Chapter 1
One
Vox
“This is so bad. So fucking bad.”
“I know. You’ve said that on repeat for the last hour.” I recognized the voice, but couldn’t place it. “What were the other options? Let him die? You can try explaining that to my sister.”
There was a pitiful groan in the background. “No way. At this rate, we won’t have to explain anything, because the Baron of the First Line is thirty minutes from the fucking gates of Rewill, his son is in my basement, bleeding from a gut wound, and I’m going to be tried for treason or something.”
My heart pounded in my chest. My father was here? I had to agree with the first voice; this was so fucking bad. Groaning, I twisted my body. I had to stand. Had to find Avalon. Had to get the fuck out of… wherever we were.
My mind felt cloudy, and thoughts that were just there within my grasp kept darting away at the last minute. I tried to remember.
As we’d gotten to the gates, something had seemed weird, so I’d peeled off from the group. Alucius had abandoned me. I’d stolen clothes.
Stanlus…
I shot upright, regretting it immediately, as a pain that burned like fire shot through my stomach. That fucker had stabbed me. He’d tried to kill me.
“Whoa! Wait, it’s okay.”
Opening my eyes, I saw the concerned face of Bach Halhed. He had the same color eyes as Avalon. I’d never noticed that before.
“Not okay,” I panted out. “I have to find Avalon. We have to leave.”
Bach’s expression grew solemn. “I agree with you, but you’ve got a pretty severe gut wound. You almost died. You still could.”
I swallowed hard. “Noted. Now take me to Avalon. We need to go.”
Bach exchanged a glance with the other man, who just shrugged. “One of the maids told Ren that my father had them locked up, waiting for Baron Vylan to arrive. So they’re likely in the dungeons.”
A cold sweat broke out across my skin. I wasn’t sure if it was from pain, my injuries, or the idea of what my father would do with Avalon, Lierick, and Hayle, if he got his hands on them.
I reached out and grabbed Bach’s shirt, dragging him closer to me.
“We killed Yaron. If my father gets his hands on Avalon, he’ll slit her throat in retribution. Or worse. You need to get her out.”
Bach’s face hardened, and he nodded. “Okay.”
The other guy exhaled through his nose. “They killed Yaron Vylan? We are so fucked.”
On that, we could agree.
The two men got me up and helped me change into different clothes that weren’t soaked in blood.
Bach’s hands were careful as he peeled me out of my shirt that was tacky with blood.
“We can’t sneak you out; everyone knows everyone in Rewill.
The best we can do is hope that they think you’re Ren as we get you out the gate. ”
I shook my head. “I can’t leave without them.”
Bach winced. “I hate to tell you this, Vox Vylan, but you’re absolutely no help to anyone right now, injured and bleeding. The best thing you can do is get a head start, so when I get them out, you won’t slow them down.”
I blew out a breath. Even critically injured, I was probably more powerful than Bach Halhed. But he wasn’t wrong that I would slow them down. Fuck.
At that moment, there was a sharp bark outside. Maybe it was all the time I’d spent with them lately, or perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but I was fairly sure it was Alucius.
“Open the door,” I grunted, and sure enough, Hayle’s giant hound prowled into the room.
Ren’s grunted, “Whoa,” was the only sound as she came right up to me and sniffed the bandages around my stomach, letting out a low growl.
“I’ll be fine. I could have used your help, though,” I grumped at the hound. She huffed, and then Epsy ran up her back to stand on the top of her head. Wrapped around his paw was a tiny blue ribbon.
What does that mean?
“She’s not in the dungeons,” Bach breathed. “She’s in the attic. In her room.”
Ren stared down at Epsy, like the creature was going to start talking in tongues. “How do you know?”
Bach cleared his throat. “This is the last gift our mother ever gave Avalon. It’s usually wrapped around the back of the rocking chair in her room. If the ferret has it, then it’s because she’s there.”
“Stolt,” I corrected absently. “We have to move.”
Bach didn’t try to talk me out of it this time. He did hover behind me as I stood, though, like he was convinced that I was about to drop dead right here in this hovel.
And I didn’t mean hovel because it was small.
Ren, if this was his house, was fucking filthy.
Bowls were stacked in the sink, his dirty underwear strewn around the room.
I was a little worried that I might end up with some kind of infection just from lying on his bed, which obviously hadn’t had its sheets washed in a decade.
Who knew what was living in his mattress?
I forced my screaming body to move faster.
We were so close to being completely fucked that my heart was pounding in my chest. If my father got to Avalon and Lierick before I did, they were both as good as dead.
He might let Hayle live, so he didn’t have to contend with Baron Taeme, but I couldn’t be sure.
I couldn’t imagine Hayle going down without a fight, and he’d never let Avalon be taken.
I grunted, feeling the gash in my stomach stretch and split. I shouldn’t be alive, not with a gut wound this deep. But I wasn’t second-guessing the Goddess-given gift that my heart was still beating.
I staggered out through the back door of Ren’s house, Alucius trailing along behind me and Epsy wrapped around my neck.
Normally, I found the small creature annoying, but the comfort of his soft fur and solid weight across my shoulders was grounding me as my body wanted to lie down and let Lady Death finish me off.
Later. Once Avalon was safe.
I tried to not feel out of place in the northerners’ clothes.
If anyone looked closely, they’d see the pants finished at my ankles.
The shirt was dirty, and I tried not to think about what was rubbing against my wounds.
Bach kept his head down too, and whenever someone said hello, he gave them a brilliant smile, and usually a joke, but he continued walking.
I looked down at Alucius. “You have to wait here. You’ll be too obvious.” She whined, and I knew she was anxious. “I’ll bring them out. You have to watch our exit.” Mildly appeased, she slipped into the large lavender bushes that lined the edges of the building.
