27. CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 27

DANIELLA

When Kryn and I walked into the earl’s chamber, we found him sitting on an armchair, legs crossed as he read a book. His blond hair was a bit of a mess, and he wore a somewhat crumpled brown jacket.

He looked up and bestowed a mean glare in Kryn’s direction and a half smile in mine. “You’re back,” he told Kryn. “Please don’t waste my time trying to talk me out of my decision. I already made myself clear.”

“We’re not here for that, Father,” Kryn said.

“Then what?”

The earl seemed to relax and went back to perusing his book, lazily turning the pages. Kryn gave me an encouraging nod, and I meandered closer toward the earl, feigning curiosity over the book.

“I have,” Kryn started, “just come from Elyndell.”

“I wish you would stay there,” the earl snapped. “I hate those damn transfer tokens. I yearn for the days before unwanted people gained the ability to come back too quickly.”

Sheesh, what an asshole!

How could he talk to his son like that? Mom was always happy when we visited her. She invited us over constantly, luring us home with creamy tortellini, lasagna, or her signature spaghetti Bolognese. She made sure to let us know that she loved us. Often.

Poor Kryn. No wonder he had such a hard time expressing his feelings, and like his sister, hid behind an aloof mask.

“So what news from Elyndell,” the earl demanded when Kryn said nothing else.

Kryn watched me get closer to his father. “I met with Kalyll.”

“And what of the fallen king?”

I took one more step. The earl caught me in his peripheral vision. He looked up, surprised.

“What are you reading, father?” I hurried to ask, leaning slightly forward as if to catch the words on the page.

He wrinkled his nose in a sneer, appearing confused, as if Mylendra wasn’t the kind to care about his literary pursuits.

As he closed the book and turned it over to read the title, I took hold of his wrist. He startled, his eyes going wide with something like recognition, as if somehow he could tell that a bit of his shadowdrifter darkness lived inside me.

He was strong and tried to fight. He almost managed to free himself from my grip, but my powers worked too quickly, and in the next instant, his eyes rolled to white, and he slumped in the chair, the book thudding to the floor.

I let him go once his heart had slowed, and he turned a little pale. I was worried his shadowdrifter power would help him recover quickly and watched him warily for a long moment. He didn’t move at all.

Kalyll approached, and I handed him the second small vial with the transformation potion. He got a hold of the earl’s wrist and, without a moment’s hesitation, downed the liquid till its last drop. I braced for the agony that would follow. It had been an intense, bone-splitting pain, accompanied by an infernal heat that seemed to melt my every cell. It had been almost as bad as my first transformation—except much quicker.

A shudder seemed to run up Kalyll’s spine, and he shook his shoulders. He winced and clenched his teeth, a muscle feathering along his jaw. I wrapped my arms around his waist and thought to guide him backward, so he could settle in an armchair, but his feet seemed nailed to the floor, and he only held on to me.

His body shrank somewhat, his tattoo disappeared leaving behind a plain, uninteresting-looking face, his midnight-blue hair faded to blond, and his features twisted in the earl’s sour expression. At last, it was over, and he took a long, deep breath.

“Once more, I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said.

The slightly higher tone of his voice surprised me. I pulled away, feeling disgusted at the thought of hugging Kryn’s father.

Logically, I knew this was Kalyll, but it still was weird as hell. For the first time, I realized it must be the same for him seeing me as Mylendra. But despite the change, the familiar understanding in the depths of his eyes helped my unease settle. He knew exactly how I felt, so I had nothing to worry about.

“I suppose now we should go to dinner,” he said, turning to Kryn.

“Yes,” he responded. “It’ll be a good test and practice. You can put faces to each name I taught you.”

On our way here, Kryn had given us a detailed account of Earl Qierlan’s and Mylendra’s attendants. We would need to be acquainted with them, if we planned to make a successful trip to Nerethien in their company.

After lying the earl on his bed, we exited the chamber and headed to dinner. Ten minutes later, we found ourselves in a rustic room the size of a tennis court. The ceilings were high, and the walls covered in tapestries. The floor was made of stone and the furniture of heavy oak. The space was poorly lit, with only a few floor candelabra set around the long table.

A couple of males were already there, and the earl’s wife. The males stood when we entered, “the earl” ahead of us, while Kryn and I walked a few steps behind him. The earl’s wife remained seated. A grunt was all Kalyll gave them as a greeting as he took a seat at the head of the table. Kryn went to sit to his right but got a dirty look. He was taken aback until he seemed to remember that Kalyll was only doing his best to impersonate their father, and currently the prodigal son was out of favor.

