Page 92 of The Crowned Queen

“The fae palace?” She looked at him now, her silver eyes wide. “Why would the forest show me that?”

Loren’s hands slowed. “You think it’s the wild magic in the forest calling you there?”

“I’m positive that’s what it is,” Araya said. “I always wake up before I get to the center…but I think it wants me to go there, Loren. There’s something I have to see.”

“Araya...” Loren trailed off, rinsing his hands more thoroughly than he needed to while he gathered his thoughts. “The wild magic here is very powerful—I’ve seen that for myself. But it isn’t sentient like dara’el.”

As if summoned by their name, the shadows crept closer, gathering back around his feet. Except for one. The little shadow darted through the water like a dark fish, slipping up Araya’s body to wind itself back around her wrist.

“But it spoke to me.” Araya stared down at the shadow on her wrist. “In Elvanfal. It offered to kill me. Told me that—” her voice faltered “—that I didn’t have to keep suffering.”

Loren’s chest tightened.

“You were in a lot of pain,” he said carefully. “I know from experience that when there’s so much suffering for so long…the mind will look for any escape. I’m not surprised you imagined an end to it.”

She shot him a dark look. “I said no, Loren. I told it I didn’t want to die, I wanted to get back to you.” She crossed her arms, shaking his hand off. “Then, just days later, the forest brought down the wall right in front of me. It told me to get up. Do you think I imagined that too?”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all.” Loren climbed out of the hot spring, stepping carefully over the white flowers. “Wild magic is still magic, it could absolutely have answered your intention—but it doesn’t talk, ael’sura. It’s just aether.”

Her face fell. “You don’t believe me.”

“I believe you felt something,” he said gently. “And I hope it brought you comfort when you needed it. But I’m sorry, no. I don’t think wild magic is calling you into the forest to go to Tirnavel. It’s been abandoned for decades, ael’sura. Whatever power is left there—it belongs to ghosts now. Not us.”

Araya climbed out of the water, ignoring his offered hand. She dried herself off in silence, her brow furrowing as her mind worked over his words.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. She stared at the white flowers, like she might find the answer there.

“I do.” Loren reached out, cupping the side of her face. “I just got you back, ael’sura,” he murmured. “Please don’t ask me to risk you chasing dreams.”

Chapter

Thirty-Four

They walked back to camp hand in hand, Loren’s shadows tangling around their feet. Araya felt lighter than she had in days, the tension that had grown between them during her recovery finally broken. They were together again. Whatever else happened, they would face it side by side.

No one commented as they joined the others around the cook fire, though Kai’s spoon paused halfway to his mouth, his eyes darting to Loren’s shadows. But they just stretched lazily, content to curl at Loren’s feet as Finn dished out two more bowls of hearty stew.

“I trust the two of you worked everything out,” he said, handing them each a bowl.

Across the fire, Caela coughed into her shoulder, the strangled sound suspiciously close to a giggle. Araya looked down at her bowl, heat flooding her cheeks, but she didn’t try very hard to hide the smile that spread across her face.

“We did,” Loren said with forced dignity. “And that will be the last we say of it, thank you.”

“The last you say of it, maybe.” Caela slid across the log, leaning across Kai without bothering to hide her grin. “Araya is going to tell us everything at training tomorrow.”

Kai snorted and promptly choked on his stew. Serafina jumped to her feet, thumping him hard between the shoulder blades as laughter rippled around the circle.

Dinner carried on without further incident, chatter and laughter rising like smoke toward the trees long after Brynn collected everyone’s empty bowls. Araya closed her eyes and leaned into Loren, sighing softly when his arm came around her.

“Tired?” he asked, his voice a low rumble against her ear.

“Exhausted,” she admitted, barely stifling her yawn.

She let him pull her to her feet, leaning heavily against him as they stepped out of the circle and crossed the clearing. The lingering warmth of the spring day had cooled rapidly with the sunset, sending goosebumps racing across her skin.

She toed off her boots and peeled off her breeches, tugging her shirt over her head before crawling into her bedroll. Loren slipped in behind her a moment later, his body curving around hers as the shadows settled quietly all around them.

Araya turned in his arms, pressing her lips to the warm skin where his pulse beat steadily in his throat. He laughed softly, dipping his head to catch her mouth. His hand rose to cradle her jaw, the sweep of his tongue against hers leaving her breathless and lightheaded before he finally pulled back, sharp canines grazing her bottom lip.