Page 148 of Hidden Kingdoms

It fell past Arden’s face, settling in his lap. The moment it touched the velvet fabric, all noise ceased, only the crackle of flames continued. Our eyes met and after a pause, he nodded. Shoulders sagging with relief, I sat back down. I opened my mouth to thank him, but he cut me off, raising the hand not clasped around his pipe.

“This will take time. I will do it. I will help you as much as I can, but I may not have the ability to remove it.” I didn’t want to consider the possibility that I would be left with this block for the rest of my life.

“And if you can’t?” I wasn’t sure I was ready for his answer.

“Then I will help you find someone who can.”

Wondering how to cope with this continual rollercoaster of emotions, I squeezed my eyes shut. When would it stop? When would life go back to normal?

Was life ever normal?

Finding out you’re a lost Fae child who was brought up in the wrong place, with sketchy powers, and a block on their brain that could be holding back fuck knows what?

Definitely not fucking normal.

I would need at least a week to process everything that just happened. Keeping my eyes closed, a light buzzing noise came from Alouette’s direction, and I knew there would be no downtime to sort through this barrage of new information. Back pressed into the soft chair, ignoring the almost twinge of pain from the fresh scars, I turned towards her, opening my eyes. She slid a black phone from her pocket, eyes furrowed as they scanned the screen. Before the words left her mouth, I knew I was being summoned somewhere else. And that somewhere else was likely not the comfortable bed I wanted to spend the next twenty-four hours cocooned in.

“Where to now then?” I asked, forcing myself to stand. Breathing in the sweet smoke that trailed from the fireplace, my lungs expanded as it soothed the edges of my magik.

53

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

ELODIE

Despite the warmth that forever seeped through the palace, my body declined to absorb it, and I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked with Alouette along the passages. Trusting her, as usual, to get us where we needed to be.

“That was a lot, you doing ok?” The concern in her voice made me glance her way, to see her brows furrowed over her sage eyes as she looked back.

I was definitelynotok.

“No.”

And there was no point in pretending I was.

My entire life had just been shredded apart.Again.I had no idea how the pieces fit back together. “I thought getting answers would make things easier, not ten times worse.”

The quiet stretched on before she spoke. “You’ll figure it out, you’ve come this far already.”

“Like that wasn’t complicated enough, now I have this asshole to deal with.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Her regular teasing tone returned as a frustratingly familiar door came into view, a guard standing sentry on either side. Both of whose heels snapped together atthe sound of her voice, left hand crossing to touch their right shoulder, and their eyes focused dead ahead. Quiet courtesies of ‘General’ fell from their lips, but she ignored them, grinning at me as we came to a stop in front of the white door.

“You’d think that finding out your memories are trapped behind a barrier inside your own mind, and that your whole life has been a lie, would earn a girl some sort of grace period. Don’t you think?” I said, not in the slightest bit ready to step through that door.

“Honestly. I think you have absolutely shit luck.”

I huffed an unamused laugh at the accuracy of her words.

“And right now, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” She tapped the wood, letting it open just enough for her to nudge me into the darkened room.

All sound of Alouette cut off with the soft click of the latch, the smell of ash and charcoal settled heavily on my senses, and I knew with certainty I was alone in here with Bastian.

Just fucking great.

Yet another fire roared in, yet another fireplace, and I wondered if being born here gave them an obsession with fire from birth, or they were just conditioned to ensure something was always burning wherever they went.

As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, they immediately found the big black chair Kaius had been sitting in when I was first brought to this room. This time, it was empty.

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