Instead, Kalyll glanced in my direction and gestured toward the chair. Kryn did a good job of acting as if he both cared and didn’t care where he took a seat. The earl’s wife, seated to the left of her husband, gave Kryn a small smile as if it were a consolation prize for the ill-treatment.

“Is everything ready for our journey?” Kalyll demanded.

“Yes, my lord,” one of the males responded, a lanky individual with a long beard.

Kalyll’s eyes flicked to Kryn for an instant. Kryn quickly mouthed a name.

Dakian.

“Good, Dakian,” Kalyll answered. “I don’t want any delays. And you, Orist,” he addressed the second male, “what of the gifts for the Unseelie King?”

“The Zylnala sword has been carefully packaged, my lord, along with the jeweled gauntlet to match.”

Kalyll grunted and stabbed a piece of meat, looking as pleasant as an angry walrus.

“Is this really how your father is?” I leaned to my right and whispered to Kryn.

“On his good days,” he whispered back.

Witchlights, how miserable.

Dinnertime with my family had always been chaotic at the start, with mom nagging at us to hurry and set the table before the food got cold, but once we settled, we talked about our day, joking and offering encouraging comments or advice when someone was having a particularly bad time. Some of my fondest memories involved a meal with my family, enjoying mom’s delicious Italian dishes.

Kryn’s mother took little bites of her food and flinched every time Kalyll made a sudden movement, which he seemed to be doing a lot. His mannerism was completely different from his usually composed, methodical way. In fact, he was behaving more like Wölfe, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and audibly guzzling wine.

When he was done eating, he slammed his tankard down and pushed his plate aside. He picked up his steak knife, twirled it in his hand a couple of times, then stabbed it on the table, where it stood, its tip embedding in wood.

What the hell? He seemed to be taking this impersonation affair a little too far. Though on second thought, as I noticed the many indents in the wood, I realized that table-stabbing might be a common occurrence.

After a disdainful glance around those gathered, “the earl” stood, huffed, and walked away, leaving everyone without a word. The entire room seemed to exhale in relief, even me, who knew there was nothing to fear from him.

What a tyrant!

More at ease, I ate a few bites of food to assuage my hunger. It had been a long day, and I’d barely had time to eat anything. My chest felt tight after taking some of the earl’s life force, however, so I couldn’t stomach much. A few times, I glanced toward Kryn’s mother, but she pointedly avoided looking at me. She appeared embarrassed, probably at her inability to save her daughter from a marriage far worse than the one she’d endured.

Head down, Kryn pushed his food around. I watched him for a long moment thinking that, at last, I understood him: his cold and mean behavior toward me, his distrust. I saw the way he must have been mistreated as a child, the way his father taught him to be afraid of physical and emotional closeness. And yet, despite his cold exterior, he had let Kalyll and the others in, if only because they’d grown up together and they understood what he’d been through.

It didn’t necessarily excuse the way he’d behaved toward me, but I got it now.

After several minutes, Kryn and I got up from the table and followed Kalyll. We were all to meet in the earl’s chamber. In fact, the others must already be there, ensuring the awful male remained incapacitated. It wouldn’t do for him to wake up, shift into a scary creature, and chase us around the castle to tear us to pieces.

“Your father is a gem, isn’t he?” I said as we made our way back.

“A gem?”

“I mean… he’s not very nice. Forgive me for saying that, if it offends you.”

He barked a laugh. “Offend me? He’s an asshole, and everyone knows it, especially those closest to him.”

“It must’ve been terrible growing up with him,” I said tentatively, afraid he would shut me down.

To my surprise, he seemed open to conversation tonight. “Terrible is an understatement. He was civil with my sister, but he never showed such consideration for me. Since I learned what he is, I’ve begun to suspect he’s disappointed that I don’t share his shadowdrifter gift. He likely suspects he fathered a child with another woman before I was born. Maybe, he even suspects Kalyll is his son, despite Queen Eithne’s lies. And yet, he insists on blaming my mother, going as far as to insinuate he didn’t sire me when he knows perfectly well he has been no paragon of virtue.”

A shadowdrifter’s power was only bestowed to their firstborn child, and Kalyll bore that title.

“But I think,” he went on, “it was my relationship with Arabis that undid whatever love he might have felt for me.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “I suffer not for the loss of a father. I only suffer for… her.”

“If only you two could work things out. It’s obvious you care for each other.”

“I suppose I’m an open book, am I not? But Arabis… she holds no tenderness for me, not anymore.”

I shook my head. “You’re mistaken. She loves you.”

