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I nodded. “I’ve been reliably able to for a few weeks now thanks to Matron Olsander, and mistphasing us from here will be good practice for me.”
“You canmistphasetoo?” Tormesh’s eyes bugged out as my parents gaped.
I laughed. “I can do a lot more than that now.”
“Who would have thought that my daughter with her black hair and missing wings would grow to be so powerful.” My mother wrapped me in a hug, then my father did the same.
My family walked us to the veil that shrouded their tiny village. Now that I knew my parents and brother were alive, a sense of peace settled over me. But more than that filled my soul. The male standing at my side with his great wings and masterful affinities was the reason they’d survived.
And suddenly, the thought of being the victor of the Rising Queen Trial, of becoming Norivun’s wife...
For the first time since I’d learned of my fate, that thought didn’t make me want to run.
It made me want to win.
CHAPTER20
Imistphased us back to the castle just after midnight, landing precisely where the prince told me to go even though it wasn’t an area of the castle I’d ever ventured to before.
When our feet touched a solid floor, I took in the dark and unfamiliar room surrounding us. A bed bigger than the one I slept in rested against the wall. Large windows allowed moonlight to stream in, highlighting the grand fireplace, couches and chairs surrounding it, along with a massive closet filled with garments of all cuts and colors.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“This is my private chambers.” In the dark, the prince’s wings rose behind him like horns, the talons at the tips like sharp claws.
“This is your bedroom chambers? But isn’t it warded?”
“Of course it is, but it’s never been warded to you.”
That statement slammed into me. He’d never warded his most private chambers to me because I was his mate, and he’d known I was his mate since the second I first entered this castle.
For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. I’d never seen where he slept, had never even thought to ask since I’d been fighting the attraction that had so naturally born between us.
But now...
I wrapped my arms around myself. “I’m still in shock that they’re alive.”
His fingers immediately covered my lips, silencing me. A current ran through me at that light touch. He dropped his hand, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight, and the unspoken words that passed between us told me that he’d also felt that buzz of energy. But more importantly, my silence over that village in the Cliffs of Sarum was imperative. No one could know about it.
Magic rumbled inside me, and I called upon my air element and concentrated on forming a silencing Shield around us. My affinity flowed out of me, creating a wall of air until I knew nobody outside of my magic could hear us.
“I won’t tell anyone,” I said, my tone low in the dark room despite my Shield. “But I have to tell Cailis. I can’t keep this secret from her.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I added, “She won’t tell a soul. Not if it puts our family’s lives in jeopardy.”
He frowned but gave a curt nod. “Cailis and Cailis only. If word were to ever get out, my father would destroy that place, kill everyone inside it, and my end would come just as swiftly.”
I paled. We’d spoken of many things tonight, but it’d been mainly catching up with my lost family and learning how they’d been fairing. It hadn’t been about the logistics of why the prince had created that tiny city and how I could have been so wrong about him.
“Sit with me?” He gestured to the sofa before stoking the kernel of flame that was suspended in the fireplace. A fire immediately roared to life, crackling in the hearth as the crown prince fed it wood while I sank onto the couch.
“Drink?” he asked once the fire was roaring.
“Please.”
He ventured to the small bar in the corner. It wasn’t as extravagant as the ice bar in my chambers, but it held numerous bottles and decanters.
He poured two glasses of amber liquid, not leminai, and the scent that drifted to me when he neared told me it was just as strong.
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I asked with a small smile. My heart pattered more the closer he got. My fingers itched to move, to touch him, to feel him.
