“You need to wake soon. There are draken here,” I told Tawny. “Actual draken.”
She didn’t awaken, but the blackness in her veins had stopped spreading. Whatever the Healer Willa had brought with her had given Tawny was working. It was also changing her.
Her golden bronze curls were now bone-white. Somehow, the snowy hair made her all the more stunning.
“The draken are beautiful.” I smoothed back a curl. “If a bit… temperamental. They have been asleep for a very long time, so I suppose they’re allowed to be grumpy.”
“Grumpy?” Kieran snorted, surprising me. I hadn’t heard him come in. He’d been with Vonetta, spending time with their parents and their new sister. If he was here, I knew what that meant. “More like bitey.”
“You deserved it,” I reminded him as I fixed the blanket around Tawny. “He got too close to one while he was resting. Almost lost a hand.”
“More like an arm,” he muttered.
I looked over my shoulder. “I don’t think bitey is a word, by the way.” “It’s not?” Kieran murmured, looking past me, to where Tawny lay.
“She looks better.”
“She does.” I faced her. “It’s time?” “Yes.”
Giving her hand one last squeeze, I placed it on the bed. I rose and smoothed a hand over a similar outfit to the one I’d worn to Iliseeum. The bodice was of thicker fleece material, though. Colder weather had arrived in much of Solis.
“I’ll be back….” I leaned over, pressing my lips to her warm forehead. “I’ll just be back. I promise.”
 |
It took less than half a day to travel to the northern-most point of Atlantia, to the wall which ran all the way to the Pillars of Atlantia outside of Saion’s Cove. There, I was reunited with Setti. I stroked his nose and scratched his ear. I hoped he took it easy with me. My horsemanship was seriously lacking, and he, well, there was a reason he was named after the God of War’s warhorse.
“Incoming,” Kieran murmured.
Over my shoulder, I saw Casteel’s father approaching, his chest and shoulders covered in gold and silver armor, a helmet tucked under his arm. My stomach tightened. I had only seen him once since I initially returned to Evaemon, and that was brief, a passing in the halls. He’d immediately returned to the northern part of the kingdom.
Wolven stirred from the grass, lifting their heads as he neared. Valyn bowed, and they went back to napping or daydreaming or whatever it was that they had been doing.
“You still plan to send your message?” Valyn asked, his gaze flickering to where the crown rested on my head. I didn’t know what made me decide to wear it, but it was there and it felt right.
I nodded. “It is what Casteel would do.” And I knew that was true.
Valyn made a sound of agreement, and several moments of silence passed. I took a deep breath. “I’ll get him back,” I promised. “We will get him back. I swear.”
Swallowing thickly, he nodded as he looked over at me. “I know you will.” He paused. “My son is a very lucky man to have found you and made himself yours.”
His words embraced my wounded heart, and the acceptance behind them choked me. It took me a moment to speak. “It is I who is lucky to have been found by your son and to have become his.”
Valyn reached over, cupping my cheek with his gloved hand. “And Eloana and I are even more lucky to have you as our daughter-in-law.”
Tears filled my eyes. I hadn’t cried, and I told myself I wouldn’t cry now. If I did, I wouldn’t stop. “Thank you.”
He nodded and then lowered his hand, his gaze fixed on the wall. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
I searched his profile as I opened my senses. I didn’t need to search long to feel the agony pounding through him. “What is it?”
Under the gold and steel armor, his shoulders tightened. “If you see my other son before I do, all that I ask is that you make his death as quick and painless as possible.”
I blew out a thin breath as the knot expanded in my throat. The two words I spoke hurt. “I will.”
“Thank you.” Valyn nodded as he shifted his helmet to his other hand. “We will await your return in the foothills of the Skotos, from the cusp of the Wastelands to the walls of Spessa’s End, Your Majesty.” He bowed and took his leave.
I watched him as he strode back to where his horse waited. I would see him after I sent my message.
“That took a lot for him to ask,” Kieran said, already mounted on his horse.
“I know.” Holding onto Setti’s reins, I swung myself up as Vonetta prowled forward in her wolven form beside Delano.
Several dozen wolven rose from where they rested in the plush grass and the warm rays of the afternoon sun as the gates of the northern wall opened, one after another. Led by Valyn and the Guardians, they rode out in groups of several hundred, their gold and silver armor shining under the morning sun. The sound of a thousand hooves clacked off stone and echoed around us as banners were lifted all the way down the line. My breath caught as I saw the Atlantian Crest. The arrow and sword now crossed over the center.
