Chapter 42 Talwyn
CHAPTER 42
TALWYN
“ W hat are these things?” Talwyn ground out, her winds swirling. The gusts were making it hard for the winged males to get airborne and kept them on the ground. Forcing them to ?ght with blades was about the only advantage she and Azrael had at this point. They were unnaturally strong, easily breaking through the thick vines she and the Earth Prince conjured to try to contain them. They seemed wary of her lightning, but she could not wield that continuously or for long periods of time. Coupled with keeping her winds strong enough, Azrael was doing most of the actual ?ghting.
They had come out of nowhere, seeming to plummet from the sky, the earth shuddering beneath them when they landed. They had yelled at Cyrus and Sorin to go ahead and ?nd Scarlett when the Oracle had unlocked the gates. There were only six of these winged men, but six was more than enough.
“No idea,” Azrael grunted, his sword clashing with the serrated blade of one of the men. “I can only assume they are guarding the Contessa.”
If there were winged men trying to keep them from her, she was either in danger, or she was allying against the Courts. Either way it spelled absolute shit for them.
Shouting and cursing from beyond the estate wall ?lled the air. They must be encountering the same enemies.
Azrael managed to swipe his blade across the stomach of one of them. The man hardly ?inched but struck with his own blade, Azrael barely avoiding the hit when he leapt back.
“We need to get out of here,” Azrael gritted out, tracking all the men.
“And leave the others?” She cracked her whip of lightning, wrapping it around the sword of one of the men who had surged towards her. The energy ?owed down the blade and into the man’s body. He jolted, his body tensing and jaw clenching, and while he could not move, Azrael was slicing at the wings down his back. One feathered wing fell to the dirt, the man howling in pain and rage, blood spurting from the wound on his back. The next swipe of Azrael’s sword was across the male’s throat.
“That was luck,” Azrael breathed, falling back to Talwyn’s side as two more men approached, violence written on their features.
“It is the only way we have found to best them,” Talwyn answered, shifting her winds to swirl around them as a shield rather than keep the men at bay. The action, however, let them get airborne.
The two Fae looked up, watching the winged men soar above them, arrows beginning to bounce off her air shield. Azrael was right. They needed to get the hell out of here.
Just as Talwyn was about to grab Azrael and Travel out, the assault of arrows halted, the men ?ying up and over the wall to whatever was happening beyond. She looked at Azrael, her shield dissolving, and they both began moving to the gates. If they could ?ght with the others, perhaps they could ?gure out an easier way to defeat the threat.
Until a ?gure in black stepped from the gates and into their path.
Talwyn and Azrael both stilled, and Talwyn’s chest constricted completely when the man pulled back his hood. Black hair, straight and disheveled, swept across his brow, contrasting against dark, golden skin. Pale green eyes peered back at them, relief shifting across his features.
“Thank Silas,” he cried, rushing towards them. “I have been looking everywhere for you.”
Azrael had stepped in front of Talwyn, his sword raised. But Talwyn couldn’t speak.
Not as Tarek Ordos stopped mere feet in front of them.
He bowed low, a subject before his queen, before he straightened and looked straight into her soul.
“Talwyn,” he said softly.
A snarl emanated from Azrael. “Do not speak to her.”
Hearing them both speak pulled her out of whatever state she had fallen into. She felt her features shift, harden. Her eyes narrowed on Tarek, and his own dropped back to the ground, head bowed once more. When she took a step towards him, ?ngers grazed her arm as though they would try to stop her.
She met Azrael’s gaze impassively. “I do not need anyone to protect me,” she sneered.
He seemed to search her eyes before his chin dipped minutely. “You do not,” he agreed, his arm dropping to his side.
Talwyn crossed the distance between them and Tarek, and he lifted his head once more. She knew what he saw when he looked at her. Her features were emotionless. Her mouth was a tight line. Her back was straight, her chin raised.
He saw the Fae Queen everyone had seen for decades.
Her bracelet began unwinding from her wrist. She shouldn’t be using the Shifter magic. Not after depleting so much of it ?ghting those winged men, but she couldn’t let him see that she was even slightly weakened.
“Talwyn,” he started, but her hand lifted, her ?ngers slowly curling into a ?st.
