AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They are,” he confirmed.
I nodded once and stepped around Erol. I didn’t want to give him my back, but it proved to him that I wasn’t scared of him. What was he going to do in the palace, after all? Anything he did that was out of line would start a war all over again, and Rainier seemed to be convinced that Erol was now on our side.
I wouldn’t have given him the benefit of the doubt, but the spark of light confused me. Erol had good within him—a lot more good than I’d thought.
And if he had good in him, if he was a soul that could be saved…
That changed everything.
2
EROL
The dinner was for me. King Rainier had put a lot of effort into welcoming me, and I almost felt like I belonged here.
But it wasn’t that simple. I didn’t belong in a kingdom where Luminescence was this popular. I was tainted with Conjurite magic and belonged in Palgia, where I’d always been.
I glanced at Hazel where she sat on the other end of the table. She carefully cut a piece of meat with a sharp knife. Watching her eat was like a dance—everything about her screamed elegance and grace.
When I’d seen her first, she’d been covered in dirt and lived in rags as Falx’s prisoner. She’d caught my eye from day one—something about her made my heart beat faster, made me think about what life could have been if Falx and his high priestess hadn’t found me.
Thinking about things like that was dangerous. Looking back, waxing nostalgic, wondering what could have been…
It was just a recipe to drive a man crazy. I would know—I’d spent a lot of time in my life thinking about what could have, should have, would have been, if things had been different.
They weren’t different, so what was the point?
But sitting here between these people who all clung to hope as if it was some lifeline made me think that there was something to it. Maybe hope wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Except, that was part of what could drive me crazy. I’d been through enough to know that holding onto my sanity was important. Falx and Lavinia—the Conjurite High Priestess of Palgia who had carried out all the spells Falx had envisioned—had driven enough people to the brink of insanity. If Falx hadn’t been able to break their bodies, he’d broken their minds.
“Erol,” Ellie, the new Queen of Jasfin, said, snapping me out of my train of thought. “How have things been in Palgia?”
I shrugged a large shoulder. “Normal. Not much has changed.”
That wasn’t entirely true—a lot had changed since the tyrant who’d ruled the land with an iron fist had died and Rainier had allowed me to take over in his stead as Regent. In a lot of ways, though, things were the same. The people still went about their daily lives, Conjurite magic still reigned, and there wasn’t much to be done that made that big of a difference.
“Well, we’re hoping to change that, soon,” Ellie said warmly.
“How?” I asked with a frown.
“Well…” She glanced at Nylah. “We’re working on a way to rid the people of Conjurite magic once and for all.”
I narrowed my eyes and swallowed the bite I’d been working on. “That’s impossible.”
“Why?” Ellie asked. Her eyes were sharp, and she was a force to contend with despite how soft-spoken she was. She was every bit a queen, standing at Rainier’s side with power that matched his.
“Because once Fae give up the light, it’s over. It’s not like we can just switch it back on, you know.”
Ellie nodded and glanced at Nylah again. I took the opportunity to glance at Hazel. She’d hooked her brown hair behind one pointed Fae ear, and she looked deep in thought. I willed her to look up at me—I wanted to look into those eyes again, eyes like a clear fall sky.
When we’d met in the hallway earlier, her feistiness had been a surprise. I’d known her as a subdued creature while she’d been my prisoner, trying not to draw attention to herself.
Now, she demanded attention, and she deserved every bit of it. She was stunning.
That dress—evergreen and flattering—only complemented thegoddessI saw when I looked at her, and it brough out the green flecks in her blue eyes.
“Nylah, Vanya, Hazel, and I have been able to use healing magic to bring back Luminescence,” Ellie said.