I inhaled sharply, eyes stinging as the banners rippled in the Atlantian sun. I closed my eyes, telling myself that Casteel would see them.
A low rumble came, a sound similar to thunder. Another higher- pitched, keening call followed. I opened my eyes as the wolven stopped, lifting their heads to the sky. Their ears perked. My one-handed grip on the reins tightened as Setti pranced nervously beneath me as I reached down, placing my hand over the small pouch at my hip. The ridges of the small toy horse pressed against my palm. I stared at the banners, at the crest that represented Casteel and I, as large, winged shadows fell over the armies of Atlantia as they rode west.
 |
Four days later, we waited in the forest outside of Oak Ambler, among the bowed trees. When the last of the sun reached us, and stars came to life in the night sky, I slipped the horse into the pouch and rose from where I’d been sitting on the raised, flat surface of a rock.
“You should’ve slept some,” Delano murmured as he came over to me. “I did.”
Concern seeped from every one of his pores. I hadn’t lied. Not really. I had slept for an hour or so, and then I was awake and spent those hours like I spent all the hours when we took breaks to rest or eat.
I practiced fighting like a god.
Picking up the short sword, I sheathed it as I looked around with a slight frown. “Where are…?”
“The draken?” Delano’s eyes glimmered with amusement as he nodded to where the cluster of trees still stood straight and proud. “Reaver is over there, currently engaged in an epic stare down with Kieran.”
A faint grin tugged at my lips as I squinted. I could just make out the form of Kieran, lying low on his belly. Several feet from him, a relatively large-sized draken, idly picked at its front teeth with its claws. The draken wasn’t as big as Nektas, but he was the length of five Settis and about three times the width.
Reaver was the one who’d almost bitten Kieran.
I arched a brow. I hadn’t even seen Reaver in his mortal form. Nektas, who’d remained behind in Iliseeum, was the only one I’d seen for any length of time in their mortal form. I’d only learned Reaver’s name because another, a female draken called Aurelia who’d been in her mortal form briefly, had given me their names. She and another were the only two females who’d awakened. Apparently, female draken were rare.
“It’s time,” I called out, securing the hook on my cloak. “Remember the plan.”
A huffing sound came from Reaver as he rose, stretching his large, purplish-black body as he lifted his wings. That made me a wee bit concerned that he would not follow said plan. Kieran rose, and I half-
expected him to flounce away from the draken, but he managed a rather sedate prance over to me.
I turned to where Vonetta and the remaining wolven waited with Naill and Emil. “Be safe.”
Steely determination rose from them as I turned and began walking toward the city with Delano at my side, in his mortal form. If things went the way I hoped, there would be no risk to most of the wolven. The crunch of dried leaves alerted me to the progress Kieran made and the rattle of branches above told me that Reaver had taken flight.
Traces of moonlight cut through the bent trees as I glanced down at my left palm. The marriage imprint glowed softly. Closing my hand, I lifted the hood on the cloak just enough that the crown was hidden. I slid my right hand inside my cloak as I saw a row of torches through the bowed limbs.
“I see them,” Delano said quietly. “There’s about a dozen.”
Less than I thought there would be, which was kind of offensive.
Kieran hung back as Delano and I neared the edges of the trees. I could see a line of guards, their mantles blending into the night, even in the moonlight. Knights. My opened senses confirmed as much, but there was another—one who stood off to the side, dressed in black. A younger male with dark hair. I sensed…nothing from him, but it wasn’t the utter emptiness of an Ascended. The one with his arms crossed was not a vampry, and I was willing to bet it was a Revenant.
The knights moved in unison before Delano and I stepped out of the trees, lifting shields with the Royal Crest carved into the metal. Swords were held at their sides. I stared at the crest—a circle with an arrow piercing the center. It symbolized infinity and power, but I realized that I was the arrow on the Atlantian Crest. Not the sword. I now saw the Royal Crest in a whole new light. I smiled.
“I don’t know why you’re smiling,” the Revenant spoke. “I don’t believe things went well for you the last time you were here.”
I flicked a brief glance in his direction. “I truly hope it is not you that they sent to speak with me. If so, I can assure you that tonight will not end well for you.”
