“I didn’t mean to.” I settled with. “I wasn’t thinking.”
My eyes darted back to where I’d seen that flash, back to where I’d been certain someone had been about to attack me. “There was someone here. They killed the lights and then started approaching me, but I flung fire out, and . . .” I couldn’t continue. I was breathing too fast, and my heart felt as if it would explode. Too much was happening. Too much.
Sandus snarled. “The prince will have my head when he learns of this. Come. We must get within the prince’s wing, behind his wards. Then I’ll notify him.”
Sure enough, the prince was livid when he discovered that I’d left the dinner on my own and had nearly been attacked.
Only minutes after Sandus had sealed me within the Exorbiant Chamber, the prince and his three other guards burst into my room, carrying the vengeance of the gods with them.
The prince made me recall every moment of the harrowing encounter in detail, and with every second that passed, the aura around him grew higher and higher.
“You are not to roam the halls without Sandus,” he snarled as veins bulged in his neck.
“I know.” I wrapped my arms around myself, rocking back and forth on my bed as Cailis sat beside me. “I didn’t mean to. I just—”
But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. How did I say I think we’re bonded to each other? I think you’re my mate, and the thought of that terrifies me, so I stupidly ran through the castle at night even though I know I shouldn’t since it isn’t safe.
I sealed my lips as Prince Norivun’s gaze glittered with barely leashed violence. He rounded on his guards. “Alert the castle commander. I want the grounds searched for any intruders. I want whoever followed her tonight found.”
They all dipped their heads and strode from the Exorbiant Chamber before the prince addressed Sandus in a savage, gravelly tone. “Guard her with your life.”
Sandus’s jaw tightened, a deadly light entering his eyes. “I will.”
CHAPTER 16
The entire castle was searched. Every hall, alcove, cellar, room, chamber . . . all of it. The prince didn’t leave one stone left unturned.
But nothing was found. No intruders. No ghostly phantoms. No hired mercenaries sent to terrorize the court. Whatever had doused the lights and prowled toward me had disappeared, as though whisked from this very realm.
It was enough of a reminder, though, that fae were going missing and that it was stupid of me to have run alone at night. It also wasn’t lost on me, or the prince, that such an attack had occurred after it’d been revealed that I was trying to save the crops.
The only comfort I took was knowing that the prince hadn’t lied about killing the missing fae. Whoever, or whatever, had been with me in the hall definitely hadn’t been the crown prince.
Still, despite being alive and safe, knowing that the prince and I potentially shared a mate bond brought an entirely new level of stress to my life.
The next week passed in a blur of following all of the rules. Even though my fire had fended off whoever had come near me following that disastrous dinner, I wasn’t going to risk an encounter like that again, so I healed fields, trained on schedule, and never went anywhere without Sandus.
Each day was similar to the one prior, and the days began to bleed together. However, I welcomed the monotony after my epiphany about the crown prince, then experiencing what I had in the dark castle.
“What’s gotten into you?” my sister asked one night when my magic burst out of me in a turbid rush.
To blow off some steam, I was practicing my air affinity, making the doors open and close under my magic while Cailis reported her findings. It was something she’d started doing weekly as we prepared for our escape.
I made myself sit still and stop practicing. “Nothing. Sorry. I’m fine.”
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Of course, I am.”
“Then aren’t you concerned that I’m being followed?”
I stilled. “What?”
“I knew you weren’t listening, but you should because I’m pretty sure someone’s following me when I’m walking around the castle. More and more it feels as though someone’s watching me. My guard insists that I’m safe and no one’s about, but I can feel it, Ilara.”
My heart beat harder, and I grabbed her hands as fear threatened to consume me. “Do you think whoever it is was the same one who tried to attack me?”
“No.” She tugged her hands free, then pulled me into a hug and only let me go once my pulse calmed. “That’s the weird thing. At first I thought that too, but unlike what happened with you, I’ve never actually felt that my safety’s in jeopardy or that an attack is imminent. Whoever I’m sensing has never approached me, and my affinity doesn’t sense maliciousness. I just feel someone watching, like they’re curious.”
My heartbeat slowed even more. Cailis’s instincts were usually spot-on, thanks to her affinity, but her experience only reaffirmed that very strange things were happening within this castle. “So, you believe someone’s following you to watch you?” Whatever I’d encountered in the darkened hall the week prior had intended more than watching. I was sure of that.
“Yes, so, there’s that interesting development, but there’s also the matter of possible exits I’ve found.”
She went on to describe them, and even though I was happy she was finding options for a potential escape, I still knew that mistphasing was the best choice.
I sighed. “I’m glad your searches are proving resourceful, but if I could only learn how to reliably transport someone with me, none of this would be needed.”
“Keep practicing.”
“I will.” And I would, because knowing that my sister was also experiencing strange encounters within this clandestine castle lit a fire within my gut to try harder, because I needed to keep my sister safe, and it was becoming more and more apparent that staying in this castle was entirely dangerous—especially if the crown prince was my mate.
“Again, Ilara!” Matron Olsander barked at me. “Imagine your fire needling through the wall. Your affinity should be like an extension of yourself. It’s no different than poking your finger at the wall.”
Brow furrowing, I concentrated harder on the mental images that allowed me to better control my elemental affinity, and slowly, my fire burned a precise hole through the steel wall in front of me.
Matron Olsander nodded and crossed her arms. “Very good. Very good indeed.”
I panted, the exertion of maintaining such control harder than anything Sandus was training me to do, despite those trainings making my muscles quiver and burn.
“Now, again. You still have much to learn.”
I forced myself to straighten and concentrate, but it was hard. It’d been weeks since the dinner in which I’d had my epiphany about the prince and then was nearly attacked in the hall. Since then, I’d returned to avoiding the prince, even more so since my conviction in our shared mate bond grew—as though avoiding the prince would make our mutual attraction disappear—but despite my frustrations at having such a bond, one blessing did manifest in my life.