Chapter 22
Allie
Ifelt him before his grunts vibrated through the hallway.
Oh, he was set on destroying things, alright. Metal things, judging from the vicious clanks resonating from behind the massive double doors which had seemed so foreign and intimidating on that first night.
Now they were just another obstacle.
I ripped open the doors to the precious armory.
My eyes instantly honed on him.
His muscles shifted beneath the skin, tensing in the shards of light as he swung a mighty sword at a mannequin that turned into nothing but splinters.
Sweat glistened on his back as he righted himself. The sunrise crawling in through the tall, slender cathedral windows encased him in an otherworldly glow.
He turned, the brutal spark in his eyes vanishing instantly as they met mine, only to be replaced by a glimmer that sucked the breath out of me.
Hope, reservation, and longing all battled to rule his gaze.
“I didn’t think I’d see you so soon,” he said.
“Surprise.” I banged the doors closed, sealing the two of us inside.
Alone.
Silent, even as the air fizzled and cracked with tension, surrounded by weapons both old and new.
Maces, swords, axes, spears, all of them large and dangerous, some dented and displayed behind glass in their sharpest angles, showing this crater’s history unfold.
The jagged hooks and spears pockmarked by the salty sea had slowly morphed along the years, blade by blade, into the broadswords and axes.
Most blades waited on the walls for battle.
No bows.
No daggers.
His daggers.
“How can you freeze people?” I asked, palms fisted so tight, my nails dug into my flesh. The lesser of two pains fighting in me right now.
I didn’t know what he was expecting, but his brows jumped in bewilderment. He took his sweet time placing the sword back onto its ancient place on the wall, as if he delighted in keeping me waiting.
Or he doesn’t want to reveal his secret, my mind whispered.
He turned, hands clasped behind his back, facing me like we were two generals discussing battle tactics.
“Blood,” he said simply. Methodically. “I freeze it in their veins so their limbs can’t move. I can halt it in some parts of the body or throughout, but still keep their heart beating. It’s a grizzly task I don’t enjoy, but a great asset.”
Shivers raced down my hands, but I kept them tense and still. I refused to twitch in front of him. “It didn’t feel cold when you froze me.”
His eyes sparked once more, the glow bluer than ever. “I was very careful to only stop you from attacking me.”
In the state I was in back then, I probably would have cracked that beautiful head of his and saved myself the sorrow of today.
“Are you the only one who can do that?”
“I’m the best at it,” he admitted half-heartedly. “But any good Blood Brotherhood wielder can.”
I nodded. Evie was attacked near the Blood Brotherhood Capital, after all.
“But what happened to the Lost Daughter doesn’t sound like Blood Brotherhood magic,” he said. “From what she described, her friends were simply not all there. That’s not controlling blood. That’s controlling the mind.”
A new wave of terror slithered into my veins. What fresh horror was this?
“Explain,” I said, firm voice ricocheting off of the metal and stone.
“The Dragon has suspected Banu and Valuta are controlling the King and Queen,” he said grimly. “I believe him, though we have no proof.”
I exhaled sharply. “The advisors hail from the Northern Clans.”
“The Mountain Clan,” he said, as if trying to divest Solkar’s Reach of any connection with those two banes on Evie’s existence.
“Rumors say some can control weaker minds, with ancient scrolls they found when they dug too far deep. If Beren has indeed discovered and deciphered them, he wouldn’t have shared that power with Lioran or Edrin. ”
A strong Clan like the Blood Brotherhood ruled by weaker minds was dangerous.
Northern advisors controlling them was deadly.
“And what do you say?” I asked.
“I believe the rumors.” The lines of his face sharpened.
“My father also slurred something about the eyes being the access to the mind, not the soul, during one of his many drunken nights. He insisted he’d never heard anything more ridiculous when my mother asked about it the next day. I didn’t bother. But I remembered.”
My heart constricted, imagining Ryker as a youngling, already so attuned to his father’s debauchery that he only believed his drunken words.
But last time I’d been vulnerable and emotionally flagellated myself in front of him, I’d gotten a secret dagger as a reward.
So I grit my teeth and asked, “So they’d need to make eye contact for it to work.”
“Or be close enough. I imagine it’s like any other power, it needs to feed on something. Whether that’s the victim’s thoughts or not, I cannot say.”
