Chapter 6 – Neve
Chapter 6
NEVE
S taring down at Sir Qildor, at the shredded skin on his back, the tears in his wings, and the blood sprayed across the white stone ground, I wanted to die.
He’d endured this because of me .
The worst thing was, neither Vale nor I could have stopped it. My ankles still stung from the king’s cold ice shackles, and that was indication enough. But even if we’d been free to move, it would have been fruitless to try to stop King Magnus.
Down to my marrow, I recognized mad power. I had seen that same glint in many masters’ eyes.
Had either Vale or I tried to stop the king, things would have only gotten worse.
“Qildor.” Vale went to his friend the moment the king disappeared from the throne room, dropped to one knee, and placed a gentle hand on his friend’s arm. “I am so sorry. Let me help you.”
Qildor didn’t reply. Perhaps he couldn’t. As Prince Rhistel appeared in front of me a moment later, I lost that train of thought.
The heir to Winter’s Realm sneered down at me, as tall as his brother, and with the dark hair, wings, and eyes, though that was where the similarities ended. “I suppose congratulations are in order. You almost snared a warden, only to entrap a far larger, albeit dumber, prize.”
My jaw tightened as the heir continued.
“Father might not have killed you, dear sister, but I’d watch my back if I were you.” His voice dipped into a whisper as he pressed his black wings down against his back. “Vampire assassins will find their way into Avaldenn. Perhaps even inside the white walls of Frostveil.”
My throat tightened. Stars. I hadn’t even thought of that.
“A pity. I had hoped to sample you for myself once you were in the harem.” Apparently unable to help himself, Rhistel’s dark brown eyes dipped to my lips. “Enjoy your time in our family, Princess Neve. Enjoy all that the royal house can offer you, while you still can. ”
He marched through the crowds of nobles, all pointedly not looking at Qildor. Behind the heir, the queen followed, waving a hand to dismiss people along the way. Like a fast-moving tide, footsteps rushed out of the throne room.
My fists clenched. Why had none of them helped? Where was the outrage?
My narrowed eyes scanned the exiting crowd, looking for the reaction I sought. I found it, but only in a few faces.
I took heart that many of them were familiar. Sayyida and her older brother Vidar stood in place, their tanned faces pale. Marit was exiting the throne room, an older male’s arm wrapped around her shoulder to guide her, but she was also wiping her eyes, as though she’d been crying for Sir Qildor’s fate. Filip Balik, Vale’s young squire, had, in fact, vomited. The many members of House Balik, all with that golden-brown Balik complexion, helped the younger member of their house, though one, a male who appeared to be around thirty turns, watched us with hawk-like intensity.
“Neve,” a familiar voice came from behind, soft and shaky. “Are you all right?”
I twisted to find Saga descending the steps that led up to the thrones, unshed tears in her eyes. I swallowed.
“My father . . . he . . . stars, I’m so sorry.” The princess’s teeth bit into her bottom lip as her gaze drifted to Qildor, then back to me. “I anticipated his anger, but I didn’t think this would happen.”
Like Vale, Saga saw her father differently than I did. They claimed he hadn’t always been so hard, so cold, so cruel. Though both understood the king was far from perfect, I’d gathered they remembered and clung to a kinder version of him.
“He chose Qildor because he knows Vale is his friend.” I understood the machinations of the king because I’d spent so long trying not to garner the attention of those in power, like him. “It hurt Vale more this way. ”
“True,” Saga breathed. “We need to get Sir Qildor to the healers.” She waved over a male fae wearing a gold cloak clasped with a bear claw. “Sir Yaggril, help my brother transport Sir Qildor.” Her dainty hands clapped for attention, not that she needed to do so. Everyone who remained in the throne room was watching us. “Someone else, get a stretcher! Now!”
Two guards who’d been by the doors raced out of the room.
“We’ll need more help.” The moment the words left Vale’s lips; four others appeared: Vidar and Sayyida Virtoris, and Filip Balik, along with the older Balik male I’d noticed standing with the family. He was brown of skin and gold of eye, with lustrous honey-brown hair and wings. A cloak of rich, shimmering gold cascaded from his shoulders and if that wasn’t enough gold, the male wore a gold hoop nose ring, three gold rings on each hand, and two impressive gold cuffs over each of his ears that resembled a ram’s horns.
Rams. The animal of House Balik. And so much gold—a primary house color of the same family, alongside hunter green and black.
“Filip,” Vale started, “you shouldn’t be here.”
It was true. The young faerie appeared to be barely holding it together. But at his prince’s words, Filip’s chin lifted. “I’m staying and helping.”
The gilded lord shifted his attention to me. “I’m Sian of House Balik. I suspect you and I will become more familiar over the next few days. ”
I had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t matter. “Lady Neve.”
“ Princess Neve of House Aaberg ,” Sian corrected. “Use what powers you’ve been given. If you are to survive this, you will need to squeeze every drop of life from that fruit.”
