Chapter
Six
Sebian Present day, a copse of trees
ell, I’d tried my best.
Had tried hard to get Asker to dump this assignment on another pathfinder, but no, he’dW insisted that I found and secured this girl. And look how well that was going… Malyr wove his shadows down Galantia’s throat and into her lungs until her violent thrashing slowed into uncontrolled twitches. He’d been a moody bastard for as long as I’d known him, with a quick temper that hid beneath an otherwise quiet demeanor. That made him all the more vicious. You just never knew when his shadows would lash out.
But he was also a cunning son of a bitch. Malyr knew full well that we needed this girl alive, and it was the unharmed part that currently stood up for debate in that messed-up head of his. He would stop any second now. Any second… Half a minute later, something akin to concern rose in my empty stomach, because it wouldn’t be the first time he killed by accident. Ah, shit… he was killing her.
“Malyr…” Focusing on the gift at my core, I communed with his shadows. Calm. Calm yourselves. Had any other person dared this, they’d lash back, but not with me. Never me. “Call them back.”
A jerk went through him. He let go of her throat, his entire body trembling as he recalled his shadows—unpredictable assholes on good days, and deadly liabilities on bad ones.
The highborn beauty collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. Silent. Unmoving. Asker was going to have my tail feathers for this… “Bring me the fate!” Malyr’s shout echoed through the forest before wings flapped, and whoever had perched in the nearby trees took flight. “And the healer!”
I grabbed the leather pouch dangling from a low branch, eyes burning and ears buzzing. Spending five days in my unkindness of ravens had overwhelmed my senses to a point I would suffer for a week straight. Every gift came at a cost. Mine? Brain-stabbing headaches.
I retrieved a piece of gray devil’s bark from the pouch and placed it on my tongue. My gums clenched at the bitterness, but I chewed past it. It was still better than having to listen to Asker’s unavoidable reprimand entirely lucid.
Pouch strapped to my cuirass, I adjusted my bow and rolled my shoulders, my muscles sore from too many hours in flight, damaged as my wings were. “You nearly killed her.”
But only nearly.
My ears still pricked at the wheezed gasps she sucked into her lungs, the slowed pulse that trickled through her veins, the occasional twitch in her finger that let a knuckle grind. Then there was the sour scent of fear seeping off her with each weak beat of her heart, tainted with something sweeter that I couldn’t name.
“Even without eyes, I could sense these shadows from a mile away.” Elovan limped into the forest wearing her blue robes, blind as a bat, her kinky hair a wild mess that stood in all directions as she held one hand out before her. When the tip of her shoe stubbed into Galantia’s side, she knelt, letting her fingers guide her hands to the girl’s neck. “This should have killed the thing.”
Yeah, I guess it should have.
I took in Galantia’s ashen face, her unblinking hazel eyes fixed on the canopy, her breaths nothing but tiny, flat whimpers that seized her chest. Fuck, she looked so fragile.
Deliciously vulnerable.
With a shake of her head, Elovan placed her hands on Galantia’s black-stained throat, absorbing Malyr’s shadows into her core. An interesting thing to watch, really, because voids had always been rare—even before we’d systematically killed them some decades ago.
I sighed at that pity. “You should have stopped sooner.”
Malyr’s gaze fell to my lips—undoubtedly gray from the bark by now—and his jaws tensed. “You should have kept her name from me.”
“And have your moody shadows wrap around me instead, fixated as you were on this girl?” He’d looked positively spellbound even before her name had come into play. A rarity, given how most women left him indifferent. “Not what you expected, hmm?”
He shoved at the chest panel of his black cuirass, those fingers he’d used to choke the girl pitch- black to a point it had to pain him. “I didn’t know what to expect from Asker’s vision, vague as it was. None of us have.”
I let my eyes fall to Galantia and how Elovan drew another plume of shadows from the girl’s parted lips. “How did a man with such a rotten soul manage to make such a pretty daughter?”
Of course, Malyr only frowned. He didn’t care for her full blush lips unless he bit them bloody.
Didn’t care for her shapely body unless it carried his marks. Cared even less about those unblinking eyes, not unless he filled them with tears.
Sick bastard.
Malyr shifted beside me as though he was imagining it just as vividly. “Will she recover?”
Elovan didn’t dare to arch that brow at Malyr, though I saw the twitch, her sun-kissed skin mottled with even darker spots around her cheeks. “We shall see.”
“You have found her?” Asker was shifting into his human form, wearing the black armor of the royal ravenguard, looking as proper and stiff as ever with his breastplate polished and those black and white strands neatly pulled into a thinning braid along his scalp that matched his speckled beard.
“Let me have a look at her face!”
He knelt beside the girl, observing the shadowmarks on her skin. It had to piss him off to see his vision unresponsive on the ground, but alas, his face carried emotions with the expressiveness of a rock. So perfectly controlled, perfectly honorable. Always… perfect.
“Yes, without a doubt, it is her I saw in my vision,” he said after a while, brushing the sweat- dampened ivory strands from Galantia’s face. “Do we know her identity?”
