Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
KILLIAN
Makers fucking help me.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this.
I was barely able to make my feet move to walk toward the throne.
Toward my throne. And now my heart is beating like the stomping of a thousand Northlands in my fucking throat, so hard I can barely breathe.
Thea stares, unblinking and unbelieving.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. It will be alright. I just need to explain and it will be alright.
“His Majesty, Dorian Killian Elvania,” Frederick announces and I grind my teeth.
“The second,” I add hastily as Thea stares, taking a step backwards. It’s a small step, but it feels as if the whole of the Seeva stands between us now. “Technically…”
I clear my throat and Frederick chuckles low.
I shoot the old man a withering look. He’s known me all my life and having him beside me is the only reason we’ve been able to do all of the things we’ve done.
He’s the reason I’m able to lead the army—my true calling—instead of sitting my ass on this throne day in and day out pretending to be king.
He truly runs this kingdom, I’m simply the one who has to hold the crown because of the bastard that sired me.
“What in the actual fucking fuck, Killian??” Thea finally snaps.
In any other situation, I’d laugh at the mouth on this woman, but right now, I couldn’t muster laughter if I tried.
I rise from the throne and take a step towards her, but she steps backward again, shooting me a look that tells me all too clearly that if I want my favorite appendage to remain attached to my body, I’ll not move again.
Odessa wisely remains still. Soren’s tail swishes behind him, but he doesn’t look like he wants to rip my throat out, so I’m assuming he’s known the truth for weeks. Animals talk to each other, after all.
“Thea, please let me explain.” I hold her gaze, begging silently and though there’s confusion and hurt in her eyes, there’s also love. Thank the fucking Makers, there’s still love. “Please,” I add, so quietly it’s barely even a whisper.
“Talk. Fast,” she grates out, and the temperature in the room drops, my breaths clouding in the air in front of me. Federick inhales sharply and mutters a prayer. We have hundreds of Gifteds here, but none like Thea. The power she wields is…terrifying. Amazingly, beautifully terrifying.
“You asked me to let you speak without interruption once, when you told me your truth. Now I ask the same of you as I tell you mine.” I hold her stare and those emerald depths seem to burn to the heart of me—or perhaps she’s just wishing she could burn me true, that she really did have her sister’s Gift right now.
But after a moment, she nods once. I take a deep breath, share one quick glance with Dessa who gives me an encouraging nod, and begin my tale.
“My father was a monster. A despicable human to his rotten core who collected and used and abused Gifteds, just as the rumors say. I hated the man with every fiber of my being. He—” I clench my jaw, my fingers curling into fists as dark memories rise, but I push all of that away.
The way he treated me as a child, the way he drove my mother to leap from the mountain to escape him and his torment, don’t matter right now.
I’ll tell her one day, if she wishes, but right now I need her to understand the rest. “What the rest of Hypathia does not know is that my father died nearly fifteen years ago. The mantle of this kingdom has been on my shoulders ever since, but it was Frederick who knew that we could use my father’s reputation to our advantage, to help us turn this hell for Gifteds into a sanctuary. ”
Her brow furrows, a small V forming between her eyes.
“The Gifteds here knew there was no love lost between me and my father, and I’d always been kind to them when I could—I’d taken many beatings for taking extra food to the dungeons and tending wounds.
I’d even tried to orchestrate an escape once, but I was only ten at the time and it didn’t end well. ”
I roll my shoulder unconsciously, remembering the pain as my father tore it from its socket, the crack that sounded loud as thunder, the vomit that rose as he punched the dislocated joint over and over…
I bite the inside of my cheek but I see something flash in Thea’s eyes and know that she understands there is much darkness in my past. Her eyes soften ever so slightly, concern and anger on my behalf shining there and making my chest clench.
It is a very special thing to be loved by Thea Sparrowhill.
What I’ve done to deserve to be counted among that number will forever be a mystery to me.
I clear my throat lightly and continue on.
“So, against all odds, they all believed in me, in this vision. Just because my father was the most prolific and terrible slaver in Hypathia, didn’t mean that he was the only one, and some of the others were just as awful.
