Page 166 of Hidden Kingdoms

I knew then that I would wait, wait until she left because I couldn’t bring myself to pull my eyes from her. Not now. Not knowing that I had a way that could make it all better. But one that meant that each second I had here was precious.

Yes, I would stay until she left.

I would be the shadow that held back the others. The shadow that let her light blaze through the world.

Until I wasn’t.

I would stay. There wasn’t much chance of sleeping now anyway.

59

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

ELODIE

As the thick fog of sleep lifted, I had the uncomfortable feeling that eyes were on me. Which was made even more unnerving when I realised that beneath the silky sheets I lay in, I was completely naked. Memories of drinking around the campfire surfaced from where sleep had hidden them behind the dark cloud that had invaded my conscience. Explaining the pounding in my head and parched throat as the lingering result of too much alcohol.

I kept my eyes shut, a prickle of unease pulling at my magik, and I willed it to flood my skin with varying degrees of success. I was sure that my entire left arm had been passed over.

“I’m aware you are awake,” an unfamiliar voice said, and my eyes flew wide in alarm as they zeroed in instantly on the figure sat cross-legged on the bed next to me.

The need to shield myself with energy didn’t dissipate as I saw a young girl sitting there. If anything, it increased ten-fold, which logically made no sense, but some intrinsic part of me knew what I was seeing on the surface was not what lay beneath.

Slowly, so very slowly, I sat up. Ensuring the blankets hid my nakedness and keeping my eyes fixed on her as she watched me right back, her inexpressive face following my every movement.

So much for all the security this place was supposed to have.

The dull pounding in my head made its presence known as I scrambled to come up with an explanation as to what was happening and found none.

Opening my mouth to speak, she got there first. “I didn’t see him, and you got hurt. That hurt Kaius, and I don’t like that.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the effects of whatever Alouette kept in her flask, or perhaps the fitful sleep I had endured, but I was pretty sure none of that made sense.

“What do you mean, you didn’t see him. See who?” Her eyes were a soft brown, almost the same shade as the hair that hung over her shoulders.

“I find the bad ones. And then break them,” she said with finality, as if somehow that explained everything.

Maybe it did.

She continued. “But I didn’t find him.”

With that, I knew what she was talking about,whoshe was talking about. I swallowed against the phantom fingers that gripped my throat, the sharp pain on my wrists that I knew wasn’t real. I pushed it away, grasping onto something else she had said.

“You know Kaius?” On instinct, my hand lifted to the place where his emerald sat, finding nothing but the soft fabric of my sheets could be felt under my fingers.

A quiet panic built inside me as my eyes darted around the room before landing on my discarded pile of black clothes I must have stripped out of before falling into bed. A soft sigh of relief left me as I saw the length of silver chain peeking from within them, along with a bangle and a single gold earring.

“Yes.” A complete sentence apparently.

“How?”

“He saved me.”

“Who are you?” I asked, frowning at her, failing to understand why this child was finding and breaking people, or better yet, what she was doing in my room.

“I’m called Blair.”

“And Kaius… looks after you?” I could feel the energy that she radiated churning through the air, was almost certain I could see it. A writhing, dark aether that rippled under her pale skin, teasing me with a glimpse before it was gone again.

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