Page 19 of The Call of Crimson
Just like that, all my silent doubts and insecurities come to light. His eyes soften at my admission. I don’t want his pity, so I turn away, struggling to break from his hold.
Using his thumb and forefinger, he grasps my chin and turns my face back to his.“Look at me,” he demands, tightening his grip. “Your mother did not fight to keep you off the throne because she found you lacking.”
“How do you?—”
“She knew you did not want to rule.” The muscle in his jaw ticks as he contemplates his next words, “More than that, I believe she knew what would happen should you take the throne.” His eyes dart briefly to Ayden and back to me.
“She knew about the marriage contract?” I ask in disbelief.
“She never explicitly said so, but I suspect that she did.”
Just like that, my anger returns, melding with my grief in a potent mixture. I force my way out of Aurelius’ arms, much to his protest. I did not care, though. The anger was too consuming for me to feel anything else.
“Here, drink this,” Elijah says, shoving a goblet into my hands.
Ophelia, Elijah, and I sat in a circle on the library floor. There was no warrior’s celebration of life following the service for mymother and Layne, but Elijah had decided we needed something extra to get through the day.
“What is it?” I ask, sniffing the concoction.
“Does it matter?” He cocks his head and takes a drink from his own goblet.
“I guess not,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. The drink burns going down. Whatever it is, it’s strong. It warms me, my face flushing from the mix of spirits.
“Do you remember the time we both broke our arm?” Elijah asks.
“Of course, how could I forget?” I smile as the memory greets me.
“Eli, I’m bored,” I complained.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working on your arithmetic?”
“Why do you think I’m bored?” I scoffed.
“Where is the tutor?” Elijah asked, his innocent eyes trying to figure it out.
“She quit, and Mother has yet to find a new one. Turns out she’s deathly afraid of spiders. Who knew?” I asked, a mischievous grin stretching across my face.
“Wait, you didn’t…” His eyebrows rose as the pieces clicked into place.
“Create tiny shadow spiders and chase her around the castle with them? Of course not.” Sarcasm dripped from my tone as I batted my eyes in faux innocence.My Madilim Gift had manifested just months prior, and forming small shapes was the extent of my control.
Elijah let out a full belly laugh, causing me to join in. After a few minutes, he managed to regain his composure. “Come on, I have an idea.”
He led me through the castle, carefully avoiding anyone who would bust us and report back to Mother or Father. We ended up on part of the castle roof overlooking the back of thegrounds. It was only one story up, but looking over the edge, I could see it was a significant drop to the ground.
“What are we doing?”
He pulled me to the edge, allowing me to see a nearby tree and a small pond just beyond it. “You see that branch?”
“Yeah?”
“I bet we could jump from the edge of the roof, catch the limb, and use it to swing us into the pond.”
“If you wanted to go swimming, why didn’t we just go to the stream?”
“Because this is significantly more fun,” he said, as if it were obvious.
“How far is the drop if we miss?” I asked, trying to calculate our chance of injury.
