Chapter Thirty-one #2
It was nearing dusk when the company settled aboard The Furies' Will .
Despite the circumstances that had brought them here, despite all that awaited them in Tver, an ember of joy sparked in Wilder as he watched Thea at the bow of the ship.
Her eyes were bright and full of exhilaration as the ropes were thrown back to the pier and the vessel began to pull away from the port, the sea air catching in the tail of her braid.
She caught his gaze from across the deck, and smiled.
That she could smile after everything she’d been through and everything she knew was to come left him in awe. And that she smiled for him…
Wilder went to her, and when she reached for him, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close for all the world to see.
For as long as she’d have him, Althea Zoltaire was his. And he no longer cared who knew it.
Maybe she should know it too.
‘Are you alright?’ he murmured into her hair, breathing in the familiar scent of her, warmth blooming in his chest.
She stroked the bare skin of his forearm where his sleeves were rolled to the elbow, such a casually intimate gesture. ‘I am now.’
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
‘Soon,’ she said quietly, still looking out to the stretch of water before them. ‘How much do you think we should tell the others about me and Wren?’
Wilder tightened his grip around her, so she was pressed flush against his front, protected against the chill of the wind.
Gods, he never wanted to let her go, but who she was…
He thought back to those moments on the hill, watching the storm carve through the sky, watching it circle Thea and her sister as their minds were transported elsewhere, somewhere Wilder couldn’t reach.
He recalled the open-mouthed stares of her friends and Torj’s words to him on the dock about letting people in.
‘Perhaps it’s time you told them everything.’
‘Everything?’ Thea tensed in his arms. ‘Even about my fate stone?’
The mention of the cursed object left a bitter taste in Wilder’s mouth and pain throbbing at the back of his throat, but he kept holding her.
‘It’s your choice, and I’ll support whatever you want to do,’ he said. ‘But answer this… Doesn’t it get heavy? Carrying it around with you, on your shoulders, with no one to ease the burden?’
‘You have helped ease the burden.’
‘I’m one man…’ He realised he was echoing Torj’s sentiments, and as he did, he saw the stark truth of them.
Thea heaved a sigh in his arms. ‘Is there a place we can all talk?’
‘I booked us a cabin. It’ll be crammed, but no one will overhear.’
Thea twisted, turning to him, her hand reaching up to cup the side of his face and stroke his cheek with her thumb. ‘Thank you.’
Tell her how you feel , the voice in his head demanded as he stared into those stormy eyes. Say the words .
But the words lodged in his throat, refusing to form on his tongue. If he told her, he’d lose her, just like everyone else.
So instead, Wilder leant down, tucked a strand of bronze hair behind her ear and kissed her. He kissed her soundly, thoroughly, as though with each brush of his lips, he could pour those words into her and she’d know.
* * *
The group gathered in the cabin Wilder had acquired, but with two Warswords among them, it was even more cramped than he had anticipated.
It was a narrow space, with two bunk beds shoved against either wall.
The whole frame creaked as Wilder sat down on the edge of one of the lower ones, Thea taking the place beside him.
Torj sat on the opposite mattress, while Cal rested his back against the door and Kipp sat cross-legged on the floor. Wren joined him there, placing the packages from the markets before her, along with a mortar and pestle. Furies knew where she’d got those.
Wilder had given Thea and her sister a moment before summoning the others, and he was quietly glad the pair had reconciled.
Though Thea had tried to hide it, he’d known how much hurt she’d carried with her about what Wren had done, and how much she’d missed the alchemist in the weeks that had followed.
‘So,’ Kipp said loudly, looking around expectantly. ‘I’m assuming someone is going to fill us in… any day now.’
Thea huffed a laugh. ‘I don’t know where to start…’
Wilder placed a hand on her knee, squeezing gently.
Every one of them noticed. The small gesture clearly banished any notion of something casual between them.
But Wilder didn’t remove his hand, and he sagged a little in relief as Thea covered it with her own.
Kipp cleared his throat. ‘You might want to start with that storm…?’ he suggested carefully.
‘Right,’ Thea said, drawing a deep breath.
