Chapter 116 -Elise-

Chapter 116 -Elise-
\-Elise-

The connection snaps.

What the hell just happened. I am still standing here with my hand still extended toward the space Avianna occupied only a moment ago.

Then the room comes rushing back.

Rhydon stands near the table, watching me with an expression I have no patience to decipher. But Avianna's final words remain louder.

You stopped looking for anyone clever enough to outplay you.

Clever… She thinks she is so clever. She learned how to control a handful of visions and suddenly believes herself capable of playing games with me.

Fine, let her enjoy it.

I turn toward the window, then the doors, my attention sweeping across the chamber as I reach outward with my magic. Everything appears exactly as it should.

Almost…

"Where is she?"

Rhydon barely glances up. "Where is who?"

"My mother."

His expression doesn't change.

"She went back to her chambers."

"When?"

He shrugs, and the casualness of the movement makes something hot twist through my chest.

"A few minutes ago, perhaps. I wasn't watching her."

Of course he wasn't. I cross the room without another word and throw open the doors. Her chambers are not far. 

The guards who should be stationed outside are unconscious, slumped against the wall in positions too deliberate to have happened naturally. One still breathes deeply, his head tipped against the stone.

Alive, of course.

Caylix.

Even when stealing someone directly from beneath our noses, the insufferable man cannot bring himself to leave dead bodies behind.

I shove open the chamber door.

Empty.

The fire still burns, a cup of tea rests on the table and one of Mother's shawls lies across the back of a chair.

But she is gone.

For several seconds, I can only stare. I had just gotten her back.

After decades of believing I had no one, I had finally found her. She has been teaching me things about the old magic that I had never understood. She had shown me what the shard could do.

And Caylix took her. Somehow, that man has developed an extraordinary talent for ruining my plans.

"He came back."

Rhydon has followed me as far as the doorway.

I turn on him.

"He came back into this palace, walked directly into her chambers and took her."

His eyes move over the unconscious guards.

"So it would seem."

"So it would seem?"

My voice rises.

"You had the entire city locked down!"

"And you had the entire palace at your disposal."

"I was occupied!"

"Yes." His mouth twitches. "Avianna made certain of that."

I glare at him. That was unnecessary.

"Do you have any idea what he has taken?"

"Your mother, apparently."

"Do…not..."

The warning comes out sharper than intended and Rhydon's expression hardens. Then something almost amused enters his eyes.

"What was it you told me?"

I stare at him as he folds his arms.

"When I discovered the woman I believed was my mother had actually been dead for thirteen years."

I already know what is coming, and I hate him for it before he even says the words.

His smile is humorless.

"Get over it."

My magic lashes outward before I can stop it, rattling every glass on the table.

"You arrogant little bastard."

Rhydon turns and walks away.

"Oh, don't you dare walk away from me."

I follow him into the corridor.

"I am the reason any of this was possible. I am the reason you…"

Rhydon stops. It takes me another step to realize why…

We're no longer alone.

Two guards stand farther down the corridor. A servant carrying fresh linens has frozen beside an alcove. Another lowers his eyes quickly when I look at him.

Rhydon turns slowly. There is a crown on his head, and everyone is watching. His eyebrows lift.

"Was there something else?"

I could turn him into a rat. A small one… Something ugly. I could put him in a cage and leave him on a windowsill. Instead, I force my shoulders to relax and dip into a graceful bow.

"My apologies, Your Majesty."

The smug bastard actually smiles.

"Of course."

I straighten.

"I forgot myself."

"So you did."

I smile sweetly enough that he should know I am imagining at least twelve different ways to make him regret this.

He turns and continues down the corridor. I follow. Somehow I am capable of tremendous restraint, for approximately thirty seconds that is, until the moment the doors to his private chambers close behind us. .

"Let me remind you who put that crown on your head."

Rhydon doesn't even turn around.

"You didn't."

I blink. He finally faces me.

"You wanted the shard and I wanted the crown."

His voice is irritatingly calm.

"You got what you wanted, and I got what I wanted. That was the arrangement."

"Without me, the Covenant would have exposed you long before…"

"And without me, you would never have gotten close enough to either kingdom to take the shards."

He steps toward me.

"You did no more for me than I did for you."

My fingers curl beneath my cloak.

"You might want to remember who you're speaking to."

"And you might want to remember that you're standing in my palace."

I really could turn him into a rat, but unfortunately, I still need him.

"Fine."

I reach beneath my cloak and close my hand around the crystal. Power answers immediately. It is still astonishing. Before the shard, magic had always felt like something I commanded. Now it feels endless, as though I have spent my entire life drinking from a cup only to discover an ocean beneath my feet.

Silver light curls between my fingers. Rhydon's irritation disappears.

"What are you doing?"

I pull more power through the crystal.

The air before us trembles. A thin silver line appears, then another. They stretch apart, splitting the air between them until darkness forms in the center.

Rhydon stares.

"I thought you couldn't do that anymore."

I smile.

"I couldn't."

His eyes drop to my hand. I pat the crystal beneath my cloak.

"Mother showed me how now that I have this."

The portal widens. Stone gives way to darkness, then slowly resolves into another room far beyond Veylan.

Caelthar.

Rhydon comes closer.

"Where are you going?"

I glance at him.

"Where are we going."

His eyes narrow as I turn back toward the portal.

Avianna wanted to prove how clever she had become. She wanted me distracted while Caylix crept through my palace and stole my mother from beneath my nose.

She succeeded.

I can admit that. Privately. But clever little Avianna overlooked something rather important. Caylix came here… Which means he isn't there. A smile slowly spreads across my face.

"Your brother crossed half the realm to come to Veylan."

Understanding begins to dawn in Rhydon's expression.

"And if he's here..."

I look through the portal toward Caelthar.

"...then no one is standing beside his precious little Queen."

Rhydon smiles. I step toward the shimmering opening.

"Come along, Your Majesty."

I glance back at him.

"Let's go pay Avianna a visit."