Page 100 of Only Flames Remain

Mother shook her head. “If anyone found out who…what she truly is, they would use her. She would become a pawn in their game. This way…her future is decidedly her own. Once I tell her, she can make her own decision whether to use it or not.”

My mother set her chin as the dream faded entirely.

My eyes snapped awake.

I didn’t shoot up in bed, I simply lay beneath the thin linen coverlet, allowing my surroundings to ground me. I was laying in my narrow cot in the castle at Gothryn. Quinnick was curled lovingly at my feet, paws twitching in sleep. Sweat coated the sheets, my hair stuck to my forehead and the back of my neck.

Had it merely been a dream…or was it a vision?

Either way, I needed to find out.

I thrust the linen coverlet off and Quinnick let out a grumble before reluctantly closing his eyes once more. I dressed quickly, throwing on a simple shift and slipping my feet into a pair of plain boots I had borrowed from Enora.

I had stopped searching for my father long ago. He had never wanted us—had left before I was even born. It was a drunken night at a tavern, and my mother had told me she couldn’t even remember his face.

But if the dream wasn’t a dream at all—but a memory or a vision—that had been a lie.

There was one person I needed to speak with. One person who might hold the answers to the questions of my lineage. One person who might be able to explain the strange happenings since I had run out of my tincture in Stormgaard.

I needed to speak to Enora.

CHAPTER 29

Sorin

My head was pounding when I first heard the incessant knocking on my door. I threw an arm over my face to shield my eyes from the sun, hoping and praying to the nine gods that whoever it was would simply go away. But a little voice in the back of my mind told me it might be Aveline, so I rolled out of bed. I was sticky with the remnants of the poultice, blood, and sweat, as I traipsed to the door.

Maybe it hadn’t been my head that was pounding at all, but the fists banging against the obsidian doors mercilessly as they shook in the frame.

“I’m coming!” I shouted, padding barefoot across the cool stone floor.

The fire in the grate had gone cold.

The weak memory of Aveline tucking me into bed and removing my shoes hummed in the back of my mind, a small smile lifting my lips. I grasped the brass handle and wrenched the door open.

“What happened to you?” Enora asked, her fist still raised to continue pounding.

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“I told you we needed to speak after the masquerade ball. Do you not remember?” she asked, pushing past me into my chambers.

“Do you have no sense of propriety? You cannot simply waltz into the prince’s rooms on a whim. You need to be announced. Was there no guard patrolling this hall?”

“Was Aveline announced?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she studied me, ignoring my question. “Seriously…what happened to you? You look like shit.”

I shook my head, running a frustrated hand down my face. “I am not sure when we became so friendly, or if you simply lack boundaries, but it is none of your business. Now if you wouldn’t mind…I wish to return to bed.”

“We need to talk,” was her only reply.

“And we will. After I have had time to rest properly.”

She shook her head. “I have been thinking about it, and there is something I need to tell you. Something you need to know if she is truly your mate.”

“Enora…” I started in aggravation, right before pounding resumed on the doors to my chambers.

I quirked a brow at her, but she merely shrugged in response.

I padded back toward the door and wrenched it open once more before my head truly did split in two.