Page 44 of The Coveted
Simon raised a dark brow. I stared blankly, even though my heart skipped a beat. He was no doubt shooting in the dark, desperate for confirmation of his convictions that Daelon and I were plotting and scheming. I hypothesized this assumption was based on Daelon’s inability to mask his moodiness when he left my chambers earlier in anger.
We had to make Nathaniel look like a paranoid fool, which I doubted would be too hard.
“It’s a little late for that. I’d say that’s old news, wouldn’t you?” I said, contorting my face in confusion.
“Oh, let it go,” Simon groaned, tugging on Nathaniel’s arm. “The King’s waiting.”
Simon practically dragged Nathaniel away, and Taryn and I burst into laughter again as they moved out of sight. Taryn snorted a little, which made us both laugh even harder.
I hadn’t realized how much I so desperately needed this.
How much I needed a friend.
We spread out on a picnic blanket in front of a tall maple tree that had pink tulips blooming at its base, as far as we could get from any of the castle entrances. The air smelled like eternal spring, and tall, meticulously manicured hedges surrounded us. Just in case, I had Taryn use sigil magick to seal the area from prying ears. She drew the symbol in the air, hesitantly proud to teach me this spell she concocted all on her own. She said it was necessary growing up with her adoptive parents, who watched her like hawks. They never stopped fearing she’d turn out to be a traitorous heretic like the people they stole her from.
In return I told her about my own stressful experiences in foster care, careful not to mention anything beyond the realm of what Lucius permitted. I couldn’t tell her everything I wanted to, but we still shared a genuine bonding experience over the feeling of being misunderstood and emotionally neglected by caregivers. We both had to constantly conceal our true nature and pretend to be different, less magickal versions of ourselves. In many ways, we were both still forced into hiding.
“Just between us girls,” she said, passing me the newly opened second bottle. It was human—a 2010 Bordeaux. Daelon did like his French wines. “How powerful are you, really?”
“Like on a scale of one to ten?” I asked. I never knew how much to say. Taryn felt safe. But I feared no one living under Lucius’s tyranny could ever be completely without risk.
She laughed. “I mean, I know you aren’t as powerful as the King, obviously.”
Um, we’ll see about that,I thought to myself.
“But what about everyone else? Could you take on the whole guard? I mean, you killed the garden. And, I assume, you also resurrected it. I’m pretty sure you caused that mini-earthquake at Christine’s, and you can alsoborroweveryone’s gifts… somehow. I don’t really understand it. Especially since Daelon and Lucius had to basically kidnap you—oops, sorry—but does that mean it wasn’t King-given? Which is impossible. Because nothing from the old ways is that powerful, of course...”
“Taryn—I—” I sighed and shook my head. I handed back the wine bottle. Half a bottle of wine was probably more than enough to consume here in the city of my enemies.
Her energy kept flashing bright, otherworldly white, the color of my own, before returning to its usual reds and purples. It was frenzied and muddled, as if caught between two worlds. I had to block it out of my perception before I got a headache.
She huffed. “I’m not stupid. I know there’s more going on than what everyone is saying. I just wish you trusted me enough to tell me. None of it adds up. And it’s been a very long time since something actually interesting anddifferenthappened around here.”
I lay back on the blanket in defeat, staring up at the overcast sky. The clouds rolled past like they were on a mission. “It doesn’t really add up to me either, if that makes you feel any better. I know you’re not stupid. You’re clever and amazing and deserving of all the trust in the world.”
“Aw, well,” she flustered. A pink flush spread across her cheeks. She sighed, corking up the bottle and laying down next to me.
“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,” I said, and it was probably the most honest thing I’d said all day. “I don’t know a lot about thehow. All I know for certain is how Ifeel. And I think you can feel it, too.”
“I saw it in the dress,” she said, quieter now. “I saw it the first time I saw you. I saw it in your weird ass painting. And your magick. I just don’t… I don’t understand… I’m afraid of what I feel, constantly. Of being something my parents always feared I’d be.”
I found her hand and gave it a squeeze. I wished I could ease her anguish. I wanted nothing more than to tell her everything, to bring her into the fold—but there were too many unknown variables. She believed in so many of Lucius’s lies. “I’m just a strange anomaly, nothing more.” I hated this. “Lucius and Daelon sensed me come into my power. They found me lost, scared, and alone, and they saved me. Now I’m exactly where I need to be. Here. Serving the King.”
Taryn rolled over onto her side and then pushed up to hover over me. Her eyes were ablaze, but at the same time seemed far away. “I don’t believe you.” She enunciated each word clearly and fiercely. She pushed a strand of copper hair behind my ear before laying back down. Her fingers brushed up against mine as we gazed at the clouded sky together, in a silence that felt crushingly loud.
Something in her energy stirred something in my own, like the first note in a familiar song, carried over tall fields of wheat, through a salty breeze, beneath the soil of charred lands, kept alive through whispers in kitchens, servants’ quarters, faraway cities, and hidden covens in the snow—and it rose and fell like the crest of a tall wave.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Taryn started, her mouth agape and her eye wide. “But are you sure you want to wear this?” She hadn’t taken her eyes off me since I’d slipped into the midnight blue gown, illuminated by constellations and all the splendor of the milky way.
I frowned. “You think it’s too much?”
“I, um, well…” She just stared. She was donning her full Amazonian goddess outfit, her golden, smoky eyes fierce and her lips a daring, ombre red.
I moved toward her and placed my hands on either shoulder, forcing her to look into my eyes. “Taryn. What is it?” I laughed, but the moment I touched her, the sound of my laughter was drowned out by a rushing of raw power through the crown of my head—power that I had not summoned. It moved past my temple, throat, and chest, and it spread out through my arms and into my fingers.
Taryn and I locked in a confused gaze, but I was compelled to keep my hands on her at all costs. Her eyes grew more and more unfocused, and soon she stared at something behind me, or through me, and her body relaxed.
Um hello? What’s happening?I asked into the void, but I was met with silence.
