38. Chapter 38
Chapter thirty-eight
Cyrus shifted uncomfortably in his armor from where they waited on top of the ridge overlooking the western valley.
He wanted to pull it off, but he was pretty sure Essandra would only fuse it to his body.
The helm was the worst—a full-face cover with a daggered crown on top.
Cyrus didn’t like a simple crown on a normal day; he especially didn’t like a nonsimple one affixed to a suffocating face shield of metal.
Heaviness weighted his stomach. Norah thought she was meeting the king of Rael, but when he pulled off the helm…
“ Where is she? ” Essandra asked through the blood bond, even though she sat on her horse right beside him. He’d had her, Everan, and Kord all take the blood to be able to keep communication.
He closed his eyes and let himself drift back to the birds in the distant sky, ignoring the dull ache in his head. “ She’s almost here. ”
Norah came with an army. He wasn’t surprised. The Shadow King wouldn’t have allowed her to come alone. Cyrus wouldn’t have if it had been Essandra.
His heart thrummed heavily as he sat, waiting. This would be his first time meeting Norah as himself. As King Cyrus. He wondered if she would be angry when she discovered him. It was likely. No one appreciated being deceived.
But just how angry would she be?
When she finally appeared on the ridge, Cyrus felt more anxious than he did before battle. She glanced back over her shoulder, where her army waited just out of sight.
“ Is that the Shadow King? ” Everan asked of the large, mounted man that accompanied Norah.
A wrap covered his face.
“ It’s the commander ,” Cyrus answered. He didn’t like that she’d brought him, but, again, he hadn’t expected her to come with no protection at all.
Essandra shifted in her saddle.
“ Leave him ,” he told her. Had it been the king, he would have taken the risk, but he didn’t want to lose Norah over a mere army commander. “ Just keep an eye on him. ”
“Cyrus,” Essandra said aloud. He paused and looked at her, and she held out her hand to him. “Take this.”
In her palm was a firestone necklace. Its surface was veined with molten threads of red and orange, as if capturing flame itself inside. It was beautiful, but…
“What’s it for?”
“Is it not appropriate to bring a gift when meeting a queen? And you can’t let the commander see the blood. Use the necklace to hide it.”
Cunning woman. He couldn’t help but smile under his helm as he took it.
Cyrus advanced his horse with Essandra beside him, down the hill and into the valley, toward Norah and the commander. Everan and the rest of their small group stayed on the ridge.
Norah and the commander did the same, advancing too.
As they drew closer to each other, Norah’s stare stayed locked on Cyrus. She wore a silver-spun riding dress and a dark navy cloak. No armor. Her hair hung long around her shoulders.
Essandra dropped an illusion over them all, an extra level of precaution against the watching eyes of the Shadow King and his army.
The illusion witch in Essandra’s coven wasn’t strong, but she was strong enough to shield anyone from seeing what was really happening.
Cyrus could take the queen and be gone with her before the Shadow King even knew, although he had no intention of doing that. Not yet, anyway.
Cyrus and Norah stopped a few lengths from each other.
“King Cyrus,” she greeted him with a respectful nod of her head. Her voice was firm yet kind. Melodic.
She couldn’t see his face yet.
His heart beat heavier in his chest. He didn’t like surprising her this way, but it was too late to change course now. He was committed.
Slowly, he reached up and pulled the helm from his head.
As Norah’s eyes met his face, she gasped. She stared at him with the shock of surprise, then her lip trembled.
“Alexander?” she breathed. Gods how he hated that name, but now she’d know him for who he truly was.
Disbelief filled her eyes. Yes, he’d come to her before, but as a ghost of her grief. Now, to be before her in the light, for everyone else to see, under the banner of an enemy… he couldn’t ignore the pang of guilt that needled him. He should have done this privately.
It was the slightest of movements, but Cyrus still caught it, and he jerked up his shield just as the commander loosed two bolts from his crossbow.
He gaped at the arrows protruding from his shield. This man had actually tried to kill him… here… now…
Then the commander charged.
“No!” Norah cried.
Anger flashed through Cyrus. So much for a goodwill meeting. Had she planned this? He hadn’t exactly considered Norah a friend, but it still felt like betrayal.
She’d had his trust.
Essandra countered with a holding spell, stopping the commander and his destrier midstride. Her words echoed in Cyrus’s mind as she summoned the power of fire.
She’d burn them where they stood.
“Stop!” Norah cried out, and it seemed to be directed at the commander just as much as at Cyrus.
“ Wait ,” Cyrus told Essandra through the blood bond.
“Stop!” Norah yelled again. She frantically looked back over her shoulder to where her army waited. Did she think they’d save her?
“The Shadow King cannot see,” Cyrus called to her. “Nothing looks amiss for him.”
The commander snarled as he fought against his hold—no doubt Essandra was making it as painful as she could for him.
Good.
“Please,” Norah called. “Stop. You’re hurting him.”
That was the point.
But Cyrus cast Essandra an eye that asked for restraint. “ I want to hear what she has to say. ”
Essandra relented on the pain but still held the commander in place.
Norah stared at Cyrus, her breaths short and clipped. “Who are you?”
“Perhaps the name Lucien may be more familiar to you,” he said. As he gave her his childhood name, he had to force his voice steady. He hadn’t spoken it in a very long time. Did she know Alexander had had a twin?
Her eyes grew larger, and she sucked in another breath. “Alexander’s brother?”
So, she did know… He watched as she started piecing everything together.
“You’re his exact likeness,” she whispered.
“As many twins are.”
She swallowed as she shook her head. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
It was strange to think about this life that he’d had before. Strange to speak about it. He’d made himself forget for so long, but now to remember…
You’re supposed to be dead.