Slowly cutting off his air supply.
His green eyes widened for a moment before some sort of resolve seemed to ?ll them. He raised his palms before him, and he slowly lowered to his knees, dropping his chin in submission. He did not squirm as she withheld his oxygen. He did not beg. He took her fury as she just stared down at him.
And when she reached out and placed a single ?nger under his chin and raised his face to look up at her, he met her stare, his blue-tinged lips pursing slightly.
She released his air, and he sucked in a few deep breaths while she held his chin up. His eyes never left hers. “Speak.”
“It was all for you,” he replied, his voice raspy.
Her head tilted to the side, but she said nothing. She’d learned long ago that most would reveal their secrets without much prompting, if they thought she already knew.
“I was taken captive,” he went on, his voice low. “After the mission to ?nd Queen Eliné failed. The others thought I was dead like Thia. I woke in the cells of the Black Syndicate. It was death, or be smart about survival. It was show my hand, or keep my cards close until I could get back to you.”
Talwyn’s gaze dropped to his left hand where a twin ?ame Mark had once stood against his bronze skin. It was gone now, just like her own. A piece of his soul lost among the worlds. Destined to be as incomplete as she was.
Never whole. Forever fractured.
“Stand,” she said, her hand dropping to her side, and she took a step back from him.
He did so slowly and made no comment when vines appeared around his wrists before jerking them behind his back. Azrael came to her side.
“Where do you want to take him?” he asked. “The Halls or the Alcazar?”
“The Halls,” Talwyn answered coldly. She wanted her own turf, her own space. A place completely under her control.
Azrael nodded, an earth portal springing to life to their left. He gripped Tarek by the bicep, ready to escort him through. With one last calculating look at her twin ?ame, Talwyn turned and stepped through.
“What is your plan here, Talwyn?” Azrael asked.
Tarek was down in a holding cell at the White Halls, and they had gone up to the private wing. Azrael had stalked off to his own chambers to bathe and wash off the blood and gore from battle. She had done the same.
She hadn’t said a single word to either of them. Azrael had known what she’d wanted done without having to ask. He didn’t need to. They had been this tandem unit for years.
And then he’d fucked everything up.
Talwyn strode from the dressing room in fresh clothing, sliding a dagger into a thigh sheath. She eyed her Second, who stood in a long-sleeve tunic and pants near the window, arms crossed.
“You summoned Ashtine?”
“I was waiting,” he replied. “Until you told me what you wanted.” Talwyn snorted a breath of disbelief, and his eyes narrowed on her. “Say what you need to say, Talwyn,” Azrael bit out. “You and I both detest pretty words to avoid hurting feelings.”
“Feelings have no place here,” Talwyn snapped.
Azrael’s brow arched. “No? You have no emotional attachment to the male down in your holding cells? Feelings are not playing any role in how this entire situation is being handled? Come now, Talwyn,” he scoffed.
“You are the one who taught me not to let my emotions cloud my judgment,” she retorted.
“Yes, but I also tried to teach you that in order to do so, you must ?rst deal with those emotions. Obviously I failed.”
Talwyn didn’t say anything as she drew a wind message in the air, sending it off to Ashtine.
“What is your plan?” Azrael asked again. He had crossed the room to her and raised a hand as if he were going to reach for her, before apparently reconsidering and dropping it down to his side once more.
“When Ashtine gets here, we can speak with Tarek in one of the underground studies,” Talwyn replied.
“In one of the studies?” Azrael repeated incredulously. “Why are we not speaking to him through his cell bars?”
“Why would we?”
“Because he has been working with our enemies, Talwyn.”
“There has been no concrete proof of that,” she countered. She hadn’t told him that she’d seen Tarek speaking with those Night Children in Baylorin days before they’d gone to ?nd the Contessa.
She hadn’t told anyone about that.
“He aided in the capture of Scarlett,” Azrael said. “So she says.”
Azrael was silent for a long moment before he said, “So much for emotions not having any place here.”
Talwyn opened her mouth to snap a reply, but a wind portal appeared, Ashtine stepping through a moment later. Talwyn couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen the princess use a portal instead of walking among the winds.
