Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
THEA
“Do it again!” Mia cries with glee and I laugh but oblige.
I send the snow around her churning into a slow cyclone, eventually building up enough speed to lift her into the air.
She whoops and screams, telling me not to stop, but after a few minutes I let the cycle toss her into a soft bank of snow.
She pops out, covered in white powder and grinning from ear to ear.
It’s taken me a little while to get used to the new strength of my Gift since my bonding with Soren.
It’s…heady, to say the least. A little terrifying too, if I’m being honest. It takes far less thought and power to do simple things now, and I can do far greater things than I ever imagined—though I of course haven’t tried anything even close to what happened on the tundra that day.
A part of me feels guilt for all of those lives I took, all those souls given over to Noxum in a heartbeat and forever encased in that ice.
It will never get warm enough to thaw them completely.
Kendall says it will be a monument to my greatness, that people will travel from all over the empire just to see it one day.
He has it in his head that I’ll be the savior of the continent now somehow.
I’ve told him more than once how absurd that is, but he only smiles and says that he is eager to spread the word that he’s a friend to the great Ice Queen of Hypathia—though he insists that the Ice Queen of Duskthorne sounds better, hoping that I’ll truly be a part of them soon enough.
I have no idea if that could ever be true.
Killian seems sure that King Dorian will be all too willing to have me as part of his army and won’t give two flying fucks about the ransom now, but unease still coils in my belly as we draw nearer.
He’s a madman. Who’s to say how he’ll react or what he’ll think or do.
Now that I’m free to use my Gift, the journey is much easier and we’re making quick work of these last few days. I can clear the snow from our path quickly and divert the worst of the storms from overhead, sending the drifts out of our way.
“I still can’t believe you aren’t her. Or, well, I can because you were never quite as awful as you were supposed to be, but…it’s all so crazy,” Dessa says, shaking her head.
“I know,” I sigh. “Trust me, I never wanted any of this to happen…” I shift my gaze to Killian as he strides down the main path between the tents, talking to Nigel and a few other officers. Odessa follows my gaze and tosses the stick she’d been drawing patterns in the snow with at me.
“I’d say it didn’t turn out so bad, in the end.”
Word has most definitely spread about the two of us after the tundra, but now that my true identity is also known by all, there doesn’t seem to be any hostility about us being together. In fact, I’ve had several people apologize to me for how they acted when they thought I was Tesni.
“I would have said and done far worse in your position, trust me. I hate my sister more than anyone else on this earth,” I assure Michael, an older gentleman who had spat at the ground every time I walked by, cursing me to the depths of the seventh hell every day for the last two months.
I still don’t know all of the details, but Tesni was somehow responsible for the deaths of his family, and I add it to the very long list of things my sister will one day atone for at my hand.
Somehow, I know deep in my bones that this will all end with the two of us. Fire and ice, fighting to the last.
I’ll be ready when the day comes.
Ryker had sent a missive with Alexi a day after the incident on the tundra. A simple message that had made me smile for days.
Thea,
Welcome to life out of the shadows. I cannot wait to see how brightly you shine.
Yours truly,
King Ryker Ashdown, IV
“Do you think he’s lonely?” I’d asked Soren as Alexi waited patiently for me to finish my reply to Ryker.
-Why do we care?- Soren had drawled, shooting a disdainful look at the bird.
The raven had cawed irritably at that and Soren had grumbled, rolling his icy blue eyes.
-Ok, fine, he says thank you for worrying, but he is fine.
He has many brethren throughout the lands and keeps time with them, learning of all the happenings from all of Hypathia. -
I started at that, turning to the bird.
“Do you know what’s happening in Helios? Are the people there safe?”
Alexi cawed again, jumping to the desk and nudging his head beneath my fingers
-He says that ships have tried to enter the bay, but they have been thwarted. Helios remains safe for now.-
I sighed in relief. “Thank you.”
I sent the raven off with another letter for Cece and Math as well, telling them that I was ok, that we were nearly to the end of our journey—still not revealing where we were truly headed—and that I would find a way to them soon.
If the chains had been dropped to protect the bay, finding a way to Sol would be far more difficult.
