Chapter 41
The lake’s shores were soaked and sodden from the storm that had passed through the day before as we strolled along its expanse. Even after Lyriasthe’s assurance, the choices I’d made already sat like sour berries in my gut.
And every time I closed my eyes, Helene’s lifeless face flashed like lightning.
Killer. Murderer. You’re no better than Iaoth.
I shoved the thoughts away and focused on the creamy white of Lyriasthe’s hair and how the individual strands shone under the sun. I needed to get out of my head.
“Do you think it’s going to work?” I asked Lyriasthe.
“Everything has gone so right so far,” she drawled, sarcasm dripping in her tone.
“First we were captured, then I found out my fated mate was set to marry someone else, then he accidentally won a trial by light he was supposed to lose, which then led to his magic being locked down and Demon powers emerging. Oh, we can’t forget he almost died,” I added.
“After all of that, regicide will be easier than breathing,” Lyriasthe teased, knocking her shoulder into mine.
I laughed, shaking my head. “At least we got to see this,” I said, sweeping my hand around. The orchards brimmed with autumn apples, and Angels moved through them and the distant fields, harvesting their crops. With the flat land, the mountains appeared enormous, spearing straight into the sky.
“I still prefer the lake country in the south,” she sighed. “But this is nice too.”
I glanced behind me, peering toward the peaks visible even now. They loomed like the teeth of a leviathan, waiting to snap shut around us. In a few days, we’d enter them and join the rest of the army.
And our plans would race on.
Ysolthe swooped from overhead, her low hum filling the air. In the morning light, her crystalline feathers glittered. Vaeron had sent Ilae off to the front with our message for Ishim, relaying some new ‘visions’ I’d had.
“She’s stunning,” Lyriasthe commented, eyes wide with awe.
Truly, she was. With effortless grace, the auravane glided over the lake, twisting and twining like she was executing a complex Vaela? spiral in the air. Ysolthe turned on her side, feathers slicing into the water. Droplets sprayed, a rainbow shimmering in the sun.
With a click, she took one last dip and then flew straight into the cloudless sky. Though she departed our view, I knew she hadn’t lost sight of us. Between her and the two Hathi warriors who trailed some distance behind us, we were safe. Protected.
Facing forward again, I stopped short, air fleeing my lungs. Lyriasthe did too, a hand flying to her chest.
Because somehow Althirion and Nymirae stood in front of us, having emerged from a copse of trees ahead. The islanders had been successful at keeping them out of the manor—for which I was extremely grateful. But somehow they’d managed to slip past our trailing guards.
“The Korona has been worried about you,” Althirion said, his ocean-blue eyes glinting with malice.
And I found myself looking forward to the moment Vaeron would kill him. The thought should have shaken me to my core. Instead, I met it without resistance. “I’m sure she has,” I said coolly. I sent a pulse down my connection with Ysolthe, asking her to return to me.
“Have you Seen anything in the days you’ve been gone?” he pressed. Beside him, Nymirae shifted from foot to foot. I almost pitied her position, caged like me. Almost.
But after everything that had happened, vengeance sang where peace once reigned. She should have chosen differently if she didn’t want to end up hurting. That was what the monarchs of this realm did, and if she didn’t see it before, that was her problem.
“Nothing. The Goddess seems to be offering me a reprieve,” I said, my tone saccharine but my smile bitter. Though it was also a lie.
Lyriasthe crossed her arms and popped out her hip. “Now you errand birds can flap away and tell your master that you’ve seen us, and that we have nothing to report.”
Althirion sneered. “She isn’t going to like that.”
“That’s not our problem.” Truly, I was so done with cowering in fear of what my mate’s sister would do.
We were far out of her reach. We had a plan.
We had the Hatha islanders on our side. Vaeron and Maelsar had swayed most of the southern recruits’ loyalty to them rather than the Goddess and the crown.
And I trusted that learning, embracing the intricacies of my Sight would lead us to peace.
Together, each piece calcified into a powerful weapon.
Althirion’s eyes glazed over—signaling he was communicating with his mate—and I stomped forward. I wasn’t sticking around to hear whatever he wanted to relay. Lyriasthe shoulder-checked him.
“Fucking bitch,” he spat, jerking back into himself.
She whirled. “What did you say?”
Nymirae took a healthy step away from her counterpart.
“I called you a bitch,” he repeated, his tone mocking and far too confident.
Luminosity leaked from my friend’s palms as she lurched toward him. “Bold words from someone who the Goddess chose to bless with such little power. We all know you can barely conjure this.” With a twist of her hands, Lyriasthe crafted a whirlwind of white, more and more magic pouring from her.
