A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

TAMRA SILVERSPUN

W ith every hateful word I prepare to speak, I wish I could separate from my body.

I need, desperately, to distance myself from the pain I have to cause my sister if I’m going to protect her.

Asha’s face is already strained. The strands of her previously silver hair are tarnished nearly black, like a silver pot that got too close to the fire.

Her skin, where it’s visible around the black evening gown she’s wearing, is discolored, as if she has been painted with gray ash, a dark contrast to the love that shines from her eyes.

Unbreakable love for me and Gallium, who is our brother and also my twin.

It was love that caused Asha to give up her freedom and wager her life for ours.

For ten years, she sacrificed her freedom so we would be protected from the humans who would have killed us. She shielded us with her ferocity and her audacity to hope that we might one day be free.

Now it’s my turn to protect her.

Gallium has already stepped toward her, pulling her into an embrace. “The Vandawolf said it was safe to hug you.”

“It is.” The tension in Asha’s shoulders visibly eases as she accepts Gallium’s hug.

The way she closes her eyes tells me how much this moment means to her. How much she needs to know that we won’t judge her for what has been done to her.

How much she needs to know that we don’t fear the strip of black metal that has adhered to her left hand.

It’s metal that once belonged to the cruelest Blacksmith, Malak Ironmeld, and now it’s part of her body, appearing so deeply embedded into her palm that it sits flat across it.

We’re located in the throne room of the fae monarch, Queen Karasi, where we were all summoned to dinner.

Only two days ago, we finally escaped the human city situated within the land that the fae call Vadlig Odemark —the Cursed Wasteland . We were separated from Asha at the start of our journey. She went back to help the Vandawolf fight a monster that had risen from the ash. Gallium, Thaden, and I were forced to continue on without her, traveling into the mountains, where the fae found us.

They gave us no choice but to present ourselves to their Queen.

Since then, Queen Karasi has done everything in her power to keep us separated from Asha.

She’s finally left us alone.

We are finally reunited, and now…

I must tear us apart again.

Oh, my heart. I must become a cold-hearted villain because it’s Asha’s love for me that I need to use against her now. To stab at her with my voice as sharply as I can and make her believe that I despise her because of her power.

To keep her safe, I will turn myself into her enemy because the real threat… the danger she doesn’t yet know about… is standing right beside me.

And she trusts him.

Just as I did.

Thaden Kane casts me into shadow where he stands over me. I’ve remained sitting at the dinner table, and his tall, broad-shouldered, muscular frame is an undeniably powerful presence.

His hair is bronzed. His right arm is covered in fine, bronze scales the same burnished shade as his eyes. His clothing conceals the full extent of his scales now, but I’ve seen the way they extend across his right shoulder and up the side of his neck, as well as down his right side under his arm, stopping only above his waist.

The civilized tunic and pants the fae gave him to wear do nothing to diminish the raw brutality I sense in him. Rather, the tunic stretches tightly around his biceps and the expanse of his chest, sitting snuggly at the edges of his shoulders.

I expected him to focus entirely on Asha, but instead, his focus flickers to me, as if he can hear the hitch in my heartbeat and sense the fear in my blood.

His scaled hand feathers my arm, his forehead gently puckered, a look of concern on his face.

His touch would be comforting if I hadn’t seen through his lies.

Since he first arrived in the ashen wasteland outside the human city, he has masqueraded as a human who fell victim to Milena Ironmeld—Malak’s only sister.

Thaden told us that Milena killed a dragon and used its spirit to change him, giving him the scales, bronzed hair, and physical strength he now has.

He delivered the Vandawolf a message, supposedly from Milena, warning the Vandawolf that she was coming to claim her city. She supposedly calls the city Svikari Traidor : Home of Traitors.

But Thaden’s story was far from the truth—a truth I’ve been uncovering and piecing together, fitting the information I’ve gleaned from Thaden himself with what I already knew from the humans with whom I interacted within the city over the course of my life.

Tiny pieces that all come together to form one inescapable conclusion: Thaden Kane is a Blacksmith.

Worse, he’s Malak’s own son.

I don’t pull away from him.

Rather, I lean in to his touch.

I need him to trust me. By the bright saints, I can’t reveal that I know his secret.

Up ahead, Gallium pulls away from Asha. They’re standing only ten paces away from us, their interaction clearly visible to me.

Gallium’s features are tense again. “The Vandawolf also told me you plan on leaving us behind.”

I wasn’t part of Gallium’s conversation with the Vandawolf just before, so I’m not sure if by ‘us’ Gallium means just him and me or— hopefully —Thaden too.

“Yes.” Asha’s lips press together, a sign of her determination. “I’m even more certain about it now that I’m aware the humans have dragons.”

