Page 94 of The Oracle of Dusk

“Are you coming back?” she asked softly. “It’s alright if you’re not. I’ll understand.”

“I’m coming back,” he said quietly, his expression guarded.

So this was goodbye. She squeezed her hands and nodded, trying to keep her smile from faltering.

“I’ll wait,” she lied.

She waited until she couldn’t hear him. Then she waited a little more. But when she could no longer deny the truth, she stood shakily. Well, that had been easier than she’d imagined. Aurora could have saved herself a rather stressful afternoon if she’d just told him about her magic. Funny, how quickly things could change. There was no chance of gaining his aid now.

Aurora found her hole in the wall and removed the stones covering it up. If the stones appeared blurrier than before, it was nothing more than a combination of the summer heat and her sweat. Or a bit of dirt. She couldn’t be blamed for getting a bit of dirt in her eyes. In any case, her tears would take care of it soon enough.

Another shaky breath escaped her lips. She could do this. Phaedra was counting on her. Silvanus too. What did it matter that one doomed king thought her delusional? If nothing else, he’d taught her to guard her heart more closely. She’d been reckless, letting him in so readily. That wouldn’t happen again. Aurora needed to let people prove themselves before placing such trust in them. There, lesson learned. Nothing was a waste so long as she learned something from it.

Aurora placed her satchel by the entrance to the hole so that she could grab it once she’d gone through. As she got down on her hands and knees, she heard sounds in the bushes above. Sounds that became more frantic.

“Aurora?” Theron called.

She sat there, dumbfounded. What was he doing back here? Had he come to relieve her of her artefacts? What else could it be but that? They were worth a great deal. She pushed the satchel into the hole and shimmied in after it. She’d almost reached the other side when he grabbed her ankle.

Aurora shrieked as he pulled her back through.

“I told you to wait.”

“Why should I? You think I’m mad. You probably only came back to take my artefacts,” she accused him.

He snatched her wrist and pulled her forward, his expression severe.

“Stop!” she cried.

He placed a blue crystal orb in her palm. The same kind he’d used to show her Aureum.

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me what you saw.”

“But… You… You believe me?”

“I believe what I can see. Show me, Aurora.”

“How do I…?”

“Focus on what you want to see. Hold it in your mind.”

She did as he’d asked. She focused on the feeling of that inescapable tugging, on the things she’d seen. Between blinks, she was reliving the horror with Theron as her witness, the hopelessness, the screams, the fear, the blood. She was glad when it was over.

“Queen Flora is planning a party to celebrate the end of the plague and the reopening of Boreas. By the lighting, it appeared to be early evening,” Theron mused.

“You really believe me?” she asked, cautious hope taking up residence in her heart.

“I don’t want to. It would be easier if you were mad. But your visions explain a great deal. And dressing me like some kind of gaudy golden statue after I complained of the quality of the attire she provided is exactly Flora’s style of pettiness. Now we must find some way to avert the future you saw.”

Her heart felt like it would burst from her chest.

And then her magic ripped her away.

She hurtled through vast emptiness until she found herself back in the atrium.

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