Golden Prophecy

X L V

ANDORRA SAT still on Tofu, processing the information. Sir Nohx's father is in the Royal Court. It wasn't possible - he had died. Andorra had watched him die in the human realm. She had seen the life go from his eyes.

Only... she hadn't seen that. She hadn't seen that at all. She had left him there without killing him herself, knowing that the daeominem would finish the job they had started. She had been so confident he was dying.

And now, now he was here, in Anlithamy. He had somehow gotten in, and he wanted to meet with her. Demanded to meet with her.

Her throat constricted painfully. "How do you know that?"

One of the guards stepped forward, his head bowed low. "My Rali lives in the Winter Court still. He is feeding me the information as it comes."

Andorra didn't want to even begin to understand how that worked, not right now, not even if the thought of having a connection with an animal that deep was interesting to her. She glossed over that thought immediately.

"I need to go. We all need to go." She felt herself moving without thinking, opening up the gate. "I'll bring us back to Hornwell. Or, should we go right to the Royal Castle?"

"It isn't tradition," another guard said hesitantly, but there was no more tradition. Not when Noah's father was here, in Anlithamy. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her bones. She could feel heat burst up from within her, and the anger that came with it was sudden.

"We will go now." Her words were final. "We will go to the Royal Castle and find out what he wants. We can make the trek from the Northern Mountains to Hornwell another time." Tofu moved within the gate, and she turned to look at them. "We need to go in the in-between. All of us."

Her heart hurt for the fact that Callum wasn't here. Callum would know what to do. Callum would be able to handle this.

Andorra closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. I can do this, too. And she knew she could.

Oberon moved in the in-between. It seemed like he spurred on the others, and Andorra accommodated for the extra people as they gathered into the gate. Holding it open felt heavy for a moment; she hadn't held this many people in the in-between before. She spent no time at all opening the other side to the Royal Court, stepping out into the backyard like the Princess she was supposed to be.

Chin raised high, she dismounted off of Tofu, moving forwards towards the one place she really didn't want to be. Just thinking about the last time she was here made her stomach drop and her throat tighten with anxiety.

"Princess, we should wait."

She spun on her heel, looking the guard in the face. "Wait for what? I'm the Princess. I'm the one he wants to speak with. I will not be waiting."

She wasn't sure if he meant to wait for the Royal Counsel, but she wasn't entertaining that. She marched forward, Oberon trying to keep pace beside her. She didn't wait for the rest of her guards to dismount their horses.

The fire in her chest pushed her forward. It burned, almost to the point of pain, but she ignored it. Let the pain fuel her as she opened the back door and slipped in, taking in the sight around her. She didn't have a clue where to go. Not a clue of where Nohx's dad was. She let her gaze sweep across the open hallway, but there wasn't a soul in sight.

"Foolish," she muttered. She opened the gate and pulled herself in, Oberon in tow. And, because she wanted to be extra safe, she pulled in the next closest guard.