Chapter 34
C HAPTER 34
LOR
T he relief that expands in my chest at Tyr’s words almost makes my legs collapse out from under me.
Hylene smiles and strokes his hand. “Can you show us?” she asks softly, and Tyr nods.
Then, with obvious difficulty, he heaves himself up from his seat. It’s clear it’s a struggle, his movements dragging in slow motion like he’s been submerged in cold tree sap. My eyes burn with tears at the sight of him. I don’t know him, but I can’t imagine what kinds of horrors he must have suffered under Atlas.
Tyr hobbles to the edge of the room and stops in front of the bookcase near the window. That’s when I spot it. Sitting right out there in the open like just another random object on a shelf .
Though maybe I’m being a little unfair because it is encased in glass, clearly meant to protect it. Tyr looks at it and then walks over to the desk, where he picks up a dagger lying on the surface. He lifts his hand and slashes his palm. A line of blood swells to the surface.
“Tyr!” Gabriel shouts, already moving towards him. “What are you—”
Tyr holds up the bloodied hand and shakes his head.
“It’s okay,” he says softly. Tension vibrates in Gabriel’s frame. He wants to do something. He’s worried about Tyr, and I wonder about their relationship. How long have they known one another? He is Tyr’s warder. He never really belonged to Atlas.
Then Tyr shuffles back to the shelf and presses his hand to the glass case. The front pops open, allowing access to the ark.
“Only I can open it,” he says before reaching in and taking it out.
“But that’s . . .” Gabriel says, staring at the ark. “Isn’t that the object used to create the warders?”
“It is,” Tyr says. “The Mirror explained the process when I ascended...” He shakes his head as his voice trails off. He makes his way back to me holding the ark to his chest. I look at Nadir, who’s watching the Sun King.
“I want you to take it,” Tyr says. “Please.”
“Just like that?” I ask. I’d kind of expected I’d have to plead my case a bit more or, if worse came to worst, stuff away my conscience and steal this one, too.
Tyr draws a ragged breath. “The Warders were a mistake. This was a mistake,” he says, gesturing to the ark. His voice is filled with apology as he looks at Gabriel .
“If there’s anything the last one hundred years have taught me,” Tyr says, “it’s that no one should ever be forced to carry out the bidding of another.”
Gabriel swallows heavily, though his posture remains erect.
“However, before I hand it over, I must do one last thing. Will you allow me that?”
I nod because I think I already sense what he’s about to say.
“It is time to free them, once and for all.”
“Other than a warder’s own death, the only escape from the warder bond is his king’s death, but that kills the warder too,” Gabriel says, his voice dead like he’s recited the words a thousand times.
Tyr dips his head, acknowledging his words.
“That is true,” he says. “ Or I can choose to free you with this.”
He holds up the ark.
“I’m sorry,” he says, tears filling his blue eyes. “I should have done this so long ago.”
So many emotions cross Gabriel’s face—sadness, anger, confusion. And a profound sense of loss. Atlas could have chosen to free them at any point.
“Thank you,” he says, dropping his head either out of respect or in an attempt to hide the tears that I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want anyone to see.
“Do not thank me,” Tyr says. “If I had never allowed this tradition to continue, then nothing Atlas did would have been possible. I am as much to blame for all of it.”
“No,” Gabriel says. “Don’t do that. Just because someone has power doesn’t mean they have to use it. ”
Those words strike something deep in my chest. I think about the destructive power of my magic and realize how true they are.
“Do you know how to do it?” Nadir asks.
Tyr shakes his head. “I know some of it, but I will speak with the Mirror while we wait for the others to return. It’s time I make some decisions anyway.”
Everyone in the room is silent, their eyes on Gabriel, who seems to be two seconds away from falling apart.
“I’m going to . . .” He shakes his head. “I’m just going.”
Then he abruptly spins on his heel and stalks out of the room.
I don’t know why I do it. Gabriel and I have always had a complicated relationship, and maybe I’m the last person he wants to see right now, but I bolt for the door.
“Excuse me,” I say before I follow Gabriel, running to catch up. His steps are sure and quick, and he ignores me as I fall in next to him. I have to jog-walk to keep pace with his long legs.
I open my mouth, but he cuts me off.
“Don’t,” he says. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“About what?” I ask as he gives me a side-eyed glare. “Oh, you mean the whole prisoner to your king thing?” I raise a hand and mime buttoning my lips shut.
“Totally not what I was going to ask you about,” I say, and he gives me another skeptical look. “I mean, I don’t really care, you know?”
Of course, I don’t mean that, but my answer seems to shake something loose, his shoulders and his wings dropping and the tightness around his mouth easing .
“Then what do you want, Final Tribute?”
“You know, you could stop calling me that,” I say. “I am literally a queen.”
