Chapter 19 19
KAEL'S POV
The portal dropped me in the middle of Elaris, the crystal courtyard that sat as the heart of my kingdom. I sauntered in with my typical poise, forcing the features of my most brilliant smile, one that had become second nature over decades. But inwardly, I was anything but calm.
Everything looked normal. Too normal. The courtyard glittered in eternal twilight, the spires of crystal aspiring to a sky that refused to quite become any time of day or night. They slipped about the room with graceful intent, their laughter spangling like wind chimes.
But after Seraphine’s betrayal, I didn’t believe any of it. Every grin felt fake; every show of loyalty, suspect. How many such as she were there in my court? How many friends were enemies in ripped masks?
“My king,” Lady Miri stepped forward, her silver gown gleaming in the light. She was one of my longest standing advisors, someone I had known and trusted for generations. Now I was dissecting every micro expression. "Welcome back. The court has been missing you."
"Have they?" I inquired, keeping things light. “And what, exactly, have they been anxious about?”
“Your protection, naturally,” she answered glibly. “There are whispers of war amongst the four kingdoms, that the human Oracle brings strife.”
The human Oracle. Not Aria, not the Oracle Queen. The willful distancing rang alarm bells. “The Oracle Queen is our charge,” I said, carefully. “Whosoever speaks against her speaks against the crown.”
Lady Miri's smile never wavered. "Of course, my king. I meant no disrespect."
But I saw it. A shadow of a something in her eyes. Disappointment? Calculation? I couldn’t say, but it was enough to put her on my growing list of folks to vet.
I spent the next several hours sitting through a series of meetings with my advisors and nobles, probing fae magic being to learn their true intentions. It was exhausting work. If I pushed too hard, they’d see that I was testing them. Too soft and I would miss out on the deception.
By the evening, I had moved on to direct means. I went at one of my guards, who I had caught lying to me three times in private session.
"Tell me the truth,' I ordered, infusing force into my command. Fae magic at its creepiest. “You’ve spoken with an agent of the Fifth King?”
The guard's face went slack. "Yes," he whispered. "A voice in my dreams. Promising power, promising freedom over your rule.”
My blood ran cold. "How many others?"
"I don't know. We don't speak of it openly. But... many. Perhaps dozens."
I took the compulsion from him. If you hear that voice again, I want to know about it right away.” Understood?"
"Yes, my king."
When he had gone, I was left standing there alone with my hands shaking. Dozens. Scores of my people had been approached, maneuvered, or converted against me. And I had not seen it, too blinded by Aria, by the prophecy, by my own guilt.
“My advisor and confidante, Lord Theron, found me there a hour later. My king, you have been in here for hours. The court is concerned."
"Let them be concerned."
Kael,” Theron said, calling me by name. "You're changing. The court sees it. You are getting cruel, paranoid.” AdvertisementThey whisper that you’re overconcerned with the human girl.
I turned to face him. "And what says Theron? Am I being paranoid? Or for the first time am I looking straight?"
“I believe that you just recall things from a past life. Things that haunt you. You’re doing that instead of just having to process the pain.”
He was right. The memories were returning in pieces. I knew a bit more every day about how it was my betrayal that had all begun. How I had been visited by an agent of the Fifth King, given power in return for knowledge. How my jealousy had left me susceptible.
And here it was happening again. Except this time, I knew that.
"It's not going to happen again," I murmured. “Whatever it is, whoever I have to be, I won’t let him win this time.”
Theron gazed at me with almost pity. “And if what it takes is worse than what you’re trying to save?”
I didn't have an answer.
Aria showed up for her trial the next morning. I saw her at the portal gate and she took my breath away. She was in a plain set of traveler's clothes, her hair hidden back up, the mark lighting up slightly. She seemed to be tired, scared and determined.
"Kael," she included, sounding relieved. "You're okay."
"For now," I replied. "Are you ready for this?"
"No," she admitted. “But I never have been ready for anything since I got here.”
Fair point. I made a gesture for her to follow me and led the way through the crystal gardens towards the sacred grove. “The Trial of Light is unlike what the rest will be. It's not about physical strength. It's about truth. You know, that sort of thing.”
"That sounds typical of the Fae," Aria said.
"We are women of illusion and beauty," I admitted. “But the trial requires that we face reality without a mask on.
We arrived at the grove, where thick, ancient trees twisted in impossible spirals. In the middle was an arch of pure light.
“Menou, behind that arch is a maze,” I informed. A mental one. It will present you with visions, test your capacity to tell truth from lies.”