The Revenant lifted a dark brow. “Ouch.”
“Stand aside,” came a voice from behind the knights. A voice I hadn’t heard in years.
The knights parted, lowering their shields, and I saw who stood behind them.
The golden hair was longer than I remembered, brushing the tips of his ears, but I recognized the features of a good-looking man—the heavy brow, the straight nose, the square jaw, and the thin lips that I’d rarely ever seen curved into a smile. The ruby crown glinted darkly in the moonlight.
I almost couldn’t believe that I was staring at the Blood King, dressed in a white cloak trimmed in red and black with crimson crisscrossing his chest. She had answered my request and sent the King to meet with me. Laughter rose so quickly, it almost burst free from me, but then I realized that there was only one Revenant among a handful of knights to protect the actual King of Solis. It was obvious that the Blood Crown truly saw me as no threat.
And, well, now I truly was offended.
“Maiden,” King Jalara spoke, and I stiffened. “It has been quite some time, has it not?”
“It has,” I answered, aware of the rise of anger from Delano and where Kieran remained hidden in the shadows of the trees. “A lot has changed, starting with the fact that I am no longer the Maiden.” I lifted my left hand, tugging down the cloak’s hood. “But you already know that.”
There was a slight widening of his eyes. “The gilded crown,” King Jalara murmured, sounding as awed as I’d ever heard an Ascended, which was a lukewarm reaction at best. His jeweled hand winked in the moonlight as his grip on his sword increased. “My, my, my, Penellaphe,” he murmured, eyeing the crown as he stepped forward. “Look at you.”
Delano withdrew his sword, his features sharpening to a deadly thinness. “You will address her as Queen Penellaphe or Your Majesty.”
Slowly, the King turned his head to the wolven, the mannerism serpent-like. “The one beside you?” He sniffed the air. “Nothing more than a heathen. An overgrown dog.” The King sneered. “Disgusting.”
“Disgusting?” I repeated. “The one beside me comes from the line of those given mortal form by Nyktos himself. The one who stands to your left reeks of decay and rot.”
The Revenant frowned. “I do not.” He plucked at the front of his tunic. “Rude.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I stared up at the Blood King. “Is it you who taints the air instead?”
There was a sugary burst of amusement from the Revenant as a muscle flexed in King Jalara’s jaw. “I would watch your tongue, Maiden.”
I held up my left hand as a low snarl rumbled from Delano.
King Jalara smirked. “Or maybe not. Every word you speak that irritates me, I will be sure to take it out on the one you call your husband.”
Every part of me screamed in rage—screamed for blood and pain, even as I showed no emotion and looked up at the Blood King. The Ascended who had never been cruel to me as a child. Who had just been there, in the background.
“You do know that he has found his stay with us to be less than pleasant. Dear Ileana almost had him convinced that you had been captured in spite of his sacrifice. His screams of rage were a serenade for the ages.”
My jaw clenched.
A smug look settled onto his features. “What? You have nothing to say? You do not ask about his well-being? No begging?” His head tilted. “No threatening? I at least expected one threat from you after hearing Ileana wax poetically about her—”
“Call her by her real name,” I interrupted. “I’m sure you know it is Isbeth.”
His eyes narrowed. “She is no longer Isbeth.”
“And what do you think she is? Ileana, the goddess?” “What do you think?” he challenged.
“I know a god cannot be made,” I said. “She is nothing more than a twisted mess of bitterness and greed made manifest.”
“And what does that make you?”
“An actual god,” I replied as flatly as Casteel would’ve.
“And yet you couldn’t defeat her?” He laughed coldly. “You may be born of Nyktos’s blood, but you and I both know what you are and what you will always be. The Maiden who is part beauty and part disaster.”
I said nothing. I felt nothing.
His chin dipped as he drew closer. “You should do as she requests. She is your mother.”
“And yet, I couldn’t care less.” I held his stare. “Believe it or not, I didn’t come here to spend time insulting the Blood Queen.”
King Jalara inhaled sharply. “You came to surrender? To submit?” “I came to send a message to the Blood Queen.”
His brows flew up so fast and so far, I was surprised they didn’t topple his precious crown. “A message? I came all the way out to this godsforsaken place on the edge of the Wastelands to deliver a message for you?”
I nodded as my right hand moved under the cloak, crossing my stomach.
