“Where?” Lysandra asked, breathless.
Jonas tossed the earth crystal up in the air, caught it, and slipped it back into his pocket. “Two of them are back home in Paelsia. A fitting place, I think, to hold the power to crush the king.”
CHAPTER 24
LUCIA
AURANOS
If there was one lesson Lucia had learned from her mother, it was this: Anything less than perfection is unacceptable.
The queen had been obsessed with appearances and made it a priority for her adopted daughter to look as lovely as possible at all times. To be a perfect princess. She’d made Lucia do extensive memory work as a child, forcing her to learn long passages from the Books of Valoria by heart in addition to her regular studies. Whenever the Damoras would host important guests and local nobles, Lucia was brought out like a showpiece and made to recite her learnings. If ever Lucia stumbled over a word or struggled to recall the next section, the queen would draw her lips into a thin line, but she’d say nothing.
Not until later.
“Idiot girl,” the queen would snarl once the guests had left. “You embarrassed me.”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I thought I knew it. I—I didn’t mean to forget.”
“You need to practice more. Don’t give in to laziness. It makes all of us look bad. Tonight you were nothing but a disappointment.”
Such belittling words had shrunk Lucia’s affection for the woman, and she grew to hate her.
That harsh but important lesson had stuck with her. Perfection was all that mattered, at any cost.
Heart stinging with disappointment over the failure at the temple, Lucia returned to her chambers to be alone with her thoughts. She stood on the balcony and let the warm breeze dance through her hair and across her skin.
The ring on her finger—Cleo’s ring—brought her only a modest amount of peace. Perhaps without it she would have already set something on fire to let out her frustrations.
But the day wasn’t yet over.
She hadn’t been wrong about the temple. The earth crystal had been awakened there—she knew it. But they were too late.
Someone had stolen it before they arrived.
But it made no sense. Who else could possess the magic to figure out where to go and what to do?
She’d wanted to go to Paelsia immediately to claim the air and fire crystals, but Alexius had refused and had made her promise not to tell Magnus any more of their secrets. He already knew too much, he’d said. Besides, the king had given permission for a day trip, not for a lengthy journey to dangerous neighboring lands.
Reluctantly, Lucia had agreed to stay put for the time being.
And whoever stole the first crystal will beat you to the next two as well, a nasty, dark voice inside of her said. How kind of you to give them a head start.
Alexius had stopped her before she could locate the fourth crystal. He’d told her to wait, to allow herself to get stronger and continue their lessons without tapping into the deeper magic necessary for the awakening spell.
She’d also agreed to this. That spell had been much more intense than she’d anticipated, but she’d done it. Yet now Alexius made her doubt her abilities. Perhaps he was right—perhaps she wasn’t ready.
But, no. She was ready.
Was it possible that she could awaken the last crystal on her own?
Practice. Do it again. Don’t stop—don’t give in to weakness. Don’t embarrass me, you idiot girl.
It was her mother’s voice, still in her head after all these years.
The queen had thought Lucia’s magic was evil, but it wasn’t. It was pure. It was life itself. Alexius had insisted on this, and she’d begun to believe it.
And now with Eva’s ring on her hand, she finally had a measure of control over it. Lucia was no longer its victim. Her magic was a part of her. Her magic was her.