Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
THE COMMANDER
T he return bell aboard the Blood Brotherhood ship rang louder, turning shrill.
Neither of us moved, the air tense and cold.
“You can’t be serious.” I exhaled loud enough to rattle the stone cliff we’d taken refuge under for this infuriating discussion.
The wounded had been escorted aboard and were already tended to. The dead were reverently placed in the lower deck, for their last journey and a proper warrior funeral back in Phoenix Peak, the Blood Brotherhood throne of power, where tradition and blood ruled all.
Or should have.
This was a time for mourning.
Not deranged schemes which could bring a Clan war.
“I am,” Zandyr said evenly. “I know this is a difficult request.”
“Difficult? It’s impossible.” I stared at the heir and my closest companion like he’d suddenly been replaced by a replica. One that suddenly didn’t listen to reason. “I am not babysitting that Vegheara brat.”
Soryn sighed as his dark eyes looked at the disgruntled sea stretching before us. “Technically, you’d be guarding her.”
I growled in reply.
“One could say…” he went on, undeterred. “Protecting her.”
“Don’t,” I said curtly. “I’ve helped you patch up too many of your battle wounds for you to try and pull those tricks with me.”
Soryn knew exactly which threads to pull on. While I admired that skill in him most days, I didn’t want it poisoning my mind now.
Thankfully, he also knew when to shut up.
The ship bell rang louder.
We were being called back.
Mission accomplished–barely and in a way none of us had wanted.
I watched the gold and red sails flutter in the distance, the sight that seared dread in the coldest of hearts, even those of the pirates mastering and tormenting the Nine Seas down South.
The Blood Brotherhood army was unbeatable.
But, today, we’d lost.
Not the confrontation, but too many souls.
And for what?
To uphold a dusty marriage contract signed by others.
We’d come, Zandyr had somehow convinced the bride to come with us, the Blood Brotherhood had retained its honor.
Fine.
But what Zandyr and Soryn were proposing was insanity.
“You saw what happened on this island. Such a thing has never been witnessed in the history of Malhaven. You’re inviting danger into our lives by aligning ourselves with the Vegheara family,” I said, my cold voice traveling with the wind, just like it did back home.
Home .
Where more problems awaited me.
Where the Northern Clans nipped at my heels and my fortress was the only thing standing between them and the rest of the Blood Brotherhood.
Where, despite all of that, I still felt most at peace in the entire world.
“I gave Evie my word her cousins would be safe,” Zandyr said. Like that meant everything. Because to him, it did.
“You and your blasted honor.” I exhaled sharply. “You promised her safety, you take her.”
“I can’t bring the heir to the Protectorate throne–the damn Huntress –into Phoenix Peak. Banu and Valuta will twist it as treason,” Zandyr said patiently.
“Then Soryn–”
“I have to leave straight for the Clan Council and mitigate this mess before we find ourselves in a Clan war,” Soryn said just as evenly.
Like I was the unreasonable one here. “You’re the only one of the Blood Brotherhood Elite who can do it.
Calyx is wounded and will need to recuperate.
Elysia would poison The Huntress after the stunt she pulled in the garden. ”
That part was gloriously, surprisingly true.
I huffed a laugh despite myself. Cutting The Viper’s hair from thirty yards away with nothing but an arrow and sheer determination was no small feat.
“She’s The Huntress, she can protect herself,” I said. “She almost killed me back in the maze.”
My thoughts rushed back to that little flicker on her stubborn face, when her bright eyes widened with apprehension for a fraction and I caught the barest glimpse of her .
The woman behind the fearsome titles.
The fiery thing had faced me like a well-seasoned warrior hiding in the body of a goddess. Her wild hair looked like it could never be tamed, her tattered dress revealing those sublime legs that didn’t move a fucking inch as she crouched in that impossible stance.
She’d kept me in her sights, arrow aimed straight at me, unwavering.
Her protective shield had almost mocked my powers at the wedding.
She’d survived an ambush which had felled more experienced Clan members.
She was dangerous.
The kind of dangerous I didn’t want anywhere near me or my fortress.
The Huntress might just tear it from the inside out to prove she could.
“The Huntress does not miss.” Soryn’s dark gaze finally met mine. “But it’s a miracle the poisoned arrows didn’t take her down. The first one was aimed straight at her.”
I clenched my jaw.
He was right.
If the First Daughter hadn’t launched herself at her bothersome cousin, the poisoned tip would have pierced her, not the vase.
“She was the main target,” I said.
