Chapter 12
LUTHER
Auralie kept hold of my arm as we followed Alixe, Eleanor, and Cordellia in a sprint through the palace halls. Frantic Corbois and members of the Crowns’ delegations scurried around us in a frenzy.
When we spilled through the front entrance, the same invisible force I’d felt earlier crashed against me.
I swore at myself for not recognizing it sooner as Ophiucae’s aura.
My senses had been distracted by so many strong Descended in one place, but out in the open air, it was clear—Diem’s sire was close.
And getting closer.
Alixe ran to speak with my father, who had gathered with the Crowns in a cluster around a blood-soaked soldier at the base of the front steps.
“W-we were on the dock,” the man stammered.
His hand was clamped over a gash on his arm, his expression dazed.
“The water seemed too still—like it wasn’t real.
Then . . .” He shook with a full-body flinch.
“They were everywhere. Appeared right out of thin air. They cut down half the battalion before I realized who they were.”
“Illusions,” I guessed. “If Diem can use every realm’s magic, Ophiucae must be able to do it, too. He used Lumnos magic to cloak his army until they arrived.”
Meros stormed toward me. “Did you do this?” he demanded, white-capped orbs of water at his palms. “Was this all a distraction so he could slip in unseen?”
“He’s coming to kill my family,” I growled. “You think I’d welcome that?”
Auralie edged between us. “The Crowns called this meeting, Meros, not us. For all we know, you lured him here to force our hand.”
Meros held my glare. Sophos set a palm on his chest and pushed him back, then shot a glance at the Ignios gryvern, who was pacing the palace walls. “Tybold isn’t burning you alive, so I assume Ignios lives?”
I nodded. I’d left the Ignios bastard behind for now. His consequences would come soon enough.
“Then we can forgive what happened. The cease-fire is unbroken.” They looked at Auralie. “You have to help us.”
“No.”
Her flat tone stunned everyone—including me.
“You killed my daughter,” she said.
“That was Ignios!” Sophos argued.
“You played a part in it, too.” She gazed around at the other Crowns.
“For every Descended life a Guardian took, you made the mortals pay a hundred times over. Now you will learn what it means to suffer for the crimes of another.” She set her jaw and faced Cordellia. “Tell our people not to intervene.”
“What about your demands?” Arboros cried.
Auralie’s brown eyes, still wet with tears, smoldered in response. “Here’s my new demand: destroy your thrones. End the Descended reign in Emarion. Forever.”
Slack-jawed stares returned in answer.
“The Crowns are offering you a truce, woman,” my father hissed. “You said yourself that he’s a threat to mortals, too.”
“I fought him once and won. I like my odds.” She snapped on her heel, striding for the palace. “I’m going to get my son.”
I ignored the indignant look my father turned on me and moved to follow her, but Alixe caught me by the arm. “If Diem is dead, shouldn’t there be a new Lumnos Crown?”
I shoved her away. “I don’t fucking care.”
“Luther, look.” She pointed up at the royal terrace, where Sorae was perched protectively at Teller’s side as they watched the chaos unfold. “She’s still obeying Diem’s orders. If Lumnos has a new Crown, why hasn’t its gryvern left to find them? What if the Ignios King is lying about—”
“I saw it, Alixe,” I said bleakly. “Teller did, too. We watched him stab her.”
All these weeks, I’d been trying to ignore what I’d seen, but the Ignios King had no reason to lie—his revelation made things infinitely more difficult for the Crowns.
Alixe’s cobalt eyes filled with sorrow. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, shaking her emotion away. “Until Blessed Mother Lumnos reveals a new Crown, I serve Diem’s orders.” Her piercings glittered as she pointed her chin in challenge. “Do you?”
I stalked away without an answer. I couldn’t bear to let her see my agony. I caught up to Auralie in the foyer, and we walked with Eleanor through the vacant halls. Every guard had either run outside to defend the palace or fled to save themselves.
“What happened?” Teller asked when we found him on the royal suite’s balcony with Taran. He looked at his mother and stilled. “Were you crying?”
“Lu, what’s going on?” Taran asked.
“Ophiucae’s coming,” I answered grimly.
Taran swore. Teller paled.
“Go back to camp,” Auralie told her son. “You’ll be safe there. They’re not targeting mortals.”
She reached for him, and he jerked back. “I’m not running to safety while everyone else is in danger.”
“Teller, this is no time to argue.” Her voice was firm but hoarse from the still-fresh loss. “Go back to camp.”
