26. Krait
Chapter 26
Krait
“ W hat a shit idea, Krait.”
Elsedora was fuming. I’d never known her to be riled so easily.
“She’s manipulative and naive,” I tried. Sybilla’s words had crept under my skin yesterday and uncovered a sore of festering guilt that I’d not realized was still open.
“She is the Last Daughter of Isleen—the person you have, for centuries, had me scouring the realms for. Why are you trying to send her away ?”
“I’m not trying. I am sending her away.” I shrugged. “We’ll find another option. She is useless to us if she can’t help us secure water rights.”
Speaking the lie made my jaw tighten, and I knew that El of all people could see through me.
Her eyes narrowed, and a gust of wind blew back my silk cloak. The breeze was a welcome reprieve from the sweltering heat. We stood on the main balcony of Umber House. The courtyard bustled with people preparing for our formal announcement of an alliance between Luz and Sahlmsara.
“You know well that what you just said is utter horseshit.”
It was. I didn’t know of any other way—my whole life I’d been led to find her. Why did she have to come in such a provoking package?
Ropes were being strung between stakes to prevent anyone from getting too close to the balcony. We needed Sybilla unscathed when she left my realm tomorrow.
El sighed. “You’ve come too far to give up now.”
“It will be alright,” I reassured her. It wouldn’t.
Freya’s name on Sybilla’s lips had felt wrong, like a disrespect to the memory of my late wife. Maybe I wasn’t willing to face that closure yet, or maybe Sybilla had just reminded me that I’d done too little to protect Freya.
Either way—after a few glasses of amber liquor and hours of seething, I’d wanted Sybilla far away from here until I could piece together what could be done. Her two advisors in Luz seemed capable of keeping her alive. I’d made my decision, and I doubted retracting it now would matter.
Sybilla was bullheaded and proud. She wouldn’t have taken kindly to my written rejection. I’d committed to sending her back into a viper’s den in Luz. My throat constricted at the thought of it.
“I can assure you that you won’t fulfill the prophecy any faster by sending her away and calling off your betrothal. Are you confused about how heirs are made? Do you need a lesson?”
“Elsedora.” My voice cracked. “I can’t. Alright? I can’t.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, Krait...”
Fuck. I didn’t want her pity.
I shook my head and tried to flee, but her arms snaked around me, and she pulled me into a squeezing embrace that was more suffocating than comforting.
“I can’t breathe, El.”
“I know.”
“Let go,” I grunted.
“No, not until you stop this self-loathing bullshit,” she shot back.
“‘Self-loathing bullshit’?” I asked.
“Yes! You can blame yourself forever for what has happened in the past, but it won’t change a damned thing for your future.”
“What future?” The attempted joke didn’t deter her, and she squeezed me tighter. I groaned. “Fine, please let go of me. I’ll think about it.”
“You’ll think about what? I need specifics.”
“I’ll think about letting her stay,” I answered. “If she even wants to.”
“Oh, she’ll want to.” As El released me, I faked a cough. “I support whatever decision you make. But have you seen her? Even Ryn wouldn’t blame me if I ended up in bed with her, and he’s growing awfully jealous when I sleep with others.”
“We need to talk about that, by the way.” My two officers warming each other’s beds would spell disaster at some point. Or worse—dramatics.
She shook her head and waved me away. “I am not the chosen one with the magical seed to sow to save the world. I owe nobody an explanation for how I spend my intimate time. You need to talk to her.”
I grimaced. “Please don’t say magical seed ever again in my presence.”
She laughed before reaching up to squeeze my shoulder. “I mean it. I support you—no matter what. You know that, right?”
My heart swelled.
I didn’t deserve friends like El. When I’d found her, she’d been a scared seventeen-year-old without direction who had just lost everything. Now, she’d grown into a force that never shied from fighting for me or kicking me when I needed a kick. She’d never once doubted me...
I nodded. “I know that.”
Elsedora smiled before heading toward the balcony door. “I’ll go make sure our Queen is prepared.”
Hours later, people were gathered in the courtyard below; the bustle of chatter coated the air in excitement. Rust-colored flags had been handed out to the crowd along with Luz-blue ones. The balcony was adorned with both crests—the Sahlms’ coiled rattling serpent and Luz’s crown of thorns and acorns.
