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One week later, Rielle stood before the floor-length mirror in her rooms, adjusting the heavy black folds of her gown.
Outside, a star-scattered lavender sky faded to a cloudless night. Atheria stood solemnly on the terrace, looking down at the city. Soon the temple bells would ring, and the procession of King Bastien’s body up the streets of me de la Terre would begin.
Ludivine emerged from the bathing rooms, golden hair in a crown of braids around her head. Her own mourning gown, like Rielle’s, fastened high at the throat.
“Are you ready?” Ludivine asked, tugging on her gloves.
Rielle stared at her reflection. Shadows hugged her eyes. Two weeks had passed since the fire trial, and she hadn’t slept more than three or four hours every night since. Lord Dervin’s body had been sent home to Belbrion for his son, Merovec Sauvillier, to attend to. And mere hours earlier, Rielle had watched her own father’s body burn on a mountaintop pyre. It had always been a wish of his, for his body to return to the empirium as his wife’s had.
Rielle watched Ludivine move about the room, tidying up the mess of combs, pins, and smoothing creams. It was such a familiar ritual that Rielle felt tears rise once more to her eyes.
“I thought I was done crying,” she said with a hollow laugh. “I suppose I’m not.”
Ludivine paused at the window, her slender body framed in twilight. Frozen forever at sixteen—what a strange and terrible thing.
And not a secret any of them would be able to hide forever.
“I wish I could help you,” Ludivine said, and Rielle felt the truth of it brush against her mind. “I wish so many things.”
“Just because I don’t trust you right now doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I wish I didn’t, and maybe I shouldn’t after what you’ve done, but I still do nevertheless.” Rielle turned away from the hope shining on Ludivine’s face. “There. I’ve wanted to say that for days, and now I’ve said it.”
A soft knock on the door. Evyline entered with a delicate cough. “My lady? Prince Audric is here to see you.”
Rielle’s heart jumped with nerves. Since the trial, Audric had been so occupied with meetings, funerals, and caring for his mother that she had barely seen him. And whenever she did, she faced him with a new fear: that he would sense the lies spinning in her heart and turn her away forever.
But as he entered the room, meticulous in mourning black, all of that flew out of her mind. If she looked tired, he looked far worse—his skin sallow and drawn, his eyes red from exhaustion. His grief trailed him like shadows.
She went to him at once, and without a word he opened his arms to her.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered, his voice muffled in her hair. “Would it be awful of me if I asked you to my bed tonight?”
For a moment, she could think only of his arms around her. She smiled against his shoulder. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“My light and my life.” He bent low to kiss her softly.
“Is everything ready below?” Ludivine asked.
“Our escort is waiting for us.” Audric paused, then released Rielle and, hesitating, held out his hand to Ludivine. “But before we go down, I need to talk to you for a moment. To both of you.”
Rielle stiffened.
Don’t worry. Ludivine took Audric’s hand. He knows nothing. And he never will. I’ll see to it.
“It’s this…all of this. Corien. The Gate and the angels. And you, Lu.” Audric released Ludivine’s hand with a tight smile. “It’s a lot to wrap my mind around. And now, with Father gone—” His voice caught. “Mother will be the one to lead us to war, when it comes, and we’re to help her with that, Rielle—you and me. And Lu, we won’t tell anyone what you are, of course, but you will also be instrumental as we move through these next months and years. The knowledge you have about your kind will be invaluable.”
Ludivine nodded. “Of course.”
Audric considered her. “Can you really be so eager to turn against your own people?”
“They are not my people,” Ludivine said. “Not anymore. You are my people.” She looked to them both, her face open and fierce. “I am loyal to you and no one else.”
Rielle glanced at Audric. Their gazes locked, and she didn’t need Ludivine’s power to understand what he was thinking: He was still wary of Ludivine, just as Rielle was. But what choice did they have but to trust her?
“Mother will need advisers,” Audric continued after a moment, and we will be her closest ones. We must fortify our borders, reach out to the rest of the continent. Find out what they know—and what they don’t.”