Chapter 5 #2
Luka wrapped his hand around the rigid muscles at the back of his neck and looked around the room.
He might have done a shitty job of showing it, but these people were his family.
It was more than his duty; it was his life’s purpose to take care of them.
He’d known from the beginning that someone was going to suffer for this.
He would do anything to make sure it wasn’t Izzy, Shane, or any of the others.
His beast stirred, hackles rising. No. There has to be another way.
Maybe, but he couldn’t see it. He stepped forward, glad he’d resisted the wine. “Shane, I know you wanted to keep them out of it, but the queen and Iona need to know. We need to tell them, right now.”
“I agree,” Kai murmured.
Shane put down his glass, face somber. “I wanted to protect my mother and sister—to keep them from worrying. But now we’ll have to warn them and increase their security. Iona has been leading the trade side of the negotiations… Fires of the Abyss. This changes everything.”
Thank the gods. Luka had expected more of an argument.
He pulled his swirling thoughts together, forcing himself to focus.
To be the knight commander they needed now.
“Aiden and Kai, I want one of you among the guards with the royal family at all times. Cori, can you help me with the investigation? I’ve arranged for Dashiell to join us tomorrow, use him for any assistance you need.
Go back and look at the mountain path in the daylight.
After that, start checking who benefits from war, and look into who knew where Narya was and who had access to her. ”
“Yes, Commander.” They stepped forward, eyes glinting with the presence of their beasts as they prepared to follow his orders. He rolled his shoulders back, settling into the role of lead officer. He was confident there. In control. He could make sure that Izzy and the royal family were safe.
“Izzy, I think it would be best if you went with Aiden and Kai. You can visit the princess for a couple of days. Stay with the royal family where we can keep you all safe.”
He expected her to agree, to go with her friends. But he should’ve known better. Izzy never followed his orders, and she always wanted to know why.
“What about you?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
“I’m going with Shane to see the queen and tell her everything. If she agrees, we’ll wake Brigadier General Declan, the archthane’s most senior military aide, and ask him to call an emergency meeting with Batlok. We need to tell them the truth.”
“No. I agreed to tell my mother, not half the world.” Shane stood, scales flickering.
“This is the right thing to do,” Luka insisted.
Shane laughed bitterly. “You want us to take the body of a murdered young woman—one of the most high-ranking members of the delegation—to a man known for his ruthlessness, and then what? Explain that you found her on the banks of our most holy mountain. Claim that you just happened to be in the area and that you didn’t kill her for your prince who, by the way, was seen kissing her earlier?
And you expect that he’ll simply agree to step back and let you investigate? ”
“No,” Luka rumbled. “I expect he’ll demand more trade concessions, better terms, and find as many ways to humiliate us as possible.”
“Humiliate me, you mean?” Shane asked sourly.
“No,” Izzy disagreed. She tilted her head to the side as if listening to her beast. “Luka plans to take full responsibility. He thinks Batlok will humiliate him.”
Luka dipped his chin. That was more or less what he expected. He had one job now: save the people he loved.
Izabel’s glare sharpened, her tone growing icy.
“That’s not even it though, is it, Luka?
You plan to take the blame. Either because you were there, or because you’re the knight commander and it’s your responsibility to keep everyone safe.
You plan to give Batlok a convenient scapegoat for his rage…
but you don’t expect to be humiliated. You expect to be punished.
You plan to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.
And, by martyring yourself, you hope to protect Shane… and maybe prevent a war.”
Luka grunted, pain spiraling through him. Of course Izzy knew his plan. No one had ever known him like she did. But someone had to protect them all. Shane, of course. Queen Danikha and Princess Iona. The people of Hugaeb, too. But even more importantly, he needed Izzy to be safe.
What if the talks broke down and they went back to war with Kwanam?
What would happen when there were dead and wounded soldiers in their droves?
He knew her. She would volunteer and get herself back on the frontline in a heartbeat.
He had to protect her. She’d created a life for herself.
She had a home now. A business, a relationship—
You don’t know that.
He did know. He’d seen the man with his own eyes, and it had nearly destroyed him.
Over a year ago.
Exactly. A whole year of Izzy and Jak deepening their commitment. Luka knew he was right about this. He was alone. He’d cut himself off completely. Perhaps this was why the gods had led him down this path, so that he could step up now. He would protect her, if it was the last thing he did.
Don’t be an ass. The gods didn’t do this. I don’t agree—
“No.” Izabel walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a glass. She grabbed the bottle Shane had left, poured herself a healthy glug of red wine, and then she smiled—if the grimace that bared her teeth in his direction could be called a smile. “I won’t allow it.”
Thank fuck.
“No?” He prowled toward her, growling, even as his beast chortled. “What do you mean, ‘you won’t allow it’?”
Izzy took a long sip of her wine before replying extra slowly, as if she was explaining to an idiot. “I meant what I said. You’re not my commander. I don’t have to do anything you say.” She waved the glass toward the others. “Honestly, I’m not sure you’re theirs either.”
There was a rumble of voices from behind him. Whether they agreed with her or disagreed, he couldn’t tell, and he wasn’t taking his eyes off her to check. “Izzy—”
“Don’t ‘Izzy’ me. This is a stupid plan, and I won’t do it.”
She’s magnificent, his beast rumbled, happier than it had been in too long to remember, despite everything.