Not impossible, but difficult. I told them in a coded way to be ready to flee just in case and sent the bird on his way.
“So…is it as…um…prolific as they say?” Dessa whispers, drawing me back to the present.
Now that I’ve stopped having to lie, our friendship has grown even stronger and I was all too happy to join the other ranks who are allowed to call her by the shortened version of her name.
I saw her pin a young lad with a glare that sent him scurrying away and probably pissing himself when he’d tried it without permission.
I look at her blankly and she rolls her eyes. “You know…Killian’s…sword.”
I bark out a laugh and clap a hand over my mouth.
“Who is they?”
“Everyone,” she says, as if that’s obvious. “There are literal songs sung about it in taverns throughout Duskthorne.” I snort at that, needing to hear these tunes immediately.
“You’re joking. Are you joking?” I tilt my head and narrow my eyes. “I can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“I’m not. He is legendary for more than the strength of his Gift and his fierceness in battle.
” She arches a brow, the golden rings glinting in the sunlight.
“He’s like a brother to me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be…
curious about certain things when I hear about them nonstop from gossiping hens throughout the kingdom.
” I glance to Killian again and I can’t say I’m surprised that he has a reputation.
He seems to feel me staring and turns, meeting my gaze and smiling.
“Ah hells, I’m sorry, does that make you upset?”
“Upset? No. Why would it?”
“I mean, you’re not jealous?”
I snort at that, laughing. “I don’t think a man can look and act like that and not have women—and men, for that matter—begging to be in his bed. He had a life before me…and I was no nun before I met him either,” I add with a waggle of my brows. She laughs.
“I’ll need to hear of these exploits once we’re home.
” Home. For her, it is. For me? I have no idea.
Odessa presses on. “So…the songs are true then? You’re the only one I know personally who has first-hand knowledge of the…
situation. The barmaid at the Wolf’s Head claims she does but I don’t believe a word out of that wench’s mouth.
I mean, he’s the—" She seems to choke on the words, biting them back and searching for different ones to use. I frown. “He’s the Commander of the army and has chambers in the palace at his disposal. Most of the women he beds are courtiers and such.” She plasters a smile on her face but something is off about it, a bit too forced.
I eye her but decide I’m imagining things that aren’t there as the nerves draw tighter and tighter within me, the unknown gnawing at me like a dog with a bone.
I learn forward and say in a lower voice, “Calling it prolific would be like calling that great sword a dagger,” I say, nodding towards Jonathan’s sword resting at his hip. The big man wields a massive long sword that looks as if it would take at least three men to lift.
Her eyes widen and she gives me an appreciative look.
“Good for you, princess, good for you.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re never going to drop the princess thing, are you? Even now that you know the truth?”
“Nope,” she tells me, smiling and popping the p loudly.
We laugh but it fades quickly as I look into the distance, the looming mountains far too close now.
Odessa follows my gaze and her face pinches.
“You needn’t worry, I promise.” I must look skeptical.
“Do you trust me? And more importantly, do you trust him?” She tilts her head back towards Killian.
“Yes,” I say quickly. “To both.” I trust them both with my life…
though Killian is still being evasive about the war and whatever he claims Barony has been doing.
He says he needs to explain it all once we reach Duskthorne, and while it doesn’t help the worry slithering through my stomach, I agree to wait.
“Then, as I said, you needn’t worry.”
I sigh and eye the mountains again. “I guess we’ll see tonight.”
We make it to the Seeva later that afternoon.
A thin layer of ice crusts along the edges of the enormous river already as true winter draws ever closer, though the heart of it still flows strong enough to give me pause.
The river is so wide here that I can’t even see the opposite bank, and though a large wooden bridge stretches over the water, disappearing into the distance, it looks as if it’s been here since the early days of Hypathia itself.
“Are you sure this will hold?” I ask, glancing over the side of the bridge warily into the rushing water below, swallowing hard as the wind whips at my hair.
The boards creak beneath the horses’ hooves and I clench my jaw.
Soren leaps atop the low wall lining the edge of the bridge and I inhale sharply.
-Get off of there! What if you fall!?-