Chapter 15 #2
Silence engulfed us.
Silas at least had the good sense to fidget on the throne that was too large for his short, grubby arms to look properly regal on.
“It’s not your throne anymore,” he said and broke my heart.
I closed my eyes, my entire world crashing around me once more.
My hands shook beyond my control.
A coldness unlike any the crater could stab me with spread through my entire body.
The Commander hadn’t lied.
I’d stubbornly clung to that hope to keep from shattering.
But it was true.
It was all heartbreakingly true.
A deep gash of shocked disappointment flooded me–but it was quickly swallowed by anger.
Hot.
Blistering.
Unstoppable.
The storm was rising to the surface and no mortal could stop it.
“You traitorous waste of space,” I hissed, slamming my hands against the desk.
The Commander raised a brow, but didn’t say anything.
Even Silas seemed taken aback by my outburst. I’d always had a cutting word for him, but not in anger. Pity and disgust, yes. Never in anger.
This time, he deserved it.
“What did you do?” I said, a woman uncaged and unlocked in her rage. “Who helped you steal the throne?”
Silas opened and closed his mouth. “I was the only one left who could–”
“Why didn’t you send the army after my cousins and I?”
“I told you, the situation is tense in Aquila and–”
“Did you kill my father?”
The question dropped like an anchor in the middle of a cyclone.
Everyone and everything went very quiet, only my harsh breathing resounding on either side of the palaver portal.
Silas’ eyes widened and his lips parted. I saw shock and hurt in his lackluster face, not the cold expression of a killer.
A stab of shame pricked at my quickly crumbling heart, but it quickly faded as Silas’ eyes narrowed menacingly and his lips thinned to the point of vanishing. “Careful how you speak to your leader, girl.”
The stabbing continued, this time with pain, so deep and visceral, like a thousand arrows pierced my back at the same time.
“You do NOT command me,” I said with the fury of a thousand storms, The Huntress in full swing. “You are an usurper.”
Silas’ face transformed with a cold edge I’d never seen glint in those beady eyes of his before. “Says the girl who ran away from the fight.”
I gripped the edges of the desk until my fingers turned white. “I was in that maze risking my life to save them ! All of you.”
“You didn’t save Alaric.”
He should’ve pierced me straight to the heart and smashed my head to keep the memories and guilt from consuming me whole.
It would have hurt less.
My entire spirit wavered for a moment. I barely registered the Commander kicking himself away from the wall and thundering my way–or Orion approaching the throne with a determined glimmer in his eyes.
“I was there,” I said. “You weren’t. I have witnesses.”
“Not what I heard,” Silas said with the petulance and giddiness of a five year-old. “Whatever witnesses you had are keeping very quiet.”
“Or are they being kept quiet?”
Silas shrugged. I was going to end his entire–
Orion’s hand flinched.
For the briefest moment, I feared he’d reach for Silas’ festering throat and rip it out.
But no.
Orion–may the gods bless him and Dria Vegheara herself welcome him with open arms when his time came–was moving his fingers rapidly to send a secret message, the same way I’d done at the wedding and how our ancestors had been doing for generations.
He’d strategically stepped behind Silas so the throne hid his hand from the stranger in the room as well.
Only I could see.
Only I needed to know.
“I will not be judged by you,” Silas droned, unaware of what was truly happening. “You are no longer here. You no longer have a claim to the throne. It is time for the Protectorate to reach new heights–”
Despite the whirlwind of emotions stretching my already frayed soul, panic still seared my veins.
The Commander was quickly approaching, murder in his eyes. Had he seen Orion’s movements?
No, impossible.
But if he reached my side, he would.
Perhaps not the whole message, but he’d know something was happening.
I tried desperately to keep the disgusted sneer on my face directed at Silas while I watched Orion’s hand from the corner of my eyes.
The Commander narrowed his eyes on me.