I nodded, somewhat stunned by his forwardness. Once the stretcher arrived, Saga’s Clawsguard, Sian, Filip, and Vale helped raise Sir Qildor off the floor.
It wasn’t easy. Even the tiniest of motions sent Sir Qildor into great pain, but once he was on the stretcher, his guttural moans lessened.
“We’ll be at the healer’s sanctuary soon, my friend,” Vale murmured and then met my eyes, his own filled with anguish. “Clear the way for us, ladies.”
I shivered at the command in his voice, honed from many turns of leading fae on battlefields. Despite being distraught, Vale fell back on his training. Though the circumstances were dire, I would be lying if that didn’t heat my blood.
“On it.” Sayyida positioned herself in front of the stretcher. Intending to use my body to protect the stretcher, I took the right side next to Vale, and Saga took the left.
In the corridors, we passed hundreds of fae, but none met our eyes. None dared to look down at the brutalized knight.
Anger burned inside me. This was how powerful, horrible people got away with things. No one looked, no one dared, because deep in their hearts, they knew Sir Qildor’s fate might have been their own .
After what felt like an age, we reached the healers’ wing, a quiet part of the palace. Or at least, it was today.
Bursts of sage and vinegar filled my nose as I held the door open so that the males could shuffle the stretcher inside. A step into the sanctuary, Vale called for a Master Healer. Before I crossed the threshold, however, Saga caught my arm.
“Can I speak with you?”
I stopped and cocked my head. “Sure. What’s wrong? Other than the obvious.” I gestured into the sanctuary, noticing for the first time the insignia by the door. An eight-spoked wheel with four stars laid atop in the shape of the goddess of healing’s constellation. I wondered what that meant.
“I haven’t gotten to talk to you yet.” She cleared her throat. “About what I saw.”
My spine straightened. I’d not expected this, but if anything was a welcome distraction from what had happened to Sir Qildor, this was it.
I shut the door, leaving us alone. “I’m yours.”
The princess swallowed. “Well, keep in mind that I don’t have full control over my seer powers yet. I’m better with winter magic, particularly using wind. But my seeing powers come and go as they please, and I’m not great at deciphering what I see. Sometimes it’s symbolic, not real truth, and I?—”
“Saga.” I laid a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever you saw worried you. Please, tell me.”
“Obviously, I saw a vision of your fight with the vampire and everything that happened there, but I heard what he said to you too.” She swallowed loudly. “About owning you .”
My hand dropped from her shoulder. I’d been so worried about what I’d done, the deal I’d made with the Faetia to save Anna’s life, and how others would react to the killing of a vampire prince, that I hadn’t stopped to consider my past.
“Is it true?” the princess murmured. “You were a blood slave?”
A pregnant pause filled the air, tinged with the lingering copper scent from Sir Qildor’s blood. I could lie to her, but why would I? In the short time I’d known her, Saga had shown me great kindness. I considered her a friend and felt we could become even closer. But not if I continued to lie to her, not if I told her that part of what she saw was incorrect.
So I exhaled and explained. “I was a blood slave, have been for most of my life. I escaped, but not before killing a vampire. One connected to the royal house. Roar took me in, and we made a deal so he could avoid your father matching him.”
Saga’s eyes widened. “It wasn’t real?”
She meant my relationship with Roar.
“No. I thought we had a friendship, but I was wrong.”
Saga’s eyes dropped to the ground. “I’m so sorry, Neve. You must think us all so silly. So flippant and wasteful and?—”
“I don’t think that about you, Saga,” I assured her. “Since the moment I arrived here, you’ve been so kind to me. But please, don’t tell anyone about my past?”
I did not add the part about the deal I’d made with the Faetia. Had she heard that too?
“I won’t. And I haven’t told Sayyida and Marit. I only told them enough to get them out of bed and on to horses so we could find you and make sure everyone was alive.” She swallowed. “That I hadn’t seen it all wrong. That’s happened before, and I . . . I had to be sure.”
“Thank you. And I must know,” I prodded. “What else did you see?”
Saga looked like she wanted to apologize again, but instead, she cleared her throat and rolled her shoulders back. “Nothing more from last night. But there was a flash of another time too. In a place I’ve never seen. It confused me at first because it didn’t fit and then I worked out that I was seeing a different vision on the back of the first.” Her gaze shifted into the sanctuary again before she continued; her usually bright blue eyes somehow darker than normal. “It was of you and Vale. Both of you were covered in blood and somewhere dark. So dark, Neve.”
Probably not the port then. Vale hadn’t asked me to go to the vampire ship with him, but I planned to. He was in this mess because of me.
“Roar was there,” Saga added. “He looked like he’d struck you verbally, but I don’t know what he said. All I know is that you looked shocked. And furious.” She let out a long breath, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment as if to push out the memory of what she’d seen. “I’m telling you so that you can do your best to stay out of that situation. There was so much blood and my brother was there and I-I can’t lose him.”
My throat tightened, but somehow, I nodded reassuringly. “I’ll be on the lookout for signs that might indicate your vision is coming true.”