A hum reverberated overhead, and my auravane dove down like a shard of falling crystal. Althirion screamed, ducking out of the way of her razor-sharp feathers.
I laughed, letting it turn scathing as he kept running, darting behind the trunk of a tree like that could stop my bird from finding him.
Nymirae worried her lower lip, attention flicking between Lyriasthe and Althirion’s pathetic attempts to dodge Ysolthe’s talons. “I’m sorry. I tried to get him to stay at the academy.”
I lifted a brow in her direction. “Why didn’t you restrain him?”
“I–” she started, then shook her head. “Next time, I will.” She made to chase after him but turned back to me again.
“Herra R?viel, I am sorry for everything I forced on you on this journey. I hope one day you and the Issaraeth can find it within your hearts to forgive me. I pray to our Radiant Mother every night for your peace as well as for my mate.”
And with that, she spun on her heel and shouted for my second keeper. Blinking, I tugged on Ysolthe with an order to return to Lyriasthe and me.
“That was…unexpected,” she commented, the undulating light dissipating from her palms.
My auravane landed on a nearby branch, the wood creaking under her weight.
“I don’t think I’m in the mood for forgiveness,” I commented. Ysolthe looked down at me, her silver eyes taking in the two of us. An image of a fat field mouse appeared in my mind.
“Hungry?”
She clicked her beak in response, gaze sharpening on something over my shoulder. I spun, finding Isra jogging toward us.
“You can go,” I instructed Ysolthe. She ruffled her feathers, then took off, back in the direction of the endless stalks of wheat.
“Are you two alright?” Isra asked, white brows furrowed, gaze raking over us both. “We were trying to give you space. We should have been closer. Oshenai will see us appropriately punished.”
“There’s no need for that. We’re unharmed. Annoyed, but unharmed,” I told her.
“Allow me to escort you back to the manor,” she pleaded.
I studied her, that desperation to prove herself rolling off her in palpable waves. So I nodded, and the two of us fell into step beside her. Yet I kept peeking at her out of the corner of my eye, wondering where she fit into the future and what the six thrones meant.
“So when you say you are disliked, why is that?” I wanted to know more about her and why I had Seen her in one of my visions. And why the Hathi Seer had been given so many about her too.
She stared straight ahead, posture tense. “There are…rumors about me on the islands.”
“What kind of rumors?” Lyriasthe pressed.
“Forgive me, but it is quite shameful. I don’t want you to view me differently. Either of you. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves,” she said, smoothing a hand over her curls.
I stopped, cocking my head to the side. “We are—were—Elessarum. We do not judge.”
Isra blew out a long breath, her boot nudging a small stone.
“Hathi are incredible both in and on the water. In fact, we all learn to swim before we can walk. We are on boats from the day we are born. So when someone dies at sea…people wonder what happened. Most of the time, it is attributed to some disdain from our Radiant Mother. How else could someone drown?”
“We have seen how devout you all are,” I murmured.
She picked her head up, lips pressing into a thin line. “Exactly. So when my parents perished together on a cloudless, calm day on their way back from a trip to the mainland, people started whispering that they’d committed one of the unholy trinity of sins.”
My brows shot up my forehead. I’d meant what I said about not judging her. If this was the rumor spread about her, it made sense why the others treated her as a pariah.
The unholy trinity consisted of three sins: showing a Demon mercy, allowing one into a holy temple, and the most severe, coupling with one.
Which was why if anyone knew about Vaeron’s mixed blood and new powers, he’d be dead.
And…me for being mated to him.
“That’s awful,” Lyriasthe frowned, reaching out and giving Isra’s shoulder a squeeze. “Accidents happen all the time.”
“Not on the islands,” Isra explained, offering us a sorrowful smile.
“I have made my peace with it. All I can do now is be Her most holy warrior. Protecting you will be my highest honor. My path to redemption.” She rolled her shoulders back, the sadness she’d shown moments before disappearing.
“Now, we really should return to the manor.”
Without waiting for our confirmation, she continued on, keeping a few paces ahead of us.
“It’s not right,” Lyriasthe hissed under her breath.
“What is in this realm?” I whispered back. “We’ll have so much work to undo these vicious beliefs once everything is settled.”
“We better start now,” Lyriasthe said.
I nodded, conviction washing through my veins. Because convincing these soldiers who believed they were waging a holy war ordained by the Goddess that we could live in peace with the Demons? It would be a monumental task.
And Lyriasthe and I were uniquely positioned to plant the seeds of these ideas. When we took the throne, I’d witness them bloom.