Pride swelled in Wilder as she told them everything. The tale was a harrowing one, punctuated by sorrow and despair, eliciting quiet gasps of shock from the others.
When Thea was done, she looked at him, tired but somehow brighter, and he knew she’d done the right thing, whatever happened next.
Torj had stretched out on the opposite lower bunk, his expression remaining cool the entire time, whereas Cal and Kipp… They looked like stunned fish, their eyes bulging, their mouths agape.
It was Kipp who at last broke the shocked silence with a splutter directed at Wren. ‘Gods, I never would have spoken to you like that if I’d known you were a fucking – I mean, if I’d know you were a princess .’
Wren fixed him with a stern look. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t speak to any woman like that, you prat.’
‘Good gods, a princess just called me a prat,’ he breathed.
‘I’ll call you a lot worse if you don’t cut it out.’
‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ Kipp gushed, somehow managing to give a messy bow while still cross-legged on the floor.
Both Wren and Thea groaned.
‘If you insist on bowing and scraping, you should direct it to Thea.’ Wren waved a hand at her. ‘She’s the heir.’
Kipp’s eyes bulged again and he scrambled to his feet, bowing to Thea. ‘My apologies, Majesty.’
A snort sounded from Torj. ‘If you want to go down the formal address route, it’s actually Your Highness , as she’s a princess,’ he offered helpfully.
Wilder laughed. ‘That doesn’t go over so well, I’ve learnt,’ he said with a glance at Thea.
She elbowed him. ‘You’re not helping.’
Wilder looked to Cal, who still hadn’t said a word. The poor Guardian seemed to be struggling to process it all. Wilder hardly blamed him. When he’d found out, he’d fucked off for three weeks to hunt monsters.
‘Cal?’ Thea prompted.
He started to shake his head. ‘I just can’t believe it…’
‘I can’t say I was overly thrilled by the news myself,’ Thea allowed. ‘Nor was someone else, for that matter.’ She knocked her knee against Wilder’s and heat flushed his neck.
Cal was blinking slowly, his facial muscles still slack. ‘All this time… The things we’ve told you, Thea… What you’ve seen and heard… You’re a princess .’
‘I’m your friend,’ Thea told him firmly. ‘And there’s no crown here, no kingdom. I’m a Guardian of the midrealms, just like you. Nothing has to change.’
‘Whatever you say, Your Highness,’ Kipp said from the floor.
Thea’s gaze snapped to him, and Wilder tensed, recognising that fiery look —
But Thea relaxed as she, too, spotted the gleam of mischief in Kipp’s eyes.
‘Prick,’ she muttered.
‘That’s hardly princess-like,’ he retorted.
‘Good thing I’m not a princess, then.’
‘Come to think of it, you are a bit high and mighty sometimes, Thea…’ Kipp said thoughtfully.
Wilder had half a mind to kick him, but he knew what the young man was doing in his own irritating way. He was showing Thea that he would treat her just the same as before, and he knew how much that would mean to her.
Cal, on the other hand, looked panicked. ‘Gods… I mean, you’ve seen my cock —’
‘And now you’re saying “cock” to a princess,’ Kipp chastised.
Wilder let his gaze slide to Torj’s apprentice, a hint of threat lacing his words. ‘And why has she seen your cock, Callahan?’
Cal went bright red. ‘Not like that, I swear. I – I just…’ he stammered. ‘When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.’
Wilder knew he was being cruel, but watching the poor bastard squirm was certainly entertaining.
Kipp was shaking his head. ‘And now you’re talking about pissing in front of a princess. Two princesses. And to think, she’s seen you waving that dick around —’
‘Kipp! I don’t wave my anything – for fuck’s – for goodness’ sake,’ he corrected himself, blushing a deeper crimson. ‘You can’t talk to her like that.’
Kipp folded his arms over his chest and turned to Thea. ‘Your Highness, can I talk to you like that?’
‘Absolutely.’
He whirled back to Cal. ‘See? It’s practically a royal order to be ourselves.’
Cal put his head in his hands and groaned.
Wilder couldn’t help laughing, if only out of sympathy. He addressed Torj. ‘Are they always like this?’