She was magnificent. But it wouldn’t matter if she was caught in a war, if she lost her friends because of it… or worse. She’d already mourned her brother because of him, and Luka would not—could not—allow her to be hurt again.
He did his best to keep his tone reasonable.
“This is the best plan we have. We can’t put the body back on the mountain without risking all the repercussions we’ve already discussed.
We can’t keep her here and simply hope no one notices that Lady Kaliska’s companion has disappeared.
And, as Shane has pointed out, as soon as we acknowledge what’s happened, the treaty is at risk.
Batlok will want blood. The best thing we can do is give it to him on our own terms.”
Izabel took a slow sip of her wine, considering.
And then she nodded, a quick tip of her chin, as if she’d reached some internal agreement.
“Fine. Then let’s put her back in her bed, safely behind the protection of the Kwanam guards.
When she doesn’t wake up tomorrow, we’ll examine her and ‘discover’ what happened.
Then you can put a squad together and have a public investigation without the threat of an immediate war hanging over our heads. ”
Luka barked out a laugh. “We’ll just put her back, will we? In the Imperial guest suite. On the third floor of the castle. With multiple guards in the corridors. Ladies in waiting in the adjoining rooms. And a view over the castle gardens and the sheer rock face of Mount Nabas!”
“Yes,” Izabel said calmly. “And in the meantime, Shane, Aiden, and Kai should go drinking. Somewhere very loud and visible. And Cori can go see her friend, Iona. All without raising suspicion.”
“I’m not going drinking while Iona and the queen are in danger,” Kai grumbled.
Izzy rolled her eyes. “Kai can go with Cori, if that makes everyone happy.”
Izabel is a genius, his beast crowed. This gives us a way out. At the very least, it gives us time.
Luka pinched the top of his nose. Izabel had… some merit to her idea. She usually did. There was still just one small problem. “And how, exactly, do you plan to get into Narya’s rooms?”
The expression on Izzy’s face told him the answer before she opened her mouth. “You know how, Luka.” And then she made it even worse by putting her hand on his arm and murmuring, “I’ll help.”
Gods.
He twisted away and stalked to the window to stare out at the dark night, looking toward the mountain looming behind the castle.
His beast twisted, uncoiling deep within him and extending its claws.
It’s smug pleasure at Izabel’s words was now woven through with a driving, primal need.
The need to stretch and feel and roar and finally take their skin.
The last time Luka shifted, he’d been searching for his best friend. Desperate to find Rayan before it was too late. But it was already too late.
The time before that, he and Rayan had spent the afternoon catching the thermals over the mountain.
Flirting with the heat and call of its depths, only vaguely aware of the fleeting sensations of a great—and terrible—presence slumbering far below.
He’d been trying to figure out how to tell Rayan that he wanted to court his sister.
That he wanted Izzy to be his. That he loved her.
But before he could confess, Rayan told him he’d left the guards and joined the castle healers.
They’d argued bitterly as Luka tried to change his mind, but Rayan told him it was already done.
Without once discussing it, or even hinting that he was thinking about it, Rayan had simply walked away.
Luka had already lost every member of his family. At that moment, his only thought was that he was losing Rayan too. The person who’d made his childhood bearable. Who’d been by his side and given him a family.
When he was brought to the castle, only ten years old, just days after his first chaotic, terrifying, glorious shift into drake, he’d been alone.
His mother left when he was five. His father died at sea.
His grandfather spent all his time at the docks, drinking with his old naval friends and offering the sailors unwanted advice.
And after Luka shifted, the old man hadn’t wasted a second before bringing him to the castle and leaving him at the gate.
Everyone had a beast, but full drakes were rare.
Luka was the same age as the prince and the son of a decorated navy man.
So the king took him in. He was given a tiny room in the castle, a chance to join the prince’s lessons, and—for the first time—to eat regular meals, wear new clothes, and bathe daily.
But he was still a young boy in an unfamiliar, and often incomprehensible, world.
And he was completely, utterly alone. He lived at the whims of the surrounding adults.
His already well-honed need for control grew into something even more relentless.
He was a driven, dedicated perfectionist with an unrivaled work ethic.
Rayan found him sitting alone one day and followed him to his box-room behind the kitchens.
Rayan, with his huge heart, never-ending generosity, and the warmest family Luka ever met, immediately adopted him.
Soon they were as close as any brothers.
And they grew even closer after Rayan’s father—the physik general—succumbed to the red-scale sickness he’d treated so many times.
And then Luka took all that loyalty and threw it back in Rayan’s face. Rayan wanted to leave the guards and become a healer… and Luka told his best friend that if he abandoned everything they’d worked so hard to achieve, he could fuck off.
He took Rayan’s decision as a rejection of everything they were. Everything they’d planned since they were ten years old. A rejection of him. He behaved like a selfish asshole. He knew it, even as the words spilled out of his mouth. But he never had the chance to take them back.
Rayan had died alone, without Luka there to help him. And it didn’t matter what Izzy said, it was definitely Luka’s fault.
He hadn’t shifted since the days of searching the Nabaspath for Rayan. He’d ruthlessly held his beast back. Held himself back from everyone and everything. He’d known, in that moment, that he couldn’t be trusted with other people’s safety or their hearts.
And now Izzy wanted him to open it all back up again. Worse, she wanted to help. She was going to be the death of him, guaranteed.
I’ll take it, his beast rumbled. Better than this living death you’ve forced on us.
Maybe, Luka acknowledged quietly. But not if it killed her too.