“Yes, I am,” he said finally. “At least that was the intent of my mother.”
Mother. Another word he hadn’t spoken in quite some time. His chest hurt.
Her eyes traveled his face, still not believing. “But now you’re king of Rael?”
“Now I’m king of Rael and Serra,” he said. His words didn’t feel like his own, his voice didn’t feel like his own.
Norah swayed slightly, and she gripped the mane of her horse near the pommel of the saddle. He almost feared she’d fall, but when he stared back into her eyes, it wasn’t weakness he saw. And it wasn’t fear.
“I did not come here for blood,” she said firmly.
Cyrus glanced at the Shadow commander, who still struggled against Essandra’s hold. “He seems to have other intentions,” he said.
“He doesn’t respond well to deception,” she said sharply. “Neither do I.”
There was the anger he’d expected.
“But I have come to talk,” she added.
That held a faint air of promise, but… He cast his gaze to the ridge behind her. “With an army?” he asked. Then he shifted to her commander. “And the Destroyer .”
Norah pursed her lips. “Well, you didn’t come alone either, with your…” She looked at Essandra and paused.
“Witch?” Essandra finished for her. The corners of her mouth drew up ever so slightly in amusement. “You can say it,” she taunted.
But Norah didn’t engage with Essandra. She simply looked back to Cyrus. “Can we take a walk?” she asked him. “Just you and me?”
“Salara!” the commander snarled, clearly not liking the idea.
Cyrus almost smiled. “I would love a walk,” he told her.
She glanced back at the ridge. “Will he see?”
He. The Shadow King.
Cyrus could let him see. He could let this king see as he took his commander. As he took his queen from him.
Cyrus could make him hurt.
Badly.
But that wasn’t what he was here to do—he wasn’t prepared to take on the Shadow King and his army.
And he didn’t actually want to hurt Norah.
So, he simply shook his head. “No.”
Norah slid down from her mare, and Cyrus did the same. The commander fought Essandra’s hold harder, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t get free.
“You won’t hurt him?” Norah asked him.
The corners of Essandra’s mouth curved darkly. “Not too much,” she said.
“She won’t hurt him,” Cyrus assured her, and that seemed to settle her.
The commander growled out to his queen again, but she ignored him. She kept her eyes on Cyrus.
He held his hands out and open at his sides, showing her he carried no weapons. He had no intention of harming her—he hoped she saw that.
Slowly, she stepped toward him, and he motioned them forward, away from the commander.
As they walked, the air calmed between them. He was grateful—it had been a rocky start, but if he could just talk to her…
“It was you,” she said, breaking the quiet between them. “It was you who came to me.”
He said nothing; he only waited for her reaction.
“All this time,” she said. “The visions, the dreams, it was all you.”
Was she angry?
“You’re a seer?” she asked. Then she paused. “No, not just a seer, a traveler.”
A small smile came to his lips. She was smart, and obviously much more knowledgeable than he’d thought. “You continue to surprise me, Norah.”
Her brow caught, as if his words hit her strangely.
Her eyes dropped to his neck. She’d spotted his markings. He didn’t try to hide them now. He only stood, letting her look at him and string the details together in her mind.
“It was your blood,” she said.
She was doing quite well—how much could she figure out?
“But in the Free Cities,” she continued, “in the inn, that wasn’t a vision.”
He wasn’t quite prepared to explain what he’d done in the Free Cities. He wasn’t sure he could. It hadn’t been his finest hour, and he’d rather they move past it.
“You really were there,” she said.
Yes, he had been.
“You came to my bed,” she whispered. Pain etched across her brow. Was she looking at him, or was she looking at his brother? It was hard to tell. “I let you close,” she said. “An enemy of the North and Kharav, you could have killed me then. Why didn’t you?”
Because he didn’t want to.
Anger eddied in the depths of her eyes. “Is this all you wanted?” she asked sharply. “We came all this way to meet only so that I could see your face?”
“No,” he said, finally finding his voice. Well, no and yes. He pulled out a blood vial and held it for her. “I came to give you this, in person this time.”
She gaped at him. “What’s that?”
“You know what it is. Invite me back, and I’ll tell you everything.”
She scoffed. “You’ve told me nothing!”
Not for lack of want. “I will,” he promised. “I need more time, time we don’t have here. Let me come to you.”
“Absolutely not.” She shook her head.
“Did you really think we’d settle things so quickly?” he asked. “With your army on the ridge and only a few fleeting moments?”
Her face slacked.
“Take it,” he said, holding the vial out nearer to her. “And then decide.”
Norah glanced back at her commander. Worry scored her brow.
“ Give her the necklace with it ,” came Essandra’s voice in his mind.
Cyrus revealed the firestone necklace in his palm, then pushed both items into her hands.
“What’s this for?” she asked of the necklace.
He glanced back at the Shadow commander. “A small gift. To use.”
“ The illusion is weakening ,” Essandra said. “ We have to go. ”
He was out of time, and there was nothing more he could do in the moment anyway. He’d made his offer, and now the choice was hers.
Cyrus turned back toward his horse, passing the commander, who snarled at him in the Shadow tongue—a slew of curses no doubt.
“ Give him a gift from me too ,” he told Essandra.
The commander jerked in pain against her hold as another snarl ripped from his lips.
Cyrus smiled as he mounted. Then he glanced back at Norah, who still stood where he left her. “ Do you think she’ll use the blood? ” he asked Essandra.
“ The way she still looks at you—yes, she’ll use it. ”
Then they turned their horses and urged them back up the ridge to where Everan and the others were waiting.