“You have to be out of your mind. You are, aren’t you?” King Jalara’s smile was grotesque, revealing his fangs. “The only message I will deliver for you is one of submission.”
“I’m sorry. I misspoke,” I said, forcing a silly little laugh. “It’s you
that’s the message.”
“What—?” His twisted smile froze. His gaze shot over my shoulder— Kieran exploded from the shadows, slamming into him. He stumbled,
lips peeling back in a snarl as Kieran latched on to his arm, not letting him get far. I pulled the sword from my cloak and spun, sweeping out wide and high.
Only a few things in my entire life were as satisfying as the feeling of the blade meeting King Jalara’s flesh, the resistance of bone, and then the shocking ease with which it gave way. The blade sliced deep into his throat and through the spinal column, separating his head from the body.
My gaze lifted to where the knights had frozen, to where the Revenant stood in utter shock, either held immobile by the sight of their King’s head winging in the opposite direction of his body, or by the sight of the other wolven prowling out from the darkness.
And then I fought like a god.
I didn’t summon the eather. I didn’t visualize it. I didn’t take the time to let the power ramp up inside me. I didn’t need to because it was always there. I simply willed it.
The shields exploded, and then the swords. The necks of the knights twisted sideways, silencing their screams before they even formed. Their arms broke. Bones cracked throughout the bodies. Their legs bent backwards, and then I tore them apart from the inside.
In the mist of blood, the Revenant quickly withdrew two black, crescent-shaped swords. He held them as the wolven growled and snapped. “That won’t work on me.”
“No. It won’t,” I said as a rush of wind whipped from above. The light of the moon was suddenly obscured.
The Revenant glanced up. “What the—?”
Reaver landed before me, rocking the ground and the trees. His tail whipped around, sliding between the wolven as he stretched out his head and opened his mouth. A deafening roar erupted from deep within his throat as a wisp of smoke floated above the frills.
“But this will,” I finished, sheathing the sword. “Fire of the gods, right? That will kill you.”
“Good fucking gods, is that—?” The Revenant stumbled, tripping over his feet. He caught himself just as Reaver’s spiked tail slammed into his chest.
Well, that was not a part of the plan, I thought as I watched the Revenant fly sideways, crashing into rock. He hit it with a fleshy smack. Sliding onto his knees, he pitched forward onto his hands with a groan.
Slowly, I looked over at Reaver. “Really?”
He made a chuffing sound as he swung his tail back, narrowly missing taking out Kieran in the process. The wolven’s ears flattened as he growled. “Calm,” I warned him as I stepped over Reaver’s tail. “That’s not a
battle you’re going to win.”
Everything about Kieran’s stance said he’d like to try as I approached the moaning Revenant. He quieted as I knelt in front of him, clutching his chest.
“That was part of the message that I want you to deliver to your Queen,” I said, and it was the kind of message Casteel would send.
The Revenant looked up, blood leaking from his mouth. His gaze only left me long enough to see what Delano had dropped at his feet.
It was King Jalara’s head.
“Fuck,” the Revenant groaned.
I took the ruby crown Delano handed me. “I want you to deliver that to her. Let her know that I have his crown. It’s mine now. I want you to thank her for me, for teaching me to fight like a god. Tell her that was for Ian.”
The Revenent’s flat eyes met mine.
“Now this is the really important part. I need you to make sure she understands that I’m coming for her. That I will burn every Revenant that stands between her and me. I will strike down every Ascended who defends her. I will topple every castle she seeks to hide in. Make sure she understands that her survival hinges on Casteel. She will release him, or she will see each and every one of her cities leveled. If she touches him again, I
will destroy her precious Malec, and I can. I know where to find him. He lives. For now. And if she kills Casteel? If anyone kills him?” I tilted my head, catching his gaze as he tried to find where the draken had flown off to. “I will make sure her death is a slow one that will take hundreds of years to complete. If not thousands. You understand?”
“Yes,” he wheezed.
“Good.” I rose then, the ruby crown dangling from my fingers. “Make sure she knows that I am the Chosen, the One who is Blessed, and I carry the blood of the King of Gods in me. I am the Liessa to the wolven, the second daughter, the true heir, owed the crowns of Atlantia and Solis. I am the Queen of Flesh and Fire, and the gods’ guards ride with me. Tell the Blood Queen to prepare for war.”
 |
Coming October 19, 2021
A SHADOW IN THE EMBER
