Jonas turned to the other rebels, furious now that his best friend, someone he considered a brother, refused to stand with him on this decision. “You know my plan. With or without help I will be at the royal wedding in four days. I will assassinate King Gaius myself. I welcome any volunteers who want to join me. After this, we won’t be put on reward pamphlets, we will be held up as heroes. Think about it.”
Then he turned his back on the lot of them and walked into the darkness of the thick forest to clear his head.
Chapter 19
LUCIA
AURANOS
Darkness became her world, and Lucia was left with two horrible thoughts that echoed, bouncing against each other over and over again. My mother thinks I’m evil.
My mother wants me dead.
Finally, after far too long waiting in the smothering emptiness, there was a dawning, and she found herself once again in the familiar lush, green meadow with its jeweled grass and crystalline trees.
The Sanctuary.
Or, rather, a dream version of the Sanctuary. But it felt so very real—from the warm breeze to the emerald grass beneath her bare feet, to the sight of the glittering city in the distance beneath the seemingly endless clear blue skies. So real it was difficult to tell the difference.
She sensed Alexius’s presence behind her but didn’t turn. “You left me for far too long,” she said quietly.
“Apologies, princess.”
Before this, they’d had four shared dreams. Dreams in which they walked through this meadow, as far as the diamond-encrusted stone wheels, talking about everything. About Lucia’s childhood, about her relationship with Magnus and all its recent complications, about her mother, about her father, about her magic. Perhaps she’d shared too much, but with Alexius, she felt . . . comfortable. Which was surprising, considering who and what he was. An immortal Watcher two thousand years old.
She had never felt like this before. About anyone.
He asked her questions about herself, so many questions. And she answered them. However, he was skilled in evading the questions she asked of him in return. She still didn’t know why he brought her here, and her mind was in a fog whenever she was in this meadow. Despite her best intentions, the gravity of what had transpired in her waking life seemed to fade away when she was here.
Death. Destruction. Prophesies. Magic.
She needed answers. Perhaps he had been purposefully evading her since the last dream—letting her stay adrift in sleep all this time.
This, then, was her chance to find out more, and she would not let herself become distracted by this golden creature who made any other thoughts drop from her mind. Lucia turned to face him directly. “What do you want from me?”
The beautiful boy smiled at her as if he couldn’t stop the expression from appearing on his face. “It’s good to see you too, princess.”
Such a smile. Her gaze moved to his lips before snapping back to his silver eyes. “My mother wants to kill me because of my elementia.”
His smile fell away. “I assure you, she will do nothing of the sort.”
Lucia looked down at her hand and willed fire into it. It flickered to life immediately. “Will this power I have corrupt me? Will it make me evil?”
“Elementia is neither good nor evil. It simply is. The world was created from the elements. I was created from the elements.”
“And you’re not evil.” Despite the flames, she shivered as he drew closer.
Another smile. “Evil is a choice one makes, not a natural state of being.”
“Always?”
His brows drew together. “This troubles you.”
“Of course it does.” She wrung her hands, dousing the fire. “How do I get rid of it?”
“Get rid of—?”
“My magic. What if I don’t want it? What if I want to be normal?”