Barony the worst of them all,” I mutter.
Thea’s eyes spark at that, curiosity and even more confusion burning, but I push on. We aren’t there yet.
“But my father was the most feared and the wealthiest, so we used that to our advantage. We hired Hunters, more than any others in the empire, offered to purchase Gifteds from other kingdoms, let word spread farther and wider of the horrors of Duskthorne. Hunters were banging at our door to deliver Gifteds to us, and while they were always free to leave, almost all wanted to remain once they learned the truth. Because though word was spreading about Duskthorne’s collection, it was also spreading about Barony. ”
I can see Thea stiffen at his name, tensing for what’s to come. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Barony has been collecting all these years too, Thea. Your sister may be the Gifted that he parades through the continent and whores out for her power,” I spit, “but she is far from his only. He has dungeons full of them…dungeons and laboratories.”
She blinks several times, and while she remains silent, I can see her mind racing, her pulse thrumming at her throat.
“Dark alchemy. He’s been having his alchemists study the Gifteds—usually by tearing them apart piece by piece—for years.
” My own Gift roils inside my chest at the thought.
The horror stories I’ve heard…I shudder and press on.
“He’s been trying to find a way to steal their Gifts for himself.
I’ve never seen anyone so green and sick with envy as Barony Moreau.
A kingdom of suffering people, all the riches he could want, a Gifted for his own personal use to garner him even more fame and coin and reverence—but none of it is enough for him.
He wants power, the kind from within us…
” I take a deep breath, “…and he’s found a way to take it. ”
She inhales sharply.
“What?” she whispers, clutching onto Soren.
“It’s the reason the war started. It’s the reason he’s rallying the rest of Hypathia against us.
He wants the power of every single Gifted within these walls.
He’s promised to share the power with all who join him, promising to turn them into Makers on earth, more powerful than any Gifted naturally born.
The dark alchemy they’ve discovered, it changes the Gift, intensifies it, distorts and disfigures it.
He hasn’t taken power for himself yet, still letting others be the tests in these dark, twisted experiments, but he will soon. ”
“What…what happens to the Gifteds that he…uses?” She swallows hard and when she meets my gaze, I can see by the sorrow in her eyes that she already knows the answer.
She closes her eyes and looks like she’s whispering a prayer.
When she opens them again, they’re burning with hatred and righteousness and my chest swells at the sight. My woman. My warrior. My queen.
“Did she know?” she spits quietly, venom in her voice so thick it could poison all of Hypathia. “Did Tesni fucking know??”
“I think so, yes, but I can’t be sure.”
I can feel her Gift rise up, but I don’t dare try to block her.
I see a sheen of frost coat her skin, her eyelashes, and the temperature drops again.
I feel Frederick tense and Dessa cuts me a worried look, but I hold out my hand to both of them.
Thea will be ok, she just needs a moment, so I give her as long as she needs to work through everything on her own.
She takes a few deep breaths, letting them out slowly, clutching onto Soren as she calms herself.
“So…does everyone know you’re both the king and the Commander?” she finally asks.
“Everyone within Duskthorne, yes.”
“But how—”
“Long, long ago, we had magik in Hypathia.” She frowns.
“What we know as alchemy now is but a remnant of what magik truly is. Or was. It’s faded from this world, but once upon a time, those with magik in their blood could do all manner of things—similar to Gifts, but so much more.
Duskthorne still has a bit of the old magiks here—it's always been stronger in the north, but even more so here in the Obsidians—and it’s that old magik that seals the secret of my identity within the walls of the kingdom.
It’s why Dessa couldn’t have told you the truth out on the road, even if she wanted to. ”
Thea looks to Dessa then, and I can see her mind working, probably replaying conversations where Odessa seemed like she was holding something back, trying to reassure Thea about Dorian but choosing her words very, very carefully. Dessa gives her an apologetic shrug.
“I did tell you all would be well,” my archer quips. “So, I did tell you true. See,” she gestures around the room. “All well.”
“I…what…that’s…” Thea makes an incoherent noise of frustration and shakes herself. “Shut up,” she finally snaps, but I know all will be forgiven soon enough.