I gathered my magic and the water rose up from the fountain behind Aiden. I released it in a well-aimed jet, dousing the fire in his hand. “Grow up!”
Aiden was startled but drew his sword. “You’re dead.”
Tristan stepped in between us, facing Aiden. “Try it,” he snarled, his voice laced with steel. Power rippled out from him as his hands started to glow.
Aiden lowered his sword. “You can’t protect her forever, Tristan.” He turned on his heel and walked away with Brianna scurrying after him. He seemed to have forgotten she was there.
“Forget him,” said Skye, putting her hand on my arm. “He thinks he’s better than everyone else. But he’s all bark and no bite, he would never hurt you and go against your grandmother’s wishes. He knows what she would do to him if he did.”
I was about to say something about his terrible upbringing and bad manners, but I remembered she was Aiden’s sister and I let it go.
“I’ll see you later,” Tristan said to me, his eyes swirling with silver sparks. “Cade, make sure Aurora gets back to the palace safely.”
“Aren’t you going to watch the rest of the performance?” I asked.
“No,” said the dark prince as he stalked off into the shadows.
We sat back down and watched the rest of the show, but I wasn’t paying attention as I thought about Tristan and how gentle he had been with me before Aiden came. The fae prince was an enigma, but he was a warrior without equal, and under that rough demeanor and permanent scowl he was a good person. Now that I had discovered his troubled past, I had started to understand him a little better. I was glad we were friends.
I didn’t care what Aiden thought. The old me would have cried and pondered over why I was so disliked. But quite frankly it didn’t make a difference if Aiden liked me or not. It should have upset me much more, but it didn’t. I had finally realized not everyone could love you, or like you, for that matter. What was important was how much you loved yourself. I didn’t care if Aiden thought I wasn’t good enough because I knew I was much more than that.
That was the first night I walked up the long flight of steps to my room smiling as I recounted the evening. Aiden had tried to spoil it, but he couldn’t take away the joy I felt being around friends and enjoying myself without the constant threat of Morgana looming. For one night I had felt like a normal teenager again, and I was grateful to Skye and Tristan for including me.
The House of Eos-Eirendil
Winter was upon us, but the hidden valley of Iris remained at a moderate temperature, only cooling down at night when the wind blew from the ice-capped mountaintops. Tristan had been away for the past few days. He’d told me there had been attacks in some of the outlying villages and he had to check it out with Aiden. During this time Cade was in charge of my training. He was not as hard a teacher as Tristan, and I managed to get quite a lot of free time to myself.
I continued to search the library for any information about the Dawnstar, but there was still no mention of it in any of the books I came across. Maybe the dowager was right—maybe the Dawnstar was a myth, a legend that didn’t exist.
I had nearly given up all hope of finding anything when one night, after an easy sparring session with Cade, as I walked the deserted corridors of the vast library, a faint murmuring caught my attention. I went deeper into the labyrinth, down a flight of rough stone steps to a corridor of books I had not checked before. Most of the library was lit up with floating balls of fae light, which seemed to follow me and shine appropriately every time I took out a book to check its contents.
The murmuring got louder, and as my fingers skimmed over the spines of rough volumes and massive tomes of fae politics, I could swear I heard someone whisper my name.
“Aurora.”
I whirled around, but the corridor was empty, one side continuing into darkness and the other leading back to where I came in.
Another whisper—a little louder, a deep baritone. “Aurora, this way.”
My hand went to my throat; I recognized the voice. It was the same deep voice that had helped me in the ruins when I fought Morgana.
It was back.
My heartbeat sped up as I slowly moved toward the voice, farther and farther into a part of the library where I had never been. The fae light that hovered above me fell back as I rounded a dark corner.
I called up my magic and a ball of light started to swirl in my hand. The corridor in front of me lit up, and I spotted a table along one wall with a few worn books on it. I walked up to it and ran my hands over the top of a book, clearing the dust that had collected, obscuring the title.
These books had obviously been sitting here for a long time, unopened and unread. I checked the title on the first one: The Great Noble Houses of the Ancients.
A book on the Ancient Fae!
I thought Tristan said all the older texts were destroyed in the Demon Wars. I held up my hand, lighting the pages before me as I sat on the rickety wooden chair and started to read.
This book was very enlightening, giving information about all the noble houses, their sigils, lands and titles, who they married, and which houses were the most powerful. Finally I came to the page listing the house of Eos-Eirendil. It was the longest ruling house during the Age of the Ancients. At the end of the page on the bottom right-hand corner was an illustration of the symbol of the house of
