Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Malakai
“Where the fuck did she go?” I dug into the Bind, trying to find an inkling of Ophelia, but I couldn’t feel a damn thing. Like when I’d first been imprisoned, it was there. But silent.
A frustrated growl rumbled in my throat.
“You know damn well where she went, Malakai, and you better knock off your territorial little games, because while my sister may tolerate them for fear of hurting you further, I have no such qualms.” Jezebel’s voice was laced with calm fury.
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m standing up for her when she won’t.
” She crossed her arms, and I almost felt her next words before she said them.
“I told her to go.” She leveled me a stare that nearly had me withering.
Where had the little girl who wistfully begged to train with us gone? Jezebel was fucking terrifying now.
But I could be worse. I pushed to my feet, voice a lethal dare for her to press me. “Why?”
Cypherion and Santorina sat quietly at the breakfast table.
“Because she needed to.” And Jezebel sank a little admitting that. Her gaze turned pitying, and that rattled my chest. It was the same look she’d given me that night we ran into each other near the Spirit Volcano. This fight between us had been brewing even then.
Ophelia was gone, run off to rescue Tolek like the damn hero she was, blades sharpened and poised for revenge.
It was idiotic and irresponsible. She was practically handing herself over to Kakias, delivering her seat here to the hands of that bitch queen. The chill I’d gotten the first time I laid eyes on her shot down my spine, and my anger flared with it.
“She just left us?” I growled, rubbing my tongue over my teeth.
Why wasn’t Jez angry? Her sister had abandoned her, too, yet her fury was reserved for me.
“She can’t do this.” Panic clouded my chest, weighing me back down into my seat. We were safe as long as we were here—away from threats. But look at what happened when one warrior left the mountains. Capture. “She can’t leave everyone. We’re relying on her.”
“She didn’t leave them alone.” Jezebel’s eyes swept over me, then Cypherion and Santorina.
“And what do you think of this?” I glared at them.
“The second the threat was read I knew there was no stopping this,” Rina claimed. “I wish she’d consulted us, but—”
“We shut her down.” Cyph ran a hand down the back of his neck. “Once we said no, she’d seen this as the only way. Am I frustrated she went alone? Yes. But are you really surprised?”
I wasn’t. Because this was what Ophelia did. She risked everything for those she cared about, diving headfirst into the battle while we were still planning the war.
And it was Tolek.
But did she consider there was an entire clan relying on her? While she cared for Tol, she cared for the Mystiques, too. And if she were to get caught, she’d be abandoning them.
Jezebel’s voice softened. “She’s trusting us to take care of the Mystiques in her stead. To continue the plans she’s begun.”
Pressure mounted on my shoulders with their stares, questions hanging in the silence. And I knew what they wanted.
“She should be the one leading this war.” I’d relinquished any claim I’d held. It would only be a farce.
“Don’t you dare imply that she’s not leading us.” Jezebel’s anger was a quiet storm again, all sympathy swallowed in her tumbling clouds. “Tolek may be only one warrior in this war, but we won’t win it without him.”
Did they think I wanted my best friend left to that woman? We may not be on good terms right now, but I didn’t want him to endure even a second of what I had. Invisible blades dragged against my skin, goosebumps rising. I fought the urge to shrink into myself, blinked away the memory.
“This is war.” I slammed my palms on the table. “It’s bloody and conniving and brutal. We’ve all sacrificed and will continue to do so, but giving in to this threat is exactly what the queen wants, and we don’t know why.”
“Ophelia won’t give in.” Jezebel ground her teeth.
She was right; Ophelia was brilliant and not above scheming to get what she wanted. She wouldn’t give herself over that easily—I hoped. Unless Tol…
“Why does the queen want her so badly?” I huffed. “She’s obviously a threat as Revered, but what’s Kakias so desperate for?”
It couldn’t only be Mystique power. Not with her son now helping us and her plans with my father exposed. No, there had to be an angle we weren’t seeing. That letter had outright demanded Ophelia.
“Knowing that wouldn’t have changed Ophelia’s decision,” Rina comforted.
“It could have given her an edge,” I snapped.
“It’s done.” Jezebel’s voice was sharper than a blade. “She’s gone now.”
“She’s right.” Cyph pulled back the chair next to mine and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Advantage or no, we can’t keep going in circles over her choices.”
“It’s so much to risk for one warrior,” I mumbled, bracing my elbows on the table and holding my head in my hands.
We were fucked. Truthfully, abysmally, fucked by the Spirits.
“You may think one person doesn’t make a difference.” Jezebel stepped toward me. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. “But you’re wrong. Because Ophelia is the best shot we have. And if something happens to Tolek, she will be irreparable.”
“She can survive anything,” I snapped, but even I heard the lack of conviction in my voice.
Jezebel assessed me. If I wasn’t so upset, I’d marvel at the ability of the Alabath women to make men larger than them feel so small.
“She survived everything you put her through,” she spoke slowly, “barely. And in large part, it was thanks to him. If she loses him, it will destroy her. Worse than ever.”
Worse than anything I’d done. Worse than Kakias’s threats.
I raked my hands through my hair again, squeezing my eyes shut, and tried to release a bit of the hostility clouding my mind. If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that I didn’t want to cause anyone any more pain.
