𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕎𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕙 (Book 2)

Seventy-Two

(Dani's a baddie queen in this chapter, so this was the only suitable song. And this is also her hair later in the chapter, you'll know when.)

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Mercifully, no sounds came from Rhys's bedroom during the night. Not even when I'd jolted awake in the middle of the night when a nightmare became too much.

    Still, those words haunted me in my sleep as they had for months. There's no one left to save you now, Danika. Every dream. Every nightmare. Those nine words always seemed to come back.

    The moonlight danced on the crystally waters as I sat on the lounge looking out a large window in my room. Such silence surrounded me. It was peaceful.

    My thoughts had strayed so far in the quiet.

    A weapon. Once again, that's what I'd somehow become. A weapon to find the book. A weapon to stop the king from breaking the wall. To stop him from reviving Jurian. To stop him from destroying the world.

Somehow I always became a weapon.

Maybe Rhys wrapping his wings around me, writing me notes, had been his way of ensuring his weapon never broke beyond repair.

That was fine. We owed each other nothing beyond our promises. And yet it still hurt.

For a heartbeat, I missed Velaris. I missed the lights, the life, the people, the rainbow. I missed the cozy warmth of the townhouse. I missed what it was like to be a part of something instead of looking out for only myself.

    I missed my friends. The friends I had spent years loving and adventuring with. The friends I had grown up with. The friends that understood me and everything I'd been through because they had gone through it too.

The friends I had all watched die, one by one.

I missed them more than anything.

I didn't think I'd ever cried over them. I'd killed their murders after they had died. Killed a great lot of people in their names. I had vowed to destroy everything that was and is the Flame. And yet I had never wept over them. Never grieved them. I didn't think I'd ever really processed the fact they were truly gone forever.

    I was no stranger to death. But death wept at my feet then. Begged me to hold its hand just as it held my friends.

    A sole tear slipped from my eye. Wiped away quickly. It was the most I'd let myself show at the moment.

There was no place for weakness here.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

    I skipped breakfast. Instead, opting to distract myself from my ever-looming reality by attempting to further my search for the book.

    I found nothing, of course. I couldn't entirely leave the palace without looking suspicious, so I wandered the halls, using my magic as well as my instincts to detect whether someone was near.

    I had found six vaults with what I could only assume were the Summer Courts' infamous treasure hoards. I'd gotten as close as I could, but as soon as I began sensing magic that most likely wards, I backed off. I was going in at least one of them with Tarquin today anyway.

    I returned to my room, opting to lay in bed as my mind raced, most definitely not thinking about whom Rhys had likely brought to breakfast.

    The servants had come in about two hours before lunch, saying they were sorry for disturbing me and that they had only come to pick up the room before they had tried to leave. I'd told them to wait politely, offering to bathe as they cleaned. They seemed skittish—scared even, so I'd tried my best to be nice to the faeries.