Page 93 of Taken By Shadows

With a long exhale, Audrie closed the book she’d been eyeing and continued, “For the most part, only very few Haydinians are aware of the Auroran victory.” She looked around once more, her eyes darting to the shadows. “And it was quickly wiped from the histories once the king became the only Crown in the Four Corners.”

Something like floodgates opened inside of me. The Aurorans had nearly been—had been—victorious. But Kaed’s family had beaten them back? The roaring of the waves of information in my head crashed into the back of my eyes, and a thunderous headache pulled at my temples. History books, any of them I’d read, had never included this detail.

“You shouldn’t speak of it.” Audrie pursed her lips.

I cowered under my lashes and diverted her focus. “How do you know about the victory then, if the records are so secret?”

Audrie blushed, and she buried her head low.

I tipped a smile at her.

She hid her grin in response.

“You know more!” I exclaimed a little too loudly.

Audrie brought her finger to her lips in a plea for quiet.

“Tell me,” I whispered.

Excitement glittered in her eyes. She wanted to tell someone this. She needed to. How long had she sat on this information, not being able to share it? Audrie was a trove of knowledge, and her enthusiasm for understanding seemed to be only matched by her craving for sweets. I buried a smile at that thought.

Her eyes darted through the silent halls of the library one last time before she poured her words out in front of me. “There are very, very few records on it. I shouldn’t have been studying them, but the Silent Servants of the castle library had gone. And the Sage, well, he’d seen me there reading, and he didn’t stop me. In fact, he came to offer his own insights. He was there when the war had ended …” Audrie trailed off at her memory.

“Go on,” I urged.

“Hayden—the Northern Crown, Kaedian’s father—had all but lost. King Tir doesn’t appear much in the histories. After the war started, he became reclusive. The records, they mostly feature his sons, though not by name. Only as the Dark Princes of the North.” Audrie lifted her eyes to me. Even with that, I still felt foolish for not recognising who Kaed was from the off.

You were just too busy fawning over his good looks to care who he was, a snide voice in my mind chided me.

Kaed. Audrie had already said before that he had been part of the war. Of course he had. A prince of the Crown.

“Kaedian didn’t want to fight. Or at least that’s what the Sage recanted. His brother, though, he …” Audrie kept losing her words to the memories. I rubbed her hand to bring her back to the present. “Are you sure you want to hear this?” She paused and I nodded. With a swallow she continued, her eyes on me still. “Kaedian and Hart fought in nearly every battle. But even with both of them, the Northern forces were beaten back.”

I couldn’t fathom someone beating magic as powerful as Kaed’s. I had no idea what power Hart wielded, and I shuddered at the thought that there was something stronger out there.

Audrie leaned in a little when she spoke her next words; they were hardly louder than a whisper. “Fae witches fought for both sides, you know. North and South.” I hadn’t known. A little while ago, I hadn’t even known they had been real. “And both sides suffered losses.” Audrie slowed her words. “But even when the Southern Crown had lost most of their witches, their power somehow kept growing; their ranks kept swelling and crushing the North. Some put it down to the faebane they’d managed to hoard. The weapons their witches made for them.”

I recalled what Kaed had said, that fae witch magic was ancient and was used to temper the barren air.

“Hayden’s forces were losing. The sands of the Southern Corner were red with fae, witch and human blood,” Audrie continued. “Kaedian … his brother. All of the Northern forces were preparing for defeat.” My chest tightened. “The witches were all but gone. Lost. But …” Audrie’s voice was like a ghost. “There was a great orb of light, brighter than any star or moon. And as hot as the sun herself. The world was painted white, and for minutes afterwards, no one saw anything, their eyes seared from the blinding flash that swept the lands.” She paused to look up at me. “And the city had vanished,” she finished.

I swallowed. Stories of the Light had even spread to Shadowfall. Some thought it had been a figurative interpretation of the metaphorical light of a war ending, a story that had grown and changed as it was told. The vanished city. The Auroran’s who lost the war, gone.

I didn’t realise my mouth had fallen wide, but I was gaping at Audrie as she recounted the story. “I wish I could have seen it.” My voice was dream-like in the still night of the library. It felt so paltry, so selfish to think that when so many others would see nothing ever again.

Audrie shrugged. “I know. Me too. I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes pinched.

My heart felt like a lead drum in my chest. I was still struggling with the near victory the Aurorans had had within their grasp. The knowledge that Kaed had been at the battles that shaped our Corners. Maybe that’s why he had been locked in the Cage. Some sort of historic vendetta against him. It occurred to me just how little I knew about the male I had shackled myself to with our new bargain.

“What’s … Tir—” The question lodged in my throat.

Audrie hesitated as she was walking from our little nest of books, hers clutched close to her chest. “I’ve—I’ve never met him. The king. I don’t …”

“I understand,” I said, too quickly. She was more afraid of the king than I had thought. I could have, should have, guessed at that.

After that, Audrie left me alone, offering me some space as she bowed out of the library and the night wore on.

Though probably best placed to answer my questions, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see Kaed right now. And besides, he didn’t want to entertain our meetings anymore.