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The king had ordered me to research the war before the trials. The girl whom Jasmine had spoken to had insinuated that there was more to what we knew, and the king thought history books from those times might contain clues as to what that was. So far, I had learned nothing about the war that we hadn’t already known. I knew there had been a big war between the two fae and that the trials resulted from the peace accords. The Queen of Light had demanded the trials in exchange for peace, and King Duncan’s late father had agreed. But in the history books, the reasons for war had been left rather vague. They also did not mention how the Queen of Light had convinced the Unseelie King to do her bidding.
Although the king did not seem interested in inquiring about my findings or lack thereof, doing research made me feel valuable and gave me something to pass the time.
Perhaps Lady Miranda had said the things she had said to hurt me. But she was right. Jasmine and the others had left me behind. Although I was a tempestarii, my magic was weak, and I was not a warrior like my friends.
I would only be a burden.
And my friends knew that.
A deep pang settled in my chest whenever I thought about these things. It was better not to think.
I was close to my room now. It was my safe place. Soon, I was going to be sitting on the comfortable couch next to the hearth.
Peace would come eventually. Focusing on something other than myself always helped, and books were the only place I knew to hide.
I started walking quickly to make that a reality as soon as possible. I turned the last corner so swiftly that my hair lifted with the breeze caused by the motion.
I saw her first.
A young maid with blonde hair and a petite figure was on her knees in the middle of the hallway, a few paces away from my door. Her hands covered her face, and no sounds came out of her, but the shaking of her body suggested she was crying.
She was all alone too. She was shaking and whimpering all by herself.
“Are you okay?” I rushed to her. I saw through the corner of my eyes that the door she was facing was wide open. It was the door next to mine, but I had no idea who lived there. There was no movement inside.
I felt something was wrong, but I did not look into the room to find out. My focus was on the maid. She was shaking as she lifted her hands from her face.
Her eyes and nose were red. Her cheeks were wet.
“She...” Her voice broke. “She wouldn’t...”
I got on my knees next to her. I didn’t look back to see what was on the other side of that threshold. I was too scared to look.
“Are you okay?” I repeated uselessly.
“She is dead,” the girl mumbled. She was staring at me, but her blue eyes were empty. She could not see me. “She wouldn’t.”
I looked over my shoulder then. I saw a chair on the floor, fallen to its side. My gaze darted up until I saw her feet dangling still. She was wearing a white nightgown, and her long dark hair fell to her chest.
There was a white rope wrapped around her neck. Her neck was twisted awkwardly. I skipped her eyes and looked at the ceiling. The rope was a sheet. It was tied to a little hook that hung from the stone ceiling.
I didn’t dare to look into her eyes. There would be nothing to see in them.
She was dead.
“It’s cold,” the maid whimpered.
I looked away from the girl hanging from the ceiling and blankly stared at the maid. At first, I thought she was talking about the dead body, but then I realized she was talking about the air around us. She was hugging herself as though she wanted to keep warm.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. The powers of a tempestarii were closely linked to their emotions, and only those with weak abilities had trouble with control. This sort of thing was supposed to happen to tempestarii when they were much younger than I was. It was shameful to know that my fear had caused the air to drop in temperature.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered while trying to calm myself.
I knew I should have gone in to check up on her, but the air was still cold, and I was still afraid.
Perhaps the maid hadn’t checked up on her, and the girl was still alive.
Perhaps there was something we could do to save her.
