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Now, I had everything to lose.
I couldn’t fall asleep. Fear plagued me, and I was terrified that it was already too late for my family. What if Cyrene had threatened me, making me think I still had a chance to save them, but they were already gone? I didn’t trust the dark goddess any more than I’d trusted Lavinia and Falx.
I got up and got dressed. It was close to dawn—the sun was a silver line on the horizon, a promise of the day ahead, but the night still clung to the landscape, drenching it in the monochrome that painted the world in the sun’s absence.
I snuck out of the castle, not willing to alert anyone of my leaving. I’d moved around without being seen more than once within these walls, and I took the path least traveled by those in high positions. I walked through the dungeons, the cafeteria, the kitchens—all now empty. A narrow door led out into the gardens, sunken into the ground and rock, and the stairs to the servants’ entrance was a steep climb.
Finally, I was outside the castle walls, with a large field stretching toward the forest behind the castle.
I jogged easily toward the tree line, the crips air refreshing in my lungs as I breathed in and out. Between the trees, I walked to the wooden structure where I’d stored a hover bike a long time ago, in case of need.
It was good to have my own transport once in a while, to come and go as I pleased without the servants or anyone else knowing about it.
The machine was well-oiled and ready to use, and I powered it up and moved through the trees. As soon as I was far enough from the castle that the sound of the engine wouldn’t wake anyone, I opened throttle and sped across the landscape.
The modest home I’d bought shortly after Falx had died was quiet in the morning light. A rooster announced the dawn’s arrival as the first rays of light kissed the earth, and the front door cracked open.
I held my breath from where I watched the house from the trees.
My sister Agatha stepped outside and stretched. She tilted her face toward the sky, closed her eyes, and smiled as the sun brushed her delicate skin.
She hadn’t given up the light. Aggie and my mother were both still Luminescent, Fae who bore the light, who followed Terra, who lived without fear and sacrifice.
Aggie frowned and looked in my direction. I ducked back into the trees a little so she couldn’t see me. She knew something was here—she’d always had sharp senses. I heard my mother’s voice call her from inside, and my heart constricted.
I yearned to go to them, to hold them in my arms and know that they were all right. I missed them so much.
Seeing that they were safe was enough for now. They were still alive, and if I played my cards right, I could keep it that way. I just had to do the right thing. Being a Conjurite meant not being able to love like we’d used to when we were Fae. I’d experienced that, too, with everyone except my mom and my sister. My love for them had always overshadowed the darkness, and no matter what, I would take care of them.
Aggie hesitated, still looking in my direction, and for a moment, it looked like she would come to me to investigate. My mother called again, and she obeyed, turning into the house, and shut the door.
I let out a breath through my nose. I fought myself for a moment, wanting to go there and knock on the door, to see their faces. I couldn’t do it—I had to keep them safe.
So I turned my bike around and made my way back to the castle. As long as they were alive, I could figure this out. I would go about my day, doing what had to be done, ruling a kingdom…that would never be mine.
7
HAZEL
The morning air was irresistible. Everyone in the castle was still asleep, but I couldn’t stay indoors. I missed my garden back at the palace in Jasfin—I wanted to go outside and grow my Lettles, or lie on the green grass and look up at the sky as the light breathed life into a new day.
Here, all the gardens were drab and barren, struggling to bring forth any kind of vegetation.
I slipped out of my room. I strained my ears for a sound from Zita’s room—she might want to know where I was going—but I heard nothing. I walked through the castle, sticking to the carpet runners where I could so that my footsteps didn’t echo through the colossal stone rooms and tell everyone I was up and about.
Finally, I found a door to let myself out into the morning air outside.
I carefully shut the door behind me and broke away from the castle.
I walked through what must have once been elaborate gardens, beautiful, green, with rolling lawns and trimmed hedges. Roses, maybe, and fields of Lettles.
Now, there was only the vague memory that something had once been here. What would have been hedges were low, dried shrubs that stuck their dried branches into the air like gnarled fingers, reaching for the unknown. The grass had long gone, replaced by vast stretches of dust and rock, and a fountain at the far end—what once was a rewarding destination at the end of the paths that led through the gardens—was nothing more than a dried-up concrete structure that looked tired and broken.
The whole kingdom was tainted with darkness. Everyone that had once been beautiful was now sad, broken, forgotten. I doubted anyone who still lived remembered the beauty from once upon a time, and those that had come after the reign of darkness knew only destruction and nothing else.
A breeze picked up, and despite the warmth of the sun baking on my bare arms and cheeks, I shivered. I wrapped my arms around me and kept walking.
The sound of a hovercraft sounded, and I spun around.