“Father didn’t teach me to turn my back on people who need help. Neither did my sister.” His tone turned sharper. “Until today, neither did you.”
Auralie flinched.
“Where’s Lily?” I asked him.
“She left when I tried to speak with her.” He looked around in a panic. “She could be in danger. I have to find her.”
“The cousins were told to gather the children and flee through the canals,” Eleanor said. “I’m sure Lily went there to help.”
My stomach dropped. Months ago, Diem confessed that she’d shown the secret canal entrance to Henri, her then-betrothed. Though she might have seen good in him, I had not. If there was any chance he’d joined Ophiucae’s army . . .
“The canals can’t be trusted,” I said. “Go to the dungeons instead. Use shadow magic to stay hidden.”
Eleanor and Taran exchanged an alarmed look.
“We can’t,” she said. “The dungeons are full.”
“Those Crown-wearing pricks arrested half of Mortal City,” Taran growled. “Locked the mortals up without charges.”
“Your father tried to stop them,” Eleanor rushed on. “The Crowns said the cease-fire only applied to mortals who confessed to being a Guardian, and none of them did.”
Her ashamed expression spoke the words she didn’t: We failed her. We promised to protect them, and we failed her.
I knew the feeling.
“Take the children to my chambers,” I ordered. “The doors are fortified. Lily’s blood will open the bloodlocks.” My stare cut to Teller. “So will yours. Find my sister and keep her safe.”
He ran to the other room and began gathering hidden blades from beneath cushions and under tables, then darted into his old bedroom, reemerging with an armored breastplate and a few more knives. My heart reeled. It was just like his sister—perhaps even her doing.
Taran’s brows rose high. “Lu, your room . . . are you sure?”
I’d always been intensely private about my chambers. There were too many secrets hidden there that could destroy me. Even Taran and Lily had never been invited inside.
No one had.
Not until Diem.
Thankfully, I’d hidden everything incriminating before I last left Lumnos. I knew I might never return, and the secrets I kept risked more lives than my own.
I nodded to Taran. “Get the children to safety, then you and Zalaric find Alixe. She’s going to need every strong Descended she can get.”
Taran grabbed some knives from Teller, and they ran from the suite with Eleanor following closely behind.
Auralie and I remained on the terrace. Her gaze stayed fixed on the palace gates, mine lurking in the skies.
Though his aura was approaching, there was still no sign of the man that had fathered my Queen.
His soldiers, however, were impossible to miss. They emerged from the trees in a wave, cloaked in his shield. Their numbers had grown exponentially since the battle in Sophos. The handful of men we’d faced that day had become an army, and more were still arriving.
Auralie’s eyes narrowed as she scanned their faces. She paused periodically to shake her head or let out a short, disappointed sigh. “I didn’t realize how many of my Guardians had chosen to join him.”
“He’s offering them what they’ve always wanted—revenge.”
“That isn’t the Guardians’ goal. We want an end to the Descended’s reign, not a slaughter of the Descended themselves.”
“Would you feel that way if Diem wasn’t one of us?”
Her features tightened at Diem’s name, but she didn’t answer.
Ophiucae’s men surged forward and clashed with the soldiers at the exterior gate.
Immediately, our guards began to fall. Ophiucae’s shield was strong, even more than it had been in Sophos.
Too many of his soldiers—and too few of ours—carried godstone weapons that carved through our defenses like butter.
It made us look helpless, and it made them look invincible.
For a gut-wrenching moment, it looked like the palace would be breached in a matter of seconds.
Beside me, Sorae’s muscles twitched beneath her skin, her pupils black and wide. Lumnos was the only home she’d known for centuries. Even without Diem here to protect, she looked troubled at the prospect of watching it fall.
“Go,” I told her.
The sun cast a rainbow gleam over her dark scales as her focus shifted to me. A sapphire glow built with a rumble in the back of her throat.
“Protect the palace.” My chest burned. “It’s what she would order.”
A sadness seemed to pulse from within her before igniting into a monstrous rage.
She shifted her weight onto her haunches, then launched into the air.
Her shrill howl was swallowed up by the pale blue flames that shot from her jaws.
Ophiucae’s shield crystallized into a wall of ice, effective at protecting his men from her dragonfyre but equally effective at blocking their progress.
She took a sharp bank, targeting the rear to create a rift in their lines.
I yelled for Alixe, but she had already spotted the opening and moved to exploit it. She thrust a palm toward the sky to drape Sorae in magic that cloaked her from sight while using the other hand to cast a false illusion of the gryvern approaching from a different direction.