Page 51 of War Queen
She squeezed his arm again. “I really needed some good news. Thankyou.” She smiled again, and he bowed his head as she stepped into her chamber and closed the door behind her.
Serene was straightening the room when she entered. Norah hadn’t said much to her since she’d been back. She hadn’t had the chance, or the mental wherewithal. But now, alone in the quiet… she was so happy to see her. She stared at her maid for a moment.
“Are you all right, Regal High?”
Norah nodded. “I’ve really missed you, Serene.”
The maid’s eyes glistened, and she smiled. “I’ve missed you too.”
They both gave an emotional laugh as they embraced and held each other. Things would never feel right again, but they were starting to feel better.
“What happened to Vitalia?” Norah asked softly. Her maid had died when she fled Mercia during the coup. “What did they do with her?”
Serene held her hands. “The lord justice sent her body to the sea, as is the custom where she was from.”
The sea. Vitalia was sent to the next life in the way she would have wanted. Norah nodded as tears came; she was so grateful that Alexander had known what to do and had seen it done. And here she was, still uncovering his mercies even after he was gone.
“I’m so sorry,” Serene whispered. “I know you loved him. We all did.”
Yes, Alexander was loved by many. She could only nod.
Norah looked around her chamber, trying to avoid the next wave of emotion that would come at any moment. On the vanity, a small box wrapped with a ribbon caught her attention.
“What’s that?” she asked Serene.
“Oh, I don’t know. But it was sitting on the balcony.”
Odd. Who would have sent her something? Norah stepped to the vanity and picked up the box. She pulled the ribbon free and opened the lid. Inside sat a small glass vial.
A vial of blood…
The same vial of blood from her dream of Alexander.
Chapter fourteen
Red.
Back and forth. Rolling like an ocean wave. A blood ocean.
Norah sat alone at her vanity, tilting the vial back and forth between her thumb and forefinger, rolling the blood within. The vial was small, no larger than her smallest finger, and tapered to its base. Where had it come from?Whohad it come from? This was the same vial Alexander had held in her dream. Had he sent it to her?
That would be impossible.
Alexander was gone. She’d only dreamed of him.
Hadn’t she?
She set it down on the polished wood and sat back in the chair, wishing for Mikael. She wished she could show him, talk to him. Grief made it hard to think. He’d calm the wildness of her mind and help her make sense of everything. But Mikael was gone, tending concerns far greater than dream trickeries. She’d need to figure this out on her own.
Norah poked at the vial, moving it from one side of the vanity to the other. What was she supposed to do with it? In the dream, Alexander had brushed a drop onto her skin. Across the palm of her hand. Seemingly, that was the appropriate action, but what would happen?
She could ask Soren what he thought.
No. He would make her throw it out. And there was a purpose here.
Alexander had given it to her in the dream. And blood… Seers used blood. Or rather, traveler seers did. Her hand curled around the vial. They had to be related somehow. Her mind spun through her memories—through everything she knew.
When they’d gone to the Wild, both Wild women had thought Alexander was a seer. They’d been sure of it. And he did have some kind of power—a power strong enough to keep the women from entering his mind. What if he’d been a seer and didn’t know? Or maybe he’d been something entirely different. If he had power that let him bridge the void between the living and the dead…
