Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

An upheaval had fallen over the manor with the presence of their guests. At her mate’s command, the Valkyrie stood guard on every floor, in every corner, and wherever Dyna went, they weren’t far behind. The day went by in silence as everyone held their breath for Cassiel’s decision. He didn’t eat, didn’t speak, or move from his spot by the window in their bedroom as if he was waiting for the answer to come.

Whatever was going on in his mind was kept from her. His shield had remained up since his fight with his father. To learn they had truly met each other that night only for him to die and be brought back—the payment for that would be a burden on anyone. Whether Cassiel accepted the throne or not was only something he could decide for himself.

Dyna slipped away to check on Gale. Sowmya and Zekiel followed her a few paces behind like silent ghosts. That would take some getting used. She tried not to let it bother her, though their presence felt like sap on her back. When she reached Gale and Eagon’s door, she ordered them to stay in the hall. Sowmya’s mouth pursed in silent protest.

Once Dyna went inside, she sighed in relief when the door shut behind her.

A soft laugh drifted from the bed. “Oh dear.” Gale smiled at her where she sat propped up against the pillows, baby nursing at her breast. “I know that look.”

“Mind if I hide in here for a bit?” Dyna said as she came to sit beside her. “I’m sorry, I haven’t had a chance to look in on you. We had guests arrive early this morning.”

“Yes, I heard. It’s quite exciting to have the King of the Celestials here. I wish I could meet him, but Eagon says it’s best we stay in our room for now.”

That probably was best.

Dyna sighed, leaning back into the velvet chair, simply enjoying the stillness. Soft afternoon light streamed in from the windows, giving the room a hazy sheen. Evin played with blocks in the corner.

“How are you feeling?” Gale patted her hand. “He is your father by marriage, after all.”

Dyna’s mind was in a disarray when it came to King Yoel.

What was the reason to pretend he didn’t know her? Why erase her memories and separate them only to allow them to reunite again? Yoel must have assumed Cassiel would follow her. If anything, she had a sneaking suspicion he had planned it.

“He seems to approve of me.”

What bothered her most was the placement of the barrier. Why had he done that to her? She was afraid of the answer. Her future seemed uncertain again and for different reasons. She wasn’t prepared for any of it, yet when had she ever been prepared for anything?

“But?” Gale asked when she fell quiet.

“But I feel a little out of my depth. What do I know about being a princess?” Dyna waved a hand, laughing it off. “Enough about me. I came to see how you were feeling. Any concerns?”

“We’re perfectly fine.” Gale nuzzled her sleeping daughter’s cheek. “Gwendolyn is growing strong.”

“Gwendolyn?”

“I’m naming her after my mother.”

“It’s a lovely name.” Dyna recalled the same name on the plaque of the fountain in the town center. “The monument is dedicated to her, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Gale’s smile became sad. “Klyde made it. I was angry when I demanded he finish the house before winter’s end. I didn’t think it was possible, but Eagon says it will be complete by next week. His hands would better serve him building than killing.” She looked around her room. “He must have hated coming here.”

“Why does he dislike the manor?” Dyna asked.

Gale looked away. “Bad things happened here.”

The way she said it had Dyna straightening. She held quiet, waiting for her to continue.

“When I was a girl…a man…tried to force himself on me,” Gale whispered. “Upstairs on the third floor. My brother stopped him.”

Dyna felt awful to hear that. She took Gale’s hand.

“We lost more than our innocence that day.”

“I’m so sorry.” Dyna took her hand. “How long ago did it happen?”

She looked out the windows. “It was about fifteen years ago.”

Fifteen.

Dyna pretended to let the information pass her. But that was the time Azurite fell to the troll Horde. These people, they didn’t happen to come here and construct their town. They…they were survivors.

Gale seemed to catch herself and shrugged with a weak laugh. “I…suppose this place also reminds him of our old life…in Tanzanite Keep. Stuffy castles and stuffy rules. We didn’t have the best relationship with our father. My mother was the sweetest, kindest woman. But she was sickly…and it eventually took her.”

Dyna gently squeezed her hand. She knew very well what it was like to see family die.

Gale reached under the blankets and pulled out a small portrait no bigger than Dyna’s journal. Her fingers lovingly brushed over the painting, her lashes growing heavy with fresh tears. “She was so lovely. I wish I had been blessed with her eyes rather than her illness.”

