“The full moon is coming. We have to call for it to attack the sun during the day.”
That’s fourteen nights away. “That’s too long,” I argued. “Phillip might not have that long to live.”
“She will not let him die. If you know anything about Aura, it’s that she likes to use others as pawns on her board. Phillip is no pawn; he is her Knight and he will protect the Queen, because he’s the only thing standing between you and her and she knows it.”
He was right, but was I willing to take the chance? I bit my thumb nail. I’d thought of ending her tonight, but I couldn’t do that. I wanted her awake, lucid, and looking into my eyes when I ended her. I wanted to lean in and whisper in her ear that I’d told her I would have my revenge, that she would finally pay for taking away everyone I ever loved, and that she would rue the day she ever set eyes on Phillip of Grithim. She would regret turning me into a monster, because I would take my time showing her how fierce a monster I’d become.
“She won’t kill him, Luna,” Malex interrupted my murderous thoughts. “Think about what she did with William. She could have ended his life while you slept, but she waited until you were both awake before striking.”
I couldn’t let the same thing happen to Phillip. The space between me and my sister was the deadliest spot to be in, but if she hurt one hair on his head, I’d draw out her torture. I would make her last hours on earth a living nightmare, and not just a sleep walk.
“You can watch over him at night,” Malex suggested. “If he gets worse, you can cut her down in her sleep. It isn’t the way you want to fight her, but sometimes to win, you have to fight dirty.”
What if she agreed to heal him? I thought to myself. But she wouldn’t. I knew my sister. She only knew how to cause pain. She didn’t know mercy. And if I hesitated for a second, I would lose him. But maybe there was a way to trick her into healing him.
Malex went off in search of the right magical tome, located in the back of the room along a wall full of texts so old, the spines were worn ragged and the words completely rubbed off.
“Are you sure you want this spell? It’s very powerful,” he asked, plucking a book from his collection.
I put the cork on the bottled potion and held it up near the torch. In the flickering firelight, the dark fluid was alive, writhing and undulating inside the glass. “I’m sure. I don’t want to attack when she’s sleeping if I don’t have to. I want her to be awake for what I have planned.”
He smiled. “That’s exactly what I would do. Now,” he cracked open the book, “let’s read about this spell. It’s in the language of the fae, so I’ll have to translate, but the words and magic must come from you, daughter of the moon.”
We sat together on a long couch, the book resting on his legs until he read the entire section about calling for the eclipse.
The book’s power had my hair standing on end. “How can you even stand to hold it, let alone read from it?” I asked, my teeth chattering.
“My heritage, I suppose,” he answered, not outwardly affected by the magic at all. He reached out and took my hand and I watched as he guided it to the open pages. When my skin hit the parchment, I cried out. My flesh burned and froze all at once. Excruciating pain seared a path up my arm, through my shoulder, and pierced my heart, making me gasp. I tore my hand away.
“Magic,” he said, “always comes with a price.”
“If I call on this spell, what price will I pay?” I asked warily.
He smiled. “None. You are the moon’s daughter. It is expected that children will ask things of their parents once in a while. The spell is powerful, but the words are simple. I will give them to you and you will repeat them after me, precisely.”
“For a favor?” I asked.
He shook his head. “This is freely given.”
“Why?”
“Because with Aura gone, it will ease your mind. You and I can spend time together.” I opened my mouth to make sure he knew that we would only ever be friends, but he beat me to it. “As friends, of course.”
His eyes raked down the page, hanging on a set of words that looked like a list instead of a paragraph. He slowly enunciated each word and I repeated them back, feeling the pull of the moon outside his cave. It was like there was a rope stretched between me and the giant orb, and we were both equally strong, pulling one another without fraying the rope and breaking it apart. When I finished the incantation, my body hummed with so much energy, I could hardly stand.
Malex gently eased the book onto a table and helped me up. “Are you okay to go home alone?”
“Y-yeah.” My teeth chattered violently. I flexed my fingers, coiling them and flexing again.
“I’m not sure it’s safe.”
“I’ll b-be fine.”
He shook his head. “It’s not you I’m worried about.”
chapter twenty-two
AURA
My sister no doubt made her potion last night and was asleep in her cottage. I would have liked to visit her, if I could leave this place. I could heal Phillip and send him back to her as a showing of good will between us, but Luna and I had burned a bridge that couldn’t be so easily restored.
Even if I sent him to her, she would still come for me. She wanted to be free.
She thought that if our life forces were severed, so might the curse of slumber be severed, but I didn’t think she was right. We were too controlled by the celestial bodies to be independent of them. The curse had been with us from birth. If we weren’t bound to one another as sisters, we would still be bound to the heavens; a price of the magic that flowed into us that night. And if one of us died once the bond was broken? Well, it didn’t mean the other would be free of the curse of slumber.
I understood her desperation.
I felt it, too. At one point, our strange lives and how we lived them suffocated me. But over time, I came to embrace it. It was part of me, part of us. Of course, I had the easier curse to bear, as most humans slept during the night and thrived during the day. However, I didn’t like not being able to rouse in the middle of the night, as was proven the night before.
Phillip did something incredibly foolish while I slept. Ever the gallant prince, he sent all the humans away from the palace, unbeknownst to me. I’d woken and yelled for my lady’s maid, but she never came to my chambers. There were no scullery maids, no butler, no one cooking in the kitchen. Not even a single stable boy remained.
Not a single human was in the palace or on the grounds, except for Phillip.
I found him sitting in his room, eating an apple, his feet propped up on a table and a smug grin on his face. “Need help lacing your corset, Princess?” he said with a smirk.