“I can’t find her.”
Ryn’s whisper to Elsedora halted me before I could step out onto the balcony.
“Tell me you don’t mean who I think you mean,” I growled.
Ryn had one fucking job—get Sybilla from her room to the balcony.
My officials straightened, Ryn looking all too wide-eyed and Elsedora looking all too unconcerned. She knew something.
I pointed at El. “What did you do?”
“She’s safe,” Elsedora answered. “I promise.”
I clenched my teeth. In just moments, I would address my people with the reassuring message of unification with the Central Corridor. I would tell them that we had allies in Henosis. And my said ally was unaccounted for.
Her safety mattered to me for many logistical reasons...but a different type of worry twisted in my gut.
A frustrated groan escaped my lips. “She better be alright—now, go get her.”
“Well, I can’t do that right now ...” Elsedora grimaced.
I had an awful feeling that I would hate whatever happened next.
All the noise in the courtyard began to die down. The eerie quiet of whispers below made it easy to hear the thunder of my heartbeat. I stepped up to the balcony railing.
No one noticed me there. The crowd had turned, looking away from Umber House to the opposite side of the long courtyard.
At the back of the crowd, people began parting for someone on foot. I could have recognized that head of honey-blonde hair anywhere, and my chest clenched. Mumbling spread across the courtyard as they realized the Queen of the Central Corridor was on the ground among them. I gripped the railing.
Sybilla continued to walk through the parting crowd. She wore a rust-colored silk gown that left little to the imagination. Black embroidered thorny vines trailed their way up the train. The dark embroidery looked like my Shadows.
Meanwhile, two charmed bronze rattling snakes trailed her on the ground, lazily circling her whenever she stopped.
Every few feet, she approached members of the crowd, offering them her hand or crouching to allow smaller children to hug her.
Every person she interacted with seemed enthralled and taken with her—as though she were the sun and they basked in her attention. Clever. But I also knew it to be the most genuine part of this grand gesture. She liked speaking with them.
I’d have never approved of her entering the crowd, but the effect was overwhelming. Her show of trust, her calculated choice to be unarmed and unaccompanied, it all left my people in awe. With a mind like hers, she did not need weapons. It still made me nervous to see her down there alone.
“I’m very pissed off at you,” I mumbled to Elsedora, who’d reached my side on the balcony.
Elsedora shrugged. “You don’t stay mad long. Plus...it’s the entrance we needed to sell this alliance. Look at her.”
“I am,” I answered.
Sybilla stopped in the center of the courtyard before glancing up at me.
I tilted my head down, watching as she turned to address the crowd in front of her.
“You do not know me,” she yelled over the buzz of voices.
A wave of silence rippled around her.
“You don’t know me,” Sybilla repeated. “But you will. I am Queen Sybilla Wymark of Luz. I would like to tell you a story about the night your King saved my land. Would you like to hear it before I head up there?” She pointed to me on the balcony, and the people of my city let out a cheer of approval. She waited until the roar died down to speak again.
“I thought you might,” she said, smiling in a way that, even from a distance, told me I was in deep trouble. I found myself stepping down onto one of the balcony steps just to get a better look at her profile.
She recounted the night in Luz like I was her hero despite having thought me the villain at the time. The captivated crowd remained silent. I held onto every word because in a different time, a different context, maybe I could have been everything the spun story made me out to be.
“And so, I fell in love with your King. It happened the moment I first set eyes on him. He appeared there on the wall of my palace as his men rescued my city from inevitable demise.”
My head tilted, and a twitch started in my eye. What the fuck was she doing?
But the crowd was entranced—women swooned and men puffed out their chests and hollered up at the balcony with pride.
Sybilla motioned with her hands for them to be quiet. “Now, I prepare to give this realm my whole heart. You deserve every assurance that the Central Corridor will long remain an ally to the Sahlms. As part of our wedding vows, I promise to be as much your Queen as I am theirs.”
She was a beautiful liar. I wanted to be upset, but no anger found me. A sense of terrified awe settled over me.
“Elsedora,” I whispered, still not fully understanding what I was meant to do while she addressed my people about wedding vows I’d rescinded the offer of.
