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“I will. Ready to go?”
“Yes.”
We walked back over to the group. Lira lifted her clear blue eyes up to meet my gaze. My heart ached like a storm ripped through it. She frowned before breaking the contact. I shuddered but jerked my head towards the path and we began the trek towards the Temple of the Water.
CHAPTERELEVEN
LENNOX
I handedthe kelpie off at a stable once I entered the Prasanna capital and paid for his board. By the time the glamour wore off the creature, the grooms would know the Seelie prince was here.
The sun had risen in the sky as I made my way through the teeming roads of the city. Wheels clattered against the stone path, merchants called out selling their wares, spicy smells filled the air that reminded me of the food Shaan had once cooked for us to share. It made my heart drop into my stomach. I needed to speak with him, and I didn’t know what to say despite imagining the conversation a hundred times. Shaan had become almost a specter to me—a ghost that haunted my dreams and stole my sleep. I’d spent so much time playing through the memories of our time together, they’d become like stories rather than something that had actually happened. I wasn’t sure how to start a conversation.
‘I’m sorry. I’m in love with you. Please forgive me. I’ll do anything,’wasn’t it, though. Hopefully, the words would come to me once I made it to the palace. I had to achieve that first.
Fairies used magic in random spurts throughout the city. A woman walked out of a shop and used glamour to make the windows shine. It was poorly done, but I stared. She hadn’t attempted to hide her magic at all. I stepped into a massive square that had fountains splashing in the center where performers put on a children’s show. A fairy used Prasanna memory magic to draw out shadow animals that hopped around the group making the children squeal and giggle.
For a moment I stood frozen.
They used magic—dangerous, dark powers, at that—with children.
It didn’t seem dangerous, though, as laughter pealed from the crowd and adults scooped up excited children. It seemed… normal.
For my entire life it had been something to hide, be ashamed of, use but only in private. I’d never experienced magic humming through the air like it did here. I couldn’t decide if I was more uncomfortable or admiring. The palace's domes peeked over the buildings, and I made my way in that direction. Guards in their navy kurtas thickened. They all walked with their palms resting against the swords on their sides and a skitter of unease slipped down me, especially as they took notice of me.
I hadn’t bothered to glamour myself to come into the city. There was no reason to sneak and slide my way through. I was here as Prince Lennox. I even wore a suit in soft gray, pinned with a small badge of the Carrington crest—a crown and sword atop emerald and gold flourishes. The Naga’s stone that rested against my neck enabled me to enter the city and to make it this far without my magic trace drawing attention and possibly getting me banned, but I knew once I approached the palace I’d have to do so as myself.
I reached a set of stairs that led to gates, and a guard blocked me. “What business do you have here?”
I took a deep breath then snapped Lennox-the-affable in place. “I’m Prince Lennox of the Seelie and I request an audience at the palace.”
The guard fell back a step, his brows pulling together as his knuckles tightened around his sword. My heart thundered around. One swipe of the dozen weapons surrounding me, and I was gone. My legacy would be the fool who died in foreign lands and squandered everything in his life—his ability to help his people and the man he loved. No, that last part wouldn’t be my legacy. Few people knew of mine and Shaan’s relationship and none of those would ever celebrate it. The beauty of what we once had would die with me, lost to the erosion of history written by men like my father.
“Present magic,” the guard said.
“Pardon me?”
He narrowed his eyes, and a few more guards jogged down the steps, raising their numbers to over a dozen. I swallowed but refused to fidget and let my nervousness show. The guard raised his chin. “No one passes these gates without presenting their magic and confirming their identity. King Carrington’s magic trace is well known. If you’re truly his son and carry a similar trace”—his lips pinched—“prove it.”
I suppose a prince showing up without a guard or party or runner announcing my presence was suspicious. I’d never been in Prasanna lands. Father hadn’t attempted negotiations with them, and after Mother’s death… That reminded me that Mother had once been here. She’d visited with Shaan’s mother, and they spoke of uniting the fae realms. Mother had the same goal for peace as I did. That bolstered me as I removed the stone that hid my identity and pulled the walnut the Naga had given me from my pocket.
My magic jittered when I reached for it, like I scraped through a pounding wave in search of seashells. Sweat broke over my brow. I needed my damn zevar so I could use my magic precisely without calling on powers I didn’t wish to reveal. The walnut turned into a shimmering diamond and reflected rainbows onto the stone at our feet. But the smell of toasted nuts wafted into the air. Damn it. I’d tapped into my elemental powers without meaning to. I tucked the glamoured and burnt walnut into my pocket.
The guards startled at my presentation of magic and, hesitatingly, bowed.
The one who’d spoken to me first raised his face and met my gaze. There was a stiffness to his jaw, a tension around his eyes. This man didn’t like me. He had valid reasons for that even if he didn’t know of mine and Shaan’s relationship. I had to assume the Maharani had kept that quiet, but I couldn’t know for sure. “Prince Lennox, forgive us. We did not expect you.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t have time to announce my visit. The reason I’ve traveled so quickly is that I have urgent information to share with the royal family. I request an audience with Prince Shaan at once.”
A few of the guards exchanged looks, and the leader nodded to me and gestured at the stairs. So they wouldn’t kill me or imprison me—hopefully. I suppose they could lead me to a dungeon of sorts. This was all so precarious and outside my life experience. But I had to get Lira. So much rested on the two of us. She didn’t even know I was her brother yet. Or possibly she did. I didn’t think so, though. She’d seemed surprised by me and unaware of the fae world. In my travels I’d thought of that ceaselessly. Father must have tasked Palaria with keeping her uneducated so he could shape her into the form he wanted her to take. He not only had a backup to replace me, but one who didn’t have the preconceived notions about magic and our world. On the other hand, Lira also didn’t have the education, training, or connections I did. It bothered me that I couldn’t pinpoint Father’s plan or why he’d kept her hidden for so long.
We walked through a gate where they searched me and my bag and had another woman scan me with even more magic. The energetic buzz of it in the air was heady. Then, surrounded by a group of fifty guards, I walked into the palace, through wide, colorful halls, and into a tile-lined room with high ceilings and intricately shaped windows. I raised my face to study the maroon and cream painted flowers on the ceiling. It was no wonder Shaan had become an artist if he grew up surrounded by beauty like this.
A guard entered the room, his steps clacking on the floor. “Prince Shaan will be in to see you.”
He left and my stomach twisted into a knot.
Shaan.
