Chapter 12
GARRICK
I knew that one day my father would die by my hands.
I had killed dozens of people over the years.
Some for bounty, others for sport. But I’d never hated any of them like I did the fae king.
Until the Dark God convinced the woman I loved to sacrifice herself by remaining in the most dangerous place in all of Velora.
“You’ve gotten stronger, brother,” Edmund said, his handsome face twisting into an easy grin.
Edmund had been born into an easy life. He was the trueborn son of Balar Shan. The prince. Not an invented duke. I’d never begrudged him the crown; only the ease with which he’d found his place in the world.
This time, Edmund did not bring just one of his lackeys.
More than a dozen sets of feet pounded into the floor behind him.
My mind gifts were strong, but even I could not compel that many at once.
Still, I would have fought them. I gripped the pommel of my greatsword.
Rolled my shoulders to reassure myself with the familiar weight of the bow and quiver of arrows.
I’d have gambled on my fae immortality in a second if Koryn had changed her mind. But my witch was stubborn.
She squared her shoulders and stared down the bevy of guards, one hand reaching for Isanara. She caressed the base of one of the wickedly sharp spikes that lined the dragon’s back as Edmund’s guards surrounded us.
The little dragon hissed, the sound seeping between her sharp, snapping jaws.
“I am not the one you should be concerned about,” I said, although my sword was still raised.
I’d never seen Isanara breathe fire, but there were plenty of legends about her kind. Edmund was welcome to test them, if he was stupid enough.
I waited for the Dark God’s acerbic laugh, or for Edmund’s brows to launch into his hairline at finding us with someone he did not recognize.
The blasted god was everything I’d expected, plus a sarcasm that grated against my last nerve.
I would not give him the grace of paying him any extra attention.
The Dark God might be the greater threat, but Edmund and his guards were the present one.
“Try to encircle me with fire again, and you will feel my frost,” Koryn hissed, the sound an echo of her familiar.
Edmund’s grin only widened. And the Dark God—
The Dark God was gone.
The space where he’d inserted himself between Koryn and me was entirely vacant.
But his words and their consequences lingered, even if he’d made himself invisible.
I’d known that he could not be trusted. He was the Dark God.
The embodiment of evil and death and darkness in Velora. But I’d believed our goals aligned.
I was wrong. I’d made the wrong choice—again—and again, Koryn would be the one to pay.
This choice was hers, an inner voice corrected.
So was the choice to enter the temple at the Mercy Gate.
Others tried to manipulate her, but Koryn chose.
She chose to enter the temple to spare her sister’s descendant.
She chose to save me at the Mercy Gate. She chose to stay in Balar Shan to try to stop Maura and the king from bringing even more evil down on Velora.
Again and again, Koryn chose goodness. Gods, how I loved her.
But her choices did not absolve those who would use her for their own purposes. That list now included the Dark God. I was still at the top. But she’d let me help her liberate Isanara. That was progress, however small.
“Interesting choice, brother,” Edmund cracked, flicking his amused gaze my direction.
Mistake.
Isanara and Koryn lunged forward in tandem. The dragon’s wings flared wide, shielding Koryn from retaliation as her blast of ice encircled his feet and froze him in place. Isanara’s roar shook the bricks around us, bits of mortar skittering down the walls and across the floor.
“I grow tired of being spoken about,” Koryn sneered. She stared down the Prince of Balar Shan with hate and malice that I doubted Edmund had ever had pointed in his direction.
His smile faltered, just for a second. But if I saw it, I knew Koryn did, too.
“Argh,” the guard at Edmund’s left cried out in pain. Koryn’s ice had reached his upper thighs. Another few inches and she’d freeze his balls off, just as she’d threatened me earlier.
Except that she’d targeted Edmund’s companion, not Edmund. Because escape was no longer her goal.
Edmund’s eyes lit. I knew that look. Even though it had been years, I knew my brother. He was no longer the gangly adolescent I’d left at the Court of Lies. But he was still my father’s creation.
“Please, my prince,” the iced guard implored, his voice low. As if every being in this crumbling corridor did not possess exceptional hearing.
Edmund dragged his gaze between Koryn, Isanara, me, and then finally back to his guard. That bright turquoise was the only trait we shared. In physical appearance, Edmund took after the long-dead mother he’d never known. Maybe if she’d lived, she could have stemmed the king’s influence on her son.
“Melt your ice, witch,” Edmund finally said.
Koryn’s eyes flared. I did not let myself imagine that it was because he’d so casually used my endearment as an epithet.
“If you attempt to separate me from my familiar again, you will all bear the consequences,” Koryn said. She did not melt the ice holding the guard in place.