El’s grip tightened on the railing, and she stepped beside me. “ That part we hadn’t discussed,” she said with too much amusement. “But I can’t pretend I’m disappointed.”
“Now, although it has been a joy to spend time with you all, I will join my betrothed on the balcony,” Sybilla called out before she was on the move again and cheers cut through the air. Ryn trotted down the stairs to help Sybilla past the guards at the bottom. Too stunned to think straight, I retreated to the top step.
Once Sybilla began to ascend, I could take her in fully. She looked good in Sahlms colors, and Elsedora had been right about one thing—she would be willing to stay. I hardened my expression, not wanting to acknowledge the flood of relief that brought me.
The bronze serpents slithered up the steps next to her, rattling and hissing at any guards that came too close. The snakes circled their way up her legs. One rested around her waist as a belt, the other kept slithering past her neck and then up to her head, coiling itself into her curls to become a crown. That one kept its eyes on me. Its tongue tasted the air as Sybilla approached.
A dark, terrible thrill washed over me.
She’d made a memorable entrance.
She wore our colors.
Our symbolic serpents adorned her.
And she claimed to be in love with me.
That last part turned my lips down into a frown.
When Sybilla reached me, she grabbed onto my arm before standing on tiptoes to kiss the side of my mouth. I closed my eyes, imagining that she meant what she had said, imagining a life where this wasn’t all a facade.
The crown serpent rattled as her soft lips met my skin. I didn’t move away. The charmed metal posed no threat, though it was quite the visual effect with them wrapped around her.
“What in the realms are you doing?” I asked softly against her cheek.
“You tried to send me away,” she whispered back as she peered up at me like I’d offered her the world. For a moment, I believed that expression .
She said through the teeth of her demure smile, “Now stop looking constipated.”
My brows rose at that.
“Better. Look at me like I’m the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen, even though we both know I am not. I respect that, and I am truly sorry for what I said about her. That was unfair and unkind.”
I let out a low growl of acknowledgment. Reluctantly, I let the hardness peel away and smoothed out my frown as much as possible. Taking in the curve of her neck where her hair met the gown’s straps, my imagination wandered to pushing those straps down. I could manage lust. But I couldn’t handle the warm flutter in my chest that her apology elicited.
“Not bad,” she said as our gazes met. Her hand moved up to rub a gentle circle on my chest before she turned to face my people with a smile. The crowd had erupted—the Central Queen of Henosis, here, ready to be their Queen consort.
I’d barely noticed the commotion.
Sources, she was good. She’d outmaneuvered me, yet I couldn’t bring myself to feel threatened.
“This is a lot of trouble to go through to marry a man you find insufferable.” My words came out gruff as she took my hand and followed me to the center of the balcony.
There, she waved down at a small child who sat atop his father’s shoulders. “You are one of few eligible men in the realms who seems both repulsed by the idea of marrying me and uninterested in taking anything away from me. Plus, you at least look more age-appropriate than Sheffield would.”
I huffed a laugh at the last part.
She was built of contradictions—hardness where you expected something soft, softness where you expected something hard. Where some might have seen weakness, I saw a keen sense of self-preservation. The challenge of her had become exhilarating.
At least that’s what I tried to convince myself of.
I liked verbally sparring with her.
I enjoyed her company enough that it wouldn’t be a terrible match.
If only she knew all of the prophecy.
“I hope you realize what you’re doing,” I mused.
She’d left me little choice but to agree, at least while in public. Her choice to wear my colors, our public display of affection, our standing hand in hand now. The maids talked. It was likely already known around my court that we shared a bedchamber.
Turning her down here would only win me criticism from my own people for having offended a valuable ally.
I raised both of our hands. The crowd below bellowed, and flags waved wildly—a sea of rust and royal blue. I gently tugged her into Umber House.
I hadn’t thought this day would end with me presenting a Queen consort to my people.
“The snakes were a nice touch,” I noted as we slinked away from the bustle of the balcony and down a hallway.
Elsedora and Ryn remained behind to help the guards usher the people away from the estate in an orderly manner. Maids scattered about the halls, seeming to want both to eavesdrop out of curiosity and to flee at the sight of me. We needed somewhere quiet to speak.
