Page 63 of The Court of Secrets
After a few minutes, the familiar pull of slumber overcame me. I forced myself to sit upright. The headache and his voice were gone, but I wouldn’t give in to the tiredness. Inhaling deeply, I willed myself to get out of bed. “Take me to the body.”
I hurried down the emptying hallway, a hollowness in my center as we emerged into the crowded courtyard. Guards stood around a mass, a mess of silver and crimson. Blonde hair was strewn over the ground, tangled with twigs and blossom petals. Barely a soul noticed their queen as I swept through the swelling crowd. Only Blaise had noticed me, but I avoided his gaze.
My stomach dipped when I saw her face. It was Marissa. Her unseeing eyes were focused on the matte-black sky.
“She was dead when we found her,” Adius explained and stepped back. “Everyone get out of here.”
I tapped his arm. “Don’t we need to lock the castle down until we find the culprit?”
He glanced at Marissa, and the darkness inside me tugged, prickling to the surface. One of Morgana’s rings lay on the ground, dull after years of wear. I clamped my eyes shut, pressing my hand against my stomach. “Where is she? She was meant to be kept in the tower room. How did she get out?”
Adius’s voice dropped. “She overpowered both of my men. She didn’t have her staff.”
She hadn’t needed one, not if he had taken full control, but I thought we’d had time. “Where is she now?”
“She’s locked in one of the dungeons.” He grabbed my arm as I attempted to leave. “She’s not herself, Your Majesty.”
I knew what that meant. I gave Blaise a dark look as he watched from across the courtyard. Skeletal leaves drifted down, as if to cover Marissa with a blanket.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The coronation went ahead as planned, despite the murder and my healed injuries from the previous night. Marissa’s body was taken to be buried in Ash Forest, a great honor, Vahaga had said. I still couldn’t get believe the necromancer had taken control of my friend.
I looked around the throne room as I entered through the double arched doors. A scandalous court, an army of loyal guards and their treacherous lovers, were bowing at my feet. My temporary crown glistened as dappled light scattered through the windows. I rolled my eyes up toward the silver etchings on the ceiling and the crystals embedded in the walls.
I scanned the crowd. Those I had wanted to come were missing. Marissa was forever gone, and Cedric, an ocean away. I spotted my mother. At least she hadn’t got caught. One blessing. The only one. She looked at me with a softness in her expression I hadn’t seen before. It was almost disturbing to see her without her usual disapproving scowl. I was dying to know what had happened in the forest last night, but it would have to wait.
My coronation was glorious. Half the kingdom had traveled to Imperia to see the long-awaited kingdom. I walked between five priestesses, all wearing purple from head to toe, toward the throne. Standing beside it was the high priest, wearing traditional golden robes with the blue lunar cycles embroidered as various stages of the moon. Around his neck hung a silver silk ribbon. When he saw me, he pulled it down and wrapped it around his hand.
He bowed when I reached him. “Please kneel.”
He removed my current crown and handed it to one of the priestesses.
My hands were shaking. The crown, glimmering from on top of a velvet blue pillow, had been prepared.
“This crown has been forged from gold, with rubies for vitality and emeralds to represent strength,” Vahaga said with no expression to his tone. His voice settled the last stragglers in the crowd into absolute silence. “A diamond was made from the ashes of a bone taken from the crypt of the first king of Magaelor and has been placed in the center of the crown, to create an eternal link between the first anointed king and the reigning queen. It has been blessed in the waters of Soul Lake.” The lake sat beyond Imperia, near the villages spreading to the north, where it was said many blessings had taken place. “Then buried overnight in the soils of Ash Forest.”
My father had become king before I was born, so I never got to witness the blessing of the crown. Each ruler had their own, and when they died, it was buried with them. I was sure, one day we would run out of bones to burn from the first king, and I wondered if the priests would simply move on to the second.
“Winter Rose Mortis, daughter of Amos Lormonor Mortis, do you agree to the sacred oath to serve the people of Magaelor above all else?”
“I do.” I ran cold. Every small hair on my arms and legs stood erect. I couldn’t believe it was finally happening.
“Will you, to your utmost power, execute the laws and customs of the blessed scriptures of our ancestors?”
“I will.”
“Finally, will you, guided by the ancestors, guide the people of this great kingdom with honor, upholding our values and traditions?”
“I will.”
The crown was placed on my head. The hairs on my arms pricked, standing erect, and my eyes glossed. I stood slowly, and Vahaga turned his back toward me, then stepped by my side. At least he wasn’t being snide today. He couldn’t, not with the eyes of Magaelor on us. “Your queen, Her Majesty, Winter Rose Mortis.”
Everyone bowed, and my heart felt as if it would stop any second. Blaise bowed too, even though he didn’t need to. It only made us having to separate hurt that much more.
I scanned the room once everyone stood once more. A man caught my attention, perhaps because he was so desperately trying not to be seen. He wore an oversized black traveling coat. He’d come from money, or at least he appeared that way. He pulled his hood forward when he saw me staring, then turned his back. Others around him waved when they noticed I was looking in their direction.
I caught Adius’s gaze, then nodded, a signal for him to come closer. Reaching my side, he leaned down, and I whispered the man’s description in his ear.
