Chapter 56 Isi
ISI
Istood frozen in the foyer, the ghost of Trew’s kiss a brand on my mouth. The vast, empty space echoed with the finality of his leaving, each step he’d taken away from me a fresh tear in my soul. He was gone. Riding into battle.
And he’d left me behind to be safe.
The word was an insult. A cage.
Guard the kingdom, he’d whispered.
Cold, hard fury whipped through my chest, freezing my tears before they could fall. He thought guarding the kingdom meant waiting within these stone walls, praying for his return. Guarding the kingdom meant guarding him, the only man who hadn’t seen me as the pawn my father raised me to be.
I would not hide. I would not wait. Not while Trew fought for my life, for Leo’s life, and for the lives of every family in this land I was beginning to call my own.
My feet found a purpose. I turned from the door, my back straight, and strode to the dining hall.
The clatter of silverware and the murmur of voices and the occasional burst of laughter rang out before I reached it.
All sounds of normalcy, but it was a lie.
A temporary reprieve before the Skathes came to tear it all apart.
I pushed open the heavy doors.
A few heads turned in my direction, warriors and trainers scattered across the long tables. Strangely enough, the noise faltered. I swept my gaze across the room, finding Lexie, Derren, and Kerralyn at a table near the center. Lexie’s brows drew together, her fork pausing halfway to her mouth.
She knew. The moment she met my eyes, she knew.
She stood, and Derren rose with her. Kerralyn closed her book and met my gaze with a sharp, assessing look. They left the table and started toward me, moving through the crowd as I walked toward the raised dais where Trew usually sat with his advisors.
Look at them, sitting at a table and dining as if nothing was wrong in our world while their king gave everything to protect them.
I stomped up the stairs and crossed the dais.
Grayson and a few other lords watched me approach, their expressions shifting from surprise to irritation at the interruption. I didn’t care what they thought. Only the warriors mattered now.
My friends climbed the platform and flanked me, Lexie on my right, Derren on my left with Kerralyn beside him, her journal open, ready to record what might come next. My chosen family, standing with me as I claimed my destiny.
I lifted my voice above the stunned silence. “Silverstream is under attack. Hundreds of Skathes are moving on innocent families while we sit here eating.”
A wave of shock rippled through the hall. One woman in the front dropped her spoon with a clatter that echoed like a scream.
“Our king rides to war, but we are not helpless children who must wait here for rescue. We’re trained fighters. We’re the future of this court.” Power thrummed through my every word, a current I made no effort to hide. I could feel its weight swirling across my skin.
I thought of my mother, who’d been desperate to hide me. The few times I’d swear things moved without her ever touching them. She’d had power. I knew that now. And like me, she’d suppressed it. Kept it hidden. She’d died with the secret still trapped inside her.
I refused to do the same.
Lexie eased closer. “There aren’t any dragons.”
“Actually,” I said, equally softly. “There are enough. Kira lied.”
“Fuck.”
Exactly.
“Who’s as eager as me to wet their blades with Skathe blood?” I cried out. I’d been raised to smile and curtsy while men decided the fate of my people. No more. Today, fate would listen to me. “Who will stand and fight for the people we’ve sworn to protect?”
The roar that erupted shook the castle walls. It was a physical force, a wave of sound and excitement that slammed into me, that filled me, that made me whole.
“My aunt lives in Silverstream,” a man with a scar on his right cheek yelled, shoving his chair back as he stood.
“My best friend’s family as well,” a woman cried, her eyes wide with terror and rage.
I knew how to dance, how to wear pretty gowns, and how to stand stoic while my people died before my eyes. But I would not dance around this any longer. I would not hide, and I would not suppress the gift the fates had given me.
For twenty-six years, I’d been the perfect princess, dutiful and obedient when it mattered. Today, I became the person I was born to be.
This was what it felt like to lead.
“We ride with you,” someone shouted from the back. The voice was echoed with calls for revenge against the Skathes, chairs scraping on stone as warriors surged to their feet, their faces lit with the same fire burning through my veins.
“You cannot command this,” Grayson snapped, rising from the high table, cold fury blazing on his face. His companion hissed from his shoulder.
I turned to him, and for the first time since arriving, I let my royal training show.
My spine straightened, my chin lifted, and when I spoke, it was with the voice of a crown princess born to rule.