“You summoned me?” she asked curtly, but she sounded exhausted. If the dark circles under her eyes were any indicator, she was.
Talwyn swallowed uncertainly before she said, “Yes. Tarek is here. In the cells. We are going to speak with him.”
Ashtine blinked at her. “Queen Scarlett spoke the truth, then? That he lives and is working with the Maraan Lords?”
“He lives,” Talwyn replied. “Whether or not he is working with the Maraan Lords remains to be seen.”
“Why would she lie about that?” Ashtine asked, her head tilting to the side slightly. Silver hair slipped over her shoulder. Her eyes looked distant.
“She lies about everything else,” Talwyn said.
“Such as?” Ashtine pressed.
“The fact that she is Avonleyan,” Talwyn spat.
“She did not lie about that. She told you the ?rst time she saw you after learning of her heritage herself.”
Talwyn’s ?sts clenched at her side. “The amulets then.”
“You left that meeting,”Ashtine said. “She said she planned to tell you, but you left.”
Talwyn scoffed. “She wasn’t going to tell me anything.”
“Hmm,” was all Ashtine hummed before gesturing for Talwyn to lead the way.
The trek down to the cells was silent, save for their footfalls echoing around them. They stopped outside Tarek’s cell, a unit coming to a collective halt. Azrael on her right. Ashtine on her left, just as it had been for decades. Tarek looked up from where he sat against the wall, his elbows resting on bent knees.
“Look at you, Moon?ower,” he said softly, meeting her eyes. “Still unapologetically the only one that matters in the room.”
“Get up,” she said, turning her back on him and leaving Azrael to lead him to the study down the hall. She went straight to the large desk, settling into the chair behind it. Ashtine moved gracefully to a chair off to the side, and Azrael all but threw Tarek into a hard chair across from the desk, before moving to Talwyn’s side.
She stared at Tarek, her eyes hard and unforgiving. She looked like a female about to unleash wrath, but she said nothing. Not to intimidate, but because she didn’t know what to say. Tarek’s head cocked slightly as he stared back at her. The corner of his lips twitched as though he knew she was con?icted, but that was the only tell he gave. She ?nally jerked her chin at him, and Azrael understood the message to take over and ask the questions.
“Were you involved in the capture and detainment of Queen Scarlett?” Azrael asked.
Tarek’s eyes remained ?xed on Talwyn when he answered. “I was.” She forced herself to stay still. She did not blink. She did not ?inch, despite wanting to lurch forward at the admission.
“Explain,” Azrael growled.
Tarek settled back into his chair. His wrists had been secured by shirastone shackles when they had arrived, and the chains clinked as he let his hands fall to his lap. “I could not very well let her go and blow my cover, could I?”
“You are suggesting you in?ltrated mortals?” Ashtine asked, her back straight and poised as always.
“Either Queen Scarlett is keeping things from you if you believe I was working with mortals, or you are ?shing for information, your Highness,” Tarek replied coolly, glancing at the princess.
“Watch it, Ordos,” Azrael snarled. “You said you were taken captive. Now you are saying you in?ltrated their forces. Which isit?”
Talwyn shifted, setting her elbow on the armrest and resting her chin on her hand, watching Tarek. He leaned forward, eyes searing into hers as if he were speaking solely to her. “I would have never left you willingly, Talwyn. You have to know that.” When her only reply was a slow blink, he sat back slightly. “I was taken captive. When the Night Children realized they had not killed me, they took me to the ones they were working for— the Assassin Lord and Lord Tyndell, the leader of King Theodore’s armies.”
“Mikale Lairwood?” Ashtine asked.
Tarek nodded. “He is one of them as well, but he is new to his position. The others outrank him.”
“Others?” Ashtine asked airily. “Only Alaric and Balam?”
Tarek blinked at her. “I was unaware you were on a ?rst name basis with them.”
“You have not been gone long enough to forget how Princess Ashtine speaks,” Talwyn said coolly. “It is rather unforgettable.” The sound of her voice had Tarek’s head whipping back to her. “Answer the question. Are there more besides those three?”
He looked to Azrael, then glanced once more at Ashtine, before saying, “Let me speak to you alone, Talwyn.”
