Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Twenty-Eight

♕ Dark Side of the Moon ♕

Neither of them wasted any time going up Exilium. But Sybilla could feel him hesitating as they came closer into the palace doors. Zander turned towards her, and Sybilla held his stare. Noticing it too. The shift in the wind. The soft silence. The cold.

"Something feels different" She whispered. Zander did not respond, nor tried to make a move to walk forward. Sybilla forced a smile. "Let's just get it over with" Zander nodded, and the two of them opened the castle's doors.

Something was definitely different. Zander took a step forward his hand reaching for her arm but Sybilla knew, could feel, what had changed way before he did.

"You should go back to your room" He said. Noticing the wall to the descendant staircase broke open. The bricks from the wall splattered all the way in the floor. Nothing could've broken through that wall except the queen.

"Maybe you should go to your room" Sybilla said instead and watched him hesitate before walking toward the staircase.

"Go princess" He said, before disappearing into the ground.

Sybilla waited for a few seconds, expecting to hear or feel a shift in the atmosphere, but nothing seemed to happen, and she did not exactly want to stay and find herself in the middle of it all. Hurrying her steps Sybilla found herself desperate to get back to Aubrette's room. Her clothes suddenly burning through her skin.

As she entered the room, she managed to take the small crown of her head, placing it back on one of Aubrette's many jewelry boxes. The door opened and Sybilla dropped to her knees.

"You are back" Sybilla lifted her eyes from the floor. Mason stood next to the door, looking at her with an amuse expression. "What's wrong?"

Sybilla shook her head. "Nothing" she said, standing up and walking towards him. "I'm back" She said and wrapped her hands around his neck bringing him as close as she possibly could. Mason buried his face on the crook on her neck. The both of them remained like that for a few minutes, until Sybilla felt her heart beating normally in her chest.

"I missed you" He said when she let go. Sybilla smiled and wished she could bring herself to say me too. But not yet. Not until she was sure all of this wouldn't fall apart and slip from her fingers.

"Did you find Nerezza?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer. Mason nodded, placing his hands on her cheeks.

"More than that" he said and Sybilla's heart skipped a beat.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Deirdre sent a raven this morning" he whispered. Sybilla frowned.

"Deirdre?" Mason nodded, brushing his lips on her forehead.

"The queen sent her to search for Aubrette" he whispered, his lips turning into a small grin. "We found her"

Sybilla felt a tear slip down her cheek.

"She is okay?" she said. Needing to hear him say it.

"She is okay" he nodded, and Sybilla did not hold in the laugh of relief that burst out of her. Nor did she hold herself from standing on the tip of her fingers and crash his lips onto hers. Mason let go a gasp of surprise but quickly lifted her from the floor, holding her against his chest so tightly that Sybilla felt she might have burst into flames if it hadn't been from the coldness that took over the room.

"I missed you too" she whispered against his lips before kissing him again and again, until he finally placed her back in the floor. Sybilla did not break the kiss, afraid that everything might fall apart If she let go. Her hands found the hem of his shirt, and Mason did not waste any time in taking it off, their lips briefly parting as the fabric fell to the floor. Sybilla smiled fighting the tears that formed on her eyes. But not the same type of tears that had been rolling down her face just a few hours before. No. These were the type of tears that she would gladly let roll down her eyes for the rest of her days.