“If someone wanted to destabilize one of the most powerful Clans in Malhaven, taking out the heir to the throne would be a very good first step.” Soryn moved his all-seeing gaze to Zandyr. “Especially when the former heir has suddenly reappeared after sixteen years.”
“Evie’s not involved,” Zandyr said with absolutely certainty.
Soryn and I exchanged a quick glance.
“She is too inexperienced and too scared for that,” Zandyr pressed on. “And the only thing she cared about was protecting her family, not the Protectorate.”
A stunned silence settled over us.
Clan came before family.
Honor before heart.
This Lost Daughter might have been just as dangerous as her stubborn cousin.
“Then let the Protectorate protect them all. Isn’t that what they do?” I grumbled, but my voice lacked bite.
“Their Clan couldn’t protect them today,” Zandyr said, watching my every reaction with his unblinking Dragon eyes, sharp enough to notice the cracks forming.. “Especially not The Huntress.”
No.
They’d expected her , a slip of a woman, to save them all.
Zandyr looked at the mighty cliffs rising in the background and the castle towers casting their shadow over us all. “This day will be remembered for centuries. This is the moment we choose which side of history we stand on.”
“It’s in the Blood Brotherhood’s best interest that a Vegheara remains on the Protectorate throne,” Soryn said.
“They’re stubborn, but they’re not stupid or cruel.
If there is a power struggle within that Clan, if someone else takes the crown, we might be heading into a Clan war.
Especially with a stolen bride aboard our ship. ”
Because no Blood Brotherhood member worth their sword ever went back on a promise or a contract, and Zandyr would not be the first to break that rule.
Honor had gotten us into this mess–it would have to get us out.
The reality beat against me–and the best instincts my mother had tried so very hard to instill in me in a frozen land where violence was the only teacher.
I could almost hear her sweet whispers in the wind.
Protect them, my son. Nobody else will.
Old vows and honor struggled inside me.
This was a bad idea.
The worst.
Horrible.
An idea my principles wouldn’t allow me to say no to.
“Godsdammit.” I rumbled between clenched teeth.
Zandyr and Soryn instantly relaxed.
They knew they’d won the fight.
“For how long?” I asked, voice cold.
How long was I supposed to hide and babysit a literal storm of a woman inside my sacred fortress?
“Until we make sense of this massacre,” Zandyr said. “Too many lives are at stake to let it escape Sanctua Sirena.”
I rolled my shoulders back, the rumble still vibrating in my throat.
I’d made my decision, but that didn’t mean I had to be happy for it.
My gaze slashed toward Zandyr. “You owe me for this, Brother .”
“The entire Blood Brotherhood owes its existence to you ever since you joined our Clan.” He nodded my way. “Your sacrifice will not be forgotten... Brother .”
“For the good of the Blood Brotherhood,” I recited, this time without any passion. This good had gotten me in more danger than I would have ever imagined.
My two Brothers through battle, not blood, echoed our creed.
They sounded relieved.
Of course they did. They weren’t the ones who had to spend gods-knew how many days guarding The Huntress.
No more words were exchanged as I closed my eyes and tightened my muscles, feeling my bones snap underneath the well-trained strain.
Even after so many years of forging myself in the cold, the rush still cracked me open from the inside.
The echoes of pain from the torment of the ritual which had rearranged my very essence coursed through me.
The ache was worse than any wound, any dagger, any fire. More painful than The Calling itself, when I’d bled on the sacred stones to get access to my Blood Brotherhood powers.
But it made me soar.
One second I was standing next to Zandyr and Soryn.
In the next, I was rushing up the stone stairs from the jagged Sanctua Sirena beach back toward the maze. The world blurred as my body defied nature and I became nothing but a haze.
Faster than sound, lighter than sight, I retraced my steps back to where I’d last seen her.
The world rocked back into view, threatening my equilibrium, as I halted.
No sign of her or the ivy bow.
Who had flowers on a deadly bow, anyway?
The Huntress, that’s who.
I crouched low to the ground, gaze sweeping over the scorched grass.
Through the reek of smoke and poison, I could still smell her. A fresh scent that beckoned me further into the maze.
It was silent.
Too silent.
In the distance, a threatening sizzle scraped against my thoughts.
I turned, only to see a green mist crawling toward me like a creature forged in the underworld, which had somehow found its foul way into the land of the living.
A strange dread took hold of me as I rushed forward.
What if I’m too late?
The Huntress could have escaped–or she could have survived the attack only to be finally taken down by the mist.
No, that was impossible.