She held up the painting for Dyna to see. The cracked painting displayed a woman sitting in a garden. Her mother certainly was striking. Hair as gold as the sun, eyes a pale blue as a crystal stream. She had a gentle face and full pink lips, dressed in a lavender gown. She was elegantly sitting on a wooden chaise with a little girl on her lap. That must be Gale. Next to her sat a boy. It had to be Klyde. His blond hair is worn short, his lip curled in his familiar smirk. A man in livery stood at her elbow. Their father, Dyna presumed. The scene was of a garden in the spring, bright and colorful. So much that she nearly missed the pale shape standing beneath the shadows of a tree.

Everything inside of her frosted over at the sight of the pale face with wintry eyes.

“She was breathtaking wasn’t she?”

“Yes…” Dyna faintly whispered.

“I know now how hard it was for them, but I miss the days we were all together like this.”

She couldn’t look away from those eyes. Her heartrate climbed.

“I think my brother secretly wishes we could go back, too,” Gale said. “You know, he didn’t always go by Klyde. That’s what he chose for himself after the loss of our family. I suppose he left his birth name in the past. He left too much behind, I think. While I clung to it instead.” A tear rolled down her cheek and splattered on the canvas. “I was so angry at him for easily laughing and smiling when I was trapped in my grief. I see now, that was how he faced everything. Klyde chose to be a source of joy when all I wanted was for him to be angry with me.”

Gale’s lips trembled as her fingers fondly traced the faces of her family. “I thought he didn’t care… but when he burned the portrait downstairs, I realized why the manor sat empty for fifteen years.” She laughed weakly, a choked sound that was part sob. “Those smiles and exasperating jests were for me, while he buried everything inside. Now I wonder if I truly ever knew him at all.”

Dyna returned to their bedroom, her mind spinning. Cassiel had moved from his spot at the window to the bed. It was early evening, but she silently changed out of her gown and slipped under the blankets. He curled his body around hers and tucked his chin over her head. She listened to his heart, counting the soft beats, infinitely grateful for each one.

They needed to talk about what she discovered, but it could wait.

They passed the time in silence as they held each other. Their bedroom grew dark with only the light of the hearth when Cassiel’s voice finally reached her ears. “You jumped in to save me even knowing it went against the High King.”

“Nothing would have stopped me. I thought he was going to take you from me again.”

He sighed, his breath tickling her cheek. “Hasrat achrayut.”

She leaned back to glower at him. “Are you insulting me in your language again?”

“No, my reckless girl.” The ends of his mouth tugged in a faint smile that never took root. The troubled way he was looking at her made her worry. “What am I going to do with you?”

Before she could ask him what he was thinking, his warm lips kissed along her throat, making her breath catch. He tugged on the lace ties of her nightgown, then his touch was everywhere. Weaving through her hair, on her burning skin, in her pulse.

Dyna panted as his lips left heated imprints down her stomach. He was distracting her and it was working. She gasped and sat up when he continued further down. “Cassiel.”

His dark lashes lifted and those silver eyes met hers. A blue glow flickered in them. They burned with desire but they also begged for reprieve, for a moment where nothing else mattered. “Lay back for me, lev sheli.” His voice was ragged, a near growl. Flames licked along his shoulders in winding trails as he took her ankles. “I said I would tend to you and I plan to.”

Dyna’s heart sped at the wildness on his face and the bond pulsated with his possessiveness and need. He stole her ability to speak at the first light touch of his mouth. She was gasping then trembling as her body grew hot and hazy and too much. Her fingers dug into the sheets, needing something to hold onto, but it was all right, because he had her. And he always would. She succumbed to Cassiel, to the heat of every deliberate, worshiping caress, carrying her on a rising tide until she simply…ascended. Everything that weighed them down was forgotten beneath the wisps of blue flames licking along her skin, left to be burned away.

Perhaps it was because they fell asleep wrapped around each other that she was pulled into Cassiel’s nightmares. They were a jumbled web of images caught in the smoke of dream walking. She saw him as a little three-year-old boy, screaming in bed as his wings slowly, excruciatingly, tore through his back. A woman with long black hair sobbed at the door on her knees begging someone to bring her ointment for her son’s pain. Dyna tried to get a closer look at her, but the scene spiraled to Yoel’s study. His mother sat at a table with a pile of books in front of her. A tear splashed onto the pages with the illustration of a volcanic island. Cassiel, now an older child with black wings, reached for the woman. His fingers went through her image that dissolved like fog, and they were thrust into a dark hallway. The cloaked figure hurried through it, her soft cries echoing around them.

Cassiel chased after her across the castle courtyard, but he couldn’t keep up. She slipped past the castle gates and they shut loudly behind her as she walked away into the night. He cried out to her, reaching his small hand through the bars, begging her not to leave him.

The cloaked figure turned, and Dyna’s heart jolted to see her own face.

