Chapter Twenty-Three
Ani is angry, and rightly so, that I deceived her. After several days of giving me the silent treatment, she relents only when I corner her in the library. “Are you going to avoid me forever?” I ask.
“I thought we were friends.”
The guilt weighs heavy in my heart. “We are. I needed to see him, Ani, and I wasn’t sure you would let me.”
“He could have killed you!” she snaps. “Gods, don’t you know what could have happened?
The curse . . . the bond . . . you have no idea what you—” She breaks off with a strange half sob, leaving me desperate for her forgiveness, but eventually my softhearted friend takes pity on me.
“Promise me you won’t risk yourself like that again. ”
“I promise.”
When she indicates with a sigh that I should occupy my usual chair across from her, I gather the books I’ve been studying and sit gratefully.
We read in silence. I vacillate on confessing what had happened with the manticore, but I don’t want to get the same reaction I’d received from her brother.
It’s all too clear the king does not believe me, though I know in the depths of my soul that the manticore would never harm me.
He might be monstrous to everyone else, but he’s not to me. How I know this, I have no idea.
“May I join you?” a deep voice asks, making both Ani and me glance up from our texts.
The king of Everlea stands beside the table, looking tall, windblown, and annoyingly handsome.
Silver hair loose over his broad shoulders, he is dressed simply in a black tunic and pants, sans his usual armor, with his tattoos peeking out at his collar and winding over his arms. His expression is not as cold as it usually is, though I don’t pretend to know what each degree of coldness means when it comes to this mercurial man.
There’s no doubt, however, that my ill-advised attraction hasn’t waned. I try to hide the feelings that the king evokes in me, but his presence is impossible to resist. I feel Ani’s notice turn my way, but I keep my face neutral despite the wild flurry in my body. “Fine by me,” I say casually.
Ani points to the empty seat, and her brother sprawls in the chair. “To what do we owe your visit, Dare?” she asks, her surprise evident, considering he has been avoiding us both.
“Can’t a man visit his own library?”
“You haven’t before, so what do you want?” she asks. “We’re busy.”
“What are you researching?” he asks, staring at the books scattered on the table.
Ani shoves a tome from her pile of books over. “Runes, specifically Oryndhrian runes. We need to get those cuffs off of her, if she will be expected to protect herself here.” She shoots her brother a pointed glance, and the king winces before his usual frigid expression slides into place.
“I might have an answer,” Darrius says, and waves an arm, beckoning someone over.
A person saunters over, and my jaw hangs open.
Memories crash into my brain, not that the new arrival is recognizable, but I know her.
I know those brilliant starlit eyes that hold galaxies within them.
She’d come to me as a crone, showing me how to use my Starkeeper gifts, teaching me, and guiding me.
More gaps fuse in my mind as my history fills in like the colors in a mural finally exposed to light.
“Vena?” I whisper.
“Child. Setareh Framātāram.” Long arms engulf me, and though they don’t feel the same as the ones in my memory, the energy is exactly the same. My magic warms and surges in response as though greeting an old friend.
“Not much of a master of anything these days,” I mutter, but only the king’s gaze flicks to me.
Vena turns to Ani. “Princess Anahima, I don’t believe we have formally met.”
To my surprise, something like distaste passes over Ani’s face before it’s hidden. I get it. Vena can be quite over-the-top and off-putting for some. When I first met her, I thought she was a creepy fortune teller. Plus, this new six-foot-tall blue form of hers is rather intimidating.
“Eminence,” Ani greets with an elegant cant of her head, and I wonder at her formality. Does she know she’s a Royal Star? Does Darrius?
“I like this new look,” I say, admiring the glow of her navy skin and her strange glimmering pale eyes. “Decided to age down a little, Vena?” I ask cheekily, and earn myself a fond swat.
“The Royal Star is gender nonconforming and goes by Ve now,” the king says to me, inadvertently answering my earlier unvoiced question. “Show them the cuffs.”
I bristle at the terse command, but I raise my wrists. Of course Darrius knows who she—they are. He’s the ruler of a realm that’s rich in akasha.
Ve studies the cuffs, their fingertip tracing the runes, and when they look up, their face is wreathed with rage. “He dared?”
I open my mouth and close it. “You know who did this?”
Shutters slam down over their face as they study me for a protracted moment. “The cuffs impair your memories,” they say eventually.
“Who did this, Ve?”
“I cannot interfere with what has been written,” they say, exchanging a dark look with Darrius. “The fates declare that you must recall what you’ve lost on your own.”