"What happens if I fail?"
“You are not going to fail,” I said more confidently than I felt. “The Luminous Blade’s been waiting for you a thousand years.”
She took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."
I observed as she walked through the archway and vanished into light. Then all anyone could do was wait.
Time moved strangely while waiting. It might have been minutes or hours before the light flared strong. When it cleared, Aria was standing there with both hands gripping the Luminous Blade.
It was a gorgeous weapon, composed of pure radiance that sang power. She'd passed the trial.
But she was crying, and there were tears coursing down her face.
"Aria?" I moved to her immediately. "What happened?"
"Everything," she whispered. "All the possible futures. Ones where we all die. Ones where the realms burn. Ones where the child suffers." She looked up at me. "And the trial's final test. It showed me all four of you dead, it said I could only save one. That I had to choose."
My heart clenched. "And what did you choose?"
“I said no,” she said, steel root in her voice despite the tears. “I told the trial that I’d save four of you or die trying. We put her in a world where she didn’t have to do that, but where we could all see how much it cost her.”
"And it accepted that answer?"
"The blade appeared right after."
“That was the right answer,” I told her. “Somebody made those weapons who liked all four of us.”
I took her hand and led her into my private chambers, a twilight zone which altered with my mood. At the moment it felt as though it couldn’t make up its mind between that tower and a garden watching stars.
"Your chambers don't know what they want to be," Aria said.
“They’re a reflection of my personality,” I admitted. "And right now, I'm conflicted."
I poured us both wine and we sat down. For a moment I just looked at her, the woman who’d upended my world.
"I want to tell you something," I began. "In our former life, I was the one who let you down. An agent of the Fifth King came to me, gave me certainty on your heart. All I had to do was tell them where your Heart Stone was."
Aria was very still, listening.
“I wanted to believe I was being strategic,” I said. "But that was a lie. I was afraid that I wasn’t enough, that I was the one you loved the least. In a world of smoke and mirrors, I wanted someone who would see the real me and choose me anyway.”
"And then?"
"Then the Fifth King employed that knowledge to directly assault you. You approached me before you vanished. You said you knew what I did, that you forgave me, but that the curse wouldn’t. I met her eyes. “I’ve spent a thousand years trying to make up for it.
I expected anger, rejection. Instead, she asked simply, "Why?"
"I told you why. Jealousy and fear."
"No," she said, leaning forward. “Why did you feel like it wasn’t enough? What gave you the impression I loved you less?”
That question was more painful than any accusation. "The others were so confident. Draven’s dominance, Ronan’s passion, Lucien’s intensity. And all I was, was the hapless one who could spin pretty illusions.”
“And you never simply asked me?” Aria said. "Never told me how you felt?"
"How could I? Presenting the illusion of vulnerability is especially difficult for someone who constructs an entire existence from illusions.”
“But you’re doing it now,” Aria remarked. “You’re vulnerable in front of me now. This is tougher than any illusion, Kael. And it must be that you’re doing it anyway for something.”
Her words were jarred loose from their frame by a chorus of screams from beyond.
We both ran to the windows. Below, Fae soldiers were attacking the civilians, but they moved all wrong, a synchronous jerking of puppets. Their eyes were black as well, shadow oozing from them.
"No," I breathed. "The infection. It's spreading through my court."
But it was worse. As I watched, I could feel something dark stirring at the back of my own mind. A voice, seductive and accented, promising power.
Just like before.
"Kael?" Aria said, fear in her voice. "Your eyes."
I turned to my reflection. My green eyes were beginning to change in color. Darkness of the edges.
“It’s me,” I said, my voice quavering. "I'm the infected one. The Fifth King is controlling me, by guilt and jealousy the way he did before.”
The whispers grew louder, the darkness showing me visions. Aria opts for one of the other two. The worlds collapsing because I was not strong enough. All my fears made manifest.
“You have to go,” I said, stepping backward to Aria. "Leave before I hurt you. The infection is taking hold."
"Kael, it's OK," she said taking a step toward me.
"Stay back!" I held up my hands and shadows seeped out from between my fingers. He’s using me, trying to make me let him in, get it out. He’s trying to make me hurt you. And I’m fighting it but I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”
Before darkness clouded my vision, the last thing I saw was Aria's resolute expression and then there she was at one end of her hands Luminous Blade as it materialized in an attempt to not leave me.
Even when I was turning into a monster, she never left.
And that thought was enough to keep me struggling with the infection as it set in ever deeper.