Chapter 42 #3
“Wings,” I said, my mind spinning with the idea of that as I wondered if I could have truly seen it or not.
Kyra’s brow furrowed in confusion, and she looked over her shoulder as if searching for any evidence of that.
“Did you hit your head in that brawl, Cass?” Drake taunted, his gaze roaming over Kyra too.
“What did you say you’d seen again, Cassius?” she asked me curiously, pinning her focus on me once more and I frowned at her, wondering how she could have forgotten that so quickly.
“Wings,” I pushed, but this time instead of frowning she just laughed, shaking her head at me as if I’d lost my mind and Drake arched a disbelieving brow at me too. “Never mind,” I muttered, turning my attention to the more pressing issue of what we’d just done.
I gazed around at the lair I was in, the spilled potion, the chest of jars and bottles which were surely enough to incriminate Magdor. Though how I was going to prove this place belonged to her, I wasn’t sure.
“We had better alert the guards.” I made a move towards the exit, but Drake snatched my arm, yanking me around to face him.
“How the fuck are we supposed to explain this?”
“With the truth,” I said frankly. “We'll tell them she brought me here.”
“And why would they believe that? How are you going to tell them what happened without bringing the coin into it? I won’t let you expose Kyra like that.” His expression darkened in warning, and I bristled at the challenge he presented.
“We'll say we don't know why she was after us,” I growled. “We cannot let her get away with this.”
“Cassius,” Drake hissed. “Magdor's gone.
Drowned, dead, who knows? Who really cares?
Doesn't look like she's coming back, mate. So let's just return to our rooms and pretend it never happened. All you really wanted was to get rid of the bitch anyway, so it seems to me like we’ve accomplished that. We don’t need to draw any attention to our involvement in it.”
I shook my head, ready to walk away again when he went on.
“Without Magdor, we don't have an admission of guilt or any real evidence aside from a room of dubious shit – there isn’t even anything to prove this place was hers,” he pressed.
“Without her, the Royal Guard can twist this any way they want. And right now, it looks like we just killed the empress of Osaria and are standing in a den full of shit we could have brought here for all they know.”
I clenched my jaw, stubbornly wanting to have faith in the system, even though doubts were crawling in. “They will believe us. We only need to explain-”
“Not everyone is as honest as you, Cass.
I've been on the receiving end of the Royal Guard's mercy more times than I can count.
And you may not have kicked the shit out of street boys for amusement, but I've met plenty of them who did.
So I'm not going to risk ruining what I have here for the sake of your morals.”
“The evidence is right here,” I snarled. “The kingdom must know what Magdor has done.”
“They'll want to question us,” Drake growled. “ All of us.” He glanced over at Kyra who was now sitting on the stone table, swinging her legs. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Do you think she'll get through a line of questioning without them figuring out what she is?”
My gaze trailed over the innocent, magical girl with my gut tying in knots.
No matter what vendetta I had against Magdor, I couldn't risk Kyra being exposed.
The coin would be seized. She'd be forced back into it, and who knew what would be done with her then?
They could kill her or abuse her power. And after she had come here to help save me, how could I repay her with that fate?
I shut my eyes, fury making my blood hot as reality descended on me. “Magdor will get away with everything.”
“She's dead,” Drake whispered. “That surely means the emperor will be free now? Everything will be okay again just like you wanted. You just won't get a medal for it.”
“I don't want a-”
“Sure, sure.” He slapped my fucking cheek a couple of times in that patronising way which made me want to break his pretty face before turning to face Kyra and raising his metal fist. “Can you undo this now? As much as I like it, I'm not sure it'll count as honourable in tomorrow's brawl.”
Kyra slipped off the table, her eyes falling on his hand until the metallic sheen of it fell away and he was left flexing his fingers as his flesh returned to normal.
“And if you could heal me too that would be amazing,” he added, pointing to the scratches on his face as if that was the most worrying thing to him right now. But it was the large gash in the back of his head which continued to bleed down his neck that I would have been most concerned about.
“You’re so fucking vain,” I grumbled at him as Kyra granted his request and healed him, cleaning away the blood and grime until he looked like a gentleman once more. Or at least as like one as he was capable of appearing, with that street-born swagger and casual posture.
“I’m failing to hear an insult there, Cass,” he said. “Now stop the jealous bullshit and agree to let Kyra heal you too.”
“Are you sure you have the energy?” I asked Kyra with a frown, remembering the way she’d looked after fighting off that thing which had been present here with Magdor.
“It hurts me to see you hurting,” she replied, the honesty in her response surprising me and as I felt her magic humming in the air between us, waiting on my consent, I could tell that was the truth.
I nodded once in acceptance and she smiled as her power washed through my body, healing and cleaning me the way she had for Drake.
“You’d better get the disguise back over your face again too. Then we can get the fuck out of here,” Drake added, and I agreed to that, allowing Kyra to disguise me as Drake Nazari’s guard once more.
My heart clenched as I gazed between the two of them, knowing I had to accept this fate.
We would return to our rooms, and pretend we knew nothing about this when it was announced that Magdor was dead.
And if her death released the emperor, then maybe everything I'd hoped for would come to fruition anyway.
Maybe there would be no pageant at all by tomorrow.
Maybe it would be outlawed. Maybe Austyn would be given the freedom of choice at long last.
“Come on,” Drake urged as he led the way through the cave towards a door hidden in the shadows. “We have a dragon to appease.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Oh right, yeah that dragon we pissed off is attacking the palace,” Drake said, tossing me a grim look and a distant boom far above us proved that he was telling the truth.
“So I had the clever idea to use that dragon scale she gave you to summon her to us, give her a heap of gold and tell her to fuck back off to the desert. Sound good?”
“Alright,” I said heavily, scraping a hand over my short hair, feeling ready for anything now that Kyra had healed the weakness from my body. “The scale is in your quarters.”
“Oh. So I didn’t even have to bother coming to find you after all,” he said, giving me a sweeping look, and the stupid little thought I’d had about him coming here to help me popped before my eyes. “Lucky for you I didn’t know you didn’t have it on you, eh?”
“Yes, Drake, lucky is exactly how I feel about this turn of events,” I deadpanned, not liking the way a knife was twisting in my chest over learning the truth.
Fool. Did you really think he gave a damn about you?
Kyra shifted closer to me, a knowing look in her eyes. “He was always going to come look for you, Cassius. He was worried about you. You’re his only friend after all,” she whispered loud enough for Drake to hear too, and he scoffed.
“You really need to stop trying to convince yourselves that I’m a good man,” he warned, his eyes skimming between the two of us with his usual helping of far too much bravado. "It will only make it hurt more when I prove the truth to you and break your little hearts.”
“Liar,” Kyra muttered, but he ignored her, and I was saddened that she had so much faith in him.
“Kyra, I wish we were back at our rooms,” Drake said.
“As you wish,” she replied. “Let’s go turn that dragon’s frown upside down.”