Blue Flames

Chapter 60

A six foot pillar of fire roared to life, its flames a pale purple color. My veins crackled with energy, heating up my body and raising my heart rate until I thought I was going to burst into flames.

Then it ended.

The flames died down and my heart fluttered. The bond with Arthur buzzed. I really had to learn how to dull my emotions. If I didn't get back to the castle soon, he would be coming to get me himself.

The silence was deafening. Irene and Charles were so tense, if a fly happened to buzz by they would shred it to pieces in a blink. They were waiting for something to leap out of the hole in the ground. The tension was stifling.

I clapped my hands. "Alright, ladies! Let's move!"

Charles and Irene jumped two steps towards the hole before they realized it was just me.

"Very impressive," I said, using my speed to sidestep Charles and move to the safe.

"Elle!" he snarled.

"It's okay," Irene said. "The magic is losing its life. The spell is broken."

I crouched by the hole. The floorboard had disintegrated into black char, the edges of the wood nearby eaten by fire.

I put my knife back to its sheath and wiped the ash away. A wooden box. How in the world did it not burn? Everything below and around the box seemed no worse for wear. The rough earth under was a deep rusty brown.

I picked up the box. It was barely eight by four inches, its wood a stained dark brown, and its lid fastened into place by one simple metallic clasp.

"What's in it?" Irene asked.

My fingers were on the clasp when I heard a faint growl outside. Noah.

"Someone is coming," Irene said.

I rose. "We should hide this."

I didn't want anyone finding out that I had gotten something of my mother's. Especially something she had hidden so well. The wooden box could contain anything from harmless jewelry to essential clues about her death.

Irene placed the floorboard the best she could to cover the hole, it sank inches deeper compared to its scorched neighbors. Charles went to the living room and came back with the rug. He placed it over the hole.

We looked at our handiwork with resigned expressions. Safe for moving the bed to the middle of the room, which was suspicious in itself, it was the best we could do. Oh, well.

"Let's go."

I locked the bedroom door, not that it would stop any determined person from entering, and gave Irene the box with an order to stay out of sight. I emerged with Charles. Noah sat in front of the cottage door, a majestic wolf with black fur, a scarred face and startling amber eyes. Right now those eyes were locked on three riders like they were prey.

The three fae were a safe distance away from him, but it didn't make them look any less wary. They were all wearing the green and gold uniform of the soldiers.

"Your highness," the one at the head of the riders said, bowing his head. Ugh. "We were simply worried that someone broke into the late queen's house."

I stepped forward and smiled. "My father escorted me here, actually. He just left."

"I see," the rider said, glancing past me into the house. He didn't make a move to leave. Persistent, wasn't he?

I dropped the smile and raised my brow. I might not have been raised among royals, but uncle Robert had never failed to remind me of the power in my blood.