Gallium nods. “Gliss filled us in. Which is why I don’t agree with your decision. You’ll need all the help you can get.”

Gliss is one of the fae who brought Asha to the castle. Her sister, Elowynn, is the Queen’s Champion.

The fae are at war with the humans who live in the west, a conflict that I thought the fae should surely have won by now, given the strength of their elemental magic.

But the humans have powerful allies. They have dragons.

Over the last two days, I’ve heard the fae whisper fearfully about the might of the dragons, especially the fire dragons, and the devastation that they can cause.

Asha’s shoulders slump at Gallium’s assertion that she needs our help, but she lifts the tarnished strands of her hair, allowing them to rest across her left palm. “Humans did this to me, Gallium. They’re resourceful and cunning. They could do far worse with the help of dragons. Far, far worse with Milena’s assistance.”

She’s talking about the humans back in the Cursed Wasteland. Those humans are not part of the war in the north between the Fae Queen and the human Queen, whose name I’ve yet to hear.

In fact, the humans in the Cursed Wasteland are cut off from the rest of the world, living in their walled city in the south.

But if those humans, as isolated as they are, managed to inflict such harm on Asha, then I shudder to think what the humans in the west could do with the support of both the dragons and Milena Ironmeld.

Still, I hide my fear for Asha when her focus flickers to Thaden and me, ensuring that my features are stony because that’s how I need to appear.

I brace myself for the moment when I can strike…

“Judging by what Milena did to Thaden,” Asha continues, her focus pausing on him, “she’s a Blacksmith with a heart like Malak’s?—”

She’s given me an opening and I can’t waste it, no matter how much it hurts.

I rise from my seat, drawing on every shred of cruelty I can find in my heart and pulling it like a cloak around myself.

“A Blacksmith like you,” I snap, my voice overly loud in my ears even as I try to distance myself from what I’m saying.

The blood drains from Asha’s cheeks.

The pain in her eyes is instant.

And it hurts me. Damn , it hurts. But I can’t stop.

I glare at her as I push my chair out of the way with a loud screech that I’ve already calculated will jar her nerves. It will also rankle the Vandawolf, because I saw how he winced at the fae’s raucous voices during dinner. His hearing is truly like that of a wolf’s. Just as Thaden’s hearing is as sharp as a dragon’s.

They are both dangerous men.

“Yes,” Asha says, her voice strangled as she gestures to the band of black metal attached to her left palm. “With this medallion, I’m capable of great darkness.”

She has never been a liar. She has always spoken the truth, even when it hurts her. Her acknowledgment tells me how hard she’s fighting the darkness of Malak’s metal.

I want to tell her that she could never do what Malak did, that she is nothing like him and never will be.

But I can’t reveal my compassion and love for her right now.

I lift my chin and turn my glare on the Vandawolf. He is as much a looming figure at Asha’s side as Thaden is at mine.

But he is also changed now. Gone is the sharp tooth that used to protrude between his lips on one side of his mouth. Gone is the wolfishly amber color of his left eye.

I didn’t think it could be possible.

When Asha begged me to heal him, I was certain he would only succumb to his wolfish instincts and imprison her again.

I wanted her to be free.

Free of the past. Free of everything that chained her, including him.

How wrong I was.

He looks at me now with a nearly human face. He has intelligent, deep-gray eyes like the color of the sky at dusk right before night falls. His hair has remained the same gray color as a wolf’s pelt, but there is no savagery in his jaw. No rage in his face. No anger tightly controlled.

He is an inexplicably calm force at Asha’s side and, by the saints, he appears even more powerful for it.

But now I need his anger. I need his fury to rise. I need it aimed at me.

“When you kept our sister away from us,” I say to him, “I believed it was because you hated us and wanted to hurt us. But now I wonder if you did it to protect us.” I harden my gaze as my focus switches to Asha again. And then I spit the words, “Because she’s so much like Malak.”

Asha flinches. Her chest stills, as if she’s struggling to breathe.

Oh, I’ve hit her hard.

I fight the voice inside me that wants to scream at what I’ve done.

Beside me, Thaden is looming even closer, his eyes wide and his hand still, his fingertips frozen against my upper arm.

For a moment, I think he’s going to jump to Asha’s defense and rebuke me.

Nearer to Asha, Gallium has taken a step back. Like me, he has silver hair and pale-green eyes, which have flown wide.

His lips have parted in apparent shock.

He understood my decision not to heal the Vandawolf, even though he disagreed with it, but he will not forgive me for speaking so cruelly to Asha now.

The Vandawolf’s reaction to my accusation isn’t what I need.

I want him to react badly to my taunt, especially because I addressed it to him instead of to Asha.

I expect him to rage at me because it’s as clear to me as the beating of my own heart that he loves her.

