Chapter 17
Seventeen
Lory
“What did he say?” Khayrivven studied Lory from the side, his gaze a leaden weight as she peered out into the starlit night through the carriage window, her mind spinning from the dance with King Ulder.
An impressive man who knew how to make a speech as well as how to deal in the shadows, and that was perhaps what scared Lory most about the King of Brestolya—the man of whom she would supposedly be the downfall one day.
Ulder was a puppet master, pulling the strings of people far more powerful than him, Khayrivven being just one of them.
His words had lingered in her head since they’d left the palace, Khayrivven offering her his arm the way he had as they’d entered, his face blank and his shoulders tense.
She’d rarely seen his mask slip, but when Ulder had stepped in to take Elina back, it had been one of those moments, and Lory hadn’t dared ask how the conversation with his sister had gone.
“Lory?” Khayrivven’s fingers brushed her hand on her thigh, where the purple of her dress was slowly turning darker with Anees’s power wearing off. The flower petals at her shoulder and hips were still there but wilting like they’d been cut off from a source of water.
Lory shook her head. “You don’t want to know, trust me.”
Beside her, Khayrivven was tight as a bowstring, ready to pounce at an invisible threat despite the dark quiet of the night. “I want to know everything.”
“Not this.” She’d tried to twist Ulder’s words this way and that, spin them into something that made sense, but the meaning remained the same.
“Whatever it is can’t be worse than what you already know about me.” The slight desperation in his tone made Lory wonder if Khayrivven had something of his own he’d rather not talk about that night.
Very well then… “He made me an offer.”
“An offer?”
It was so unlike Khayrivven to prompt her for information, to keep a conversation going when usually he was the one withdrawing and sharing mere half-truths.
How she could have let those three precious little words slip earlier, which she had never spoken to anyone, was beyond her, when she still barely knew how to trust Khayrivven Falcrest. Of course, she trusted him with her life when it came to survival—or to pleasure—but her heart?
How could she trust him with her heart when he hadn’t even acknowledged she’d accidentally let slip how she felt about him?
Fuck the Guardians, she’d let her guard down, and now it would cost her sleepless nights, because what Ulder had asked of her she only considered because of those three little words.
“King Ulder of Brestolya offered me a bargain.”
Even from the corner of her eye, Lory could make out the crease between his brows, one of his few tells that he was actually worried.
“I’ve seen enough of Ulder’s so-called bargains to know nothing good can come of it. Whatever it is, please tell me you didn’t accept.”
Again, she shook her head. “I promised to think about it.”
Khayrivven’s shoulders sagged as he audibly exhaled. “Now, what’s the bargain?”
Turning to face him on the bench, Lory tried to ban the smirk on the king’s face from her memory. “He’ll let Elina go”—the tension in Khayrivven’s shoulders immediately returned—“if I stay with him instead.”
“No.” The war in Khayrivven’s eyes was an image of brutal devastation. “Absolutely and entirely no.”
“Of course, no,” Lory agreed. “I promised Ulder to think about it, not to change my mind. Though…” Lory shook her head at the impossibility of that bargain.
“Maybe Elina’s freedom would change everything.
No more being forced to do Ulder’s bidding.
No more missions. You could take your sister and leave Sen Dunai. ”
“And leave you behind? I think not.” All emotions crumbled in his expression as he met Lory’s gaze, the hard, unfeeling captain incarnate, but his hand locking around hers spoke volumes.
Slowly, Khayrivven shook his head. “If he were to set Elina free and keep you instead, he’d hold a threat even worse over my head. ”
“But you’d be reunited with your sister.” Lory couldn’t believe she was trying to convince him this was a good idea when she knew Ulder would find a way to twist this so Khayrivven was still trapped. “I could find a way out as soon as Elina is safe.”
Lory didn’t breathe when Khayrivven took her face between his hands and looked her deep in the eyes, smoldering embers igniting the gray storm brewing there.
His throat worked, his brows furrowing as he brushed her cheekbones with his thumbs.
“Not in a million years, Lory. Not in a million years, I’ll trade you for a chance at freedom. ”
I love you. The words were right there at the tip of her tongue, but she was holding them in a vise like her life depended on it, her head still swimming from the events of the past hour.
Not only was her father close to the king, but he knew Airmal Ycken, the man whose Almelyte Lory had stolen that fateful night when she’d been caught.
