Crown of Wrath (Shadowed Debts #2)

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When we arrived at Nyth, we found that we were not alone. The Old Ones had been there for as long as there were humans.

~Vyran the Black, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

I never imagined death would smell like salt and citrus. Soft wisps of gray swirl toward me, and my spear slashes, cutting the tendril off from the main mass of mist that the world knows as the Nothing.

Silence fills the air behind my soundless footsteps. No birds chirp. No rabbits move through the forest. Even the wind seems to have died in the mist’s presence.

This took my cousin. It’s killed more people than any single person alive. Entire villages. Men, women, and children. It’s heartless, but it certainly isn’t mindless, and I’ve spent the last three months doing everything in my power to destroy it.

That scent of salt and citrus is everywhere, overpowering everything. I hadn’t smelled it when I’d first seen the Nothing with Cole all those months ago because I’d been a Wyrdling then. The moment that the Painted Crown appeared on my head, it burned away every bit of humanity in me and turned me into a full-blooded High Fae, and the scent of the mists makes me want to destroy every inch of it.

My body moves like the wind, no longer held back by that humanity. As my spear swings, revulsion shadows drive daggers into the thick of the mists before being consumed by it. Every day, it’s my magic against the Nothing’s, and we stay at a near stalemate. Its tendrils war against my spear, neither of us making any real progress, but both of us slowly being worn down by the battle.

Because this battle has been waging for three months with only time for sleep and food.

Cole’s flames explode several feet away from me, the fire burning away the mists as he moves just as constantly as I do. He doesn’t wear the Painted Crown, though, and his flames have come less and less often since I started this war against an impossible enemy.

Every second that we stand near it, our power is sapped. I leap backward as a surge of mist moves toward me. Revulsion shadows come down from above to cut the section off from the main body of fog, and the cloudy tendrils dissipate, leaving only that sour scent of salt and citrus.

I leap back toward it, my spear striking out over and over again, each touch of the steel against the mists saps its power. Sweat pours from my body after fighting for almost four hours straight today. Shadows coat my body in a weightless armor that the mists have trouble penetrating.

It’s Cole and me against an impossible enemy, and we’re winning. Slowly but surely, we’re cutting the Nothing away. Three months of constant battle with it is making a mark on it.

But it’s too slow. We’re getting tired.

I smell that disgusting scent thicken, and I spin. A wall has appeared behind me. This isn’t the first time the Nothing has tried to trap me.

Shadows pool at my feet, and I focus on the disgust I feel for the Nothing. They become revulsion shadows, and I fall through the world. I float in the void for a moment, glad for the momentary silence and peace. This place of darkness is a world of temptation just as much as it was the very first time I was brought here by the Shade, but I can’t let that temptation gain purchase in my mind. It’d be too easy to give into it now.

And I have vengeance to deliver.

I reach out to the clearing that Cole’s been fighting in and grip a shadow, making it mine, making it a part of me. Just as if I were pulling myself up over a ledge, I pull myself out of the void and into Nyth, appearing beside Cole almost instantly. His body is moving so much slower than normal. The once impossibly fast chops, stabs, and slices are a ghost of what they once were. Instead of dancing from one attack to the next, his steps are heavy, and he’s fighting defensively, doing everything he can to conserve energy.

I may be tiring, but Cole won’t last much longer. He doesn’t have the never-ending energy of the Painted Crown to keep him upright. It’s pure strength of will that has him still breathing and swinging.

“Time to go,” I say, and he leaps backward to the center of the clearing. I grab his arm as my darkness curls around his feet, and we’re in the void in a breath. This time, I give myself a moment to let the darkness caress me.

Cole’s mind presses against mine, begging entrance to it as it has so often since the day I received the Painted Crown. Since all the lies were uncovered.

Just like every other time, I push him away.

I reach out for the hilltop that we’ve made our base of operations, and silently, we appear in the tent that Cole, Darian, Lee, and I have been using as our planning room.