She woke with a soft gasp. The fire in the hearth had died, but the crystal necklace she wore glowed softly in the dark room. Dyna brushed the black hair sticking to Cassiel’s sweaty forehead and she guided him into a dreamless sleep.

The nightmare…it was only his fears revealed. Not of her leaving, but that he would lose her against everything coming their way if he took the crown. Behind the inferno in his eyes, she’d seen the feral creature made of divine fire.

Having no love makes one so fiercely defensive once love is finally given. And the need to protect that is soul consuming…Can you withstand everything that will come for being his wife?

The reminder of Sarrai’s question left her unsettled. Dyna pressed a kiss to Cassiel’s heart, then she slipped off the bed. After putting on a robe over her nightgown, she peeked out into the hall. No one was standing guard outside their door.

Good. She needed some space.

The light from her necklace guided her down the hallway to the stairs. A cup of tea would help her go back to sleep. She did her best to ignore the dark shadows in the quiet manor as she made her way to the first floor. But the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Dyna glanced over her shoulder into the pitch blackness of the foyer. It had been a good while since she last felt the touch of darkness watching her. She’d almost forgotten her childhood fear. So much had gone on, the Shadow had been the furthest thing from her mind.

A large shape dropped from above and Dyna nearly screamed.

Sowmya’s glower appeared in the light. “My lady, please don’t wander without an escort,” she said sternly under her breath. “My duty is to protect you.”

Dyna pressed over her heart, gasping to catch her breath. “God of Urn, Sowmya. You gave me a horrid fright.”

Really, all of the fanfare was unnecessary. Her heart had better chances of stopping from a scare than anything happening here.

“I’m headed to the kitchens for tea. Would you like a cup?” Dyna continued on without waiting for an answer. But when they reached the dining hall, voices floated to her.

“His abilities come natural to him. In a way that is only seen with decades of training, yet he has had very little direction.”

It took Dyna a second to recognize Yelrakel’s voice.

“Is it to say you believe the rumors?” Yoel asked.

“I don’t pretend to know any truths, Your Majesty. Whether your son is indeed the reincarnation of King Kāhssiel or not, with the force of Seraph fire at his hands, he will have no trouble finding supporters—as well as enemies.”

A rush of gooseflesh prickled down Dyna’s arms. She thought the gossip in Hermon Ridge had been merely that. Gossip.

Sowmya gave her a disapproving frown for eavesdropping, but she ignored her.

“The Realms already fear him,” Yoel said. “They cannot help it when half of our people were lost to his Seraph fire. It was a genocide of unprecedented scale.”

“Yes, It’s a history not many will forget.”

“As I do not forget those who rose against him. When the time comes, my son will choose you as his general. If one day he loses half of himself and his wrath burns through the Realms, what would you do?”

Dyna held her breath in the beat of silence. She dared to push slightly on the door to peer in the crack. She couldn’t see much. Only Yelrakel’s bowed head past the long dining table. She was kneeling.

“I’m loyal to the line, Your Majesty,” she said. “My will is my King’s will. When he takes the crown, I will serve him as honor demands until my last day.”

“I am trusting you with his life, Captain,” Yoel said. “He is the future. And for that, we must pray. Not only for the Realms or the world, but that nothing should ever befall his mate. For if it does, Elyōn have mercy on us all.”

The rush of something cold that felt like premonition crawled down Dyna’s spine.

The door was yanked open and they met the cold glare of the King’s Royal Guard. His blue eyes were as sharp as chipped stone. He had squared shoulders, sharp features, and short hair. Sowmya yanked her back, putting herself in between them.

Past the guard’s shoulder, Dyna met Yoel’s gaze where he sat in a chair a few feet from the Captain of the Valkyrie. Lord Jophiel stood on his right.

“Let her through, Amriel,” Yoel said. “You stand before a princess of Hilos.”

The guard stiffly backed away and his head barely lowered in a perceptible bow. She wasn’t bothered by the affront. It was something she would have to get used to. But as she saw him in better lighting, Dyna thought she had seen him before.

Sowmya hissed something at Amriel as they entered the hall. His dark blue eyes followed her and she finally recalled where she had seen him. Amriel had been one of Malakel’s guards while he was in Hermon. Well, it made sense seeing he was the personal protector of the King and his Heir.

Dyna dipped in a curtsy as she came before Yoel. “Pardon me, Your Majesty.”

“Come join me, Dynalya.” He motioned for her to take a seat across from him at the table already set up with a pot of tea and bread and cheese. She hesitated. “Oblige me.”

