Page 42 of The Witch Queen

“So whydidhe invade Thayaria, then?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I have my suspicions, of course. But he certainly never revealed anything to me. Even at… the end… before I—you know—did the mist.” I wave my hand in the direction of the coast. “He maintained that I was too powerful to be left alone, that he had a ‘duty,’ as he put it, to unseat me. Labeled me a witch and convinced everyone my magic was immoral. I think he just didn’t want to be the second most powerful ruler alive. I think—I don’t know, I could be wrong about this—but I think he was afraid of the threat my power presented.”

“And your parents?” he asks, tentatively. “What—”

“I don’t want to talk about them,” I say firmly before he can even get the full question out. I might be trying to open up, but that is a step too far. Instead, I dig in the basket, then pull out the chocolate cake as a distraction. “Enough talk of your father and the war. We havecaketo enjoy,” I say with a grin, then hand him his slice.

“Cake?” he asks, brows furrowing.

“What, do you not have cake in Velmara?”

“No, we do. You make it sound like it’s more than just, well, cake.” He shrugs.

“Clearlyyou don’t understand the magical properties of chocolate cake. We’ll finish your lessons for the day with a practical lesson. Eat the cake, that’s the lesson.”

He rolls his eyes but takes a bite of the cake. “It’s good, I’ll give you that. But I prefer frozen ices and candies much more.”

My mouth drops open, aghast at his dismissal ofmyfavorite food. I shake my head, and we finish our lunch in silence, though this time it’s comfortable and not awkward. When I’ve taken my last bite of the delectable treat, Hawthorne leads me back to the unofficial training circle we’ve been working in.

“Can you make weapons with light?” he asks.

“I’ve never tried.” I concentrate, then gather the surrounding light into a honed dagger.

“Good,” he praises, voice low, and it lights something up inside of me. I’m annoyed with myself with how easy it is for him to affect me. “Now send it toward me.” I try, but it dissipates before it makes it to him. Helovesthat. “Well, well, well,” he remarks, “we’ve found a weakness in the witchling’s magic.” I roll my eyes, but he continues. “Try concentrating on the intensity of the light in as small a space as you can manage. It’s similar to the concept you mentioned before. When large amounts of light are channeled into small spaces, it becomes destructive. Visualize the tiny hole you’re sending it through, then blast the light into it as you move it.” I try again, and this time the light reaches Hawthorne, but he easily disintegrates it. “Good. You’ve gotten the basic concept. Now you just need to work on the intensity and your speed and get to a point where you can consistently maintain those two things.”

We continue training for another hour. Hawthorne must also have remembered his betrothed and all the history between our kingdoms, because he keeps a healthy distance between us for the remainder of the session. When we’re both tired, I aerstep us back to his apartment and leave him with a promise that we’ll continue with our training in the coming weeks.

Back in my room, as I wash the sweat and grime from my body, I feel airy and light. Like I could float away at any moment and lose myself in the late afternoon sky.

Hawthorne

Raw thayar is processed in large towers by grinding the petals into a fine powder, then heating them to an exact temperature before immediately cooling them down. This process is known to increase the magical properties of the flower.

A Brief History of Modern Thayaria

“We need to get moving!” Silene says as she knocks on my door. Today I’m finally going to meet the leadership of the Sons and Daughters of Thayaria. It’s an opportunity to get information for Laurel. To do somethingusefulafter almost two months in this kingdom.

While Fionn will carry weapons, both Silene and I will remain unarmed. I don’t need the weapons, but it makes me nervous that Silene won’t have that extra layer of protection. She’s an air channeler of less than average strength, being part of the noble class of Velmara. I scan her small frame, looking for any sign of fear in her, but as usual, she vibrates with excitement for the adventure ahead.

The rebels want us to meet them in a village south of Arberly called Oakton. According to Laurel, it’s the closest port to Arberly and is a bit larger than the port we entered through. We suspect this is where the rebellion has their base. The journey is a day’s ride from the palace. Instead of taking the non-magical way, Laurel offered to provide Silene with thayar to amplify her magic enough to aerstep us there and back. As usual, it’s a smart plan—it gets us there quickly while giving the rebels the impression Silene is more powerful than she is. We’re going to meet Laurel in her personal chambers, where she keeps a large supply of the flower that won’t be missed or accounted for. Thayar is heavily monitored in the kingdom otherwise.

