19
Elena
“Iwant to show you something.”
Rhys tugged me toward an empty balcony. The lilting music from the orchestra trailed behind us as he shut the doors to give us privacy. My heart was soaring as high as we had the day before. The girl who had been banished to the temple had been welcomed with open arms by the Dragon-Clan. I felt more at home in their midst after one day that I had throughout my whole life in Aurelia. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but for now, I was going to enjoy it without reservation.
“What is it?” I asked.
Rhys pulled me to the gardens where Alaric had given me a tour. The hot, sweet scent of flowers tickled my nose. He brought me to a birdbath with a small pool of clear water.
“Rhys? What are we doing?”
At first, I thought he was going to pull me into his arms for a tryst, then when he didn’t, I frowned. He lifted his hands and waved them over the water as he chanted words in another language. The surface of the water rippled, and I started to question him again when an image moved across top of the water.
“My men and I communicate with a spell we learned from casters that has been passed down for generations. We call itmirroring. It allows you to view another through any reflective surface or, in this case water, to see a window into another place. I wanted to prove to you that I remembered my promise to help you with your father. It isn’t safe to bring him here with the humans attacking travelers, so this compromise the best I can do for now.”
Whatever I had expected, it wasn’t this.
As he said, an image of my father appeared over the water, shone through it like a fluid mirror. If I had to guess, I’d say the viewpoint was the very window I’d opened in his rooms the day I’d arrived at the castle. He looked worse than ever. His skin was sunken into his cheeks, his body frail and worn, as though a stiff wind would cause him to disintegrate. Gideon sat at his side, forcing a draft down his throat, murmuring low words of encouragement.
I didn’t know when I’d moved closer to the water, but my hand was gripping the edge so hard my knuckles were bone white. “Oh, Father,” I whispered to his reflection.
Rhys wrapped a comforting arm around my waist. “I plan to send Soren out to discern the cause of these attacks and the threats on your life. I believe the two events are linked somehow. As soon as it’s safe, I want you to know we’ll send for him. I promise you this on my life.”
I hadn’t even thought of him being attacked. Newfound horror spread through me. What if something happened to him while I was away and couldn’t help him?
Rhys pulled me close, until my head was cradled on his chest. His big arms wrapped around me. “Nothing will happen to him, sweet. He’s safe for now at the castle. Despite what you may think, Soren is the best at what he does.”
That I couldn’t deny, but I still ached with impotent anguish. There was nothing I could do for my father when Acasia was too dangerous for him. I would have to trust Rhys when he said he would help. I did trust him. I shouldn’t. Every whisper and rumor in the capital warned me away from him, but my mate had been kind to me, and honest. And I wasn’t the sort of person who turned their back on an agreement.
“I believe you,” I said against the thud of his heartbeat. “I only hate there isn’t more I can do for him.”
“Tomorrow, you can tell Soren everything you can recall about the attacks, as I have. The more information he has, the easier it will be for him to find those responsible.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Finally, I looked up at him. He was magnificent in breeches and coat the color of smoke. The cut emphasized the broadness of his shoulders and the tapered strength of his hips. “Thank you. I hadn’t realized how much I missed them. Thank you for sharing this with me. You didn’t have to.”
“Yes, I did. You left your only family behind, and though my clan is now yours, I know how much they mean to you, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make my mate happy.”
I don’t know how to explain what happened next. It felt like the essence of me, the part mired in our ethereal connection, reached out to him. I yearned to be as close to him as possible, in every way. It was only supposed to be an arrangement, a deal, a sham, but our bond was becoming more real to me than anything in this world.
My eyes closed, furrowed, as I tried to understand what was happening. The connection between us had only been one way before now. He could read my thoughts, could speak into my head, but never the other way around. Trying to concentrate, I reached my mind out and felt the bond that linked us together, a mixture of the two of us. I traced it back to its origin and felt Rhys, in his purest, most honest form.
Panic threatened. “Rhys?” I whispered.
“I feel it,” he said, sounding as flabbergasted as I felt. He was trembling underneath my hands.
“What’s happening?” My voice quivered.
“I-I don’t know, sweet.”
I traced the line of the connection, feeling where it started in the center of my spine and flowed out from my belly across the distance between us. Before it had only been a hint, the feeling of being moored to another physical being. But now...now I could sense Rhys on the other side.
It was indescribable. I couldn’t make out his thoughts or speak across the bond into his mind like he could. It was as though I could sense him through a glass wall. Everything on the other side was muffled, but now I could hear it, even if I couldn’t understand it.
Reaching out a metaphysical finger, I stroked the glass wall. Rhys shivered around me as though I’d touchedhim. “Wow,” I said in awe. “Can you feel that?”
His voice was hoarse when he spoke. “I can feel you. I can see you touching me.”