“Thank you,” Saga replied, her tone a little stronger, as though she felt better by telling me what she had seen. “I think I’m going to go speak with Mother. Try to calm her, if that’s even possible. Perhaps I can win you her alliance.”
The memory of the queen’s face and her accusation in Vale’s room rang through my mind loud and clear. I doubted Saga could perform such magic, but it was worth a shot. “I’d appreciate that.”
She went on her way, leaving me alone to ponder the vision. A dark place where we were covered in blood?
My hand drifted to my dress pocket, where I sometimes kept the vial containing Roar’s blood, only to find it empty. Right. After servants had delivered my personal effects last night, I’d hidden both vials in a drawer that Vale cleaned out. I hadn’t thought to grab them when the queen arrived and pulled us from Vale’s suite. The blood vials, my insurance against any deceit on Roar’s part, were safe in the prince’s rooms.
Safe. What a novel concept.
The door to the healer’s sanctuary opened. Out came Vale and the others, all pale and damp-faced from the dash through the palace.
“What did they say?” I asked. “Will he heal quickly?”
Or at all? That possibility made my stomach swoop.
“He’s in the best hands,” Vale replied, his voice low and drenched with pain. “But it will be at least two weeks before he can resume any sort of normal life. A couple more for his wings to heal all the way.”
I shuddered, knowing what it was like to have mutilated wings. At least the rods that had been in my wings were uniform, the surrounding membrane not torn. Poor Sir Qildor’s injuries were far, far worse.
Vale noticed my reaction and gave a sad nod. “My father drove the whip in hard and deep and it was coated in his magic, which the healers will have a hard time extracting.” Vale shook his head, eyebrows knitting together. “He’s nearly as powerful as he is unreasonable.”
“Careful with your words.” Sian came closer, rustling his honey-brown wings as he moved. “You never know who’s listening.”
“Especially now that you’re a pariah,” Sayyida added, tucking in wings that matched her eyes to better fit into the circle. “Or at least as much of one as a prince can be.” She looked around. “Where’d Saga go?”
“To help her mother,” I replied.
Though she tried to hide it, Sayyida looked a little disappointed. “When are you going to the ports, Vale? I can go put people in place to make sure you’re as safe as possible. Your father won’t offer help.”
Vidar’s eyes widened. “You’ll not be going alone, sister. I’ll join you. Who knows what might break out once Vale delivers the news?”
“Neither of you has to do that,” Vale replied.
“I don’t let my friends run into peril like that without aid,” Vidar shot back.
“Neither do I.” Sayyida nodded at me .
Vale shook his head at her gesture. “Neve isn’t coming. She?—”
“I am,” I cut him off. “You’re in this because of me. I won’t let you run off alone to tell a ship full of vampires that their prince is dead.”
“Because you’ll protect me?” He smirked, and though the implication was obnoxious, my stomach gave a little flutter.
“I’ll do my best.”
“You’re not trained.” He paused and then added, “Which we will be remedying soon.”
Sayyida gave a chuckle. “Maybe not formally trained, but Saga said that she saw Neve kill the vampire. She’s not defenseless, oh great Warrior Bear.” She pumped her eyebrows to goad him.
“Thank you.” I winked at her. “And there’s nothing you can do to change my mind, Vale. I understand how dangerous vampires can be.”
The others wrinkled their brows at that. Among those who remained, only Vale knew my secret, but I didn’t elaborate. “I’m coming. You won’t be stopping me.”
For a moment, he looked like he’d argue further, but when no one came to his aid, when no one tried to convince me it was a bad idea, he sighed. “Fine. Vidar and Sayyida, ready sailors at the docks in case things turn sour.”
“We’re heading to the docks now,” Vidar said and strode off, his sister a half step behind him.
Vale turned to Sian and Filip. Both Balik males had been watching the conversation with quiet thoughtfulness .
“I’m coming,” Filip said before Vale had a chance to deny the youngling. “I’m your squire. That’s what I’m here for.”
“And another warrior would not be amiss,” Sian added.
“I was going to ask if you’d help scour the castle for Clawsguards.” Vale rolled his eyes at his squire. “And if you insist on coming, wear something more appropriate to a fight. You too, old friend.” He inclined his head at Sian’s flamboyant attire.
“Too much?” Sian grinned, and it transformed him from stoically handsome to devastatingly charming.
“Gold won’t protect you from fangs like steel and fighting leathers.” Vale chuckled dryly. “Not even that much of it.”
“House colors, my friend. I can’t help it if the royal house doesn’t embrace theirs as we Baliks do.” He wiggled his fingers, each sporting a shiny gold ring that gleamed against his skin.
Vale shook his head in amusement. “Meet at the gates in an hour?”
“We’ll see you then.” Sian clapped a hand over Filip’s shoulder and the pair left.
Alone with my husband, Vale turned to me. I expected him to be upset that I’d forced my way into this dangerous outing. Instead, he met my gaze with a steely one of his own.
“And you will need trousers and as many stakes as I can strap onto your body.”