Nevermore (The Never Sky #2)

Chapter 39

39

I ’d taken the little, chipped teacup from the Parlor and set it on my bedside table. I’d stared into the reflection of the giant gold clock in the dining room, watching each second of each minute tick by. A week was nothing to most. Certainly not Vesalia, an immortal with all the time in the world. But it was a lot to me. I’d needed him to be here. We needed to move forward with his cause. Secure the children, find a king, maybe kill a prince. I wasn’t sure. But the seventy-five days were flying by and each one reminded me that Quill was getting further and further away instead of closer.

The only thing I could do was take the time and use it to my advantage. Learn something, let the space between Thorne and I be exactly what it needed to be. Space. Because at the end of this, come hell or high water, I was going to leave. And there’d be nothing but space between us then. And so, so much time.

As if he could have heard my thoughts, that little golden book burned at my thigh. Warm at first and then growing increasingly hot as I was warred with myself to open it. I could have. But what good would deepening my relationship with Thorne do? That’s all that would come from being available to him for a week. I’d be his distraction from whatever hells Vesalia wrought, and he’d dig himself a little further into my heart.

With very little resolve, I walked away from the sitting room and hustled upstairs, throwing the book into the bedside table and slamming the drawer. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I stood there. Wasn’t proud of the way I held the knob in my hand, let go and grabbed it again. But I was proud when I walked away. When I chose to protect my heart as fiercely as I’d protected Quill these past seven years. Maybe I wasn’t her mother. But I was the closest thing she had, and she was the closest I would ever get to being one.

I paced in front of the door, the moonlight shining through the line of windows above it. Waiting. And waiting. Until three soft knocks sounded. I whipped the door open to find Archer there, a sleeping child in his arms, one clinging to his free hand and two more behind.

“Thank the gods,” I said, stepping to the side to let him in. “Actually, fuck them, but I was beginning to worry.”

I ushered the children in, kneeling. I swiped the threadbare hats from their heads, revealing a curly haired blond boy, Alex and his cousin Amara, not the youngest but nearly there at only five and seven.

“Okay?” I asked, looking over every inch of them. “Ready to get settled in?”

Amara rubbed her sleepy eyes. “Yes, Miss Paesha.”

I smiled, taking Alex’s hand. “Go on up the stairs and turn that way.” I pointed. “There are several rooms and beds. Stay together but pick your favorite. I put blankets at the end of the bed. Be sure to take your boots off.”

They were so tired, their strides long and leaden.

“What took so long?”

“Wee Willy decided we needed to wait an extra hour just to be on the safe side.”

“And he’s in charge now?” I asked, taking the little one from Archer’s arms.

He pulled Sigrid from where she’d clung to his leg. She was older, ten maybe, but she’d always been the quietest of the crew. “Harlow always lets him decide.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was coming. “And I don’t get it, Fingers. She’s always been so tough. She doesn’t give in on anything with me. But he says ?jump’ and she says, ?Would you like me to come back down too?’”

I smiled, looking up at him. “Maybe she loves him.”

“Yeah, but why? And also, how does that make him in charge of everything?”

“Come on. Let’s get these sleepy kids up to bed and then I’ll tell you the story of what happens when a man and a woman fall deeply in love.”

“Stop it. That’s my sister.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure Cressida is someone’s sister too and last week you didn’t have a problem?—”

“Point taken,” he said sharply. “Tiny ears, Paesha. Tiny ears.”

By the time it was all said and done, all thirteen children were accounted for. Some of the beds were crowded, and we’d taken blankets from every place we could. But it wasn’t until Jasper came in, his cheeks rosy with a genuine smile, despite his arm, that I felt somewhat at peace.

I needed to know he’d be taken care of, too. And if that meant the prince came knocking on this door and I had to hide everyone in Thorne’s empty wine cellar, then I guess that’s what that meant. But I wouldn’t do it alone. Briony had come in with the last group of Salt around midnight. Apart from how much the kids attached themselves to Archer, she was next in line.

I’d taken a step back from the little ones, knowing if I spent too much time with them, I’d never be able to leave. But Briony was almost always there, the first to dry tears and the first to scold bad behavior.

That evening, with Thorne gone, but the house entirely full, the adults sat around the dining room table.

“What do you know about her?” I asked Archer when she left the room to get a cup of tea, keeping my voice low enough to avoid cutting into the table’s many conversations.

“Momma Salt… er uh, Tilly, the woman that ran the orphanage, she raised Briony. Several of the Salt that came through the Hollow were hers. Tilly was always respected on both sides of the line and folks were willing to help her, no matter how deep or shallow their pockets were. I think the Salt feel beholden to these kids. Like helping them is paying tribute to Momma Salt.”

“Good. That’ll make it easier when?—”

He raised a brow, pinning me with those baby blues. “When what?”

Dammit.

Archer was kind and gentle, playful and generous. But he wasn’t safe. No one here was safe.

“Well, eventually Stirling is going to need another orphanage, don’t you think? The prince is likely already wondering where these kids are. Especially Reuben.”

He leaned back in his chair, locking his arms behind his head. “What’s your end goal, Fingers? What does this look like for you in, say, three years?”

His posture was casual, but his eyes were not. Archer was smart, decisive, always three moves ahead. And fuck if he wasn’t growing on me. But there were others in the room and the fact that it’d fallen silent wasn’t lost on me. Tuck, sitting at the far end of the table, stared right into my soul as he waited for my answer.

“From where I’m sitting, it’s hard to tell. We’ve heard nothing about where the king might be. Farris is still doing his raids, but it’s hard to believe he’s searching for his dad when the fruit of his labor is growing his Cimmerian army and removing magic from the world. If we find the king, and he’s alive, which is doubtful, then I think he’ll take an audience with me. I think that’s the right move and I have to believe it’s still possible. He’s still alive somewhere.