I saw it ten years ago when I first laid eyes on him at the Blacksmith Academy run by my mother. Gallium and I were only nine years old. We had been summoned to the Academy’s forge, where the Blacksmith students worked at their anvils, shaping their metal.

Our mother stood in pride of place at the front of the room in all her regal beauty.

The Vandawolf was positioned at Asha’s elbow, where our mother had forced her to be. He was gripping a chunk of deadly crimson coal, holding it over the bowl beside Asha’s anvil.

I’d caught the fading laughter in the room as the door opened and witnessed my sister with her shoulders slumped. I knew immediately she was the subject of her classmates’ ridicule.

Oh, but the look on the Vandawolf’s face.

I had never seen him before that moment. Of course, at nine years of age, I didn’t have a hope of meeting all of the humans in the vast city.

Even so, the Vandawolf was taller and more muscular than any other human I’d ever seen. Stronger-looking than any human teenager I’d encountered.

He looked well-fed. Determined. And fucking angry.

His gray eyes cast fury at the other students.

Despite the fact that he was dishing out coal that could set him on fire, he seemed oblivious to its danger at that moment.

And then, when the student who was standing at the anvil directly behind Asha’s position used his metal to fashion a spiderweb of sharp blades and spun them at Asha’s back, cutting her…

The Vandawolf did something I’d never seen a human do.

He took hold of the crimson coal in his bare hand, burning flames and all.

I thought for an impossible moment that he was going to ram it down that bully’s throat. By the saints, I wanted him to.

But Gallium acted first.

My brother snatched our mother’s hammer right off her belt and threw it across the room with all his might. He was strong, even then.

The hammer spun all the way to the anvil next to Asha’s, hit the bowl of coal next to that anvil, and sent the burning rocks flying through the air.

The explosions that followed took my breath away.

The Vandawolf ran straight for Asha, but she was already racing toward us, darting through the fiery chaos, her ragged, silver hair flying—and all of her determination blazing in her eyes.

She scooped up Gallium and me and tore out of there with us.

The last glimpse I caught of the Vandawolf, he was standing in the middle of the flames, watching us disappear to safety, wearing a breathtakingly unexpected smile on his face.

But there was something else.

A sapphire glow had lit up his body, and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

That glow was gone the next time I saw him on the night he was turned into a beast. By then, he had annihilated my people. Killed my parents. And dressed himself in gore.

His hair was dripping with blood, his snarls were far from human, and his breathtaking smile… Well. It was gone.

And so, I thought, was his love for Asha.

In all the years since, I couldn’t find out anything about who the Vandawolf was or where he had originally come from. It was apparent that his family had died, but otherwise, his background was a mystery even to the humans in the city.

For ten years, he was simply the Vandawolf .

Then, a little more than a week ago, Asha was gored by a monster in the wasteland outside the city. It happened moments before Thaden Kane appeared. The human healers refused to help her, so the Vandawolf called me instead.

It was the first time I had the chance to be near her in ten years.

In the quiet moments after I had worked over her mauled body, my heart in my throat as I did everything I could to save her, I said to him: “You chose to keep Asha alive. You don’t want her to die.”

He scowled back at me and quietly threatened to kill me.

After that, he gave me the task that has brought me to this moment.

He told me to go to the prison beneath the castle where he was holding Thaden Kane prisoner and to extract any truths from him that I could.

Thaden lied to me over and over again, so many times.

But it was what I saw him do on the final night before we left the city that revealed his true identity to me.

I followed him to Malak’s orchard, where the apple trees sparkle in the dark, and watched him prowl to the very spot where Malak’s private anvil used to rest—a location known only to a few people.

Thaden had crouched and pressed his right hand to the ground, and while the acoustics of the place stopped me from hearing what he said, I read his murmur in the intense twist of his lips: Fuck you, Father .

Before I had a chance to speak with Gallium alone, the Vandawolf’s guards scooped me up, and I couldn’t warn my brother, let alone Asha.

Now, I expect the Vandawolf to rise to Asha’s defense. I have accused her of being like Malak—a cruel and unjustifiable accusation.

I need him to rise to her defense because I can’t pick a fight with silence.

But dammit , despite my taunt, he doesn’t reprimand me.

I’m forced to escalate all on my own.

Stepping toward Asha but speaking to the Vandawolf, I say, “You tested Asha when you made her pick up Malak’s hammer on the night you separated us. I wasn’t there to see it, of course, but I heard about it. The way her whole body lit up, the strength she displayed, the awful power she suddenly controlled. You made sure she only ever used that power against the monsters. You controlled her darkness.”

As I move toward Asha, both Gallium and Thaden step toward me. Gallium is shaking his head, as if he strongly disagrees with me.

