Page 107 of Court of Winter

And then I remembered nothing at all.

CHAPTER27

Iawoke to the feel of soft hands dabbing a cool cloth over my face. Sweet scents of juniper blossoms tickled my nose as a strum of immense magic pulsed around me.

“She’s awakening.” Daiseeum’s sweet voice cut through the fog in my mind.

“Thank the Mother! Ilara? Can you hear me? I’m here.” My sister’s frantic words grew stronger and sharper with every breath she took.

“Cailis?” I croaked.

Another hand patted mine, then a male said, “She shall be all right. It’s not as serious as you’d feared, my prince.”

I briefly recognized Murl, the castle healer, and then warm hands were closing over mine as my sister and Daiseeum let go.

Strong, hard, unyielding hands. Those hands could only belong to one fairy.

I opened my eyes to see Prince Norivun hovering above me as he held my hands in his own.

“Blessed Mother,” he breathed. His expression looked haggard, his hair tousled, his eyes bloodshot.

I glanced over his shoulder. I was in the Exorbiant Chamber, and Cailis stood to the side of my bed, her features twisting, but an intense rush of relief filled me at seeing her again. Nuwin was also in my room, along with the prince’s four guards.

“What happened?” I brought a hand to my forehead as I struggled to remember how I ended up here and why all of them were looking at me as though I were at death’s door.

And then it came crashing back.

Fireworks.

Vorl.

Being choked.

Air and Fire.

Creatinglife.

My breath sucked in. “What did I do?”

“What you did is fully manifest.” Murl still stood to the side of my bed, wearing a stern expression. “Your affinities collided and were born at once. I’ve been told you had one affinity manifest in the previous weeks, but it seems there were others that wanted to be born.”

My eyes widened more. “Affinities? I have more than one?”

“You have at least four, possibly more,” the prince replied. “You have an air element, fire element, the ability to createorem, and the ability to—” His brow furrowed.

“Return a soul,” I whispered. A vivid memory slammed to the front of my mind. The prince had enacted his affinity on Vorl. If not for me, the archon would be dead. I’d wielded enough power to counteract the prince’s strongest affinity.Blessed Mother indeed.“What happened to Vorl?”

The prince’s gaze dipped to my throat, to where bruises no doubt lay unless Murl had healed them. His lip curled as his aura pounded out of him. “He’s been detained for assaulting a lady of the court.”

I straightened more as the soft covers swirled around me. “But I’m not a lady.”

“You are now.”

I frowned. “What?”

The four guards all ruffled their wings from behind the prince. Nish scowled.

The crown prince watched me closely. “The king has officially appointed you as a lady of the court.”

---