“You are the one who is mistaken, Dani. You don’t know Arabis well enough. What you mistake for love is nothing more than civility and respect for the Sub Rosa.”

“That can’t be right.” I had seen Arabis’s concern for Kryn whenever he was in danger and the furtive looks she sent his way whenever she thought no one was paying attention. There was way more than just civility in those blue eyes of hers.

Kryn smiled sadly. “Trust me. I know. I’ve been at the receiving end of her civility for a long time. It feels nothing like…” He trailed off. “Never mind.”

Despite his gloomy words, I had a feeling he still held hope. “Did something happen between you two in Nerethien?”

His head snapped in my direction. “What makes you say that? Did she mention something?”

“No. I just thought I perceived… a change. Some tension between you.”

He was quiet for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to say anything, and when he finally did, I was surprised that he would confide in me.

“We shared a kiss,” he said in a voice so gentle that it sounded nothing like the Kryn I knew. “But before you say that this means she loves me. It doesn’t. She was… drunk, and she doesn’t hold her liquor well. I took advantage of the situation, which she made abundantly clear.”

“You do know that alcohol lowers our inhibitions, don’t you?”

I wanted to say more, but we arrived at his father’s chamber, and he immediately opened the door and entered.

As I’d expected, everyone was there already—except for Mylendra, who needed to remain in Kryn’s chamber, since no servants bothered to go there.

“Has he stirred?” I approached the bed.

“No,” Jeondar said, “but I think he has regained some of his color.”

Quickly, I checked the pulse on his wrist. It was stronger than before, though not by much. Jeondar was right, though, his lips and cheeks were slightly pink—not ghost-white, like before. I checked the time. He had been out for nearly two hours.

“He should stay unconscious until morning, I hope,” I said.

“What about this one?” Silver pointed to the guard that had been standing outside the earl’s door. They had brought him in and laid him on a settee.

“Witchlights, I forgot about him.” I rushed to his side and checked his vitals. His pulse wasn’t as strong as the earl’s, but it was within a safe range. “He’ll sleep longer, but he’ll be all right.” His Fae healing ability would make sure of that.

Glancing around the room, I met Larina’s gaze. She smiled and flew over from her place atop a pile of books on a side table.

“You look tired,” she said.

“I am. You?”

“Restless.” She pointed toward a spot at the foot of the bed. “I put your messenger bag there.”

“Thank you.” The batch of transformation potions Naesala had made for us was in there. “Everything depends on that.”

Larina shook her head. “No. Everything depends on you and the king.”

“Gee, thanks, Larina. Way to ratchet up the pressure.”

She put her small hands up. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“I’m just kidding.”

“You’re going to have to get used to her sense of humor,” Kalyll said, coming behind me.

”I will, my king.“ Larina inclined her head, turning serious.

Ah, maybe one day, she would stop getting flustered when Kalyll was around. Hmm, I could think of one thing that might take her a step closer.

“Kalyll,” I started, “while you were gone, I made Larina a member of the Sub Rosa, and I told her you would make it official upon your return.”

The pixie’s cheeks turned violet, and her wings whirred so fast I was afraid she would shoot up into the rafters.

A blond eyebrow went up in Kalyll’s borrowed face.

“My king,” Larina said, “It’s not nece—“

“Everyone! Gather ’round.” He waved everyone in.

The others abandoned what they were doing and came to form a circle with Larina in the middle. The violet on her cheeks quickly tended toward purple.

Suddenly, Kalyll pushed me into the middle of the circle, and it was my turn to blush.

“You need to become official, too.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he silenced me with a raised finger.

He cleared his throat. “For your loyalty, relentless desire to help, and friendship, we welcome you into the Sub Rosa.” Kalyll put a hand up and inclined his head in encouragement.

Larina and I lifted our right hands.

“Repeat after me,” Kalyll said. “I swear, by all that is sacred, that I will remain loyal and dedicated to the Sub Rosa and will never reveal its secrets to anyone.”

The pixie and I solemnly repeated every word.

“Furthermore, I swear I will come to the aid of any Sub Rosa member, no matter their need.”

Larina and I repeated again, and as soon as we were done, the others chanted in unison, “I SWEAR!” and thumped their chests with their closed fists.

Their voices echoed through the room, and for a moment, I was worried we might attract attention, but the earl’s chamber was too secluded for that.

Larina and I exchanged a smile, and I was sure she felt as I did: literally and metaphorically in the middle of a protective circle of dear friends.

The others offered their congratulations, and Silver swiftly found a decanter and passed drinks around. We clicked our glasses and were merry for a while, joking and teasing.

It was what we needed, for tomorrow our journey to unknown dangers began.