The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Vingt-Huit

I spent my every waking hour in the study, tearing through books and papers, scouring each ink coated sheet for a clue, a hint, a hope of a cure to the darkness that was threatening Kaius. And, due to my fevered pace and frantic eyes, I spent most of my time awake in the room, closed off to rest.

My brain's off lever had snapped in two because it was a constant rush of thoughts and feelings, attacking me every time I allowed myself to think of something other than a cure. It reminded me that I couldn't veer off my path, not when time was slipping through my fingers like grains of sand, melting away like a snowflake kissing warm skin.

Ever since Kaius siphoned my emotions from me, I'd been this way. Reading book after book from the study, bringing the ones that I didn't understand or were in a foreign language to Aimee. Not...Kaius.

It wasn't that I didn't want to look with Kaius. And it wasn't like he didn't know that I was searching without him. He knew where I took my meals, and he knew how long I had the lamplight on in the study. And he'd been looking on his own, going to the Market and seeing what he could dig up. But the problem was that books and information on the dark magic were limited, and many books and rumors were that there wasn't a cure. At least, not outside of the Tempest Stake.

What irony indeed. The one thing to make Kaius better is the one thing neither of us can reach. Sure, I could try to escape back to the palace, somehow make it out of the Wildwood's borders. But once I was safely in castle confinement, no one would ever take their eyes off of me again, least of all my father. I'd have the Stake, but no power to bring it back to him. And if Kaius were to come with me...it would be disastrous, and no wooden stake would save either of us.

However, my desperation for the magic spell wasn't born from the ebbing of Kaius' sanity. In fact, he still seemed more like himself than ever. But my nerves hadn't been able to calm.

I expected weird things to become normal for him—perhaps staring off into silence frequently, murmuring to himself, or walking around without shoes. But he seemed normal, himself. I knew things weren't going to happen right away, but still.

Despite the knowledge that his brain wasn't crumbling to bits, I couldn't stop. Couldn't stop reading, couldn't stop the torrent of anxiety that kept pounding me, breaking my resolve until my brain felt like mush as I scanned over words.

Sleep was an elusive thing for me, and sometimes, it almost felt as if I were the one going crazy.

There was a pulsing headache between my eyes, a tick-tick-tick that left me feeling slightly sick.

"Amora."

I jerked my head up from the book that my nose had been buried into, the world zapping back into focus like the spinning of a piece of glass. I blinked up at the figure, my blurry eyes taking a minute to form an actual image. "You're up from your nap," I said to it, pressing my finger in between the pages. My words sounded croaky—I hadn't spoken for quite some time. "You weren't lying down that long."

Kaius' hair was mussed in a way that made me think of things I shouldn't, looking at me with a gaze that was sharper than I would've thought. "Amora, I napped ages ago," he said softly, shutting the door behind him—its click into place echoed in the quiet—and moved deeper into the study. His eyes caught on the book in my hands, narrowing. "What are you reading?"

"I can't pronounce the title," I confessed, showing him the spine. But his words made me feel slightly uneasy—he didn't nap ages ago. Nearly ten minutes ago he'd told me he was heading upstairs to rest. "Are you feeling better? You said you weren't feeling well earlier."