Page 24 of House of Gilded Nightmares

“You wield that…quite naturally,” Zyren says.

“I didn’t mean to do that.” I blink, flexing my fingers as if the magic is going to come rushing back. But it doesn’t. “I don’t even know how I summoned it.”

“You’ll need to learn a whole new way to handle magic,” Zyren says. “Since you’ve grown up being told nothing but lies about it.”

Our eyes meet for several long moments. Anger faded, the reality of my situation settles around me like iron chains. “So, now I must go with you, or else I doom all of Aureon.”

Zyren is silent for a moment before speaking. “I see after the events of the last couple of days that I cannot force you to go. And it seems, after the life you’ve lived with the High Priest, that you’ve had little choice in your life thus far. I will not attempt to take away this one. The decision must be yours.”

My eyes widen. “You’ll let me go if I choose?”

A nod. “If that is your choice, I will honor it. I am your blood guardian. You come above all else. Even the king. Even Valaron.”

Something passes between us as we sit here in the forest. A spark of magic, of heat. The weight around me shifts. It is still there, the gravity of my situation, but knowing I have a choice makes it easier to bear.

Can I live with myself if I let the nightmares break free into Aureon?

If Aureon is overrun, that puts Lilette in danger, and the others I’d grown up with. They don’t deserve that fate. They were tricked by the High Priest just as I was. We all had been. I don’t know why I was born with this incredible burden of being the last of my line. It still seems so strange after living my entire life as an outcast, different from all the rest. To find out that I am fae, to realize the depth of it…I still can’t quite wrap my head around the knowledge of who I am.

Yesterday I finally claimed my freedom after living my life for others. To give that up now seems like taking a step back…or it would, except now I know the truth of the situation. I can make another choice now. And there is power in choosing.

“I will go with you,” I say slowly and quietly to Zyren. “I will take my place as Queen of Nightmares.”

Part Two

Chapter Ten

We mount up and ride the horses down the mountainside until we reach the open floor of the valley once again. Along the way, we find a creek that cascades from the peaks above, where we stop to refill the canteens. Arrow splashes in the water, spraying me and Zyren with icy crystal drops. I expect him to be angry, but he allows a small smile at her antics.

His shift of countenance is almost as jarring as everything I discovered this morning. I’m still not entirely sure what changed. He’d said his attitude before was because of the danger we were in, but it can’t be just that. There has to be something else. Unless he finally realized he couldn’t drag me kicking and screaming all the way to the king.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad a fragile truce has been established.

I don’t know what’s going to happen when we reach the Court of Nightmares. I suppose marrying their king is not so different than being consort to the High Priest. Somehow it seems my fate to serve my realm rather than my own heart. As queen, however, surely I’ll have more freedom than I would have as High Priestess. Queens can travel. They are not confined behind palace walls as I was. A thought begins to brew in my mind, so when we finally stop for the night after a long day of traveling, as Zyren is preparing a fire, I ask a question.

“As my guardian, you must travel where I travel, is that right?”

He looks up from where he’s crouched over the flames he’d created with a spark of magic, expression wary. “Yes. That’s correct.”

I take a moment to choose my words, fidgeting where I sit cross-legged in the lush grass of the alpine meadow we’re camping in. “After the wedding, when we’re sure Valaron is safe, there is something I must do.”

Zyren’s eyes narrow slightly, and he cocks his head.

“I mentioned earlier that the High Priest must pay for what he’s done…I want to stop him. But there’s more.”

“More than dismantling the seat of power in Eldare?” Zyren’s voice holds a hint of amusement.

“My best friend, Lilette. I need to be sure she’s safe. Maybe she’d…maybe she’d even want to come back here with us.”

Zyren doesn’t speak for several long moments as he begins to pluck feathers from two birds he’d caught earlier for our dinner. “It will not be an easy task creating a pathway to Eldare,” he finally says. “As I said before, a rare few have such power.”

“But I already did it once. I pulled you through.”

He shakes his head. “Like I said, that’s because the barrier is already weakening. Once you marry…” He trails off.

I worry my lower lip between my teeth. “So, marrying the king will make it even harder to rescue Lilette and stop the High Priest.”

“I won’t lie to you,” Zyren says. “It will. The barrier between realms will be at full strength again.”

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