“That must be why Ravin had to bring Glavstone with the cards I inked for my Three of Swords Trials…” They were working against me behind the scenes and creating an excuse to remove me. They couldn’t do it outright.
“I sometimes wonder if my father blessed our potential union to torture me,” Kaelis says gravely.
I look to him in shock, about to ask if he would really do that. But this is King Naethor we’re talking about. This is the man who destroyed a world to consolidate his power. Murdered his wife. Who stole the futures of his own son to keep it. Of course he would punish Kaelis for daring to act outside of his authority and threatening the good image of his rule.
Without a kind word from the king or an offer of reprieve for the Kaelis of the vision, the final card is flipped.
The King of Swords.
I’m instantly tense at the sight of it. For me, every time the card has come up in a reading, it’s represented Naethor. The King of Oricalis—the King of Swords.
As the world shifts, I realize that the association is still half correct.
Gilded spires surround us. Elegant peaks of a castle I’ve never seen before. Magic hangs in the air, woven around garland and banners.
We are centered in the vision once more, slightly older again than we last were. Except this time, Kaelis wears the trimmings of a king. Fine rings adorn his fingers; a cape lined with silver fur weights his shoulders against winter’s chill; an ornate sword with a crown-shaped pommel and guard of silver-spun clouds is at his hip. And on his brow is a crown I recognize only from the portrait of his mother. A five-pointed crown with the four suits framing a sapphire at its center point.
The version of myself at his side is dressed in equal measure. A high neckline nearly grazes my earlobes. Strands of hair fall from where it has been pinned up around a silver tiara. A corset that is so encrusted with silver and gems it looks almost like armor sits over skintight leather trousers. Two decks are strapped to my right thigh. An excessive number of cards, but…oh, how wonderful it would be to carry that many at a time. To have that much power at my fingertips and place it on display as both a promise and a threat.
The Kaelis in the vision lays a single rose upon a sarcophagus at the center of a walled garden. I’m reminded of the tomb of his mother here in the academy that hides the entrance of the Sanctum of the Majors. Like her final resting place, this sarcophagus has been carved to look like the man within.
King Naethor’s stony face looks far more serene in death than I ever saw it in life. A generous liberty taken by the artist. Behind us, fireworks explode across the sky in some distant celebration.
“Let’s go, my love,” the Kaelis in the vision says softly. “Our kingdom awaits.”
His eyes shift toward me—not the me of his vision, butme.As if he can see through what should be nothing more than a fabrication of the real Kaelis’s mind to where I stand. A thousand unspoken words shine in his eyes just before they darken with unfathomable shadow.
Before the inevitable attack comes, the world twists. It’s as though a child picked up her dollhouse and turned it on its roof. I’m falling out of rooms propped up by magic. Of a reality not my own—but that could have been.
Chapter 53
My consciousness lands softly back in the waking world. My head is still cradled in Kaelis’s lap. He is slumped over me, his hands resting on my chest where he placed the Hanged Man. I’ve a second to appreciate his long, full lashes as they rest against his high cheeks before his eyes flutter open.
My love.The words he said in the vision echo back to me. They are there in his gaze.
An overwhelmingly delightful sensation crashes over me. But it quickly vanishes as cold realization settles in. Nausea overwhelms me, and I scramble upright, bringing a hand to my mouth.
“That life…”It should have been mine.I look to Kaelis, who wears a somber expression, as if he, too, has been sick over the idea of all that was taken from us. “I should’ve been with you—you should’ve been my first love, not Liam. Your jealousy from my own Chalice trial…”
“I was faced with the man who stole you from me. The stand-in for where I should have been.” There is gravel to his words. A slight snarl in the back of his throat. He swings his legs off the side of the bed andstands, walking to the window. Even though hours passed in the vision, it was a fraction of the time in reality. The last vestiges of light still hang on the horizon, as golden as the magic of the World. I can see his faded reflection in the glass as it grows serious and somber. “I’ve spent years chasing the World. Even before I knew what it was, it called to me. This place called to me. I fought, and I told myself I did it for answers, then for power, or for revenge. But I think it was always for you.”
The words strike me so hard that I nearly topple back onto the bed. I close my eyes to try to steel myself, but it’s pointless; he’s there, too. His memories are now my own, dancing behind my lids. The life we could’ve had…the kingdom we could build and all the good we could do with it…the love that should have been as easy as breathing. As effortless as the first meeting we were denied.
I take a timid step forward, immediately stopping. There’s a tether that yanks me away from him, almost violently. It’s directly opposite of a pull toward him, of that phantom string that was severed years ago.
“You think I am your destiny?” I whisper.
Kaelis turns and meets my eyes. Is he shocked that I would doubt?
“You are my destiny and my desire. Even the power of an ancient relic couldn’t keep us apart, for here we are.” He speaks without hesitation. There is no false pretense or show of arrogance. This is Kaelis, as unvarnished and vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him.
“What if you’re wrong?” I whisper. “What if this isn’t fate? What if the Chalice itself was our fate, and you’re nothing more than obsessed with the idea of something that might have been—possessed by the notion that you have been wronged or cheated from something that should never have been yours?”
“It should have been mine.” His voice rises a fraction, sharpening. Kaelis looks away, hands balling into fists before relaxing. “I was born to sit on the throne. I was born to have this kingdom. But it was all taken from me…just like you were taken from me.”
“What if I don’t want this? What if I don’t wantyou?” The wordsare panicked and hasty, like a dagger clumsily wielded by a woman backed into a corner.
Kaelis doesn’t flinch. He’s not afraid of me, or my anger; he never has been. “That fear has kept me up at night when I lie awake, alone. But then I see you and I know.” He takes a step toward me, then another, voice softening with each movement. “I don’t blame you for doubting me—or doubting yourself. The Chalice doesn’t just take what could have been, it poisons what’s left. We are all moving within the void created by sundering ourselves from our fate. Aimless. Pointless.”