“If I get an audience, I can expose everything Farris is doing. Then Farris falls from power. The kingdom goes back to some form of peace, and everyone lives happily ever after.”

“Couple things,” Archer said, sitting forward. “If this could be solved by an audience with the king, it would have been done. But as long as Farris is breathing, he’s not going to let that happen. He controls every foot that steps into that castle and the bigger his army grows, the worse it gets.”

“Then we start chopping off the arms of the Cimmerians,” Jasper said, piping up from his seat beside Tuck. “We know it works.”

“Or we kill the prince,” Tuck said, staring at Archer now. “Just cut off the head of the snake and the body will fall.”

Archer raised his glass in the air. “Here’s to just. ”

The room silently raised their glasses and drank. I slid my hand around the rim of my cup, walking through what I knew, what I’d assumed, where I’d landed in my mind, wondering if this was a safe place to say it. But mine was only a theory.

I glanced at Tuck and he was still watching me. I tilted my head toward the open seat on my right. He promptly rose, stretched and came to sit closer, with Archer and Jasper moving in to listen. Building a wall of shoulders.

“I have a theory,” I whispered, prepared to lace a few lies in where I needed to cover my own tracks. “It might be just that. I haven’t sorted it all out yet, but what if Farris is giving the magic he’s stealing to the gods? And what if that’s why none of them try to stop him? When we were with Vesalia, there was this moment. She pulled me into another space. You were there, Archie. You saw it.”

He nodded.

“She told me the power feels different in this world. Like it’s not as strong. What if Farris is trying to help the gods and in turn they are helping him? What if this isn’t a war against the people? Not really. What if it’s the gods vying for power and this realm is where they are pulling it from?”

“Then we’re in far over our heads,” Tuck whispered before sitting back once more. I studied their faces, letting the theory race around their thoughts. In that moment, I felt a pang of longing, wishing Thorne was here. His mind would have been running rampant with theories.

“Can we all agree that step one is finding the king?” Archer asked, pulling the conversation back in. “Even if this is a god’s war and not our own, we’re being used as minions. We’ll turn into foot soldiers. If we can’t get to Farris because he’s protected by the Cimmerians and the gods, then we have to find King Aldus and make him see reason. If he can set up a meeting with Farris, we can ambush and take him down.”

“Well, that’s the second part of my theory. We can’t find the king. We’ve had people searching all over the place. Tuck, you even managed to get in the Maw again yesterday, right?”

Tuck sighed. “It’s ah…” He cleared his throat. “It’s bad down there. We’ve swept the castle too. It’s hardly guarded. They know the king isn’t inside.”

I took a steady breath, steeling myself for their shut down, though I knew I needed to push us into action. “We need to do something reckless. And we need to do it before Thorne gets back.”

Jasper shook his head. “This sounds like a bad idea, Miss Paesha.”

“It’s definitely a bad idea. Because we have to figure out where all the Cimmerians from the castle are. We’ve seen them in the streets, sure. We know Farris has some around him. But there’s a horde of them hiding somewhere and I think if we find them, we’ll find the king.”

Tuck scratched his neck, drawing away from the table as if he could remove himself from the idea. “It’s too dangerous. And I’m standing by my original theory that the king is already dead.”

“If the king were dead, Farris would already have had his funeral and taken the throne,” Archer argued.

“Then what the fuck is he hiding him for?” Tuck asked.

I finished the rest of my tea, letting the question linger until I was ready to speak the answer. “Unless he’s not the one hiding him.”

You could have heard a pin drop. The entire world fell silent.

“What do you mean?” Archer asked.

“What if it’s a god?”

Jasper blew out a long, slow breath. “I think you’re onto something.”

I finally, finally let my eyes fall to him. The most important man in the conversation. “Tell us what the God of Justice said as he bound you to Farris.”

Jasper’s face paled. “I’ll never forget those words. Themis, he said… he said, ‘I bind your will. Your heart shall beat as one with your Cimmerian brethren, your loyalty unwavering, your obedience absolute. With each pulse, feel the threads of fate entwine, drawing you ever closer to your prince’s desires. With each pulse, you will become an extension of this being, a vessel for my ambition.’”

“Well that makes no sense,” Archer said.

“Sure it does,” Jasper argued. “Cutting off my arm worked because there hadn’t been enough time passed for me to feel drawn to the prince. Not enough heartbeats, if you will.”

I let the smile unfurl as I watched the other’s faces, seeing the truth behind my wild theory.

“Yes, but that’s not the most damning part of that revelation,” Tuck said, echoing my thoughts. “The Cimmerians are bound to the prince, sure. But they’re also bound to Themis’s ambition.”

“Son of a bitch,” Archer said, leaning so far forward the back legs of his chair left the ground. “If this is a battle against the gods, we’re fucked.”

Tuck shook his head. “We’ve always been fucked, brother. The battlegrounds have just changed.”

“Which one of us is going to tell Thorne when he gets back?” Jasper asked.

All heads turned to me.

“I don’t know about you boys, but I’m not about to sit around and wait a week to find where the Cimmerians are hiding. This is still a theory. We’re counting on Jasper to remember every single word, and we’re still making assumptions based on it. I prefer proof. And I think it’s time to do something instead of sitting around here, waiting for more terrible shit to happen.”

“Got a plan?” Archer asked.

“Yeah, but it’s dangerous.”

“We need to wait for Thorne,” Tuck said.

Jasper nodded. “I agree.”

Archer kicked me from under the table before saying. “Yes. We’ll wait a week and as soon as Thorne gets back, we make a plan.”

I stared into his eyes, knowing he didn’t mean a single thing he’d said. “All right. It’s decided. We wait a week.”