The Shadow Princess (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 6)

“You have that power indeed.”

“Can I do so without alerting her?” I press.

Amell’s eyes twinkle with pride. “I’ll show you how.”

CHAPTER 26

Bastien

Bending distance, Bastien stepped from his commander’s tent at the base of the Rosethorn Mountains—recently dubbed Camp Rosethorn—straight into Conclave Hall in Clairmont. All the royal families who repledged their loyalty and troops had been making their way to a staging area on the south side of the Rosethorn Mountains, and so far, they’d congregated almost fifty thousand foot and mounted soldiers, with more coming in every day. If this war were strictly about numbers and skills, Bastien’s army could take Kestevayne back easily.

But they still couldn’t defeat Ferelith’s blood magic, so they were waiting for Thalia to do her thing back in Clairmont, which would hopefully pave the road to victory.

Bastien immediately noticed the hall was empty of Conclave members. He walked back to the library and found that empty as well.

Ordinarily, that would concern him, but he knew all was quiet in Clairmont. Kieran had just switched out with him to watch over the base camp while Bastien checked on things back home.

Or more specifically, checked on Thalia. It had been six days since he last saw her, right after they’d returned to Clairmont from Heph’s house outside of Avery.

Kieran’s report was vague. He assured Bastien that everyone was busy with preparations, including the Conclave members, which explained their absence. But he’d stubbornly refused to provide any information about Thalia, how things were going with Amell, or if Heph had succumbed to blood magic again, which was ludicrous, of course. Bastien knew Kieran was withholding information so he’d be forced to go see Thalia. His brother was still convinced Thalia was Bastien’s soul mate.

Bastien had chosen not to bend distance directly to his house as he knew it would be empty. Upon their return to Clairmont six days ago, Thalia insisted that Heph be set up in a house that was big enough for her and Amell to stay in as well, so they could work on developing her shadow magic. Bastien didn’t like it, but she was focused on defeating Ferelith, so there was no need to argue.

That also meant there was no need for him to stick around to watch over her, because given her father was king of the Underworld—and Bastien grudgingly admitted, Amell seemed to care about her well-being—Thalia was as safe as one could be.

Part of Bastien recognized that Thalia had made a proactive choice to distance herself from him because he’d made no effort to legitimize his growing feelings. He’d had opportunities to admit that his heart was starting to feel, and yet he couldn’t speak the words.

Perhaps this was for the best. Bastien told himself all along that he did not possess the ability to feel what he once had for Thalia. So far, he was stubborn in his refusal to let go of control and free-fall into a relationship with her. He didn’t want to face the pain of losing her again, so it was simpler to just not have her.

To make things easier on himself, he took an active hand in gathering and staging the troops being gathered from the Sorin, D’Amuris, Groucutt, Baudin, and Foss royal families.

Yes. It was much easier for Bastien to stay away from Thalia because simply being in her presence made him want her. He wanted to drag her off to another dimension as he’d promised and have a life with her and leave all this pain and war behind. Bastien did not think he had the power to withstand an actual plea from her to fall back in love again, so he made himself scarce by staying at Camp Rosethorn, receiving updates from his brother.

Apparently, over the last six days, Amell and Heph had been working with Thalia to teach her not only how to use shadow magic but how to add her own blood to the mix to amplify the power in incredible ways. Bastien had no qualms with the use of blood magic. They were at the point they needed to do whatever they could to unseat Ferelith and retake their realm.

What he did object to was the fact that apparently Thalia and Amell were forging some type of legitimate father-daughter relationship. According to Kieran, they spent all their time together, and she seemed very happy and at ease in his presence. Heph seemed to genuinely like the Dark Fae as well, but that wasn’t a well-respected recommendation, in Bastien’s opinion, since Heph had been banished from Kestevayne for poor judgment.

Bastien knew he should feel glad for Thalia, for connecting with an unknown family member since her parents were dead, but he fucking hated that Dark Fae. Not because he was the evil ruler of the Underworld, and not because he’d slept with Queen Selena and may have used coercion to do so, but because Amell saw through Bastien with utter transparency and called him out on his weakness to claim Thalia as his own.