Page 5 of A Kiss of Flame

Defiance felt extraordinarily good.

But the maid had already turned around and run from the room, shouting in horror for the ladies-in-waiting.

Because of course this had to be reported as quickly as possible.

The chaos that filled Wren’s chamber moments later was only to be expected. The other maids thronged in the doorway, and the ladies-in-waiting all had to offer their scandalised opinion. Lynette was inevitably summoned.

For a society that was so obsessed with appearances, the idea that their newly discovered princess should mutilate her finest feature on a regular basis was horrific to them. They had actually used those very words. Mutilation. Oh, and the idea that her hair was the only thing beautiful about her was thoroughly insulting.

There was a dark magic threaded throughout Wren’s existence, manifest in her abilities, and in her hair. Cutting it off was the only way she knew to keep it in check. Elodie knew that too, of course. She had been the one to set the rules about Wren’s hair, about always cutting it and never letting it get too long or out of control. Along with the rules about using magic, to only reach for the light and never the darkness, to never allow the spirit of the Nox to rise again and to always try to live in the light of the Aurum. To never call on shadow kin or listen to their lies. To ignore the siren song that came in the night, enticing her to be what it would make of her. So many rules that Wren had thought it was silly, once upon a time.

It didn’t seem so silly now.

But those rules took absolute precedence over anything the court could inflict on her.

She had almost lost herself. If she had gone any further into that darkness, she could have ended up enslaved to an Ilanthian prince, or a mere vessel for the power of a dark goddess.

And as it was, Elodie had been arrested and imprisoned. The same thing could well be said of Wren, for all the freedom she was allowed. Roland de Silvius and Lady Ylena were determined to put her on the throne, it seemed, and if that happened…

The prophecy about the Aurum had never seemed real until she stood in front of it, wearing a coronet someone had thought looked pretty against her black hair, and the flames transformed to shadows of themselves. Finn’s face, the horror in his expression…

She’d never get that image out of her mind.

When shadows take the Aurum, the Nox will take the throne.

Oh the prophecy suddenly seemed very real indeed. And that terrified her.

‘Princess, what do you think you’re doing?’ asked Lady Lynette, pursing her perfect lips together as she surveyed the damage. She had sent the others away, as she entered.

‘I’m not a princess,’ Wren replied, ignoring the obvious evidence all around her. ‘Have you had any word about when I can visit Elodie?’

Maybe a change of subject would do the trick. She could only hope.

Lynette looked around the floor as if she might find the hair and stick it back on Wren’s head. Wren would put nothing past the gracious, elegant and very beautiful Lynette.

On the whole, she didn’t mind. Lynette meant well, and no one understood the court like she did. She was kind and had a gentleness underlying her stern demeanour. If only she didn’t seem quite so disappointed all the time. Ylena expected much of her. And at least Lynette was kind.

‘No, my dear. I will check again, but the maidens have decreed that no one will see her. You know that. The decree extends right up to the Grandmaster himself. Your father has been waiting at the door to their Sanctum every day so far and, every day, they send him away. He even tried to interrupt them in the Sacrum, when they were tending the Aurum in hopes of seeing her. But her majesty was not there and the maidens are not best pleased with him now.’

That sparked Wren’s interest. Roland was trying to see Elodie too and failing. It wasn’t just her. He was even breaking rules to do so. And still it didn’t work. A small if slightly vindictive part of her brain was glad. He’d brought them here, insisted they return to the royal city. He could have let them go, let them vanish back into the forest once more, but he didn’t.

‘And Finn?’ Wren asked and knew from the tightening of Lynette’s jaw that this subject was forbidden as well. ‘I mean… is he… I was hoping to see him later on, if his duties will allow it.’

‘That rather depends on him,’ Lynette sighed and turned away without answering any further. Subject closed.

A different maid appeared with her gown – Carlotta who, at least, was happy to talk to Wren like a human being, who sometimes laughed at her jokes and told her gossip about the others, both the nobility and the servants. She had lush chestnut hair and golden brown eyes, a sprinkling of freckles over her face, and was probably the only thing approaching a friend Wren had made here despite all Ylena’s suggestions about various courtiers, nobility and their offspring.

At least Carlotta never seemed as personally affronted by Wren’s behaviour as the others. Had she drawn the short straw or volunteered? Wren wondered. Carlotta hadn’t been born in Pelias and often found its customs strange, she had confided to Wren once, and that had forged some kind of tentative connection between them.

That was against the rules as well. Carlotta was a servant, Lynette had explained patiently. Wren ignored her on that front out of principle. Carlotta was torn but in her eyes Wren outranked the rest of them, so that was that.

It wasn’t really a good basis for a friendship but it was all Wren had to hang onto.

The gown they had picked for her today was a dark blue, shot with silver threads and embroidered with a delicate pattern like frost. It was beautiful, she knew that. She couldn’t fail to admire the work which had gone into its creation but she longed for something simpler.

A good pair of breeches and a tunic, for example, some stout boots. Maybe she could find Finn and run away.

The thought of Finn made her keenly aware of his absence again. He had passed her at the banquet last night, and his hand had brushed against hers, his skin warm and soft, almost a caress. Just for a moment. It had felt like magic jolted through her entire body. And then he was gone. She hadn’t seen him since.