King Ulder had recognized her the moment he’d laid eyes on her, had known Lory was the Flame-born Khayrivven had vouched for.
He knew of the events in the Amrin Mountains, of the cave Lory had ended up in, the creature that was haunting the cave.
The Flames now wasting away in Ashthorn’s dungeons.
For a king who pretended to hate magic all that much, Ulder took surprising interest in the life and death of magic wielders.
“Lory?” Khayrivven’s voice caught Lory mid-thought.
She wanted to feel the warmth of Khayrivven’s hands on her skin, wanted to feel the burning attraction that had always existed between them, even when she’d still hated him and he’d pretended to be indifferent toward her at best, but her mind wouldn’t shut up.
“We have about three minutes before this carriage will stop in front of Ashthorn’s main gates and we won’t be able to talk about anything of substance.
” It wasn’t as much a warning as a fact—one that made Lory’s stomach tighten with the anticipation of stepping under the eyes of the Triad to report her findings.
“We need to find a better way to break Elina out.” Lory hadn’t thought it through, even when the idea had taken hold the moment she’d watched Khayrivven enter the dance floor with his sister.
“As soon as she’s out of his reach, you’re free to leave Ashthorn and fight for the freedom of your homeland. All we need is a plan.”
For a long moment, Khayrivven just stared at her, his features almost turning into the cold mask that was his favorite, but his eyes kept burning, alive with the passion, not for her body but for a cause so much bigger than Lory could have ever imagined—and a deep devastation.
“Do you think I haven’t tried everything?
” He let go of her face to run his hands through his hair, the ends sticking up in all directions.
“I’ve looked at it from every angle, Lory.
There’s no scenario in which Elina would survive such an attempt as long as Ulder is alive.
And even if there were, he’d know it was me, and he’d come for everyone I’ve ever cared for.
” There it was, the bone-deep defeat Khayrivven had been carrying in addition to the responsibility for his sister’s life.
“He’d come for Anees, and for Hadrian, and for you, Lory.
I couldn’t bear it if any of you got hurt because of my selfishness. ”
“Are they in on it? Do they know about Elina?” Lory barely dared ask. “About the rebels you’ve been sneaking out of Ashthorn?” Anees had admitted as much as knowing about his sister, but the rest—
Khayrivven nodded, burying his head in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. The golden embroidery on the collar of his jacket glimmered cold silver in the starlight. “There are only three people you can trust within Ashthorn’s walls: Anees, Hadrian, and me.”
“What about Aiden?” Lory’s voice trembled as she spoke his name. “Did he know?” That Khayrivven was Flame-born? That he was secretly saving rebels? About Elina?
Shadows danced on Khayrivven’s face in the half-light inside the carriage. “Aiden knew more than either of us could fathom.”
Before Lory could ask what he meant by that, she was pressed into her seat as the carriage stopped, announcing the end of their discussion.
She was about to reach for the door when Khayrivven caught her hand and leaned close enough for his mouth to brush the shell of her ear.
A wave of sage and embers engulfed her as she sucked in a breath of surprise, and her stomach tightened with the sort of heat she knew only he could sate.
“I heard you earlier, Lory.” His lips skimmed her cheek, then her mouth in a soft kiss that sent Lory’s heart into a frenzy.
Then, Khayrivven reached over her to push open the door.
When Lory climbed out of the carriage, her legs were shaking and her pulse spiking, just because of that little touch, and as Khayrivven followed, holding out his arm for her to loop hers through the way he had at the palace, Lory accepted, grateful to have something to hold on to, and savoring those final moments they could be so close, before Ashthorn would swallow them once more.
Behind them, the carriage rolled off, the horses’ hoofs thudding on the packed sand defining the ground in front of Ashthorn’s gates, and when Khayrivven knocked on the blackened steel covering the mouth of the beast, Lory wondered when they’d next be able to talk like that.
So Lory hooked her free hand into the crook of his elbow, rose to her toes, and whispered, “We’ll find a way to get Elina out.”
The next morning, Lory woke bleary-eyed and exhausted. Her ribs hurt from the stays of the corset, and her head was a dead weight on her pillow.
“Looks like you had quite the night.”
Lory nearly jumped from her bed as she spotted Anees leaning on the backrest of the chair in the corner of the room that Lory had never seen before.