Leading us through the back of the Keep like nothing was amiss, Bach stole a whole loaf of bread from the kitchen with a cheeky grin.
“I swear, Master Bach, you’re lucky I don’t take to you with a spoon!” the cook called, raising said utensil threateningly.
“Then who would appreciate your food?” he joked right back, but kept the loaf of bread under his arm as he walked up the narrow stone stairs.
A maid appeared from nowhere. “She isn’t in the dungeons. She’s in the attic,” she hissed, and Bach quickly dragged her into the shadows.
“We know,” he said softly. The girl looked past Bach, and her eyes went wide as she saw me, her mouth falling open. Bach rolled his eyes. “Vox, this is Nexa. Nex, this is Vox Vylan, Heir to the First Line.”
The maid slapped his arm, hard. “I know who Vox Vylan is, you dolt.”
Did she just hit an Heir?
“We grew up together,” Bach muttered to me, by way of explanation. He looked back at Nexa. “Where’s my father?”
Nexa’s lip curled, and that one expression said everything about her opinion of the Baron.
“In his office. He just opened his wedding scotch.” She paused.
“He asked where you were. Bach, I didn’t like the look in his eyes.
” There was real worry in her tone, and it was obvious she cared for Avalon’s brother.
“I can handle Father, Nexa. I need you to get out of sight for a while, though. I’m not sure what’s going to go down, but you need to be somewhere safe.”
The girl gave him an incredulous expression. She didn’t agree nor disagree, but disappeared into the servant corridor to the left. Both Bach and Ren watched her go with concerned expressions.
Bach turned to his friend. “You should go too. Make sure she doesn’t do anything insane.”
Ren hesitated, but then dipped into the servant corridor too.
“Girlfriend?” I asked, breathing heavily through my mouth. I couldn’t have been less interested in his answer, but I needed something to distract me from the fact my insides were desperately trying to become my outsides.
“No.” He said it like it was a complete answer, which it normally would have been, if I ignored the longing in his voice. “Ren is in love with her, has been since we were kids.”
Ah. The old best friend’s girl scenario.
That sucked. “He seems like a level-headed kid, and she seems like a ball buster. If experience tells me anything”—I grunted as I twisted in the wrong direction, pulling at my stomach wound—“it’s that four hands are better than two, when it comes to women like that. ”
Bach gave me the stink eye. “That’s really sage advice, if I don’t think about the fact those four hands are on my baby sister, asshole.”
Luckily, there was no more speaking as we climbed the stairs, each step feeling like it was going to be my last. Hopefully, Hayle could transform into that giant beast and carry me out of here. I’d even take a piggy-back, at this point.
Finally, after two flights of stairs, we stood in front of a warded door. I could feel the pulse of strong magic over the entrance, and I wondered how they’d walked into such an obvious trap.
“Avalon?” I whisper-shouted, but no one answered. Had Bach been wrong?
Worse, was he working with his father to capture Avalon, to capture me? Had I blindly trusted the wrong person? I tried again, but still no answer.
Bach was shaking his head. “No, I know she’s in there. The message was clear.” He felt around the edges of the door.
“The wards prevent sound from traveling. I’m sure your sister is in there, screaming her little bitch heart out,” a gruff voice said behind us.
I whirled around, and the slimy face of Roman Halhed was in front of me. I must have been more injured than I thought, or he still had some stealth, because I hadn’t heard him approach.
Bach stiffened. “What have you done, Father?”
“Raised the standing of this Line for the first time in a century. Refilled the coffers of Rewill. Take your pick, you ungrateful little fuck.” He gave me a sharp smile.
“You aren’t looking very good there, Heir Vylan.
I’m sure your father will have the best surgeons to fix you right up, though. He should be here any moment.”
Fuck. Fucking fuck. I tried to reach for my powers, but the residual magic of whatever was inside that room, or maybe my injuries, made it hard to grasp.
I could tell the moment Roman Halhed thought he had the upper hand. Pulling a long sword from his side, he pointed it at me. “If you’re so anxious to be with my daughter, you can join her.”
I needed him to drop the wards, so I waited until he opened the door. As soon as the ward was broken, I’d attack.
Instead, I saw Avalon’s terrified face. She’d been crying.
Anger pulsed through my veins. Anger at my shitty father, and hers, and the hand the Goddess had dealt us both.
Rage bloomed in the place where my power was sputtering, then flowed through my veins and down to my fingertips.
With a growl, I reached out with my magic and grabbed Roman Halhed around the throat, lifting him in the air.
I squeezed. I squeezed with just enough force that I was rewarded with his look of panic. I wanted to make demands, wanted him to release the wards, to set them free. But there was nothing but rage inside me now.
“Release the wards, Father, before Vylan takes your useless life,” Bach spat, picking up the sword Roman Halhed had dropped as I raised him into the air. The Baron’s face was growing purple, but he was still stubbornly silent.
I looked into the eyes of the man who had tormented the love of my life for so long.
“Today, you’ll die. But I can do it quickly, or I can boil your blood inside your veins until it feels like you’re being seared on a griddle.
” I raised the warmth of his blood just a fraction, and he instantly began to sweat and gasp.
It was a terrible way to die; I’d seen my father do it to political opponents many times.
Like the coward he was, he disengaged the warding, his eyelids fluttering as he clung to consciousness. The trigger for the warding tals must have been on his body somewhere, and the urge to tear him apart to search for it was only trumped by the desire to pass out.
My magic roared back at me full force, and I couldn’t hold onto my own consciousness. Dropping Roman Halhed, I fell to my knees.
“Vox!” Avalon was there as I tipped to the side, holding me upright.
I reached up and cupped her cheek in my hand. “Run.”
Then I lost my battle with the darkness.