Path to Destiny

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"I don't believe in coincidences," Ezra said to me the next day as we patrolled the halls together. "You had that vision for a reason. It's not about you being a curse -- which you aren't," he added after my glare.

I focused on memorizing the halls without looking suspicious. I'd been thinking about my vision for the past twelve hours, sleepless and terrified. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Then what do you want to talk about?"

I looked at him. In his normal tunic and trousers, he seemed like an innocent guard. "I want you to shut up, Norris."

He glowered at me and put his hands in his pockets. We had been walking all morning on the pretext of needing a good exercise and exploring the castle. So far, no one had questioned our motives. And so far, we hadn't seen Titus at all. Or Jada.

The expansive halls of the East Wing did not have the gold dusted walls of the West Wing -- instead, they were dotted in rubies shaped in a mural of suns and moons. This entire castle was an enchanted garden.

Well, more like a garden that was teeming with wolves and vipers.

"So what have you learned so far from your excursions in the kitchen?" I asked quietly. "Since we've apparently switched roles now?" It was irritating how he told me to investigate the cardinals while he followed Jada. And now he was taking over my place, like I wasn't competent enough.

And maybe I wasn't.

"I'm learning the basics of their rule. They advise on matters of law. Perform clerical duties, mundane tasks. It depends on what needs to be accomplished." He stopped before turning the next corner. "Sybil is the head cardinal. She prepares Jada's meals and is in charge of the servants."

We turned right down the hall that housed the rooms of the royal guards. The left hall held the guest quarters. Above lay Jada's rooms.

"She has a good relationship with them," I said, remembering the way the servants regarded Sybil with respect."

"Perfectly so," Ezra mused.

"Do you find that odd?" We turned down the corridor connecting the East Wing to the servants' quarters below and West Wing ahead. We opted for the West Wing.

"She must have good standing in order to manipulate them," he said with a shrug. He tucked a strand of black hair back into his hair tie. "She may be lacing Jada's food for all we know. Not our food," he added when my face showed utter horror. "We infiltrated the servants' quarters before to find that out. But we were always unable to find how Jada's meals were prepared. For obvious reasons, I'm assuming. It's prepared separately."

I nodded and walked to a small window embedded with emeralds. The trees circling the castle gardens below shifted gently with the wind. I thought of Titus. And then I regretted it, because I saw him lingering near the garden hedges, hands in his pockets as he surveyed a small pond in a circle of flowers.

"Are you planning to tell him?" Ezra asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I don't know," I whispered. I closed my eyes, thinking back to the girl with the ice blue eyes and blonde hair, my near replica.

My fate. My destiny.

Was it my destiny to bring war on Etheia? It had been Eden's destiny to lose everything she loved -- whatever that everything had been once, long ago.

My country, Eden whispered. Ashad.

I stopped and raised a hand to my mouth. Ashad? The lost country? I thought...I thought that was only a fable, I said to her.