A twitch ran along Malyr’s upper lip. “Lady Galantia of the House Brisden.”
“I see.” Asker nodded, his gaze drifting into the nothingness of the underbrush for long moments.
“The goddess has sent us something precious.”
“So it would appear,” Malyr ground out, probably hating the fact since it would keep him from
hating on her.
At least to some degree.
“Depending on how much or how little Brisden knows, he might be willing to release Marla in exchange for his daughter’s safe return.” Asker rose, setting a stare on me weighted down by a set of thick, heavy brows. “If she recovers…”
My molars ground together, aggravated with the way he never skipped a chance at criticizing me.
Calling me irresponsible and incompetent. Not that he was wrong, but where had he been when Brisden shot Marla from the sky and took her captive, huh?
Maybe not so perfect after all… “I did what you asked me to do.” Poorly, just like I told him I would, so who was the fool for dumping a task of such importance on me? “I’m flying back to Deepmarsh Castle.”
The moment I turned away, Asker’s command cut through my shift. “Wait.”
A deep breath, then I turned to face him and Malyr. “What?”
“What do you know of her?” Asker asked. “You’re the only one here who spoke with this girl, yes? A girl that, by all accounts, grew up so sheltered and protected, few were able to give me accounts of her character. Even fewer are those who managed to behold Brisden’s daughter. We need to understand her true value.”
“She wasn’t exactly eager to make conversation.” Come to think, she’d been pretty quiet and calm where I’d expected her to grow hysterical. “She said if it’s her value we want, it lies in her virtue.”
A lopsided grin tugged on Malyr’s upper lip before it turned into a sneer, as if his face couldn’t decide if that information bemused or annoyed him. “Mmm, she said that, didn’t she?”
“Right before your pet demon stabbed her nursemaid in the neck.”
His gaze immediately fell to Galantia, who breathed evenly once more. “Isn’t she a bit too old for a nursemaid?”
“The girl needs rest.” Elovan rose and turned toward the meadow, her senses sharp enough as she competently walked around Asker. “I’ll have to make her something for the pain.”
“Sheltered. Protected. Adorned.” Asker turned to face Malyr. “She has to be dear to her parents, indeed. We have to offer her up in exchange for Marla. It’s why the goddess brought her here. Why else would she have bestowed me this vision?”
Malyr’s lips pinched tight for a moment as he held Asker’s stare. “Interesting, how you make no mention of the fact that we now have the future queen consort of Dranada in our keep. Most recently, our spies reported that Brisden managed to arrange her betrothal to Prince Domren, yes?”
Prince Domren.
Memories rushed through me, transporting me back to stand at the center of the flames licking at my skin. Sweat pooled, sending a searing droplet to run down my spine as the stench of that night
crept into my nose.
Oil.
Ash.
Singed feathers and charred flesh.
I blinked, taking myself out of the ruthless image, bringing Galantia back into focus. Prince
Dormren’s betrothed.
Untouched.
Untried.
So fucking helpless.
Heat surged in my veins, funneling down into my breeches. Galantia was pretty before, but this information turned her downright irresistible. Five years ago, I swore I would kill Domren. How much longer until I would finally get my revenge? Might as well bounce his betrothed on my cock while I waited.
Malyr would never deny me a piece of her. Ever since I’d dragged him out of that river all those years ago, feverish and emaciated, I’d had his back. And he had mine, regardless of how many times we butted heads or bickered—which happened more and more often lately.
It hadn’t always been like this. Guess spending so many years of tolerating each other’s shit had started to take a toll on our friendship. Still, we stuck together for our common goal. We both wanted revenge, and we would help each other see it through, come rain or high wind.
“Maybe we could use her to draw Domren out,” I said, eager to make that bastard pay for what he’d done to me. What he’d taken from me. “He’s leading his father’s army now, from what I hear.
Forget about Tidestone; it’s Ammarett you want, anyway.”
Asker’s hand settled on the pommel of his black aerymel sword. “You know the reasons why I made no mention of it, and instead urge you for an exchange of hostages.”
Faint shadows simmered along the edges of Malyr’s armor, which was never a good sign.
“Selfish reasons.”
“Marla is my mate.” Asker lowered his head, fixing his eyes on the dirt before him. “Perhaps that makes my reasoning more selfish, but it doesn’t make it unsound. If we draw out Ammarett’s forces and meet them on the field, place ourselves between Tidestone and the capital, we will have the ocean to our left and our human allies in the back, leaving little room for escape should those fickle beings betray us. I must… goddess be good, I must implore that you exchange her for Marla and take Tidestone soon after.”
Malyr scoffed. “No army has ever breached the walls of Tidestone.”
“Yet Tidestone has the ships we need to take Ammarett. We will take the stronghold! Then we shall sail our army around the coast, attack the capital from the ocean only a brief distance away, and the city will fall within hours.”
“We already lost several pathfinders trying to stake out a way to attack Tidestone,” Malyr said.