Edmund shrugged, his grin ever present, unbothered. “I am merely the errand boy,” he said.
Lie. The first of many. This was Balar Shan. The Court of Lies. And Edmund was its prince.
The ice crept higher. The male whimpered. At her side, Koryn’s hand began to shake. She was struggling to control her power. If she lost control and killed the guard, maybe she would panic and flee. The death would haunt her, but at least she would be free of Balar Shan.
But I could not do that to her. I was done hurting the woman I loved. I hated that I even had to acknowledge that thought.
I stepped closer to Koryn. Isanara’s citrine eyes flicked in my direction, assessing the movement. She did not snap her jaws at me. Another small but meaningful victory.
Reaching for my Lifebind was something else. I did not know how Koryn would react, only that my touch had helped center her before. Now she was as likely to freeze the blood in my veins as she was to accept my touch. But there was no limit to what I would risk for her.
I reached out, knowing that Edmund would mark the motion.
There was no avoiding that. I skimmed my fingertips along the back of Koryn’s arm, bare beneath her tattered shift.
I waited for her to jerk away. She sucked in a breath, sharp.
For the space of that inhale, the world stilled.
I had no idea what would happen. But I was touching her, and for that brief moment, I felt peace and completion.
Koryn’s arm twitched, breaking the contact. But her hand no longer shook.
“How much do you value your companion’s life?” As she spoke, the ice reached the man’s waist. But Koryn was in control now. The cold would only inflict the damage she willed.
Edmund quirked a brow, his stance shifting—
“If you attempt to harm my familiar, all of your lives are forfeit,” Koryn snarled.
The temperature of the air around us dropped sharply, suddenly colder than even the frozen hellscape beyond the open cell at our backs.
The angle of Edmund’s grin changed. Whatever Koryn had seen to tip her off, she’d judged it correctly, and Edmund was not pleased about it.
“The king invites you to attend him in the presence chamber,” Edmund said. He sheathed his sword and offered Koryn his hands, palms up. It was mock supplication. He wielded fire, and I had no doubt that in the two decades of my absence he’d learned to use it well.
From the sharpness of her inhale, Koryn knew it, too.
Just like we both understood the true meaning of the word ‘invite.’ The fae king and head witch had not gone to all the trouble of capturing Koryn and her familiar only to let them go so easily.
This was all carefully choreographed and had been since the beginning when I’d accepted my role.
Except I was supposed to escort Koryn through all seven gates. Yet they’d taken her after the fifth, and the king had declared our bargain fulfilled.
Something else was at work here. Which was precisely what the Dark God had implied with his talk of a talisman. The difference was that I wanted Koryn nowhere near this deadly mess.
Koryn flexed her fingers. “If you—”
“If I attempt to separate you from your dragon—dead. If I attempt to harm your dragon—dead. I get the idea,” Edmund drawled. “Care to extend any conditions to him?” He tipped his head in my direction.
Oh yes, Edmund was the king’s son. He knew precisely where to press to elicit pain. And in this case, twice at once. I would never allow him to see the impact that his words—and Koryn’s reaction to them—had upon me. But Koryn did not contain her ire.
“Play with frost at your own risk, princeling,” Koryn said.
She was nearly a foot shorter, but she glared down her nose at Edmund, reminding us all.
She was the senior here. A captive, yes.
But willing. A four-hundred-year-old frost witch who, despite separation from her coven and a dying continent, retained her full power.
Who had managed what only one other ever had, conquering five of Velora’s Seven Gates.
I hoped they underestimated her, just so I could watch her vengeance.
‘Presence chamber’ was a misnomer for throne room, and it was the same one I’d watched my life fall apart in for the first time twenty years before.
Edmund fell back to my side as we entered the final stretch of the spiral.
“Compulsion isn’t the kindest way to greet your brother after ten long years,” he crooned.
Koryn kept her gaze forward. Isanara’s spikes prickled. They both listened. More than fine. I’d have no more secrets from my Lifebind.
“I take that resentment to mean you never manifested a mind-gift of your own,” I said, giving my brother only the minimum of my attention. Every step brought us closer to the dark heart of Balar Shan, and I refused to be caught unawares here. Again.
Edmund’s step did not falter. He had more control over his temper than the king.
The fact that I alone of his four children had inherited a mind-gift, while his three legitimate heirs did not, was an offense to the king’s pride. An embarrassment to the court, and a threat to Edmund.
It was why he’d murdered my lover—so that the Prince of Balar Shan would not suffer by comparison.
I shoved the pain of the memory aside before it could find purchase. Pain was debilitating, and I had enough weaknesses as I brought my beloved to face the worst male alive in all of Velora. My father.