Despite the grandeur of the room pressing against me, my feet carried me further inside, aching to rid my body of the growing unrest.
“That means Banu and Valuta want to get rid of Evie,” I said.
“They very much do,” he said after a few beats of stillness. “They fear the pull she has on the Dragon.”
“Then she is not safe in that Capital of yours,” I snapped, pacing. “She just got kidnapped, for Xamor’s sake.”
Ryker tilted his head to the side, jaw working, gnawing on words I was keenly curious to hear.
“There is a plan in place to keep her safe, which will take effect on her wedding day,” he said at last, gaze not straying from mine.
“What plan?” I asked, suspicion tinging my voice.
“It’s not mine to reveal,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But I promise everything that happens at that wedding will protect her against Banu and Valuta’s schemes.”
“You Blood Brotherhood and your secrets,” I spit out.
His gaze finally fell from my face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the dagger–”
“And hid the rest of your daggers from me since I came here. I remembered how fast you concealed the one you slashed Orion’s arm with.”
I’d been so consumed with my former ally’s betrayal, I hadn’t noticed my former enemy’s.
Foolish.
Uncle Maksim would have been ashamed of me.
“All the daggers, then. Believe me, it was never my intention to hurt you,” he said slowly. Sadly. “On the contrary, I didn’t want to burden you until I was sure it was mine.”
I detected no lie.
But it didn’t change that he’d kept this secret from me.
My father had been murdered.
My life had been wrecked.
“But–” he went on.
I stopped pacing and whirled to face him fully. “But what?”
“Wouldn’t you have done the same?”
I stood there, chest rising and falling with hurried, hectic breaths.
“I’m serious.” He swallowed thickly. “This isn’t me avoiding blame.
From one leader to another, if you suspected one of your arrows would have killed my mother and I’d woken up in Aquila, in enemy territory where I didn’t know anyone, Clan on the verge of destruction, hunted down by gods-know-who, would you have told me?
Would you have risked the political implications and devastated me more before you were absolutely sure? ”
I kept staring at him, a sudden ghostly weight pulling on my shoulders so hard, I fought the urge to shake it off.
One lone word bubbled up inside of me, past the fury, past the feeling of betrayal, past the danger and grim thoughts and everything this world had decided to throw at me.
From one leader to another–“No.”
The word echoed around us on a loop. It melded with his relieved sigh, before they both vanished between the metal crevices.
“So you understand,” he said, less guarded than before.
“I do.” But that didn’t mean I could forgive. “It’s more than that, though. You’re ready to give me half of this land, but you keep things from me.”
His body went strangely rigid. “What things?”
“Taking Geryll to the Capital? Asking Nadya to watch Dax?” I spread my arms to the sides. “What is that, Ryker?”
The corners of his mouth tensed. “Can you honestly tell me there is nothing weird about Dax?”
“He is weird,” I said, heart slamming into my chest.
He knew.
Or he suspected.
But the seed of doubt and vigilance had been planted.
“Allie, come on.” His lips tightened further. “He’s hiding something.”
“What did you say?” I raised my chin. “This information is not mine to reveal?”
We stood on a precipice once more, only this time, each of our Clans’ secrets pulled us farther apart.
“Alright,” he said, sounding like nothing was indeed alright. “What’s the issue with Geryll going to the Capital? He needs some space from all the expectations.”
“Exactly!” My own voice turned to steel.
“It’s a good idea. One we could have celebrated together.
You not telling me stole that opportunity.
It’s not just about Clan-destroying secrets, it’s about everything.
The small and inconsequential. The huge and life-altering. You said you’d always be there for me–”
“I will,” he said, unflinching.
“Then do it for real!” A scream tore at my throat. “Not just with your presence. We need to be on the same side. With our minds and our hopes and our fears and our dreams and our plans. Everything.”
I stopped with ragged breaths and placed my hands on my hips, feeling like I’d run down that damn frozen hill again.
Like I’d made myself vulnerable once more needlessly.
“I understand,” was all he said as his eyes drifted to the weapons. Just when I’d resigned myself to the disappointing silence and another crack rattled my heart, he went on, “I think your cousin and the Dragon are fated mates.”
I shook my head in surprise at the change and the news. Like before, it was easier to focus on someone else. “Like in the fairytales?”