‘Yes,’ Torj, Thea and Wren answered in unison.
As they settled back into a mixture of chatter and bickering, Wilder watched Thea hand her fate stone to Wren, who had concocted a strange paste in that mortar of hers.
‘What’s she doing?’ he asked Thea.
She didn’t take her eyes off her sister, who was coating the piece of jade with a thick layer of the gunk. ‘She’s treating it with the same stuff as before…’
‘You mean to mute your magic?’
‘Yes.’
Wren caught his eye from the floor. ‘I told her I think it’s a stupid idea.’
Beside him, Thea sighed. ‘I can’t control it, Wren. You saw what happened in Harenth. The storm lured me out, like a lamb to the slaughter. I was called to it, somehow linked to its chaos. If you hadn’t been there to pull me back —’
Wilder’s gaze snapped to hers. Was that what had happened? Thea had succumbed to the lightning’s thrall? He knew little of the royal lines, but surely the magic within her was a fair match for any storm of natural means?
‘I can’t have that happen again,’ she continued. ‘Not with everything else going on.’
‘With enough training, you and I could have struck that army from the sky,’ Wren told her.
Thea’s hand tightened over Wilder’s. ‘I know…’ she murmured.
It was the first time he’d heard her admit anything about her power and how deep it ran.
He’d seen it for himself, of course, on the cliffs of Thezmarr, and amid the ruins of Dorinth as her lightning fought a reaper off him .
But she’d never spoken about it, never acknowledged just how strong she was…
‘That kind of magic could help us,’ he said gently.
‘It could if I knew how to contain it, control it,’ she replied.
‘You haven’t hurt anyone,’ he tried to reassure her. ‘You saved me… Twice.’
‘I hurt Wren in training,’ she argued.
‘No, you didn’t,’ Wren cut in. ‘I was fine.’
But Thea continued as though she hadn’t heard her sister. ‘As for what happened at the ruins… I didn’t know what I was doing. I just —’
‘Followed your instincts. Perhaps that’s all you need to do.’ He was aware that the others had grown quiet once more, that they were listening in awe, reminded of who sat among them.
But Thea shook her head. ‘I won’t risk it.’
Wilder silently cursed Audra, wondering if it was her session of tough love that had instilled such fear in Thea.
Wren, however, seemed to accept her sister’s decision. ‘This should soak overnight,’ she said, motioning to the fate stone in the bowl. ‘Then it should work as before.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘As sure as I can be,’ the alchemist replied.
‘Is there anything to be done about that thing?’ Torj asked, nodding to the stone resting in the mortar before letting his gaze settle on Wilder.
There was understanding there, and suddenly it was a relief – a relief that someone other than Wilder himself knew of his torment.
That he had just found Thea after all this time, only to learn that he would not have her for long, that she was bound by fate, on top of all else that burdened her.
‘No,’ Thea replied bluntly.
‘There has to be a way,’ Kipp started earnestly.
‘There’s not,’ Thea said, not unkindly. ‘I have read every book I could get my hands on. My death is carved there, as clear as I sit before you now. It will come to pass, no matter how much I fight against it.’ She rubbed her temples.
‘Does anyone else have any life-changing news to share or secrets to confess?’
Wilder’s training alone kept him still and unflinching, though his stomach roiled with unease and he felt Torj’s eyes on him.
Instead, he put an arm around Thea’s shoulders. ‘I think we’ve had enough of that for one night.’
‘Thank the gods,’ she muttered, moving to lie back on the narrow bed.
He stopped her. ‘You’re not sleeping here.’
She frowned. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t think I’d let the lost heir of Delmira sleep with the riff-raff in this shithole, did you?’
Wren cleared her throat from the floor. ‘Uh… what about the other lost heir?’
Torj scoffed. ‘So now you’re a princess?’
She gave him a withering glare and Wilder had to suppress a laugh. ‘You’ll manage,’ he told her.
‘Maybe lock the door this time,’ Torj supplied.
Kipp laughed loudly at that.
Thea was already on her feet. ‘Lead the way, Warsword,’ she said, a sly gleam in her eye.
And so Wilder did.