“A new dawn has come for our Clan and I will be its captain, raising the sails.” Silas’ voice rose with a grandiosity he’d done nothing to earn in his miserable life.
Then he sighed. “Enjoy the rest of your life, Allegra. The Protectorate and Aquila are no longer your concern. Live your life, enjoy your marriage, and make enough babies to forget about crowns and wars.”
I pressed my lips to keep from shouting.
Orion was almost done.
The Commander’s steps were so close, I almost felt them vibrating against me.
My entire body almost vibrated from the adrenaline.
Orion finished and hid his hand just as The Commander came into view, a menacing shadow towering over me. He placed a protective hand on the back of my chair.
Relief flooded me just as his heat enveloped me as he leaned down, eye-level with the palaver and Silas. Not crowding my space, joining me in it.
“For some unspeakable reason, you might be the Protectorate leader now,” The Commander said, voice laced with a regal, poignant venom Silas would never master in his pitiful life.
“But if you ever speak to my future wife like that again, that same day–not a week, not a month later, that very day–you will wake up in the middle of the night with me standing above you. You’ll only see me for a moment, enough for fear to grip your entire being, before I will take my dagger and cut out your miserable tongue. ”
He didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t need to.
Every word sank into me, a vow I’d never imagined coming from his lips.
More silence followed, this time heavy and shocked.
A strange feeling of reprieve and gratitude overtook me, unlike any I’d ever felt.
This man was supposed to be my sworn enemy.
Yet he had defended me against a foe I’d never imagined–my own family.
Despite the strain of this conversation, the tightness in my shoulders loosened as the two of us stared straight at Silas, who could do nothing but sputter.
“Are you threatening me?” Silas finally asked when he found his voice.
The Commander’s brows furrowed. “Yes, I thought I’d made that clear. Do you want me to threaten you again so you can fully understand the absolute idiocy of you speaking to her like that?”
“You dare–”
“Yes,” The Commander said simply. “And I will do plenty more if needed. She is under my protection now and I will show you what true safety means if needed.”
Two sides of me fought for supremacy.
One wanted to rejoice at his words.
The other wanted to rebel.
Neither won, caught in an endless clash.
“Lovely. Before I let you go back to whatever the Blood Brotherhood has in store for you–” A grim smirk cut Silas’ face as his eyes jumped between me and The Commander. “–tell me where you’ve hidden the crown.”
I stared at my usurper uncle.
Then I burst out laughing.
All the tension echoed in that unhinged sound. It cleansed my lungs and soothed my soul.
The idiot didn’t have the crown.
I had no clue where it was–it should have been in my father’s room, kept safely by ancient spells–and I definitely needed to find it, but it brought me unbridled joy to know Silas didn’t have it.
“That’s why you didn’t send the army. Apart from not wanting to,” I said once I quieted down. “You can’t.”
The Protectorate army, such as it was, could only be commanded by the one who held Grandpa Constantine’s crown–and the one which the crown itself accepted.
The crown had almost slipped from my father’s forehead at his coronation, barely clinging. But it had remained on his head.
No magic in this world could have kept the crown on Silas’ miserable head.
He remained silent.
“Do the soldiers know?” I asked.
A muscle twitched in Silas’ jaw.
No. The soldiers did not know he couldn’t command them–yet.
“You lied to them, too,” I said, almost gleeful, despite the pain drumming through me. “How long until they figure it out, Uncle ?”
Silas sneered. “You and your betrothed deserve each other in your arrogance.”
I chanced a look at The Commander, his harsh, sharp jaw so close to me, I could feel my breath ghosting over his skin, then a whiff of it bouncing back and skimming across my cheeks.
It felt personal.
Too personal.
I quickly turned back around to the palaver portal, still tense.
The Commander hadn’t given any indication he’d seen Orion’s message.
Instead, he’d defended me as I secretly plotted to leave him.
Guilt I should not have been feeling still somehow wormed its way inside me.