“She won’t come back from that,” I mumbled, understanding.
Jezebel fell into a chair, gripping my arm. “I’ve always loved you as a brother, Malakai, and you were good to my sister for many years. That’s why I’m telling you this now: Let go.”
“You love me, huh?” I asked, ignoring the way my pulse raced at the last two words she’d said.
“Of course. And I was devastated when I thought you died. Furious when I found out you left without a proper goodbye.” That fucking tore my heart up.
And that was it. The discomfort I couldn’t grasp when we’d walked back from the Spirit Volcano. Jezebel was angry with me. I’d apologized to the others, but never to her.
“I’m sorry, Jez,” I said.
“Just do better.” Her lips twisted to the side, a small shrug.
I nodded. “I made the choice to forgive. To move on. You and Ophelia have chosen to do that in your own ways, too. So, figure out what’s happening in your head and don’t let it hurt her anymore.
Because she’s trying to choose herself now. ”
Choices. Spirits, mine had fucked up countless lives, left me in a constant pool of guilt.
I deserved it. This payment for the pain I’d caused to those I loved.
If I hadn’t signed the treaty, if I hadn’t given in to my father and disappeared, maybe we could have fought our way out of the war.
Maybe, with enough people rallying against him, we could have stopped his plans.
Without him shoving Mystiques into further turmoil for those two years after the treaty, would lives have been saved? Would we be less disjointed if I’d only spoken up?
I’d gotten us here. Though my intentions had been pure, the methods I took were twisted, blinding.
But maybe…I met Cyph’s eye…maybe I could help fix it still.
“Tell me everything about where our troops are now.” I pushed back from the table and left the room, three sets of boots following me. “Where did Ophelia leave off?”
Cyph’s voice was stabilizing as I marched through the palace, asking Rina to send the council and delegates to the chamber. He told me of the placements and advantages of each legion we had gained from our new allies and how the diplomatic relationships were swaying. Jezebel filled in the gaps.
As I settled into a chair beside the Revered’s in the council chamber, I dragged a hand over my face. Fuck, how had I allowed myself to become so complacent? Was Ophelia right that that’s what we’d done with our relationship, too?
I knew nothing of the plans that had been laid. I’d spent every meeting blocking out the noise, doing my best to appear present without actually listening.
Now, I found myself in the seat I’d relinquished, trying to help until Ophelia returned. Spirits, she’d better return. She hadn’t even officially been inducted as Revered, but I’d seen the reaction to her presence at Renaiss; we couldn’t afford to lose her.
The council and delegates arrived, and I straightened, summoning the voice I’d learned as a teenager. One of a true leader. With their help, I wouldn’t have to make threatening decisions, but I needed to try to be the symbol Ophelia had become. At least in this room.
“Why are the Soulguiders being placed on the southwest border of the mountains?” I asked, tracking Danya’s hands across the map. “Does it not make sense to move them east with our troops?”
“We’ve placed legions at the weakest points of the range, assuming Kakias is after power,” Danya explained.
“But we’re spreading ourselves thin.” There were clusters of Mystique and ally pins across territories, but I could tell by a quick scan that none matched the strength of the Engrossians.
Danya frowned. “Until we can decipher what the queen wants, we’re doing our best.”
I was unsatisfied with the risk, but I nodded. I didn’t want to insult the Master of Weapons and Warfare.
“The closer the Soulguiders are to our land,” Erista added, brushing curls out of her face with a ringed hand, “the stronger we are. We aren’t solely fueled by your mountains like you.” Did that mean she felt weak, being here all this time?
My eyes flitted to Vale. “Same with the Starsearchers on the northern line?”
She chewed her lip. “That’s a safe guess.”
“But?” Cyph prodded.
“But we’re actually strongest near a temple, if it’s readings you’re after. Anywhere that there’s a connection to the Celestial Goddess so that we can channel her and the Angel Valyrie.”
“And if we’re after fighters?” Danya asked.
“We’ll fight mercilessly wherever we’re stationed.” She lifted her eyes to Danya, then to Cyph, nothing but steel promise there.
A memory surfaced from one of those many meetings I’d barely attended. “Vale?” I started, waiting for her to meet my eyes. “Did you have any luck with the reading Ophelia requested?”
“Not yet.” The Starsearcher’s gaze shuttered, slipping back into her subdued act.
I’d watched her these past weeks, always alert and observant until her readings were mentioned. The avoidance drew a trickle up my spine.
Vale wanted to keep secrets, so I’d keep mine, as well. If there was one thing I’d learned since the war, it was that while everyone hoarded truths, they also had something that would expose them.
In my years as a prisoner, I became an expert at picking apart tells, deciphering the hidden meanings beneath their words even as I buried my own. Secrets and broken promises were a currency I now dealt in.
And that made the fact that Vale was lying much more intriguing.
Sitting back in my chair, I dropped my shoulders and sank into the wood. “Please, keep trying. We need anything we can get about Titus’s reading or Kakias’s plan.” I scrubbed my hands over my face, barely catching her nod through the cracks between my fingers.
Internally, I grinned. I’ll figure you out, Starsearcher.