58. Mare #2
He’d noticed our nerves—his hand moved to rest on his hammer.
The bride ascended to the ceremony stage last. Brighid looked like a piece of heaven—for a man who deserved only hell.
Her long, ruby gown trailed behind her on the grass. Bláth walked behind her, dressed in a plain black gown, holding the wedding train.
A brilliant feather stuck out from Brighid’s curls, pointing up toward the sky, though her veil plunged to the ground.
Lord Sorley took her hands in his and led her to the arch. The priest bound their wrists together with a silk rope. Brighid’s throat bobbed.
A jolt of heat rushed through my side, and I turned to Reese in surprise. Cleiv Solais shone, twisting shades from gold to red.
I needn’t ask—the shock on Reese’s face told me this had never happened before.
Then, it stopped. The red hue vanished and faded to gentle gold.
Agendra leaned forward, eyebrows knit together. Diar noticed as well, eyes darting questioningly between us.
Reese shook his head and turned back to the ceremony.
The priest was halfway through his prayer, hands clasped together, head bowed. “ . . . may serve your husband faithfully, until you return to bask in the glow of the Light Beyond.”
Looking down, I tuned out the rest of the prayer. I would throw something at the priest, otherwise.
When the prayer concluded, the priest unwound the rope binding their wrists. Sorley leaned in and pressed his lips to Brighid’s.
Searing pain shot through my leg as Cleiv Solais turned brilliant red. Reese clamped his hands around the hilt, but it would not heed him.
Fire pooled in the blade until Sorley’s mouth left Brighid’s. Only then did the red light fade.
Reese's head snapped up to regard Brighid.
Was the Paragon’s blade responding to Reese’s anger?
Or Brighid’s?
How could that even be possible?
Most people in the crowd clapped as the joining ceremony concluded. Raising a hand for silence, Sorley walked to the edge of the stage to give his speech.
“I thank you all for being here, on this momentous day.” His gaze swept over us.
“For more reasons than one. We face an unprecedented assault from the south; our Paragon weapons have strayed from their centuries-long path; our Queen is without an Emperor. But I can at least remedy one of these troubles.”
My eyes snapped up. Worry clawed at my throat.
“After years of dragging their heels, insistent that a young widow could sit the empty throne.” He chuckled, and a few men in the audience echoed him. “Our Archbishop and magistrate have finally chosen a suitable husband for Siobhan. And I’m so lucky as to announce the name of our new Emperor.”
Sorley was staring straight at us. My heart slowly sank.
“Who more befits the throne than the holy rapier’s champion himself? Lord Tiernan’s celebrated son.”
Reese was engaged to the Queen? I glared at him, searching for answers, but he stared forward, mouth set in a tight grimace.
A few people in the crowd gasped, and others cheered.
I felt like I’d been punched in the face.
Diar and Agendra looked stunned. At least I had not been alone in the darkness.
“The Empire,” Sorley asserted. “Will be returned to glory in short order. The beasts from the shadows will be pushed back to where they belong. And perhaps more.” He glanced back at Brighid.
“We will return to the peace we knew when Brighid and I first met—when she was a young girl with an unrepentant infatuation for a man she did not seem to realize was married.”
Cleiv Solais shone with fire again—and embers danced in Brighid’s eyes.
Lord Astartus laughed. “Heavens, she was inconsolable when she found out.” Rising, he took Sorley’s hand in his and shook it firmly. “It’s my greatest honor to join my family to the light of Forlaith—to a man I’m honored to give my daughter to—forevermore.”
Forevermore.
The word seemed to echo across the stage, pulsing with the heat of Cleiv Solais' violent fire.
A crow flew overhead. It was missing a talon.
Whirling in my seat, I followed it to the back of the courtyard, where a man in a brilliant purple cloak leaned against the tower wall.
He brushed aside his black curls and stared at me with a single, golden eye. A mask concealed the other. Vaf.
He raised three fingers and slowly curled one down.
Three, two . . .
Gasping, I spun back around.
All I saw was fire. All I felt was flame.
The world exploded.
Pain crashed against my chest as I was thrown from my seat. I heard Reese’s voice through the blur of red.
“Mare!”
He tackled me, shielding me with his body. Tucked beneath him, I pulled my burning eyes open and forced myself to look at the stage.
A column of fire tore up toward the sky and fell from the clouds like rain. Horrible screams echoed within the blaze—someone was up there, covered head to toe in fire, burning alive. They flailed, swatting at their body as their skin popped and boiled.
I couldn’t even tell who it was.
The column of fire burst—flames spewed out across the courtyard, setting the grass and trees alight. Screams sounded all around me, but I could not look away.
A bird emerged from the embers—as tall as the towers, with a wingspan that nearly matched a dragon’s. It had no body, no feathers, no skin. The beast was fire itself.
A phoenix.
Ruby red eyes glowed on its head. They seethed with hate.
Reese winced as cinders struck his back. Drawing his rapier, he stood and pulled me to my feet. “Go!” He shouted.
I obeyed, stumbling a few steps away. My foot struck something, and I tripped, catching myself on my hands and knees.
Burning embers scorched my skin. I turned to see a body lying beside me, its face melted off.
Saints, the smell. I pressed a hand to my mouth and looked up.
The phoenix’s red eyes snapped onto a man in white—the priest. He scrambled back, away from the stage. Releasing an unearthly cry, the phoenix plunged straight down toward him.
The man’s screams were cut off quickly as another pillar of flame consumed him—and everything around him.
Fire tore down the benches and chased the fleeing people.
What was I doing, running? Standing, I summoned Cierthine. The black blade appeared in my grip with a flash of lightning and a rush of wind. Steadying my grip, I watched the pillar of flame reform itself into a phoenix.
A phoenix that turned its hate toward me.