Chapter 15
Hope
Ciaran embraced her from behind, trapping her body against his with the only belt she would ever allow herself to be restrained with—his strong arms.
Corentre lay below them, multiple straight streets converging in the very center of the island, where the Organ House occupied a sizeable area of the city capital, and in its very middle, an enormous dome begged for everyone’s attention.
It felt like five years ago when she had seen the Cardinals’ Temple for the first time.
“Do you think she is there right now?” Hope asked in a low voice, almost as if she didn’t want the Queen to hear her.
“It wouldn’t surprise me. In fact, I would be shocked if she dared leave the throne room or the Organ House at all. She’s probably scared of you, Hope. And if she’s not, she should be.”
She turned her head to look at him, her nose briefly touching the line of his jaw as she leaned back, the back of her head perfectly fitting in the space between his shoulder and his face. “If you say so,” she murmured.
“You were discarded by your father when you were born. Yet you survived that island of death and traveled the world when you wanted to get answers to your questions.”
“I didn’t get any answers from him, though, did I?” She swallowed. “I got my mother killed, that’s all.”
“No, bloodrose, that’s not all. He sent your mother and you to Verdania to feel abandoned and overpowered when you died.
You not only endured such a life for almost a quarter of a century, but became survival in female form.
Your return, your appearance in his territory, was probably one of the biggest shocks of his life.
A female with Core panom blood in Thyria?
Such powerful magic was unheard of for centuries, since he assassinated his sisters and his own mother.
You were the biggest threat to his rule, and I will thank Llunal and all his stars every night that he was too slow to react. ”
“Or he would have tried to kill me too.”
“And he tried to, Hope, multiple times.” His breathing was faster, his voice grave.
“He displayed corpses of women who looked like you to tease you to him. He sent you bleeding ink hoping you would lose your mind and find him. You stayed strong, with your cold-blessed mind I love so much. You didn’t lose focus or patience in his attempts at getting you killed.
Fuck, even immediately after meeting you, straight after killing your mother, he threw the Black Lawful Stab at you. ”
“And you moured us away,” Hope recalled, a knot twisting rapidly in her stomach as she remembered how her mother’s body fell limp on the floor.
“You’ve saved me, Ciaran. Not just from death—but from the loneliness I never admitted I carried.
From the battles I had to fight alone. Since the first day, you’ve been the one constant in the chaos.
I don’t say this lightly—you are my salvation.
My only genuine hope in a world that never gave much reason to believe in anything. ”
“If I couldn’t save you, then all I’ve endured—all these centuries—would mean nothing. You are the heart of my purpose, Hope. Without you, my life is just shadow and steel.”
Ciaran caressed her cheek, kissing her softly on her forehead as his arms held her even tighter.
“The Cardinal Queen should fear you with every feather of her wings. You wished to get the Fifth Power, so you did. You wanted to avenge your mother, and your father is not alive. Now you want to destroy her? She'd better fly.”
“A Queen sitting on a throne of black feathers and bones will not fly away, Ciaran. Queens aren’t made to fly away.”
“Queens are built to fight,” he agreed, interlacing his metallic fingers with hers. “That’s what you always do.”
She shrugged. “That’s all I’ve ever done. All I know to do.” Action was her comfort zone, adrenaline rushing through her veins her most familiar status, swallowing her fears and throwing blades at them her favorite hobby.
A low knock at the door made both of them turn at the same time. Stevian waited at the doorway, his blue eyes so similar to Ciaran’s it was difficult to believe they hadn’t realized their connection before.
“Apologies for interrupting,” he said, approaching them with quiet but unfaltering steps. When he reached them, he took one of Hope’s hands in his right, and Ciaran’s biological one in his left. “I couldn’t let you go on such a mission without sending my prayers with you.”
Hope smiled, despite a strong, intense sadness filling her most sacred organ. “We’ll be back, Stevian.”
There was a twinkle in his eyes that she did not miss, and his hands pressed theirs firmly. “I expect no less, since you bear the strongest of all weapons.”
“The Fifth Power?” Hope asked, her brow furrowing. The power she had not yet experimented with, but was going to practice as much as she could until she mastered it.
“Love, my dearest, is the biggest strength that ever existed. Love is what saves us from a fatal ending, what moves souls, what brings worlds to life.”
Ciaran was silent, pursing his lips. Hope couldn’t take her eyes from Stevian to Ciaran, and back to Stevian.
“May Llunal’s darkness protect you from blinding light. May his stars illuminate your paths without hindering your shadows. May you always be blessed with his whispers and night.”
With his own shadows, Stevian traced a crescent shape on the skin of Hope and Ciaran’s hands, and he put both moons together. Hope felt a sudden rush of blackness from the tips of her toes to her ears, and the feeling and the marks vanished after a blink.
“Hope, look after my grandson,” Stevian begged.
“I will,” she promised, bowing her head. “I will do everything in my power to protect him.”
“Ciaran, look after your destiny,” his grandfather said.
His reply was a whisper intertwined with shadows. “Always.”