Perfect matches for perfect souls destined to live in perfect bliss and perfect understanding.
The perfect ruse.
“They can’t sleep without each other and feel the other’s feelings. They won’t admit it, but I can tell,” he said softly.
“That’s…” So close to legend, I couldn’t quite believe it. “...unexpected. If it’s true, then him going to war is not going to be easy on either of them.”
Evie had never been formally trained. She had no place on a true battlefield.
His jaw began working again. I steeled myself against whatever was about to come out.
But his next words knocked the air out of me.
“I’m afraid you’ll want to join the war,” he said, as if he’d forced the thought out from a dark place he barely recognized.
“And you should. You’d make the Serpents tremble with your arrows.
I’m ashamed that I want to shield you from a battle you’d face with the courage they’ve written odes about.
I know I have no right. It’s a foolish wish.
It makes no tactical sense. But I can’t shake the instinct to stand between you and any danger. ”
My lips parted in the heavy tightness that followed.
It was disarming, to hear his own struggles and see how much they mirrored my own. I didn’t want him in danger, either.
But it saw it as the offering it truly was. A step toward everything.
My skin began to heat, suddenly feeling like a cage I wanted to rid myself of.
Because I could sense it, his vulnerability in the air and my own instinct to match it.
A flutter of something more stirred in my chest. It made me want to push the truth out, in all its shameful ugliness.
Have someone else carry the burden with me.
He was the only being in this world I could admit it to right now.
Despite everything, I knew he’d understand the weight of it all.
“The Protectorate crown won’t accept me,” I said, a guilty wobble in my voice.
My admission sounded worse now that it was free.
In the next breath, Ryker was in front of me. His hands rose, ready to embrace me, but he stopped at the last moment. I wished he hadn’t, but couldn’t bring myself to admit it out loud.
“That’s not possible,” he said. “You were made to be a leader.”
“Apparently not,” I said through the growing knot in my throat.
He kept shaking his head. “How do you know?”
I just raised my brows at him.
“Dax.” He sighed. “At least the crown is in your possession.”
So that I could keep it hidden and despair over its indifference.
“Allie,” he murmured. “Look at me.”
I hadn’t even realized my gaze had drifted away in shame. With great effort, I met his eyes, even as my insides quaked with unshed tears.
“A piece of metal, no matter how powerful, cannot decide your fate,” he said softly. “You’re a good, fair leader. I saw you on Sanctua Sirena. In Solkar Reach’s passage.”
“I can’t–” I swallowed past the lump in my throat, eyes reaching for the ceiling as their corners stung. “I can’t lead the Protectorate army without it. You’ll have to face the Serpents alone.”
“Nobody was expecting help from the Protectorate,” he said, gentle voice withering the unshed tears away. “The Serpents declared war on us, not you.”
“What if you need help? No other Clan will come to your aid.”
They’d all rejoice if a strong Clan like the Blood Brotherhood fell and everyone could scramble to bleed it dry in the power void.
And I was powerless to help in any real way. My arrows and power couldn’t replace an entire army.
“No. But we have the mightiest army,” he said, sounding like he was trying to convince both of us. “And we will solve the Protectorate army problem after the war, when we won’t be in mortal danger.”
We.
I nodded. Evie would become queen tomorrow, more powerful than both of us. If the Blood Brotherhood won the war, we could take the Protectorate back.
I hoped. It was the only thing keeping me standing.
“If you want to come to war, it’s your decision,” he said with great effort. “If you want to stay behind in the crater, it’s your decision as well. It will be safer here.”
“Will it?” I cleared my throat, eager for my skin to stop stinging. “Mrs. Mallowmere told me the eastern spring is breaking its banks.”
Ryker cursed under his breath.
“There was also a strange glimmer on one of the shards this morning,” I said.
He froze. “Near the entrance?”
“No, the opposite side,” I said, playing at us strategizing together. Or perhaps we were doing it for real. “I only caught a glimpse of it, but Nadya didn’t know what it was, either. The sun’s reflection doesn’t glow like that.”
He shook his head. “It’s too early in the year for that, the sun rises too low.”
“Perhaps it was only a weird light.”
His eyes sparked thunder. “Or someone was sending a message inside the crater.”