Page 19 of The Coveted
A loud clatter pulled me from my thoughts as we rounded a corner, just on the other side of the dining hall. It was a woman a couple inches shorter than me, so a good foot shorter than Daelon. She had curly black hair and gorgeous warm-toned, dark skin, like she was from somewhere tropical. She was dressed in a plain, unfitted black dress, and the tray she’d been carrying with dirty plates had clattered to the floor. Her eyes were locked on me, her mouth agape.
“It’s you,” she whispered, and Daelon’s hand brushed against mine as he moved closer. Her energy wasn’t threatening. It was warm and light, like a cool drink on a hot day, and for a brief second it did exactly what Taryn’s had this morning. It flashed a bright white around her form like what lay at the core of my own. There was an oppressive darkness there too, weighing her down. It felt like grief. Unfathomable, unrelenting, deep wells of sadness and loss.
Daelon tensed. “I think you’re confused.”
I could tell he wanted me to keep walking, to just ignore her. But I couldn’t look away.
“You’re so bright. There’s so much… it’s all so much. I see myself. I see everyone.” She looked at me with such scrutiny, and that’s when I felt it.
“You’re an energy reader, like me,” I whispered. She saw what I was.
“Áine, come on,” Daelon hissed.
“We don’t have much time,” she said, stepping toward me. “I’ve been waiting two decades to give you this message.” She reached for me, and I stepped forward out of Daelon’s grasp. She took my hand in hers, her skin warm but rough and calloused. “You will need this key, so you don’t get lost in the Akashic Records. So you can see exactly what you need to see.”
The sound of heavy doors slamming sounded from around the corner, where the dining hall was. The girl let out a breath and closed her eyes, and soon I felt something pass from her to me.
“It was the first snow of the season, and men sat around a long, rectangular table,” she said, her voice smooth and lyrical. As she spoke, I saw the imagery in my mind, as if I was experiencing it myself, but the faces were blurry, and the voices distorted. “A woman was there too, but she was away in her mind, seeing things that no witch should’ve been allowed to see. They were investigating an idea. A baby boy had just been born. They were jealous and hateful, consumed by thoughts of revenge. The room had two windows with a red tapestry between, and the fabric was stitched with the symbol of an anchor that cast a black shadow.”
Footsteps approached, and with them came a dark cloud that rolled toward us thick like blood and angry like a spitting snake.
I opened my eyes and watched the girl drop down to her knees. I sucked in a breath as she seemed to bow before me, still gripping my hand. She shouldn’t be doing this.
“Blessed be the Goddess for sending us hope,” she said.
Next, two things happened at once. Daelon snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me away, and the girl flew back against a wall. Lucius and a pair of guards had made it to us, and the look on his face sent a shiver to my core. His golden crown shone in what sunlight was coming through the grand windows behind us, and he wore intricate, black and gold dress clothes again. He snarled, pinning the woman to the wall with his hand outstretched in front of him. She gasped for air, but her eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Stop!” I shouted, and I realized some elite had also rounded the corner and stopped in their tracks, dressed again like they were walking a red carpet. I wasn’t sure how much they’d witnessed. I recognized Abraham and Sebastian as their eyes moved from me and Daelon to Lucius, barely even glancing at the girl suspended against the wall.
Lucius turned to me, letting the girl fall hard to the floor. “What did you just say to me?” he bellowed, and through his anger, I saw excitement—like he’d been waiting all along for me to take a step out of line.
Daelon had moved his arm from around my midsection to my arm, and I could feel him trying to speak to me telepathically. I let him in.
You’re going to need to do the exact opposite of what you want to do.
“Apologize,” Daelon commanded. “For questioning the King.” His voice was like a crack of a whip, reverberating through the space with authority.
Hot anger coursed through my veins, and it took everything I had inside me to remove my eyes from the motionless girl on the floor to Lucius. In this moment, I truly understood how Daelon must have felt all these years. I wanted to use my power to save this girl, to hurt Lucius, but I knew I couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, and Daelon gripped my arm tighter. He wanted me to say more, especially with our audience. “For questioning you. It was an instinct from my time in the human realm. I’m not used to seeing violence.” I forced myself to bow my head and avert my gaze in submission to the evil man before me, and my fingers dug into my palms painfully as I did.
Lucius’s lip curled. “It’s not violence if someone is disrespecting me and my rule,” he spat. “Is it?” He turned to the nobles.
They shook their heads. “Of course not, my King,” Abraham said.
The girl raised her head. “It was all me. I grabbed her,” she said, coughing. “And you are no king. You’re a—”
Lucius shot a blast of magick at her, and soon she was writhing on the floor. I wanted to look away, but I didn’t, watching as her veins turned black, and she screamed and fought with a force I could not see.
Lucius’s eyes widened with delight. “That’s enough of that. Filthy heretic. I think she’s gone mad.” He laughed, and it was a horrible, callous sound. “Rebecca, Simon—clean this up when it’s over.”
Two of the guards nodded and stepped forward, a muscular woman with a brunette bob and a lean black man with a clean-cut beard and short hair. I choked back the venom that yearned to spit from my tongue. My chest clenched, realizing it would beoverwhen she died. It was a brutal, unforgiving death. All because she knelt before me. She even defended me with her last words…
It wasn’t your fault,Daelon said in my mind.
Wasn’t it?
No. It was Lucius’s fault and only his.
