Chapter 48

CHAPTER 48

WREN

They didn't exactly hurry on their way. A moment with Finn was not to be squandered because, now they were in Pelias, those were already becoming rare and precious. Every so often Wren stopped and kissed him, as soon as they were both sure they were alone.

The temptation to just find an empty room and pull him into her arms was even stronger than she had imagined.

Later, she thought, later. After the presentation to the council and the feast, and whatever other horrors the royal court had planned for her. She'd take him back to her ridiculously large quarters, dismiss anyone still there, and they could make love. She had to have something to look forward to. So long as they found a way to lock the door, because she was not comfortable with the way people just kept bustling in and out of her private chambers. But she would find a way. The lure of Finnian Ward was too strong. Just walking alongside him, entwined with him, made her feel all kinds of things she was certain princesses were not meant to know about.

But she wasn't really their princess and she never would be. It all had to be a terrible mistake. Everything she was told her that.

Finn opened a discreet door and led her along a rather plain corridor. It was almost a shock given the lavish surroundings elsewhere, and, she had to admit, a massive relief to step inside.

‘Servants' corridor,' he told her with a grin when he saw her confusion. ‘The keep is riddled with them. It's like another world.'

Interesting. She filed that piece of information away in case she needed it later. She'd find out where the rest of these passages were.

They climbed an equally plain staircase hewn from the white stone of the hill on which Pelias stood, and then, finally, Finn opened another door.

The chamber beyond was enormous. She stepped through, gazing up in wonder. Everything was the same white marble. On the floor it had been polished to a mirror sheen, veins like golden threads running through it. It was like standing in a cave made of ice, and had clearly been carved out by many hands over many years. Above them the dome arched high overhead, and carvings decorated the walls, depictions of kings and queens, of great battles, of lovers, of families, of tragic deaths and newborn children. But in all the scenes the symbol of the Aurum repeated. A flame curling into a circle, eternal and powerful, a vortex of pure light. There were no windows, she realised, no natural light at all.

All illumination came from a flame, constant and ever moving, in the centre of the huge room. And around that flame rose a group of seven standing stones, each larger than a human being, rough and unpolished, in stark contrast to everything else here, the most natural thing in this unnatural place.

‘Like the Seven Sisters,' she murmured, bemused.

‘I'd never thought of that, but yes,' Finn admitted. He looked uncomfortable with the thought.

Carefully, Wren approached the flame. It was confined to a well-like structure in the centre of the stone circle, and it moved constantly, dancing before her. It was almost the same height as she was. That didn't seem to vary. Almost human-like. She felt like it was watching her as much as she was watching it.

Without thinking, she passed inside the circle of attendant stones and reached the low wall surrounding it. In the depths of the flame she could hear something, she was sure of it. Distant and faint, but so alluring. A song, perhaps, a lullaby, something she knew, although she couldn't name it. But that song, that tune… it had been with her all her life.

Wren reached out a hand towards the flame and she felt it welcome her, draw her towards it, the song growing louder, more distinct.

Finn grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, the action sending a shockwave of alarm through her, and she turned into his arms.

‘You can't touch it. It's sacred.'

‘But I—' What could she say? That it wanted her to? That it was calling her? No, those were the words of a crazy person and she didn't want Finn to look at her like she was mad. ‘I'm sorry, you're right. Maybe we should go.'

But she was there in his arms, pressed against him. And she didn't want to go anywhere. Finn was gazing into her eyes as if he couldn't see anything else and she watched the startling blue of his irises reflect the flame behind her. He was beautiful, she thought. More than beautiful. He was everything, all she wanted.

She kissed him and felt him resist for a moment before melting against her, that desperate, dammed-up desire they both felt breaking free again. He buried his hand in her hair so he could cradle her head, his mouth claiming hers. Wren's voice gave a whimper of need as she pulled him against her.

The stupid coronet they'd insisted on making her wear, no doubt in some effort to make her short hair look more regal, slipped free and clattered onto the marble floor behind her. The sound startled them both and brought them back to where they were. Somewhere they should not be.

About to defile a sacred place, she thought. Probably. She really was a terrible princess. Why did no one else realise that?

Finn pressed his forehead to hers and sighed, giving her a rueful smile.

‘Perhaps we should go somewhere else,' she said, with a degree of hope for the first time in days.

‘I think that's an excellent idea.' He let her go and retrieved the coronet. It was, she thought, pretty enough for something so ridiculous, a slender circlet of white-gold wire, woven like the branches of a tree in which tiny gems sparkled with the wintry light of the chamber. Whoever had picked it had noted the contrast with her hair's colour and used it accordingly. The ladies who had dressed her were experts in the court after all. They wanted a princess and that was what they would make of her, whether she cooperated with them in the endeavour or not.

The weight of that settled on her shoulders, even as Finn settled the coronet reverently back on her head. His fingertips brushed against her hair, then down the sides of her face.

‘There,' he said fondly. ‘Back to being a princess.'

Not what she wanted to hear at all.

But as he stepped back to admire her, he seemed to freeze, his eyes widening as they fixed on something else behind her. Where the flame was.

‘What is it?' she asked, confused.

Finn wasn't staring in wonder or affection now. He wore a look of something very much like horror.

‘Finn?'

She started to turn but he just grabbed her arm and started pulling her after him, away from the Aurum, away from the stones, back towards the little door to the servants' corridors.

‘We have to leave. Right now.' There was a note of alarm buried in the unexpected commanding tone.

‘What do you mean? What's going on?'

Wren twisted back, unable to tear herself free of his grip, but just enough to see the flame of the Aurum transform with the same blue-black hues that had suffused the metal of Leander's sword. Illuminated with the light of the Nox.