Page 60 of Crown of Ellova: Vol 1

“Thank you,’’ he whispers into my hair with a soft press of his lips.

His warmth, his comfort, his scent. I could get drunk on it all.

“For what?” I ask, my hands digging into the muscles of his back.

“For sharing whatever time we do have. For not running off in the middle of the night when we were sharing a bed in your cottage.” There is a deeper press of his lips into my coppery waves, and I close my eyes, memorizing the feel of it. “For trusting me with your secrets. We do not have to have it all figured out tonight. One day at a time.”

I pull back to look up at him.

An urge rises to weep at him that once I get this crown off me, he will be dead in forty years and I’ll just keep living and living and living. To wail that he needs to stop looking at me with such longing, hopeful eyes and saying words like that with warmth and kindness. His shy smile does something to the inside of my chest and the world fades a little when he laughs, but the words don’t come. I lower my arms and reluctantly take a step back from him.

Too much of a coward to push him away.

Too weak to resist the hope that loving him might be worth the pain in the end.

“I’ll let you sleep,” I whisper, even if it’s the last thing I wish for.

He nods slowly and returns to the other room. I hear the rustle of his sheets and I slide into mine, alone and aching. Thoughts of my own looming death are my only company.

CHAPTER 25

Just before dawn, still wrapped in sleep, I hear movement in my room. Footsteps, slow and deliberate, move past the foot of my bed. With the wards securely in place, it can only be one of the few who can enter freely no matter the unreasonable hour.

Nueena bends down with a finger over her excited grin and motions for me to dress. As she does most mornings, she goes through all of my jewelry stores to select her jewels for the day. Today she’s chosen a moonstone ring and a matching necklace that complement her pale lavender gown and look beautiful with her dark brown skin.

I sit up carefully now that I know the magic will rush back once I do. My head spins briefly, the crushing weight sitting on me again. My body is sluggish but I get up and dress in a pale yellow skirt and black corset with yellow stitching and ruffles over my shoulders.

I quickly write Leon a note not to worry, and together we tiptoe through the small library, past his sleeping form.

We stay quiet until we reach the outside hallway, where Tavien is waiting and holding two large teacups of morning-dew tea for us.

Nueena takes her teacup from Tavien with a kiss on his cheek. He yawns and heads downstairs. “I translated the parts of the journal we believe have information about the elixir. It will take time to translate the rest, but as time is not our ally in this, creating the elixir will be my priority.”

Nueena pats the satchel at her hip. “I have a copy of the sections we need.”

The tea is a vibrant burst of flavor. It’s sweetened with sugar cubes and slowly awakens me as we walk through the dimly lit palace. The water the tea is brewed with is from the Airvell River, filled with magic and healing properties. I feel a little better with each sip. A few stars still linger through darkened windows. Many of the palace hallways we travel through are quiet and calm in the early hours, with only a few attendants who finish up midnight tasks or prepare for those who will rise soon.

“How are you feeling, after yesterday’s conversation before Leon arrived?” Nueena’s tone is soft.

I straighten my shoulders. “We will find a way to get the crown off me. Alvina’s blood runs in me; we will figure out the way to unlock it. We also have every possible scroll available to us, and the forge it was made in. We are just missing something.”

She is quick to agree. “We will!”

I link arms with her and she pulls me close. “Are we going to the Royal Garden?”

Nueena is practically vibrating with excitement when she nods, braids bouncing. “Tavien found that the elixir needs many different types of herbs and flora. I have already contacted the head botanist at the Court of Green to assist in the search, but a few of the plants are rare and have not been seen in centuries. Possibly even some only Ellova herself grew. We need the anafaea flower, leaves from the salvidah plant, and blutells from the Airvell River.”

We take one of the passages heading down to the ground floor, and two attendants stroll by us with platers of jam-filled pastries for the morning meal. We grab a few on our way to the bottom of the west tower. Outside the palace is a hidden garden, tucked away amongst trees and flowers, their petals closed ’til morning.

According to myth, the Royal Garden was where the goddess Ellova created the first faeries out of her blood and bones, soil and sand.

Considered sacred, it is only open to a few and is one of Nueena’s favorite places. This holds the memory of where she and Tavien shared their first kiss. It is used to grow rare plants if needed for ceremonial or medicinal purposes. We stand before a stone archway marking the entrance; the door is made entirely of entwined ivy and thorns. The enchantments that guard this place recognize us as those who are welcome within its walls, and the thorns slowly twist away from each other, revealing the lush garden, the vines spiraling up the archway and around the towering stone walls that circle this divine sanctuary.

Over by the garden’s stone statues, plants and flowers of every color grow below a mosaic table and chairs where we occasionally have tea in the last afternoons near a set of swinging seats that hang from the branches of a thick tree.

One part of the garden has been cleared, now filled with fresh dirt ready for new planting. “I have a theory and it might not work, but I want to try.” Nueena’s golden-brown eyes hold an extraordinary amount of hope in them.

Tavien holds the diary open to a faded page, a sketch of a small plant with deep violet buds. “There are four key ingredients I need, but as of now, we have no way to produce two of them. The main problem is the anafaea flower, but we also need the leaves of the missing salvidah herb. The blutells will be no trouble to find, and the base ingredient is the healing waters of the Airvell River.”

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