He nodded to his brother. Lord Jophiel bowed and silently left the room with Yelrakel and Amriel. Sowmya murmured that she would be waiting outside the door before leaving, too. Dyna took a seat as the King Yoel poured hot liquid into a cup. The scent of cinnamon and something floral filled the air before he passed it to her. She wrapped her fingers around the cup, waiting for whatever would come next.

“Are you shaken by what you overheard?” he finally asked.

Dyna let out a weak, airy laugh. “Well, Your Majesty, I’m on my way to a magically hidden island in search of a treasure that contains the power of the sun to slay a Shadow demon. Not much shakes me anymore.”

He gave her that smile where she couldn’t tell if he was amused by her answer. They were silent as they looked at each other. “It seems you want to ask me something,” King Yoel said.

She did, but another question arrived first. “The day of the wedding, I overheard you speaking to Lord Jophiel. You said, ‘Nothing can interrupt what must happen tonight’. Were you referring too…” she flushed. “Our…”

His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, my dear, of course not. That is no business of mine. I merely meant nothing should interrupt the ceremony, so all may witness your bond was a True Bond. I hoped it would silence the majority of all protests against your union and it worked.”

“Oh.” Dyna sighed in relief. “I see now.”

He canted his head, waited for the other question that she truly wanted answered.

“Why…?” Dyna trailed off, lacking the nerve to ask. “I suppose you had your reasons for separating us, but as much as I try, I can’t understand why you placed a barrier on my magic. No, you reconstructed the barrier…because it had already been placed.” She didn’t look away from him, swallowing back her emotions. “That means you knew me long before that night. I could have saved my family from the Shadow if I had my power. Why did you take it from me?”

Yoel searched her face. “I knew of your existence before you were born. When Azeran first came to me, it was to seek asylum on my land, so I gave them the gorge that became North Star. Azeran placed a warding spell on the village to conceal it from Archmage. However, barriers were occasionally needed on children born with a vast amount of power. You were one of them, Dynalya. At your birth, everyone in North Star felt your abundance of magic, and your father feared it would attract the Archmage. Thus, Baden brought you to me.”

Dyna’s heart sank. Then it had been her father.

“The night the Shadow came, you somehow put a crack in the barrier and I had to fortify it again. Although as you grew, undoubtedly so would your power.” Yoel gave her a soft smile. “It seems you have removed it again. I knew there was something special about you, Dynalya.” By the expression on his face, he meant more than her magic. “You have bloomed into something far beyond my expectations. I see your strength, and I suspect you will need it for what is to come.”

Dyna sipped her tea. “Do you mean in regards to the position I hold or my marriage with Cassiel?”

He glanced at the glowing crystal of her necklace and his expression creased. “Both, I suppose. The burden of power can be painful at times. Prepare for everything, my dear. Your destiny is in your hands and no one else’s. We have to fight to survive. Sometimes, the cost is more than we thought to ever give.”

The memory of killing Benton flashed in her mind.

“More than blood,” Dyna whispered to herself.

“Pardon?”

She set down her tea cup. “Someone once told me survival demanded more than blood. That it demanded your soul.”

The King’s gaze grew distant and he nodded with a sigh. “It very well could cost your soul, if not your life.”

They shared a look again, and she knew they were thinking about his sacrifice.

“Do you…regret it?” she dared ask in a small voice.

“I have many regrets. Some regarding my wife and the one who should have been my wife.” He rubbed his face. “But never will I regret giving up my life for his. I am relieved and so very glad that you accepted him. If either of you had rejected the bond, it would not have killed him but it would hurt nearly as much as a broken bond, and broken you both in turn.” He looked away to the window, remorse crossing his features. “I did that to Mirah very slowly over the years, seeding her heart with hate. I cannot change the past. I can only hope for a better future.”

Dyna sat in silence, reading the words he couldn’t say. “I know it isn’t my place, Your Majesty, in regard to those we wish to reach,” she said after a pause. “Sometimes it’s hard to say what you mean, and easy to say what you don’t. It’s no easy feat to open one’s heart, but I find that’s what it takes for a chance to see theirs.”

As the King looked at her, she thought his eyes were misted. “Thank you for being by his side, Dynalya Astron. Take care of him for me when I’m gone.”

It was Dyna’s turn to discreetly blink away her wet eyes. “I will.”

He cleared his throat. “Well. As I remember, it was Cassiel’s birth-date last week. I have brought him something, though he may not wish to accept it yet. Could I leave it to you to give to my son when the time is right?”

It would be the very last thing Cassiel would have of his father. The thought made her incredibly sad.

She rose to her feet and inclined her head. “Of course, Your Majesty. You can entrust it to me.”