“You told me the rattling serpent was your symbol because, unlike other snakes, they are typically docile and warn you before they attack. I identified with that.”
I pulled her into an alcove for privacy, kicking the clay-potted citrus tree that was displayed there aside. My gaze searched hers for a clue as to where this rambling would go.
She continued, “I have lived in a city of snakes for a long time, Krait. My snakes just never gave me any warning before striking. So I’ve learned to adapt and do what is necessary.”
“So what? You want to stay here indefinitely? Hide from your problems in Henosis?” I challenged.
She huffed a laugh. “Fuck no. I’ll stay only until we have worked out the details. But this is my rattle of warning for them. If Emmerick and Bringham would like to unseat me, then I will make it harder for them.”
I sighed. “You cannot spew venom at me and expect my kindness.”
“I know. I misstepped—my words were horrid—but did they change anything you said in the South Tower? Did you mean it when you said you would fight for my Corridor?”
I clenched my fists, fighting against the urge to touch her. If she knew the true extent of her own power, she wouldn’t be shackling herself to me for some false sense of security.
“Why marry me? I’d wage wars with you without a marriage contract,” I said.
She swallowed hard. “Because the rulers in Henosis fear making an enemy of you. I’d like them to fear making an enemy of me, too. Also, I’m running out of time. If the central lords are leaning into old laws, then my right to rule ends in less than two years if I am unwed. If they don’t find a loophole sooner.”
“So you thought you’d just force my hand?” Blood pumped hot in my veins.
She glared up at me. “Admit it. It’s the perfect arrangement. Neither of us has the petty desire to marry for love. You need me. I need you. That’s all.”
“What about heirs? Do you need those too?” I moved closer to her, shielding her from a few passing maids as she slumped against the stone wall of the alcove.
“Do you ?” She turned the question back on me.
My jaw tightened. I caught her rubbing her wrists as though they bothered her.
With one hand resting on the wall beside her head, I leaned my weight into her space and studied her.
“I asked the question first.”
She tilted her chin up. Shadows were cast over her features, but those emerald eyes could light up a room.
I longed to hate this idea, but it was growing more appealing by the minute.
“What type of breeding fantasies do you have, Darvanda?”
I scoffed. “Answer the question.”
“Your heart belongs to another, and my heart belongs to no one,” she continued. “Whatever physical reaction we have to one another does not need to be complicated but could be helpful . When the time comes.” Her tone remained unaffected, but the way she bit her lower lip as she scanned my face gave her away.
That still didn’t answer my question fully.
“Would you like to act on those physical reactions, Sybilla?” The question was too suggestive and expectant.
One’s heart and one’s physical desires could walk two separate paths and never meet. I could separate the two.
My lust for Sybilla grew into a thick, palpable weight in the air; it tore at my resolve to stay away. But my heart had long ago melted down into the wax that lit the candles around Freya’s statue. It couldn’t be reformed into anything worthwhile.
I focused on the way that silk dress hugged her hips.
“That would be irresponsible until you’ve agreed to keep your promise to marry me.” She did not move away, and our foreheads felt drawn together by a string.
“It would be,” I whispered into her mouth.
She’d forced my hand. But how perfectly had the pieces fallen together? I was skipping all the stones on the board at once.
One hand clenched at my side, the other against the wall. My Shadows had ideas of their own—they reached out and tangled around her as though cocooning her. Typically, they only touched to hurt, destroy or ruin. But, once again, they skated gently across her lower back, and she shivered and arched against their touch.
“What happened to ‘no man setting his hands on me without my permission’?”
“Those aren’t my hands. And what I said was, ‘No one lays a finger on you unless you want them to.’ Something tells me you are conflicted about what you want.”
She finally broke eye contact, stifled a laugh and pulled away from me. The darkness that had begun to vine around her released and slithered back to me, seeming dejected.
“Well.” Her tone returned to demure indifference. “You’re wrong. There is no conflict. When the time comes for heirs, we’ll discuss it. Because I do not just need them, I want them. Someday.”
She made her way toward our bedchamber.
Sleeping on that cot was becoming more torturous each night. I’d tried to send her away. Now, I was accepting a marriage to keep her close.
I’d be a wreck before she was through with me.