There was a large, flat stone beside the stream, thick covered with moss, and Aurora sat upon it, letting go the bloodstone and breaking the mental connection with Balthazar; not that he could not pursue it, if he chose, but letting her attention drift from the red prison in which his spirit was kept.  She had worked sorcery?  It seemed beyond belief.  But she had felt. . .something. . .when she had Darius swear his oath, and the looks he had been sending her all day, the little ways he touched his chest, as if feeling something stir in his heart.  What did she know about sorcery?  Next to nothing.  She rued having to depend on Balthazar to instruct her in this, but if she could learn how to work the. . the gift. . .it would be something of hers, beyond her beauty, that she could use in her plans.  But, tempting as it was, it frightened her all the same.<br/><br/>"Princess?" Mallory said.  "We are ready."<br/><br/>"I'm coming," she said.