Gabriel snorts. “I don’t see a crown on your head.”
I can’t help the smile that creeps onto my face, and I swear I catch the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes. There’s something so normal and nostalgic about this moment that my chest tightens with acute longing for our surroundings to settle into a simple and normal place.
“Don’t you dare fucking cry,” he says. “Or I’m sending you back.”
“How dare you? I don’t cry.”
That finally earns me a quirk of his mouth.
“You still haven’t answered why you’re following me like a stray kitten.”
“I just wanted to know that you’re okay,” I say, bringing him up short.
“Why? I’ve been a dick to you since the day we met.”
I shrug. “You really have, but . . .”
“Lor . . .”
I reach out and grab his arm. “I understand now how much pressure you were under. How little control you had over everything and that your personality isn’t all your fault.”
It takes him a moment to realize I’ve just insulted him, but that elicits a dry laugh before he keeps walking. I scurry along. The hallways are all dimmed with low light, devoid of the parties and music I remember during my first stay inside the Sun Palace. I wonder where everyone is. From what the others told us, there have been constant riots and fighting in the weeks since we’ve been gone.
Where have all the rich nobles run to? Their homes in the city? Or further away, where none of this can touch them?
“Where are we going?”
“ I’m going to send a message to my brothers,” he answers. “I don’t know where you’re going.”
I ignore that comment, keeping pace with him as we wind through the palace until we reach an aviary filled with carrier doves. He opens a wooden box attached to the wall and retrieves a slip of paper and a pen.
With a gesture for me to follow, we open a gate and step out onto a balcony. White doves sit in cages behind us, cooing softly. The vantage offers a view of Aphelion and the miles of farmland and forest beyond.
“Where are your brothers right now?” I ask.
He shakes his head as he writes on the paper. “They’re closing in on him.”
“What will you do if they find him?” Our gazes meet. I know the punishment for treason in Aphelion is execution. Is that what Gabriel has planned? I suppose he’s not technically in charge, but he does seem to be the one everyone is going to with their questions.
The look on his face tells me that he knows what I was about to say and that the same thing has been weighing on his mind.
“What are you planning to do with him, Gabriel?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. ”
He runs a hand through his hair and peers into the distance. “It was all going to come down eventually.”
“You did the right thing,” I say. “In case you were wondering.”
He squeezes his eyes shut. “I don’t know if I did. The city is in chaos.”
“Because of what Atlas did, not you.”
“Thanks,” he says, though I can tell he doesn’t really believe me.
“You deserve answers from him,” he says, and I blink. “If anyone does, you’re at the top of that long list.” He inhales and runs a hand down his face. “I know some of the reasons, Lor. Before everything went down, he shared some of them.”
“Does it have anything to do with everything we just told you?” The more I learn, the more I’m sure Cloris’s promises to Atlas are the source of Aphelion’s current strife.
“Possibly, but I’m beginning to suspect he was led astray.”
“I think I’d like to hear it from him,” I say, and Gabriel dips his chin.
“That’s fair. I hope you get that chance.”
“I wish I’d known about all this during the Trials.”
“Would it have made a difference?”
I grip the stone railing and lean back. “Maybe? For us?” I say, and that wins me a rare smile.
“I’m sorry I was such an ass,” he says. “I didn’t understand what you were doing there, and I was worried about Tyr.”
I sense something in the way he says his king’s name. I noticed it in the study, too. The way Gabriel looked at him.
“Were you two ever in love . . .” I venture, and he nods.
“A very long time ago. But that’s over. How can we ever go back after everything? He’s seen me at my worst, and though I don’t blame him for Atlas’s actions, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to see anything else. How do we ever get past that?”
I think I understand what he means.
“Nadir’s father killed my parents,” I say, and Gabriel turns to me, his brow furrowing. “I spent so much time hating Nadir for that. I pushed him so hard, and even though I knew I felt something for him, I didn’t want to.”
I lean against the wall, placing my elbows on the ledge.
“But we found a way through it.”
“You’re mates. That’s different.”
I shake my head. “Even if we weren’t, I’m sure we would have ended up here.”
“Yeah. I don’t think that’s what fate has in store for us. That’s not what I want anyway.”
I nod and look across the horizon.
Gabriel scribbles a few more words onto the paper and then rolls it up. He opens a cage and retrieves a bird in one of his large hands.
“Would you mind?” he asks, holding out the roll. I tie it to the bird’s ankle, and then Gabriel faces the wall, pausing with the pigeon clutched in his hands.
“What did you write to them?”
“To hurry home. That soon they will finally be free.”
Then he lifts his arms and thrusts the bird into the sky, his wings ruffling softly. We both stand side by side, the breeze tossing our hair, watching until it disappears from view.