The Princess and the Bard (Royals of the Realms #1)

Chapter Sixteen: 'Do You Trust Me?'

A dark, ephemeral shroud covered Alori's body, obscuring her vision. The sky was far away and ineffectual, a small point of hazy, narrowing light in the distance. She reached out, but it came no closer. 

She was falling slowly into a twilit abyss, moving ever farther away from reality.

Maybe she was going to die, after all. Her plan had been perilous, but she'd seen no other way to deny the demon inside Thelix access to her divine power. If the demon had to kill her by its own hand in order to steal her magic, then her actions had prevented that outcome. If she died now– and maybe she was already dead– her sister Liahfey would become the Shieldmaker. 

But if she managed to survive...

Her theory about Hira was sound, and she liked to think of herself as a decent judge of character, but relying on a hunch was at best lucky and at worst, foolhardy. Her life now depended on Kors' men being able to resuscitate Hira, and in turn, the mendmage agreeing to save her. Alori's allies would have to move quickly, and with expert skill, or their efforts would be useless. She would die from blood loss from her self-inflicted wound within minutes.

According to the demon, the curse sealing away her magic would break upon her death. It was semantics, really. Any curse would break when its host perished. But dying under the care of a powerful mendmage was a gray area. Mendmasters, like the ones employed by the Crown, were trained to bring people back from early death, but only if their wounds could be healed fast enough. Alori was counting on the gray area to be her salvation, now. If the young mender was as talented as the demon boasted, and if Hira agreed to help protect her future queen, the curse might be broken and Alori resuscitated.

Of course, there was another possibility. Alori might reawaken to the living world, only to discover that her Shieldmaker powers had transferred to Liahfey. As far as she knew, there was no precedent on how dead someone needed to be for a curse-- or a blessing from the goddesses, for that matter-- to consider its host inhospitable.

The demon thought it had shocked her with revelations of mediocrity hidden beneath the awesome powers she'd inherited, but it had underestimated Alori's ambivalence toward her titles. She didn't care if she came back weaker, or if Liahfey became the Shieldmaker, so long as she came back. After thirteen years of rigorous training, Alori was confident that her middle of the road natural born talent for magic would be enough to stand against one fiendish hellspawn if the need arose. 

Besides, she wouldn't be alone in fighting the demon. She'd have Hira, Kors and the queensguard, Patroller Myka. And her favorite, raven-haired bard.

But, this place... 

 Wherever Alori was, it was peaceful. Perhaps no one would mind if she stayed a while to rest. A short reprieve after the harrowing day she'd had so far sounded nice. The quiet was calming, and her body no longer burned with pain.

"Alori."

The voice was garbled, like someone trying to speak underwater, but there was no water, only the vast, cool nothingness she was sinking weightlessly into.

"Please, come back to us..."

The voice was female. Was it one of the goddesses? Alori didn't think it was her mother's voice, but it had been so long since she'd heard her mother speak. 

She closed her eyes, her emotions becoming light and spare, as if she could let them go and they'd drift away into the ether. It would be so easy, and so nice to forget.

"My name is Hira, Your Highness. Please, you must return to your body. Thelix is bound, and the demon can be exorcized. I was coerced into their scheme, and before I knew it..." The woman's voice faltered, choking on a sob or coughing. "I was trying to get your attention at the window. I– I just wanted to get away...."