Thaden’s hand has dropped from my arm and the crease in his forehead has deepened.

Asha’s hand has risen to her heart and her breathing is shaky.

I stop only three paces away from her.

I hold my head high, remaining as cold as I can be. “I have a memory of you, Asha,” I say, speaking more quietly now, deliberately using a partial truth against her. “Gallium and I were huddled behind Malak’s throne while you fought for our lives and tried to protect us. But you aren’t that person anymore. Now I wonder if you ever were.”

Her breathing is sharp, her lips pressing together, but I don’t stop speaking, continuing to attack her with my voice.

I step even closer to her and fill my words with ice. “The humans didn’t cover you in soot, darling sister. They scratched off the shiny surface to reveal what was underneath.”

Asha finally flinches back from me.

It’s a small action, but it speaks loudly.

Tendrils of both silver and black light spill around her clenched palm, which she holds tightly at her side.

I worry that I’ve pushed her too far…

But her voice is controlled as she turns to Thaden and does exactly what I need her to do.

“Thaden,” she says, her throat visibly tightening. “If you care about my family, please take them somewhere safe. You don’t have to tell me where. I don’t have to be a part of their lives. But you know this land better than we do, and I trust you to keep them safe.”

Thaden’s brow furrows as he throws a furious glance at me. I could believe that he cares about her. I could even believe that he’s worried about me.

If only it were true.

If only I could trust him.

I maintain my icy exterior, my head held high as I continue to glare at Asha, ensuring she doesn’t change her mind.

Her instincts will be screaming at her to stay with us. To protect us. I have to make sure she doesn’t.

“Of course,” Thaden replies, his expression dark as he throws me another glance. “I’ll do as you ask.”

Asha takes another step away from me. I’m not sure if she’s conscious of the way her right hand seeks the Vandawolf’s arm, the way her body language speaks to the connection they share.

“Thank you,” she says to Thaden. “That’s all I need. We’re leaving at first light. I hope you’ll do the same.”

With that, she turns away from me and hurries toward the exit. The Vandawolf follows closely on her heels.

I catch her quiet exhalation, a sound of pain that stabs at my heart before the door closes behind them and they’re gone from sight.

Whatever battles she might now fight, I know that the Vandawolf would give his life to protect her.

He is no longer the beast he was.

I’m certain she will be safe with him.

I’m relieved at the outcome, but I close off my features as I turn back to Thaden and Gallium, preparing myself to be reprimanded for my cruelty.

But— No! —Thaden’s already stepping past me, a blur of bronze as he hurries toward the door after Asha.

I can’t let him talk her out of separating from us!

But it’s already too late.

The door swings shut behind Thaden, closing with such a loud thud that I jump.

Damn .

I fight my frustration and my fear as I drop my head into my hands.

All my cruelty can’t be for nothing .

Please don’t let him talk her out of separating from us.

Gallium is at my side within a heartbeat. “Tamra?” His pale-green eyes are full of concern. “What’s going on?”

I can’t say anything. Thaden will hear.

“Please don’t hate me,” I whisper.

“Never,” he says.

His focus passes to the door through which Thaden passed and then back to me.

He gives me a determined smile.

My eyes widen. Does Gallium know? Has he figured it out?

He inclines his head, a small nod, and my legs nearly buckle with relief.

Gallium wraps me up in a hug, his voice the barest breath of sound at my ear. “Be careful.”

When he pulls back, his determined expression reminds me of my own resolve. The warmth of his hand on my shoulder speaks to the unbreakable bond of family that will always give me strength, no matter how dark our fate seems.

I press my left palm to my hip a little above the location of the belt I’ve wrapped around my upper thigh. It’s impossible to see beneath the flowing folds of the overly decorative dress Queen Karasi gave me to wear.

My hammer is strapped to my left thigh and my medallions are wrapped around my left calf.

The fae won’t have realized that I’m carrying my tools. The contact with the metal may light up my eyes and hair, but my glow is easily overlooked under the bright lights in this place, especially since the Queen overloaded me with powders and serums to accentuate the contours of my cheekbones and the color of my pale-green eyes.

Thaden may well have sensed that I’m carrying my tools, but I’m certain he will now attribute it to my fear of Asha.

I only wish I could have brought Gallium’s hammer, too. He doesn’t exactly have a long gown to hide it under.

He gives me a crooked smile and doesn’t try to conceal his speech. If Thaden’s listening, I’m certain he’ll interpret it as Gallium simply siding with me.

“Always remember,” Gallium says. “I’ll fight beside you.”

I turn back to the door, waiting for it to reopen and for Thaden to reappear.

I make myself a promise: If he threatens Asha, we will kill him.

No matter the cost.