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Jace belonged to me, and I belonged to him. Bloodlines be damned.
Chapter 11
Jace
With our mate bond pulsating between us now, I found it impossible to be away from Elix for long periods of time.
“Have you decided what you want to do?” I asked her a few days after she returned with me.
“With what?” she asked, setting her fork down on her plate and peering at me across the dining room table. Wafts of coffee and freshly baked croissants lingered over the breakfast table between us.
“About staying,” I answered bluntly. “Are you staying?”
She stared at me, blinking. “Are…” She gulped. “Are you giving me a choice?”
Shock colored her words, and I chuckled. “Yes. The choice is yours, but I am hoping you’ll say yes.”
“Of course I’m staying,” she laughed. “We belong together, remember?”
I’d never felt such a great relief than at that moment.
I wanted to ask her to move into my suite with me, but Cirilla warned me against it so soon.
“Take it slow. She just got back from a traumatic event, and she needs to heal,” the enchantress said. “Give her some time.”
I wasn’t sure that was the only reason that Cirilla was keeping me from asking her, but I didn’t push it, knowing that I probably didn’t want to hear the truth, anyway. In the back of my mind, the same arguments as before still lingered, after all. The fact that Elix had a dark magic bloodline would be problematic, if anyone were to learn about it.
I didn’t agree with Cirilla’s assessment, but I didn’t dwell on the issue immediately, instead focusing on kingdom matters, such as attending the Council of Ministers meetings at least three days a week.
It was important to know if there was any word on the wayward Lysandra, who had gone to ground in the aftermath of the fire, all the kingdoms touching base weekly with updates. But if Lysandra was still on the continent, she had done a very good job of hiding herself.
“She’s our responsibility,” Zen growled, sounding ashamed, soon after Elix had returned to Goldhaven. “We’ll be the ones to find her.”
He must have had a hard discussion with his wife, Queen Mirielle, just like Elix and I had.
“The Order of Souls is everyone’s responsibility,” I told him through the video call, two weeks after Elix returned to Goldhaven. “The Royal Guards are fully enacted to find her. You’re not alone in this. All of Mystara is united in finding her.”
“I’ve thoroughly interviewed all the members of the Anti-Order,” Queen Mirielle added, also looking terribly sheepish. “Our enchantress, Endora, has been feeding them all runeshade to ensure that they haven’t been dabbling in dark magic.”
I sat back in my chair, blinking. “Runeshade peppers?” I echoed, the name vaguely familiar. Where had I heard of them before?
“The faeries in Steelshire use them preventively,” Zen explained. “To ward off dark magic.”
“But they can also be used curatively,” Mirielle volunteered. “In conjunction with other exercises. They’re not a cure-all.”
The king and queen exchanged glances, and I realized that they were speaking from personal experience. I idly wondered if they had used it on Mirielle. I wanted to ask Mirielle about Agnan, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
This isn’t my place. This is for Elix to do, not me.
“And you’re convinced that the Anti-Order is clean?” I asked. “That they aren’t working with Lysandra?”
“As sure as we can be,” Zen replied. “But we’re keeping an eye on everyone. They’re all residing in the castle right now, until Homage is fixed up.”
I wondered how long it would really take for them to fix up the house with all those faeries on hand, but I kept my comments to myself. Silverhold was Zen and Mirielle’s kingdom, not mine.
“We’ll stay in touch,” I promised the others, nodding at the screen before signing off, and we all bid one another goodbye.
But as I closed the laptop and sat back to swing around in my chair, making a steeple of my hands, I was filled with an element of foreboding.
