If I gave Malex a few more kisses, I could be rid of her forever.
If only that were the case. Malex wanted a favor, and I had a feeling that when he called it in, I would regret agreeing to it. My lips and cheek still tingled. I wondered what his mark looked like.
Phillip is going to see it.
Pushing him and his possible reactions away, I finished sprinkling the dust and took up my broom again. I didn’t care what the Prince thought, anyway.
The search for Malex had taken too long. The sky was no longer dark and comforting, but lightening by the second, the deep blue fading quickly away. Sleep was tugging at me and soon it would be tearing at my mind. I would succumb when the sun rose, no matter where in the world I was. And I didn’t want to be here when it happened.
I also didn’t want to leave Phillip alone in my cottage. I told him I’d be back at dawn, and that he could go home this evening. He’d worry and probably leave the house, and my protection, when he did.
I sprinkled the last bit of dust, closing the circle and trapping Aura inside her own palace. She’d always wanted the palace to herself…now she’d really have the run of the place.
When the hoots of owls erupted through the forest, the smirk fell from my face. Something was near the cottage. I rushed toward Phillip, flying as fast as the wind could carry me. Raindrops stung my skin, carving paths off my skin and soaking my hair. One more night and day, and then I would see him home safely. He could take up his crown and marry a beautiful princess who would bear auburn-haired babies that bore his beauty mark and smiled like him.
Phillip would be happy. Safe and happy.
I needed to go faster, which meant I needed to get higher. But the higher I flew, the more the sky turned purple and the clouds turned to gold. The sprinkling rain stopped and the clouds scattered across the sky. My grip on the broom became weaker. I became weaker. But the small clearing in the wood was just ahead. I just had to hold on.
One more moment.
Crashing to the earth with a loud thump, I groaned and looked up at the sky. It was almost dawn. Even though I pushed hard, it still wasn’t fast enough to beat the sun. I heard the bang when the front door was thrown open, ricocheting against the house. Ember meowed loudly, running to my side.
“Luna?” Phillip rushed from the porch.
“NO!” I yelled, smelling the bird nearby, but it was too late. Pieces saw him and flew off in the direction of Aura’s castle. My heart thundered. She’ll know about him! She’ll come for him! I may have bound her, but she had other powers at her disposal; powers over dream and mind. I knew, because I wielded them, too.
She could enter Phillip’s consciousness and will him to come to her in Virosa. And then she would hurt him just to hurt me.
I couldn’t crawl or walk, so I reached for him. “Help me,” I rasped.
He was off the porch and at my side in an instant, lifting me into sure and strong arms. “What do you need?” he asked tenderly, his brown eyes begging to help.
“Sleep.”
“I’ll carry you to your room.”
“Stay inside today. Stay with me. Don’t leave me.” I was begging at this point because I knew he wasn’t safe outside. With Aura, he wasn’t safe in Grithim either. He wouldn’t be safe anywhere but with me. At least then I could watch him and enter his mind, if need be, to thwart her attempts to draw him to her. I muttered a curse. I failed Phillip and I failed William again by putting his brother in danger.
“I won’t leave you. I promise,” he vowed. I glanced at Ember, who knew to protect him, too.
“I’m sorry,” were the last words I spoke before slipping away into the comforting darkness.
“You’ve been keeping secrets, sister.” Aura pushed my hair away from my face. “Whose mark is this on your lips and cheek? You let a dark fae mark you, and yet a handsome young man is staying at your cottage? Funny. He looks a lot like William.”
She conjured him then; a vision of William standing with his hands folded behind his back. The angry stitches holding him together glared at me. “He says it’s his little brother,” Aura whispered. “Phillip? Is that his name, dear?” she asked William.
“Yes,” he answered in his deep timbre voice, his eyes still fixated on me; the eyes that brought all of the guilt and pain to the surface once again. There was something strange about him. He almost looked... angry.
“I’d like to meet him,” she said nonchalantly, pushing her cuticles back.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” I said, sitting up straight.
“Why, Luna. Surely, you’ve learned your lesson about sharing by now. We are two halves of a whole. What’s yours is mine.”
“Not this time,” I gritted, willing the floor to fill with scorpions.
She raised her feet up onto the mattress and rolled her eyes. “Always so dramatic. Don’t you ever tire of the darkness?”
“No more than you tire of the light.”
“How did you meet him? You must tell me all about him. Is he very much like William?”
Was he like William? No, he wasn’t. William was... selfish. As much as I loved him, he loved himself more. It took time, distance, and seeing Phillip’s instinctual reactions to realize it. Maybe that was why it stung so badly now. I loved William more than he loved me, and I only now saw it because of his brother’s nature.
“I can pay him a little visit tomorrow,” she cooed. “I have to know more about the man who stole your heart.”
“No one has stolen my heart.”
“I beg to differ. Peace showed me your reaction. When he stepped onto the porch and you knew I would see him, you were terrified. If you didn’t truly care for him, you wouldn’t have responded in such a way. Yes, I think I’ll visit him. Perhaps we can chat about his feelings for you. And perhaps he’ll change his mind about you when he sees how poisonous you are,” she said pleasantly, shaking a scorpion off her white boot.
William waited patiently as the floor writhed, but I kept the creatures from him. I knew it wasn’t really him, but it didn’t matter. I would never hurt him. And I wanted her to know that even though she was the one who brought him here, it wouldn’t be me who harmed him. Just as it wasn’t me who tore him apart. It was her.
Inwardly, my anger turned to anticipation. Would she wear the same smile when she learned she was bound to her castle? Would her roses wither when she could no longer tend them? Would her killings stop?
As much as we were opposite, we shared a few of the same traits. Aura was tenacious. Determined. Stubborn and vengeful. She would find a way out eventually, and when she did, she would try to make me pay. Not physically, but emotionally.
She would strike at Phillip.
I turned the scorpions into serpents. Every shade of venomous species in existence slithered around her, writhing beneath her boots and stretching their bodies up onto the mattress. “Seriously, Luna. You have to stop this childish behavior.”
“I’ll stop when you stop,” I said sweetly, pushing her from my head. I hoped she bruised her ass when she fell from my dreams.