Page 48 of Heart of Night
And I do. I do trust Princess Cliophera of Askarea.
“If Myron has a matching one, this might be something connected to you breaking the curse,” she muses. “Perhaps the goddess herself put it there.”
A shudder rakes along my spine at the thought of Vala marking me. But with a flying crow, not with an image of water the way one would expect from a goddess of the element?
“There might even be an underlying connection. Does it ever hurt? Tingle?” Sitting back on the sofa, she tugs on the buttons of her apron. “Gods, I hate this uniform. I want my leathers back.”
A smile creeps onto my features at the disgruntled expression on hers. “You wear it like the princess you are,” I tell her, taking in her posture, the elegance and grace of even her smallest movements. “But you’re badass in your leathers.”
“I’m badass in anything.” She flashes a predatory grin, reminding me of the powerful fairy slumbering beneath the composed servant she’s playing.
“You are.” Because she is.
“Now, does it tingle every now and then?”
I didn’t miss her question earlier, but an actual connection established between Myron and me through the tattoos on our shoulders… Now that’s something taking me a few heartbeats to digest. “It has hurt before.” The moments of searing pain come back to me, the tingling sensation… “It definitely has a life of its own.”
“Or you can feel him through it.” Her head tilts as she ponders. “It’s rare—not unheard of. But rare that a pair is connected through such a bond.”
My pulse picks up pace. “What bond are we talking about?”
Clio turns to unfold the cloth bag, casually extracting the fabrics inside before she spreads them out on the backrest of the sofa. “A bond gifted by the deities. I know someone the Guardians bonded to a fairy. A human who now possesses magic.” Her expression softens, her hands gliding over the golden silk of the dress she laid out.
“The Guardians bonded a human to a fairy?” My mouth won’t close.
“Long story. The quintessence is that they are mated now.”
I’m glad I’m already sitting down, or my knees would give out at the news. “Does the other human have a tattoo like this?” And more importantly… “You believe I’m bonded to the King of Crows?”
“I don’t know if you’re ready for an answer.” She raises a brow as she picks up a long golden sleeve and lets it plop back onto the sofa. “If anyone can tell, it’s you—and him, of course, but he’s a little inaccessible at the moment.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
I try not to have an opinion on what this means—if it’s even true.
You didn’t think breaking a goddess’s curse wouldn’t leave a mark on you. Ephegos mentioned it weeks ago at the Flame estate. Did he know? Did he know Myron was alive? And if he knew, who else knew?
I suddenly wish Kaira was here. If anyone, she could tell me what was going on in that house during the days I was imprisoned there. Not having seen her since my arrival in Meer makes me uneasy. Especially knowing how unpredictable Ephegos is.
“Clio, have you seen a Flame woman around the palace? A few years older than me. Brown, long hair, brown eyes. She has very little Flame blood, so you could mistake her for a human, I guess.”
“There are so many humans around here that it’s near-impossible to notice them all—or remember every face.”
I don’t know why I’m disappointed. She’s only a servant in this palace after all, unable to wander the halls freely and take note of every single individual coming and going.
“But if you mean the feisty warrior who wouldn’t stop coming to the servants’ entrance of the palace every morning, demanding to be allowed to see you, then yes.”
That sounds remarkably like something Kaira would do. After all, she took herself on a journey to follow the carriage taking me to Meer. Her showing up at the palace every day would be a logical consequence if she was serious about not letting me go alone.
Then, I need to ask myself what interest she has in my survival other than learning about the love that broke a millennia-old curse.
A groan works its way up my throat, and I’m tempted to let it escape.
“Until now, they haven’t let her in farther than the kitchens.” Clio eyes the empty breakfast tray on my table as if the answers to all our problems lie in the breadcrumbs.
The kitchens… “What is she doing in the kitchens?”
“Apparently, Ephegos ordered her to prepare your food specifically.”