“Goddess bless Queen Eleanora!” Mother Walsh called out in a strong voice.
Gerard echoed her.
The cheers were even greater, louder, as they yelled her name. A tear slipped down Elea’s cheek.
They believed in her goddess.
They believed inher.
10
GERARD
He was back in the palace—the place that was never his home—in the royal chapel, with the large stained-glass window that showed Pater blessing his male children. Gerard had always loved that window. The expression of benevolence on their god’s face, his head surrounded in a halo of light. He wondered what it must be like to have such a father, instead of being the illegitimate son of the King of Kaul.
But tears were running down Pater’s face. At least, that’s what it looked like when it rained.
He saw his own father sitting on a throne in the front of the chapel beside his wife, Queen Maria. Standing by the bishop was his half brother, Alexandre. He kept glancing at the door nervously, as if he was scared of who would come inside. Then the doors opened, and the young woman who had nearly killed him, Queen Eleanora, walked down the aisle wearing white. She stood across from his brother.
They must be getting married.
Gerard blinked and when he opened his eyes, he saw the other Urkan princess in chains, her white dress dirty, tattered, and torn. She was covered in blood. Unmoving.
Dead.
As if pulled by some invisible force, he felt himself propelled to an unfamiliar place. An endless line of tall, rectangular stones leading to somewhere. He passed above them as if he were a bird flying. Then the line of rectangular stones stopped. He stood in the middle of three mounds made out of small stones. There were three doors. Walking to the closest door, he saw the sign of the trigon carved into the wood.
The two other doors had the trigon carved in them as well. What was this place, and why was he there?
Elea was beside him, as if she belonged there with him.
He with her.
Gerard opened the door and fell into blackness.
* * *
Sitting up in a borrowed bed,he struggled for air. The dream was even more vivid than the ones he’d had on the ship. He wiped the sweat from his brow and tried to convince himself that it was exactly that—a dream. But the details had been horrific in their perfection. He hadn’t been a part of the scene but an outside viewer.
The experience felt like a vision. And part of his last dream had come true—the villagers had touched Elea’s hair. What if the terrible things he saw had already happened? Or were they going to happen? Should he tell Elea, or would she think him foolish and fanciful? Anywhere but Urka, he would have disregarded the dream himself, but there was something mystic about the green isle. Something that made him believe in magic and a higher being. The thought or feeling to tell Elea about it grew stronger until he could no longer sit still. He got out of bed and dressed before searching for her in the castle.
Unsurprisingly, she was giving orders in the kitchen.
Gerard walked to her side and waited for her to finish. “I have something I must tell you.”
“Come with me to my room,” she said quietly. “We should discuss it privately.”
He offered his arm to her, but she did not take it. He wondered if he’d done something wrong. She led him to her own room. Closing the door to the chamber, she turned to him. But before he could speak, she flung herself into his arms and kissed him. Her lips were warm and insistent over his until he opened his mouth. She captured his lower lip and sucked on it. He moved his hands to her beautiful hair and felt her gasp against his lips. Gerard deepened the kiss. Wordlessly sharing with her how much he felt for her. Her hands moved from his waist and slowly up his chest, and he stilled when they reached the place over his heart, pulling away only enough to see her beautiful face.
Elea literally held his heart in her hands.
Then she pushed him away.
“Too fast?” he asked, stepping back.
Elea breathed in and out heavily before moving farther away from him to the window that overlooked the Dark Channel. His eyes followed her. A black mist hung on the water, making it impossible to see more than a few hundred yards. She glanced out the window but remained silent. He had to tell her now about this dream before he lost his nerve.
“I didn’t just come to kiss you, but it would have been worth it if I had.”