Page 90 of Prisoner of Darkness and Dreams
“They’re over here!” a voice barks through the gloom.
Stratton picks up the pace. He’s nearly at the top of the wall when he makes the mistake of glancing over his shoulder.
A spell flies through darkness, hitting him with explosive force.
Chapter 29
Morgana
My tension ebbs as we arrive in Tread—the smattering of familiar buildings are a welcome sight after our travels. It’s starting to feel like home. Not because it’s known or because it’s comfortable, but because this is where our friends are.
We head to the cellars first, ready to report straight to Harman. But he meets us in the room before his office, striding through the doorway with surprising speed.
“You’re back,” he says, rather unnecessarily. His face is stretched into the broadest smile I’ve ever seen him wear. Then I notice his eyes are firmly fixed on one person in particular.
“And here I was hoping I might get to make myself presentable before I saw you,” Alastor says.
“Come here, you idiot,” Harman replies, and Alastor moves forward nearly faster than my eyes can track as my brother pulls him into an embrace.
Harman’s hand goes to the back of Alastor’s neck as he buries his head in the blond’s shoulder. The fae is naturally taller than my brother, but in that moment they both lean on each other. From this angle, I can see Harman’s eyes are closed, and Alastor sighs, contented.
I can’t help smiling as I glance up at Leon. He meets my gaze with a smirk and a good-natured shake of his head. Mal coughs, clearly feeling awkward seeing his esteemed leader in such an emotionally vulnerable moment, and I decide to put him out of his misery.
“Are you going to say hello to your sister too, or does only Alastor get a hug?” I say in mock annoyance.
The pair break apart, and I suppress a laugh when a blush climbs up to Harman’s ears. Alastor, meanwhile, looks utterly unbothered. It strikes me as funny, that a human whose life is all about secrets might fall in love with a fae who keeps none. But then I suspect that’s what Harman finds so refreshing about Alastor.
“Hello, Morgana,” Harman says ruefully, hugging me, then offering Leon and Mal handshakes. “How was it? Could the dryads help you?”
I answer by lifting my palm and showing Harman a ray of sunlight dancing between my fingers.
“That’s wonderful,” he says, but the joy doesn’t quite ring true. I drop my hand.
“Is everything alright?” I ask.
The happiness on Harman’s face from our reunion fades quickly, like a candle being snuffed out.
“I’m afraid there’s bad news.”
The unsettled feeling I’ve been having since we started the journey back now makes sense. I brace myself as Harman leads us into his office.
“I’ve just gotten back from one of our bases in Kestis myself. We’re trying to re-establish a safehouse there after the last one, well…” He trails off, not needing to remind us of the way Caledon’s spell blew out all the windows and massacred everyone except me in their old safehouse.
“When I returned, I was surprised to discover that Damia’s group isn’t back from Elmere yet,” he continues.
Leon stiffens. “None of them?” he asks, and Harman shakes his head.
My heart drops. The route back from Elmere to Tread should’ve been quicker than ours, given that the Miravow slowed us down.
“That’s not all,” Harman says. “They announced the news in Kestis two days ago. Oclanna’s coronation went ahead. She’s officially the queen of Trova.”
My heart reaches my stomach and quickly turns into a hard lump of nausea.
“So they failed,” Mal says, sounding downcast.
“And if they failed, that means something went very wrong,” Leon adds.
Queen. The woman who murdered my parents, who framed Leon, and handed the keys of the kingdom to Caledon, is now queen. I feel sick. There’s an awful unnaturalness to it. Now that someone else is sitting on the throne, I know in my gut that this isn’t the right order of things.
