Crown of Beauty and Vengeance

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Lyv already decided she was going to kill him as soon as they stepped onto Dalcaine soil.

Gideon was trying to make her laugh as they discussed their glamours, telling her he was going to glamour himself as her sister rather than brother. No, she'd told him after smacking him on the back of the head. They were Audry and Vandor, siblings who were coming from a small village on the southern coast of Waiter, and that was that.

Nothing was funny to her at that point, not when she'd spent the entirety trip in their cabin writhing in pain from her cycle. It had taken a year to come this time and she knew it was because of the stress and fear that riddled Escarral. She tried not to think about the last time either...or how happy she'd been, even in pain. Sure, Gideon was trying to help her when he could, but she missed the warmth of someone to lay against at night.

It finally ended their second to last day and Gideon rewarded her torture with a giant piece of chocolate he'd stolen from the cargo hold. She hit him again because he'd given it to her when it ended, not when it started as he should have. She could have used it more through the self-torture.

After finally getting his thoughts back on track, they talked more about their plans for the first week, giving more details to their backstory, getting a feel for the city, and finding a place to stay on a more permanent basis. Lyv chose to go back to her fake name Audry, which she hadn't used since the first time she'd met Gideon over a year and a half before. No one in Dalcaine knew it, so why not use something she was already used to answering to?

No one knew what Princess Alyvia of Escarral looked like. No one except Jai. And his general, Camilla, but she'd only met her once and doubted she'd made that big of an impression for the beautiful Fae female to remember. She still changed what she looked like, though, just in case. It took a little while, though, still getting used to having her magic again. But she stayed in the cabin and held a mirror in front of her face, concentrating on what she needed to do.

She lightened her hair and changed her emerald green eyes to hazel. Gideon shifted into the male version of her, matching her hair and eyes, though he still looked about seven or eight years older than her. The biggest difference was their facial features, which they sharpened into harder angles so characteristic to Fae.

Because that's what they were going to be. Well, what Lyv was going to pretend to be.

For Gideon, it was nothing. Normal. Lyv, though...she stared at herself in the mirror, reaching up to touch her pointed ears, the angles of her jaw, cheeks, and nose. She did this for the entire last day aboard before the ship docked in Ayveri when she practiced her magic, keeping up the glamour at the same time. It was strange, so strange. She thought she would have been used to it, especially since Gideon walked around without his glamour when they were in relative safety, but on her...

Suddenly, Lyv had to close her eyes as a sharp pain went through her left temple and light flashed even with her eyes closed. The splitting headache wasn't letting up for a moment.

That fissure in the wall that helped keep her magic in check...it opened a little more.

Something was trying to appear...a dream or a memory...

A blurry face...pointed ears of a Fae male...someone she'd never seen before and yet still knew...

There was a knock on the cabin door and Gideon poked his head inside without waiting for her answer, his glamour already in place. "Are you ready? We've docked and everyone's already left, so we're in the clear to leave as Vandor and Audry. The crew is getting a drink before coming back to unload."