Map of Ember and Moonlight

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

She and Gideon parted ways outside the tavern. Lyv put her glamour back on, Gideon laughing at how well she did, and kissed his cheek in goodbye.

It was a slow walk back to the palace, but she dropped the glamour as soon as she reached the gates. That way, it wouldn't take her forever to get back inside with every additional guardsman questioning her.

She couldn't help but think of what Gideon had said about Amory wanting to stay but knowing he couldn't. She understood. Understood that he had his own life back in Dalcaine, though he had never really told her much about it before. She knew he worked for the royal family, but did he do the same for them as what he was for her father? Or maybe, since he had been sent over to Escarral, he was acting as emissary between the two lands?

Even so, she was going to miss him. Hopefully, he wouldn't leave before she saw him again. And by the way he was avoiding her after leaving her at the palace, she couldn't say that wouldn't happen.

With the staff finishing up for the day and going off to their own dinner, the palace was quiet once Lyv was inside. Taking the stairs slowly, she found herself idly heading for her room, listening in to the sounds of laughter coming from down the hallway toward the kitchen, her father looking through papers in his office...and the sound of thundering hearts and heavy breathing from her mother's rooms.

"So close now," the queen crooned in the ear of the guardsman she'd taken to her bed for the night. "You know your orders."

"Yes, my queen."

Lyv didn't know why she'd stopped, pressing herself to the wood-paneled wall across from the chamber doors. She could feel her magic pressing against her, trying to make her hide as tendrils of shadowy smoke curled around her, pulling her into it. She didn't know how she was doing it, or even what it was, but those shadows hid her so that the guardsman didn't even see her whenever he left the queen's rooms.

When her gaze went back to the open door, her mother was pulling on a floral silk robe, partially covering her naked body that was glistening with sweat. Running her fingers through her hair, she went to close the door, only to pause at the emptiness of the hallway, seeming to sense someone else was there.

A disgusted knot formed in Lyv's stomach as she stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the hallway.

A small smile immediately formed on the queen's lips. Gone was the queen who Lyv recognized in public. In her place was the queen with secrets and a willingness to do anything to get her way. She knew she shouldn't have been taken by surprise, but she couldn't help it.

"Hello, my darling daughter."

That knot rolled, making her want to vomit. "What are you doing, Mother?"

"Exactly as it looks like, Alyvia. Now, come in here. I've been meaning to...have a chat with you. However, you always seem to be off with those two men from Dalcaine. Yes," she nodded when Lyv opened her mouth to refute the claim. "I know who they are and what your father is doing with them. I have eyes and ears throughout the palace, the city, the whole of Escarral."

Lyv did as she was told, walking into her mother's rooms and completely ignoring the rumpled sheets on the bed, heading for the sitting room. Guinevere followed, tying her robe around her waist.

Taking a seat, her eyes met her mother's as she sat across from her, crossing one leg over the other. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, my sweet girl, there are many things I wish to speak with you about. However, now that I have the plans in place, one thing in particular is most important. I know you like to travel, so here is your opportunity to."

"What are you talking about, Mother?"

That smile turned into a smirk. "You know what is about to happen. Those men your father is working with...do you not understand what that will do to Escarral? Have we not already established how dangerous and ruthless Dalcaine is with the war twenty-plus years ago? And yet your father wants to open relations. We can't have that now, can we?"

Lyv gritted her teeth together. "But you're the one who started that war."

"And I will be the one to finish it. Do you not realize, after all this time, I have just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to get what I want?"

"And what is that?"

Guinevere leaned forward. "Power...and you are going to be the one to help me. Like I said, I have eyes everywhere in these lands. I know what you can do with your own magic now, how you have been training with the man named Amory for these last few months. I saw it when you were just a little girl. You have power, Alyvia. Power that will help me get what I want. Do not think that that man you have fallen for can keep you from me either. Should you tell him or he interferes, his blood will be on your hands."

Threatening Amory...Lyv's hands balled into fists in her lap, her magic seething and wanting to lash out at her. "Do not threaten him or anyone else to get me to do whatever it is you want me to do in Dalcaine."

"You will do whatever I tell you."

"And I will do whatever it takes to stop you."

At that, her mother threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, dear girl, you have no idea how long this has been the plan. You have been included in it all along, especially now since you've grown into your magic. You think I have not waited for the day when you realized your full potential? I knew since the day that Amory man brought you back after you'd been attacked by the gypsy gang that you could do so much for me."

Her disgust grew into absolute hatred. "Do not think..."

Her mother was up in a flash, her hand gripping Lyv's jaw as she forcefully made her look her in the eye. Lyv seized up, her magic stuttering inside at the move her mother had never made before.

"I have always been an ambitious woman. You can thank my own mother and father for that. Who do you think gave me the drive to do what I wanted, what I needed to do to get what I want. I have tried with you since you were a child, but your father has always been in the way. A man who didn't even create you, though he treated you as if he had."

"And I yet I have a bitch of a mother like you," Lyv spat through her teeth.

Guinevere jerked her forward. "A bitch of a mother who will use you as I have planned to since the day I brought you back from Dalcaine, just a few months old after being born in that Asturian land. The day I escaped with you will be one of the proudest days of my life. Because it was then I knew I would someday return to get what I wanted.

"And guess what? You are going to be the one who starts it all again. That prince of theirs, Jai...oh, I do believe you would like him. A lot more than that man Amory. I met him before, long ago. But don't worry, Amory will not be in the way for much longer. You'll then be able to focus on setting your sights on Jai, which is who I want you to target. Make him fall in love with you, just as I made Bence do with me just to gain an ounce of the power you need in Dalcaine. And right when he thinks he has everything, you will take it all. Asturia shall be the first to fall after that...just as long as you allow me the pleasure of killing Lady Bridget myself."

"And you think you can kill one of the most powerful sorceresses in the land?"

"With a little help, yes. And I will take great pleasure in it."

Lyv's mind went back to why the war had been started in the first place. "All of this for a Fae male who can never be yours?"

Something flashed in her mother's eyes beforeshe smiled. "Oh, darling, it's notbecause of that. Not anymore. I just want to do it for the fun of it, thepower it will give me to do whatever I want. And what I want now...well, I want to see Dalcaine burn."