“To no avail. Twelve net catapults line the cliffs and the walls. Their archers are exceptionally well trained, easily shooting us down by the hundreds if we fly in from the valley. We have no siege
weapons of our own, and even if we did, that stronghold has grain stores large enough to last them a year, if not longer.”
“Grain stores more than half empty, as per our calculations, and winter hasn’t even arrived yet,”
Asker bit out as he lifted his gaze. “Think back on how clear and precise my visions have been in the past. Have they not given us…” he lifted his hands, gesturing at the lands that lay south, “…all of this?”
“And yet your visions failed you when we ravaged the fields that supply grain to Tidestone.
Brisden’s soldiers captured your mate. And you saw none of it.”
“Vision are…” Asker’s mouth opened and closed, his voice brittle once it returned. “Nothing happens by chance. Marla’s capture was written in the stars by the goddess herself. It is not for us to understand why, but to trust in her wisdom. We have to offer this girl up in an attempt to retrieve Marla. We need her. Without my mate, we will make no progress in this war on any border; that, I guarantee you.”
“No guarantees needed. That we have been stuck at Deepmarsh Castle for months now proves it just fine.” With a sharp inhale, Malyr turned away, staring toward a bright clearing ahead for a while before he finally faced us again. “I want a healer to confirm she’s untainted and indeed as valuable as you believe her to be. Once her maidenhead is deemed intact, send a scroll to Tidestone with the conditions of the exchange. If Brisden gives us Marla, he can have his daughter back. If he refuses… well, I shall see to it, then.” His knowing gaze settled on me before he offered a smug grin. “Until such time, she is to remain untainted, Sebian.”
So no bouncing her on my cock, then.
That still left me with a dozen other things I could do to have Domren’s future queen scream my name. Learn it by heart. A sad consolation, but still better than nothing while I bided my time.
I shrugged. “Fine.”
“If I may suggest,” Asker said, his averted gaze going to Malyr. “Perhaps it would be best if you kept your distance from her for the time being? Given your… history with the House Brisden?”
A muscle hardened in Malyr’s jaw, eyes going to Galantia, then back to me. “Mingle with the humans. See if any of them would dare to betray us by trying to sell-off one of their daughters to Domren instead. That cannot happen. We cannot lose allies, not even the fickle ones.”
In a burst of shadows and plumes, Malyr shifted into his ravens and flew off.
“Politics…” I took a bite of the bread in the bowl by the cold pit. Stale, but filling enough to keep my starved ravens from eating grubs without my consent. Few things were worse than the taste of dirt stuck under one’s tongue. “Now I have to gallivant around the feasts with lord this and lady that.”
“Sounds like a task made for you since there’s always wine to be had.” Asker stared at my lips, then shook his head. “You’ve been lazing around for far too long, shunning your part in this war.”
I turned away, eyes fixed on the horizon. “My part in this war starts with our attack on the capital and ends with Domren’s guts dangling from my beaks.”
Even if it was the last thing I would do.
Asker’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Take one of the horses. Once Elovan deems her strong enough to travel, you will take the Lady Galantia to Deepmarsh Castle. Staying by her side is your chance to help us see this through. Get revenge. Earn forgiveness.”
Scoffing, I glanced back at him. “I don’t give a shit about your forgiveness.”
“I wasn’t talking about mine.”
A twinge beneath my ribs. How could I ever forgive myself for what I’d done? For what I hadn’t done? “I have other things to do.”
“What other things? Drink? Sleep? Bed every whore the court has to offer once?”
“I might bed some of them twice.”
“May the goddess help me, you’re driving me insane, Sebian…” he huffed. “This girl needs someone by her side, for we both know Malyr will not keep his distance. Having Bridsen’s daughter is more of a temptation than he can ignore.”
Just like having Domren’s betrothed was a temptation I wouldn’t ignore, but there were easier ways to go about it than what he had in mind. “Feel free to play her bodyguard. Just don’t let her get captured, as is so often the case with those in your care.”
That shut Asker up, if only for a moment. “If I remain too close to her for too long, she might trigger convoluted visions, muddling my interpretations.”
Sounded like a problem that wasn’t mine… “Malyr will have a taste of revenge with her, holding himself over until he can get to her father, and I don’t blame him.” Just like I knew he wouldn’t blame me for going after a taste of my own revenge. “She might’ve caught him off-guard now, but he’ll keep himself under control from here on.”
“And if not?” he asked. “Nobody is strong enough to stand against him.”
“Neither am I.”
“No, but his shadows would never attack you,” he pointed out. “You two share a strong friendship.”
“You’re giving me a headache, old man. She’s still breathing, isn’t she?”
“You need to protect her from him.”
Protect her.
Those two words stalled my feet, my heart, my lungs. If the past had taught me anything, it was that no woman should count on me to keep her safe.
I looked at Galantia, but eventually shook my head. “Her safety is your problem now.”
My shift surged through me with an onslaught of sounds and smells, achy wings pushing us into the current coming from between the trees before it carried us away. Everyone I’d once vowed to protect was rotting away in graves—if they had graves at all.
That was how well I’d done it.