“I’m not asking for your permission. I am telling you what we will do.
A crown doesn’t make me powerful. My choice does. And today, I choose war.”
“You’re a newly bonded warrior.” He looked me up and down, his disdain clear. “Essentially an untried recruit.”
“I’m the woman your king would die to protect.” The words hung in the air, a bold claim that silenced every voice in the room. I swept my gaze over the faces watching us, letting them see the truth. “Which means these people—our people—matter to me as much as they do to him.”
The hall exploded. It wasn’t just a roar this time. It was the sound of an army rising. The thunder of fists hammering on tables, the clang of steel as fighters drew their blades in salute. Every man and woman clambered to their feet, their eyes locked on me.
This queen would never ask them to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself.
This queen would bleed beside them on the battlefield.
I didn’t give Grayson another glance. The anger radiating from the dais became a distant, irrelevant heat. My focus remained on those who were eager to join me, those hungry for a chance to fight back.
“The training hall has weapons,” I yelled over them. “Arm yourselves!”
Maddox set his jaw, the scar through his eyebrow a pale line on his flushed skin. He wasn’t looking at me, but at the crowd. “The armory is in the north wing,” he finally said. “The weapons there are meant for battle, not for practice!”
A second battle cry went up, this one full of grim approval. The energy sharpened into a single, deadly point.
“Meet in the valley on dragons,” I shouted, leaping off the platform. I didn’t bother to look back at the advisors who no doubt remained in their places, silverware still in their hands.
The hall emptied in a thunder of running feet and the scrape of benches, determined fighters pouring into the corridors. My friends and I were swept along with them as we ran toward the training hall, Lexie sharing my news about Kira.
Inside the training hall, torches whispered in their sconces while the hiss of steel rang out in the air. Fighters stripped swords from the walls, tested the weight of axes, and strapped quivers onto their backs.
Lexie grabbed two wicked, curved blades.
Derren lifted a heavy broadsword from the wall that looked like an extension of his own formidable frame.
Kerralyn, ever the strategist, bypassed the larger weapons for a pair of long, sharp daggers and a repeater crossbow that she hefted and sighted, already calculating her angle of attack.
I ran my hand along a row of longswords, their hilts wrapped in dark leather, before choosing one with a simple cross guard, its weight familiar, balanced.
Though I’d mostly trained in hand-to-hand combat with Commander Thorne, he’d spent numerous months showing me how to battle with various weapons.
This sword felt like home. I also added a half-dozen throwing knives, slipping them into the sheaths on my thighs and forearms.
As I turned to leave, my gaze met Maddox’s.
He held a massive, brutal-looking war axe, his knuckles white around the shaft.
He gave me a single, sharp nod. It wasn’t forgiveness for his brother, but it was an acknowledgment and a truce.
For today, at least, while we fought the same enemy.
We could pick up our fight again tomorrow.
We burst from the back of the castle and sprinted across the broad grassy area behind, spiraling onto the path to the aerie.
I’ll come back to you, he’d told me.
Didn’t he know? I wasn’t the kind of woman who waited. I was the kind who fought by her man’s side.
Pherin landed on my shoulder, making me jump.
“You should stay here,” I said.
She released a peep so loud it pierced my ear, and sent something that resonated like, try to make me.
“Then stay back where you’re safe,” I said.
I swore she scowled, clinging to my shoulder as I picked up my pace.
The main aerie was strangely quiet, and I wondered if we’d be allowed to stroll through and steal dragons. At least Kira wasn’t here to refuse us entry.
Armed warriors crowded behind me, their companions scampering around, flying, or clinging to shoulders. The scent of scorched sand and beast hung in the air, but the stalls were mostly empty. Only a handful of dragons remained, shifting restlessly when we poked our heads into their pens.
Trew had taken the bulk of the mounts.
My stomach plummeted. We had an army, but no way to fly them to battle.
“Fates,” Lexie breathed beside me. “There aren’t enough for all of us.”
Helena strode out of the tack room. Instead of regular leathers, she wore plate armor over a chainmail shirt, and she’d strapped a sword to her back. Three other stable hands, similarly armed, came out with her.
She strode right over to me, her gaze meeting mine. “I heard your speech. I’m with you.” She dropped into a shallow bow that wasn’t one for a new warrior but better suited for a commander.