Fine. We’ll go later this afternoon. But I can’t be seen there, not with everyone already suspecting there’s something different running through my veins. People here do not look kindly upon people like Amos, or anyone who has a proclivity for the old ways.”
My mind flashed to Nathaniel, accusing her of smelling like a heretic. I assumed that referred to anyone who didn’t accept Lucius’s rule. Like my mothers, and like all the others who had been killed in the name of his unnatural power. “The old ways?” I asked.
“Yeah, the old ways. Nature-based magick. Deity worship. Mystical woo-woo bullshit and the like.”
Chapter5