“Big words coming from the Usurper,” The Commander said. “Don’t forget my words, Silas. I won’t forget yours.”
With a final grimace, The Commander rose and stepped to the side, but not straying too far away from me. As if he wanted to let me end this conversation on my terms, but wouldn’t be too far away unless needed.
The guilt bloomed.
“Leash that bastard’s tongue before I do,” Silas hissed.
I huffed a disbelieving laugh. He sputtered before and now wanted to play big, did he? “But, Uncle…with what army?”
“ My army, which I will command–”
“Pray The Commander finds you first.” I leaned forward, bringing my face as close to the palaver as I could, like a predator ready to snap its jaws. “He will have more mercy on your miserable soul than I will.”
“Listen here, girl–”
“You listen and listen well.” I rose slowly.
Now I was looking down at Silas, as it should have always been.
A waste of good Vegheara blood, this louse.
This dangerous, powerful louse. “I will take back my throne. I will protect my people and my Clan. And I will make sure your name will only become a cautionary tale for the rest of Malhaven’s history.
I will bring the storm, Uncle, and there will be nothing left of you in its wake. ”
Silas opened his mouth to argue.
I slammed the palaver book shut–not before giving Orion a furtive glance which needed to tell what I couldn’t speak.
I got the message.
I pressed my hands on the desk, breathing deeply, scared I might give myself away.
My knees shook.
My heart wept.
My mind still couldn’t understand this heinous reality.
But I was not alone in fighting it.
“You laugh in the strangest moments,” the Commander said softly, startling me away from plans of escape and vengeance.
I gulped.
Then gulped again and licked my lips, the words on the tip of my tongue stinging like poison.
“Thank you,” I muttered, not looking at him, but at the shadow he cast before me, cocooning mine, but still a breath away.
Perhaps that’s why they called him The Shadow.
Always there, always seeing, always watching.
His shadow nodded. “Don’t worry about it. I know what it’s like to deal with an insolent uncle. He should have never dared to talk to you like that.”
“Not just for that.” I inhaled sharply and turned to him. “For telling me the truth, even when I didn’t believe it.”
All of it had been true.
Silas.
The lies he spread.
My beloved Aquila under his control.
But not all of Aquila.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered as low as me.
It seemed we were both more comfortable with cutting words than soothing ones.
“What was my Uncle–” I spit the word out. Usurper . “–talking about our marriage?”
Silas had made it seem like a done deal.
And it couldn’t have been.
Nobody in their right mind would pair the Protectorate heir, official or not, to a Blood Brotherhood Commander–
“The raven arrived this morning,” he said gravely, gaze so fixed on me, I was almost sure he could read my thoughts and uncover my plan. “Our marriage will take place–or both of our Clans risk the Clan Council’s wrath.”
I stared at him, this man who’d intervened on my behalf, even though he hadn’t needed to.
The one I was about to betray in just three days.
A stark understanding reflected between us.
The Clan Council’s wrath meant dark, ancient magic nobody but the Magistrates knew how to control.
Our Clans would be destroyed.
We would be killed.
Our civilians slaughtered, our lands seized, and our traditions incinerated.
“I can’t marry you.” I stiffened my spine and tilted my chin as high as it could go. “We are enemies.”
“The Clan Council doesn’t care,” he said. “I don’t want to marry you either. But I will if it means my Clan’s survival.”
That smarted. It shouldn’t have, I wanted to marry him even less, but smart it did.
Pride was a dangerous, fickle thing.
At least I hoped it was pride.
There had to be a way to stop this marriage.
Or at least delay it.
If I had to marry someone to protect my Clan, I would.
But, first, I needed to make sure I still had a Clan to protect.
For that, at least, I finally had a glimmer of hope.
As I stared at The Commander, my heart faltered in the rhythm it had kept since Orion had delivered his secret message.
We know where you are.
Three days, two miles away from the crater’s rim, south-west, follow the morning star.
We’ll come for you.