AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They are,” Garath said, falling in step beside me as I started down the corridor.
I tucked the raven pendant into the collar of my tunic as we descended the stairs to the ground floor. I still didn’t fully understand how Mother had concealed the truth of my birth from me, but I suspected it had everything to do with the pendant. Or rather, Mother subconsciously tied those memories and the related emotions to the pendant in a way that allowed her to hide them from me during our weekly empathic communions over the past decade. I hadn’t known such a thing was possible, but I imagined it had taken incredible focus and an iron will—two of Mother’s trademark characteristics. She had lived a long time, far longer than was natural for anyone but a Healer, and I could only imagine all the empathic tricks she had learned.
I wondered if she had intended for me to find out or if she had truly wished to take this secret to the grave. She had known me well enough to guess how deeply this would shake me. She had to have known my discovery of the truth would threaten the entire kingdom.
But she had also suggested I take Liam and run. Abandon the kingdom. The people. Her legacy. Why? Because she didn’t think I could handle it? Because she didn’t think I deserved it? Or because she loved me—and Liam—and genuinely wanted what was best for us both?
Garath and I stopped by the kitchen to check in with Cook on the food preparations and to confirm with Fillip, the head butler, that under no uncertain terms was the cellar to be unlocked oranyalcohol be distributed until the feastafterthe coronation ceremony.
“I want to check in with Liam and Fin before we head out to the barracks,” I told Garath as we passed through the door to the kitchen garden.
The top of Fin’s and Liam’s heads bobbed into and out of view on the upper terrace lawn as they ran back and forth, and a peel of joyous laughter reached my ears. Despite Alastor’s menacing presence, Liam had always been a happy child, but I hadn’t heard his laugh for days. He had been serious and somber since Mother slipped into a coma.
A faint smile curved my lips. I hurried up the stone steps to the upper terrace. Sid and Nyx swooped above Liam and Fin in what appeared to be some form of team keep-away, with Liam and Nyx making up one team while Sid and Fin made up the other. I spotted Callon sitting with Ada on the bench at the edge of the lawn, her poorly concealed grin and shaking shoulders telling me Callon was likely regaling her with some of the same tales he had entertained me with the previous afternoon.
I stopped at the top of the steps and raised a hand to shield my eyes from the drooping afternoon sun while I caught my breath from the quick climb. My knees felt a little shaky, and suddenly dark spots danced along the edges of my vision.
“Whoa,” Garath said, gripping my elbow firmly as I swayed from side to side. “Why don’t you sit for a few minutes?” He gestured to a nearby stone bench.
I shook my head, my brow furrowing. “Hills is waiting for us, and—”
“I’ll let Hills know to expect us in an hour,” Garath said, guiding me toward the bench. “She’ll understand.”
I leaned on him more and more with each step, so much so that I didn’t argue further. Gratefully, I sank to the bench and released a relieved sigh as I relaxed against the hard backrest.
Garath stepped in front of me, fists on his hips, his broad form blocking the sun. “You didn’t touch the food at the picnic. When was the last time you ate anything?”
I shrugged weakly. “I don’t know,” I said, and I meant it. I honestly couldn’t remember the last thing I ate. Maybe a scone at breakfast? Or had that been the previous morning?
“Del . . . ” Garath reached out, tipping my chin upward with gentle fingers. “You spend so much time worrying about Liam and the kingdom—everyone but yourself. You need to take care of yourself, too. Without you, there is no more Corvo Kingdom.”
My chest shook with a weak, defeated laugh. “That’s not true, and you know it.”
“Itistrue,” he countered. “You are the future of this kingdom. I know it to be true, as did your mother. Regardless of your bloodline,youare the queen we needright now.”
“And if you’re wrong?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
Garath pulled his hand back and flashed me a roguish smile. “I’m never wrong.”
21
Fin
Idreamed of grit and sand and my hovel in the stones. Of burnt orange sunrises and the arid desert wind that sent both a wave of heat and chills over my skin in a single gust. I dreamed of familiar faces. Some were smiling, some were streaked with tears, but all looked to my team to save them from the enemy—an army driven by a prophecy that, for all I knew, might be their doom.
And just like most nights back home, I woke in a rush of anxious breaths and night sweats, my heart pounding and my head full of worry.
I blinked into the dawn pouring through the windows onto my goose-down bed. Tick whimpered at my bedside, her head tilted as she watched me, waiting for the haze of night to drift away.
“I’m all right,” I rasped, scratching under her chin. My throat was as dry as the desert, and I took a sip from the water on my bedside table. “I’m all right,” I murmured again. I gripped my forehead, exhaled a deep, grounding breath, and reminded myself where I was: the castle.
Tick licked my hand reassuringly, and I sat up, the bed creaking under my weight, though it felt like I was lying on clouds. It was so foreign, I’d had a difficult time falling asleep.
I peered around my guest room. It wasn’t a suite, like Callon and Lyra’s, but it was grand all the same. A single room with a luxurious bed big enough for two, a hearth devoid of flame because it wasn’t cold enough for a fire, and a stately—empty—chest of drawers. I’d pulled off my clothes before bed and discarded them on the floor. I hadn’t come to Corvo planning on staying as a guest in the castle, and I looked as out of place as I felt.
As predictable as ever, the door to my room flung open and Callon strode in. “Oh, good!” he sang. “Lyra said you were awake.”
I groaned and fell back against my pillow. “Don’t you ever sleep?” I groaned and scrubbed my hands over my face.