Made of thick canvas, it keeps the rain off, but there’s nothing luxurious about it. Ten feet across, it’s large enough that all four of us can sit at a table under it, but that’s all. Each of us has our own small sleeping tents, quite the upgrade compared to the weeks we spent on the road all those months ago.

Still, it’s not what I would have expected if someone had told me I’d be Queen of the world. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been pushed out of the capital and another Immortal rules in your place.

Cole nearly falls into the seat beside me as soon as I let go of him. His body is shaking from exhaustion. The red gambeson that is covered in curled steel bands is soaked with sweat, and he’s gulping in air as if he’d been holding his breath for the past four hours.

This is the strongest warrior in the world, and if I push him any harder, he’s going to fall. I originally saw him as the most beautiful creature alive. He taught me everything I know about the Immortal world. Then he lied to me and forced me into a war I wanted no part of.

To be fair to him, I told him I didn’t care what he’d done. I was wrong, and what he’d done had shaken me to the core. I hadn’t understood the level of his manipulation.

He once told me I wouldn’t want him when I found out everything, and he’s right. He told me he was the sharpest blade I’d ever wield, but people like me don’t marry their blades. They use them until their enemies are dead, and then they put them aside.

I stare at the man that I’d once thought I would spend the rest of my Immortal life with. He’s dirty with bloodshot eyes. His thick black hair, which had always been so silky smooth and gorgeous, is a tangled mess, and he refuses to look at me even as I stare at him.

Cole Cyrus is on the verge of breaking.

I can’t let my sharpest blade break when our battles have barely begun. I pour myself a cup of water from a wooden pitcher and slide the pitcher to him, signaling that he should drink as well. I sip the cool water and finally sit down.

Just like the days and evenings that we traveled the road to Draenyth together, we sit in silence, staring at nothing. Just existing.

“You’ve gotten good,” he says softly. “Can you believe that three harpies almost killed you a half a year ago?”

I could kill three harpies with barely more than a thought now. I’d been untrained then. I hadn’t understood my magic, and I certainly hadn’t understood my bloodlines—bloodlines that had been hidden from me. If I’d known just how strong I was with rage in my heart or how deadly my shadows would be when I was disgusted, no harpy would have dreamed of coming near me.

“You’ve gotten slow,” I respond. I meant it to be banter, but Cole slumps in his seat. He knows he’s wearing thin, and his skills, including his speed, are some of the islands that he’s clung to since I pushed him away.

I don’t hate Cole. I just… Every time I feel like I want to feel anything for him, memories of what he cost me prevent me from going there.

I fell in love with him. I fell for all his tricks, including the ones to win my heart. Then… then the Nothing took Hazel from me. He told me everyone close to him got hurt. He didn’t lie about that. Everyone close to him becomes his weakness, and that’s what I became.

If Cole had never shown up in my life, Hazel would still be alive.

The reasons he did all that he did are clear to me, and they’re why I don’t hate him. He was a tool, and you can’t hate the sword that was used to murder your cousin. You also shouldn’t be expected to be kind to it. To love it. To marry it…

He’s still covered in my cousin’s blood.

I take a deep breath, and silence overtakes us again. Not the terrifying silence of the Nothing. Just the typical quiet that is filled with birds’ chirping and little skittering animals in the grass outside the tent.

And the stomping of Darian and Lee as they land and come to the tent.

“You’re never going to believe what we just heard,” Lee says before she’s even inside the tent. “Gethin put Jasper Wren in charge of guard duty on Casimir. How could he be stupid enough to put someone who owes a debt to you in charge of your father’s security?”

She’s not smiling as she enters the tent. Neither is Darian. They never smile anymore, but then again, neither do I.

“It’s a trap,” Cole says softly. “We don’t have the luxury of believing in Gethin’s stupidity.”

I nod to Cole. Gethin Rahn is a lot of things, but he isn’t stupid, and if he hasn’t executed or imprisoned everyone with a debt to the Shade, I’d be surprised.

“It’s obviously a trap,” Darian says right behind Lee. “But I know Jasper. We may not be able to convince him to let us in to get your father out, but I’m positive that we can get enough information out of Jasper to break him out. We have our in, Cole, and we just have to figure out how to use it.”