I settle my magic around the three of us as we make the long trek up the stairs of the palace. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the amount of aether I can channel here in Thayaria, especially now that I can sense it in everything around me, thanks to Laurel.

In the days since our training session, there hasn’t been a single moment my mind wasn’t on the elusive and alluring Queen of Thayaria. My plan was to seduce her, but somehow nowI’mthe one who can’t keep my eyes off her. I know I didn’t imagine the heat between us when we trained, and every day since. Aethers, I’d almostkissedher that day, and not in a casual, “I’m just trying to seduce her to get what I want” way. Thank the aether she pulled away when she did, or I might have done something I can’t walk back from. When I’m in her presence, I lose all sense of anything outside of her, desperate to crack open that icy control she has. Every time I manage to get under her skin even a tiny bit, my body heats and my own skin tingles. I’ve never met a female—never met anyone—who has this effect on me. Rather than coaxing all of her secrets out of her, I’m the one spilling my guts every time she’s near. It’s unsettling and entirelynotwhat is supposed to be happening.

Fionn grunts next to me, breaking me out of my spiraling. “These aethers-damned stairs will be the death of me,” he huffs out quietly, and I chuckle. It’s a sure sign that he’s out of breath that he doesn’t punch me for laughing at him.

“Why don’t you just use your magic to make a dagger or something float, and hold on tight?” Silene suggests, and Fionn’s eyes widen in glee.

“You brilliant female,” he barks out before unsheathing a large dagger from his hip. He scrunches his eyes in concentration and grips the dagger tightly. Slowly, he rises in the air. Opening his eyes, he whoops with delight when he sees that it’s working. My burly best friend rises maybe a dozen steps before his fingers slip and he crashes to the floor. Silene and I cackle with delight. Fionn only stands and glares at us before sheathing the dagger and stalking up the stairs once more.

We finally make it to the door of the Council chamber we came to on our second day here. Laurel’s rooms are just a few paces down this hallway. When we reach the large wooden door engraved with thayars and about a hundred other kinds of flowers, I knock lightly, letting her know we’re there and the hallway is clear. She opens the door, and we quickly file in.

Laurel looks captivating, as usual. She’s dressed in casual clothing, hair braided back, no makeup. I can see her freckles like I did the day we trained, and my body demands that I move closer to her. As I pass her to enter the room, our eyes meet, and I swear electricity zaps between us. This keeps happening, the feeling similar to conjuring tiny bolts of lightning in my hands. But she turns as if nothing happened, leaving me wondering if I’ve imagined it. My body aches to touch her, but I push down the urge, finding a corner near the doorway to stand in as I survey her rooms.

Like everything else with this unlikely monarch, her chambers surprise me. They’re smaller than even my own chambers in Velmara. There’s a simple sitting room and bedroom beyond, but that’s it. The sitting room is furnished with chairs that look like they could be older than my father, many of them fraying at their seams. As I walk farther into the room, her magnetic and seductive scent hits me—overwhelming lilac with the barest hint of mint. It invades my senses and nearly chokes me, so strong in her living quarters that I almost growl at the way it makes me feel. I take one deep inhale to satisfy whatever beast lurks deep within me, then continue scanning the room in detail to distract myself from the building heat in my core and the untethered way it makes me feel.

There’s a desk that’s too large for the space crammed into a corner, every inch covered in papers and books. I enjoy knowing that despite her outward perfectionism, when it’s just her, she’s as messy as me. A fireplace that connects to both the sitting room and bedroom roars, the warmth delicious after the cold passageways of the castle. Other than a bar cart packed to the brim with various wines and liquors, and several bookshelves equally packed, there’s not much more in the room. No dining table, I notice, before I see old plates and mugs littered across the coffee and side tables.

---