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“What are you doing?!” I called out, but he ignored me.
Valerian took another step, and another, and another. The Souldirge leaned toward him, sniffed Valerian’s outstretched hand, but it didn’t attack. It didn’t go for the bite. It looked… docile. Relaxed. Calm.
The Fae ran one hand along the creature’s bony carapace crown, and the creature… shut its eyes and lowered its head.What in all the hells?After a moment, Valerian reached into the monster’s crown and retrieved the gemstone that was stuck in there. He looked at it, frowned,grunted, and then tossed it aside.
He rubbed the creature on the forehead, like you would a pet, and said “Sleep.”
Without an ounce of resistance, the Souldirge fell to the blue marble ground… and started to snore.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Iwasn’t sure what I had just witnessed. It had all happened so quickly, there hadn’t been a moment to processhowthe Souldirge had been so easily laid low. Barely a few moments after the creature had hit the ground did our royal soldiers approach and surround me, as if I was still somehow in danger.
Valerian, who stood tall amidst the men clad in suits of blue and silver armor, caught my eyes and bowed in acknowledgement as he was taken away. I was then led out of the area, only I was asked politely to come with the soldiers instead of being grabbed and pulled like Valerian had been.
After returning to the palace, I found myself alone with my thoughts. Tellren and my parents weren’t around, and neither was Tallin. A guard was posted at the door to my bedroom, though I suspected he was there to make any possible forest excursions on my part more complicated, even if it wouldn’t make it impossible.
We had barely said three words to each other, and yet I couldn’t get Valerian out of my mind. There was something about him that drew my attention in, pulling me closer. I didn’t exactly know what the cause of that was, though, and therein lay the main problem; I wasn’t going to be able to let this go until I understood…everything.
From the strange pull I felt toward him, to the way he had been able to subdue the Souldirge so easily. Bailen had said the creature was a product of foul, dark magic, and I had seen the crown’s soldiers panicked reactions when the monster broke free from its restraints. Not Valerian, though.
He was calm.
Cool.
He seemed to share a strange familiarity with the creature, enough to calm it down and completely disarm it. Then he had made it fall asleep simply by commanding it to. How? What skills did Valerian possess that nobody else seemed to have at their disposal?
My parents return to the palace was difficult to miss. Their voices had started to rise as soon as they had dismissed the guards on our floor. I caught snippets. Barely more than a couple of words, despite my heightened hearing. As far as I could tell, mother had been blindsided by the appearance of the Souldirge. My father had been assured that the creature posed no threat to the general safety of the contestants or the court, which meant someone had dropped the ball.
His tone was apologetic, but he insisted he didn’t have a choice but to allow the use of this creature. It was all part of… something. A plan? I couldn’t catch the last few words. Whatever it was, my mother didn’t like it. She seemed to understand his position, though—at least a little bit. It was then that my mother decided it best to end the conversation, just in case I overheard them. That set me on edge for the rest of the day.
I was glad for Tallin’s return, because that meant I had someone to talk to, someone to help distract me from everything that had happened today. Still, a kind of unease had fallen across my shoulders, and I wasn’t able to shift it.
I didn’t see my mother again until the next morning, when she called me in for a dress fitting. Lord Cyr had recovered quickly, thanks to our healers, and there was to be another trial this evening. Trials weren’t usually held this close together, but after the disaster at the last one, they probably wanted to move on quickly. This time, she assured me, there would be no dangerous monsters to contend with.
This time, there would be a dance; I was going to meet the contestants properly.
“Do I seriously have to?” I asked, while my mother worked on the dress I was to wear.
“You ask that question every single time,” she said, mumbling through a mouth full of pins.
“I’m not going to stop.”
“Unfortunately, Snowdrop, yes, you have to.”
I watched myself in the mirror, staring at my own reflection, and gathered the courage to ask. “Yesterday… after the trial…”
My mother’s blue eyes flashed up at me. “Yes?” she ventured.
“I heard you and father talking. Arguing.”
“That wasn’t an argument, it was a discussion.”
“It sounded like one.”
“Your father and I are fine, don’t worry. We’re just stressed about the competition.”
I paused. “You didn’t know about the Souldirge, did you?”