Azrael huffed a laugh of disbelief as Talwyn said, “No.”
“Please,” Tarek said. “There are … things you should know.”
“That is why we are here,” she answered without an ounce of warmth.
“It involves Avonleya. Your plans. The Courts …”
Tarek trailed off, glancing pointedly at Azrael.
“You speak of his Avonleyan lineage?” Talwyn asked.
Tarek started slightly. “You know?”
“I do.”
“For how long?”
Talwyn arched a brow. “Does it matter?”
Tarek pressed his tongue to his cheek. A thick silence hung in the air for several minutes while they all waited for him to continue speaking. Finally, he said, “I have information to share, things to explain, but I will only do so with you alone.”
“Then you can fuck off back to a cell,” Azrael spat.
“I was unaware you spoke for the queen now,” Tarek replied snidely.
“You were my Third, Ordos,” Azrael said, his palms slamming onto the desk as he leaned forward. “The queen is not the only one you betrayed here.”
“Do not speak to me of betrayal,” Tarek sneered, his lip curling slightly in disgust. “Sins of the fathers and all that. Not to mention whose bed my twin ?ame has been sharing since I have been gone.”
“You no longer bear such a Marking. Neither of you do,” Ashtine lilted. “That would lead one to believe you are not twin ?ames.”
“We were obviously unable to complete the Trials in time,” Tarek drawled.
Ashtine only hummed in contemplation.
“Whose bed I have been sharing should be the least of your concerns here,” Talwyn cut in coldly. “You have let me believe you were dead for an entire decade. If I chose to fuck others in those years, you really have no say in the matter.”
Tarek clenched his jaw but wisely said nothing else, his head dropping forward.
“On that note, you let me believe you were dead for ten years ,” she reiterated. “Why would I believe anything you have to say tome?”
Tarek slowly raised his eyes back to hers. “Because I know you, Talwyn. I know what you desire. I know what you seek. If I had any choice in the matter, I would have found a way to inform you I survived. Everything I have done these last ten years was to not only get back to you, but to help you achieve what you so desperately want.”
“And what is that?” Azrael sneered.
“Revenge,” Tarek purred.
Talwyn sat up straighter, her hand dropping to the armrest. “Goon.”
“The Maraan Lords and your own endeavors are aligned, my queen,” Tarek said, his entire attention focused on Talwyn. “The war that was fought centuries ago did not cease. It simply paused.”
“Avonleya ran and left behind their allies,” Talwyn said.
“Indeed they did,” Tarek agreed. “And they should pay for not only that, but everything they have taken and kept from this continent.”
“What do you mean taken and kept?”
His gaze slid to Azrael. “They took kingdoms that do not belong to them.” His stare shifted to Ashtine. “They possess gifts that make them superior in every way and use them to force others beneath them.” His eyes resettled on Talwyn. “They took parents from children, children from parents, and they keep others out to protect what never should have entered our world. What endangers our entire realm. That is why the Maraans came in the ?rst place, Talwyn. They did not come to ignite a war. They came to retrieve what started the war to begin with. What sought sanctuary here and instead brought bloodshed. Your revenge is justi?ed. Let me help you obtain it.”
“You are wrong,” Ashtine cut in, her tone edged. Talwyn looked at her to ?nd her glaring back at Tarek, papers ?uttering lightly nearby.
“Wrong about what?” he asked.
“About all of it. Revenge being justi?ed. The Avonleyans. Everything,” she replied.
“Then please. Correct me,” Tarek said, gesturing with his bound hands for her to speak.
She turned pleading eyes to Talwyn. “The winds would not lie to me, Talwyn. You know this.”
“You have said the winds abandoned you,” Talwyn said icily.
“They have. Because I chose loyalty to you over them. Because you are against them.”
“The Avonleyans?” Talwyn sneered. “Not too long ago you were against them, too. Or have you forgotten?”
Ashtine shook her head, the air around her becoming more intense. “I have not forgotten, but you have forgotten whom we come from. Who granted us our gifts.”
“I was not born to serve the Avonleyans,” Talwyn snarled.
“No,” Ashtine agreed, “you were not, but they are not who blessed the Fae or the Witches or the Shifters. If you are angry with someone, it should not be with the Avonleyans. Their kingdom is as innocent as your own.”