“But you know, don’t you?” I press.
“Ve, the cuffs,” Darrius says, interrupting me. “Can you remove them?”
Ve shakes their head, eyes glowing slightly. “The magic in the bracers are tied to the Starkeeper herself. This lock only she can undo.”
“I’ve tried!” I cry, and then frown as Ve’s corporeal form starts to shimmer. “Where are you going?”
They heave a heavy sigh. “To prepare.”
Another dark, weighted look is exchanged with Darrius, and then Ve vanishes from sight.
Ani immediately rounds on her brother. “What the fuck was a Royal Star doing here, Dare?”
My jaw drops to the floor in shock. That’s the first time I’ve heard Ani curse. The king opens his mouth to respond, but a commotion at the library entrance has us all rising. One of the kingsguard crashes through and falls to one knee in front of the king.
“Your Majesty, the basilisk is loose near Shabra,” he says breathlessly. “The Aspa?anā are calling for aid.”
My stomach drops at that. I’d forgotten about the farmer’s plea, and with Darrius gone in manticore form for so long, that thing must be on a rampage.
The king glances at his sister. “I thought you said it was gone.”
A still furious Ani shrugs. “It was, but I also said that those creatures are territorial.”
“Is my horse ready?” the king asks his kingsguard, expression troubled.
“Yes. Outside, Sire.”
Darrius leaves the table, Ani at his heels. And I find myself hurrying after them. “I’m going with you,” I say, surprising myself.
“No,” the king and Ani say at the same time.
Glaring at them in turn, I set my jaw. “Either you let me go with you or I follow on my own. Even if you lock me in my chambers, I’ll find a way.”
“The creature’s gaze can kill, its bite is venomous, and it spits acidic venom.”
Fear skitters up my spine, but I jerk my chin. “I’m aware.”
His dark eyes flash with irritation, but time is ticking.
“Can you ride?” he asks me, and I nod eagerly, not trusting my mouth to blurt out the truth that when it comes to horses, I am extremely adept at bouncing around like a sack of potatoes.
Something about the different gaits just throws me.
Besides, I’m almost certain there won’t be akasha binding me to the saddle like there is with Razulek. But I won’t let that stop me.
“Get her a godsdamned horse,” the king says to his guard.
“I’m coming, too,” Ani says, and then glowers at me. “To keep you out of trouble.”
“Fine, tell the whole fucking castle to come,” the king mutters. “Get my sister and my”—he cuts off abruptly and curses—“her some damned armor.”
I don’t even care about whatever he meant to call me; I race to my chambers, and Ziba helps dress me in fresh leathers and a protective scale mail vest. Once I’m back down in the courtyard, a mare is provided for me by the small army waiting there.
The king comes out a moment later, dressed in his own silver armor, a massive sword on his back.
Ani is already mounted, her face unhappy.
“You don’t have to come,” I tell her, and her only answer is an eye roll.
I hike myself gracelessly into my saddle and settle in place when the king guides his stallion over.
His tattoos peek out from the chest plate, twining up the strong bronze column of his throat, and a thin obsidian circlet holds the long silver strands of hair off his brow.
“Here,” he says, and hands me a leather-wrapped harness.
“My dagger!” I cry, hefting the familiar weight in my palm, and though my magic doesn’t flow through the steel, it still feels right. “Thank you, Darrius.”
Do the king’s eyes warm slightly? “Just don’t stab me with it.”
“I make no such promises.” The involuntary half curl of his lips that barely qualifies as a smile makes my breath hitch, and I wonder what the man would look like if he ever deigned to smile at me for real.
I imagine it would be like seeing lightning strike.
I drag my gaze away before it becomes too obvious that I’m staring at his too-beautiful mouth.
Strapping the harness around my hips, I exhale.
I’m grateful that the horse is placid and starts to move only when the company does.
However, my feeble ability to go from a trot to a canter becomes abundantly clear as we leave Verisia and reach the open plains.
Cursing my recent choices when the mare starts to gallop, I hang on with my knees, hands white-knuckling the reins, and try to keep my teeth from cracking or the tip of my tongue from being bitten off.
“You’re ghastly at this,” Ani says, pulling alongside my horse. “Haven’t you flown on an azdaha? It’s the same. You move with the mare.”
I glare at her while trying not to fall off. “Thank you for your expert opinion, Princess. And it’s not the same with horses at all. This is diabolical.”