Page 51 of A Kiss of Flame

But then Maryn looked up, her blue eyes very bright and glistening, the same wave of emotions flooding her. She pushed them down ruthlessly and stared in the direction of the door to the Sanctum.

‘Someone’s coming.’ How she knew was anyone’s guess. Elodie had long ago learned to trust in Maryn’s instincts.

When the Aurum had called her, Elodie had thought she had lost her only friend. And then Roland had appeared, like a gift.

The banging sound echoed through the Sanctum. Someone was hammering on the door to the Sacrum.

Elodie steeled herself. They wanted her back in there already? They wanted to ask more questions, make more accusations. She would have thought that the Aurum igniting as it did would have been answer enough. Well, so be it, she thought. The sooner this was over the better. She struggled to her feet.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Maryn sharply. ‘You’re in no condition?—’

‘They’re hardly here to discuss the weather, Maryn. They’ll want answers more than ever. I have to deal with this quickly and protect Wren. Help me? Please?’

‘But you’ve been exonerated. The Aurum proved it.’

‘Judgement then. The council will want to have their say.’

She held out her hand and Maryn was beside her in an instant, supporting her as they made their way from the Sanctum to the door of the Sacrum. At least she would get to see Roland, she thought idly, and she smiled. Maybe she was still light-headed to think such thoughts.

But he had been there when she had almost lost herself to the Aurum. He had pulled her back. She’d wanted to tell him so, to tell him that he was all she needed and was all she would ever need in moments like that. But she had not had the strength to do it.

Neither physically nor emotionally. She was a coward, that was the problem. Especially when it came to him, and she had already hurt him far too much to bear.

But when the door opened, it wasn’t Roland standing there.

The chamber beyond was dark, the flames of the Aurum were low now, as if it too was exhausted and sleeping as she wished she could be sleeping. Dust settled over everything in a thin, sparkling layer. There were stones and rock fall scattered around. Had she really done that? Well, not her alone. The Aurum within her. The Aurum enraged. Thanks to Leander. She wondered what had happened to him, what the other Ilanthians were doing. The priestess of the Nox who had knelt before her was furious as well as terrified. And the power in her was at least the equal to Elodie’s own. Like knew like.

She felt so empty now. Wrung out. And that was a problem.

Armed guards spread out around the doorway. The instant she and Maryn opened the door into the Sacrum, they rushed forward and seized Elodie. Maryn cried out, furious at the imposition, but there was nothing she could do. She was dragged inside along with Elodie, mainly because she refused to let go.

They weren’t knights. They weren’t even palace guards. They wore the livery of House Tarryn.

The Earl of Sassone led them. Elodie had always thought him pompous and full of himself, but loyal to the crown. She had been sure he was loyal.

Perhaps too much so. Or perhaps not at all.

Where were the knights Roland had left manning the door? He would have done that, surely. What had they?—

Three figures in ceremonial armour sprawled on the white marble of the Sacrum, blood pooling darkly below them. They were young. Far too young.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ Maryn shouted. Other maidens were hurrying towards the door but the soldiers slammed it shut and barred it, shutting the two of them in the Sacrum. Prisoners. ‘You can’t do this. You are violating a sacred space.’

But they did not care.

Before Elodie knew what was happening, manacles snapped closed around her wrists, and with them came the icy touch of shadow-wrought steel.

CHAPTER 26

ELODIE

The metal was dark and cold, so cold. It sapped the heat from Elodie’s body, and deadened the last embers of the Aurum inside her. She could feel it, vaguely, like a distant, startled murmur, but she couldn’t reach it, not properly, and certainly not as she had earlier.

The Aurum itself flickered low, uneasy, the light barely enough to illuminate the chamber.

She had worn shackles like these before. In the clearing of the Seven Sisters, on the edge of the standing stone circle where the old magic had converged to create a dark and terrible vortex which had almost consumed Wren, Leander of Sidon had put manacles like these on her wrists and she had been helpless until the light of dawn when Wren had helped her get free. Utterly helpless.

Just like now.