“Bullshit,” Tarek spat, but a vine was quickly winding around his throat, silencing him. Talwyn glanced at Azrael, who was glaring at Tarek.
“Who should I be angry with then, Ashtine?” Talwyn asked, turning back to the princess.
“Must you be angry with someone? Can you not see that the Maraans are just as destructive as you believe the Avonleyans to be? They sacri?ce children , Talwyn. Innocent children to achieve their ends,” Ashtine cried. “If you side with them, you are simply trading a make-believe villain for a real one. Only you will serve the latter.”
Ashtine stood then, a wind portal appearing to her right. “You are leaving?” Talwyn asked, jolting to her feet.
“I am tired,” Ashtine conceded. “And I have already debated the merits of this with you more times than I can count. I have sacri?ced much to prove my loyalty, and still you push for more. I have nothing left to give.”
With that, the Wind Princess stepped from the study.
“Release him,” Talwyn said to Azrael, her voice monotone, as she lowered back to her seat.
The vines disappeared from Tarek’s throat, and he sucked down air, glaring with so much malice at Azrael, Talwyn could practically reach out and touch it.
“Tell me, Tarek,” she said, “how did you manage to hide such distaste for your prince for so long?”
“I am very patient, Talwyn. You know this,” he replied. “It took time and patience to gain the trust of the Assassin Lord, to learn the secrets I now know.”
“Apparently ten whole years,” she gritted out.
“Speak with me privately, Talwyn,” Tarek urged. “Without your Second and Third here to whisper in your ear.”
“So that you can do the whispering?” Azrael cut in. “I think not. A snake does not shed its skin so easily.”
“Says the male who has hidden his true bloodline,” Tarek retorted. He had a point. They both had points.
“Leave us,” she said to Azrael. Before he could argue, she continued, “I will speak with him and then with you.”
“That is a terrible idea,” Azrael said. He took her chair, spinning it to face him. His hands landed on the armrests, his face stopping inches in front of hers. “He knows how to manipulate you, Talwyn.” His voice was low, intense. “He knows what words to say, what emotions to play on.”
“So do you,” she replied coldly, holding his eye.
“The difference, Talwyn, is that I would never do so. I have always been—”
“Honest?” she laughed. “Try again, Prince.”
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “I have never told you things just because it is what you want to hear. I am not afraid to challenge you. I am not afraid to hurt your feelings. This is emotional , Talwyn. You have an entire kingdom depending on you. You need someone else here.”
“That someone is no longer you.”
“Fuck, Talwyn,” he said, pushing off the chair and stepping back from her. His hands ran through his hair in frustration before he turned back to her once more. “You think I am the dishonest one here? You think you cannot trust me? That I am the one who will manipulate you?” His arm ?ung out, ?nger pointing at Tarek. “Make sure you ask him about that twin ?ame bond during your little chat. Because that Mark does not just disappear. You are smart enough to know that.”
“We could not ?nish the Trials,” she started to argue.
His hands landed on the armrests again. “In the years you had that Mark, it never grew. You never completed even one Trial. That is not because you did not have time. Deep down, you know why that Mark no longer graces your skin. Something never felt quite right about it. You have seen a true twin ?ame bond. Twice. You know that what Ordos convinced you that you had with him was nothing compared to what you have seen Cyrus and Aditya ?nd. Hiding from a truth is just as dishonest as keeping truth hidden.”
Without another word, he left the study, the door slamming closed behind him.
The silence was so loud in the room it was deafening, and it hung there, thick and heavy. Talwyn stared at the wall she now faced since Azrael had spun her chair. No one else would dare do such a thing, because no one else would ever dare call her out. Not like that. Only ever him. The one who had never left her alone. She knew he would come back if she asked. She knew he would—
“Talwyn.” Tarek’s familiar voice cut through her thoughts. “Let me come to you. Take these off and let me … He is wrong. Everything he just said is wrong.”
But she didn’t know that it was. Deep down, she didn’t fear that Azrael might be right. She feared that she already knew he was.
She pulled a key from her pocket and strode towards Tarek. As she turned the lock, a manacle falling free, she said, “Tell me everything.”