Cole glances at me and is silent. It’s not his call anymore. Cole made every decision for months. He took away my agency, but not anymore. I’m the Queen. Not him.

And I’ve begun to understand the weight of those decisions now.

The world is falling apart, and while I went to war with the Nothing after it killed Hazel, the anger that was so red hot that day has fizzled away. In its place is… weight. It’s the burden of knowing that thousands of people have died and have been enslaved because of me. At the same time, we can’t win a war against Draenyth. We can’t take the fight to Gethin and survive.

It’s us four against an entire House that has been preparing for this. Four of us against a House that will be coated in steel from head to toe.

They destroyed the entire House of Earth. They enslaved or executed the House of Flame. And… my shadows aren’t as strong as they should be. Cole is exhausted.

I turn to Lee and say, “How much progress have we made against the Nothing?”

She and Darian have spent the day mapping where the Nothing is compared to where it was when we started this war. “It’s ten percent smaller than three months ago. It's retreating, moving farther north, and it seems to follow the highways rather than avoiding them as it once did. It’s left Blackgrove, if that matters at all.”

The word “Blackgrove” makes me shudder a little. Every human I know is dead except Aunt Prudence and Uncle Trevor, who are safe and sound in Stormhaven. The Nothing swept through Blackgrove the day that I was crowned. A handful of bodies were found, all of which looked like they’d been skinned alive.

I understand how Cole felt before everything changed. The scars that my soul bears. They say that no one wins in war, and that’s the truth. When this is all over, I won’t be happy we won. I’ll just be happy it’s over.

If I even know how to be happy at that point.

The Nothing is ten percent smaller. It’s a noticeable difference, but after three months of constant fighting, I don’t know if we’re going to win. We can’t keep this up.

It all seems so hopeless. Something has to change because even though we’re making progress against the Nothing, it’s not fast enough. Cole and I can’t do it on our own, but who will help us? Darian and Lee aren’t strong enough, and I won’t risk them. A single touch of that mist could have someone permanently maimed if it’s anything like my revulsion shadows.

“We’re going to get Casimir out of there, but we’re not rescuing him. We’re taking him from one prison and putting him into another.”

Cole, Darian, and Lee all look at me, confused. The wind blows a soft scent of pine resin through the tent, and I smile. “He won’t know that he’s being rescued. This way, we’ll be able to interrogate him rather than the House of Steel.”

Darian looks at Lee, and their eyes light up like they used to. Since we left Draenyth, they haven’t had a single bit of trickery. This may be just as serious as any battle, but it’s a battle they’re built for.

At the same time, Cole’s ice-blue eyes darken at the mention of his father. “My father isn’t an idiot. He’ll see through most tricks.”

I shrug. “Maybe. Or maybe he’s like you. Maybe he doesn’t know how to escape his sadness, and he thinks everything is lost right now. We’ll just let him continue to think that.”

Cole says nothing as he stares at me. The anger and sadness in his eyes would be enough to break me if I still looked at him the same way I had three months ago. Now, it’s just another thing to catalog. It’s another piece of information that I need to remember when I wield my sharpest sword, just like when I noted the squirrels chittering outside Blackgrove.

I sigh and say, “We need to go to Stormhaven first to begin negotiations. Stormhaven is the only place I can think of being safe enough to house Casimir, and they’ll want our protection since Gethin’s forces have been on the move. Let’s try very hard not to let them know that Gethin’s actually looking for us.”

Darian nods. “It feels good to even think about doing something different. It’s felt like we were beating our heads against rocks for the last three months.”

Cole’s head whips toward his friend, and I can see the hard look on his face. A warning not to question me.

“It’s fine, Cole. I know how he feels, but it doesn’t matter anymore. You need to get some rest. Darian and Lee, fly to Stormhaven. Make an appointment to speak with the King, and don’t hesitate to be pushy. We’ll be there in a week after both of us have rested some.”

They all nod to me, and I walk out of the tent and into the forest where I spend most of my time these days.