Chapter 16
He’d seen her twice now...
And he couldn’t shake the rightness he felt from sharing the same space.
Years of dreaming of her, and she wasn’t quite how he’d expected her to be.
He blamed his love of books for filling in the gaps. What was she supposed to do...fall into his arms, confess her love for a stranger? One she – quite clearly – was repulsed by?
We all suffer from something, Little Prince.
Magus’ voice called out to him from the abyss.
Well, if repulsion was her ailment, Kinlear would cure her of it.
He’d get to know her slowly at first, for he’d be able to visit her in her Ravenminder’s tower soon enough. Perhaps that would be a safe space, where his brother could not interfere. He’d gain her trust, start a friendship, get her to understand him...before he introduced her to the raphon.
And then?
Then, they’d change the shape of their entire world.
He whistled to himself, strangely happy, his footsteps light as he left the Eagle’s Nest behind.
It’s a good day, Kinlear thought, for it was the dawning of something new.
His era.
Their era.
Together, just like his visions had promised.
He’d just entered the main halls of the Aviary, his cane clacking on the cold stone floors, when a servant came rushing up to him.
“Sir!”
Kinlear sighed. Gods, no. It was his personal attendant, the poor unfortunate youngling he’d left out in the snow, months ago. To his surprise, the boy hadn’t quit or been scared off by Kinlear’s antics.
He treated him terribly, he knew.
But he hated how the child was a constant reminder of how weak his father thought him to be.
If only he knew, Kinlear told himself. If only my father could see the truth of the power that lingers in my mind.
He’d kill him if he did.
Kinlear paused a few steps from the golden doors, despite every instinct to ignore the servant.
“I certainly hope whatever you’re here for isn’t more important than the steaming hot bath I’m headed to take,” he said with a sigh.
“Because if it is, I’d implore you to delay speaking your message, and find—”
A boom suddenly shook the walls.
It was so loud, Kinlear swore he felt it rumble up through the floors and to the handle of his cane. He whirled to look at the stained-glass windows, where the snow was still pouring in buckets. The war had already begun for the night, but...
It couldn’t possibly be that close. The wards kept them safe.
“Sir?” the servant said again. He reached for Kinlear’s arm, his small grip insistent.
His eyes were wide as Kinlear looked down to him, surprised at the touch.
“The beast,” the boy hissed. His eyes were so wide, Kinlear swore they nearly popped out of his head.
“Th-they were trying to feed it, and—and it—”
Perhaps someone had been dismembered again. The raphon pup liked to play with her meat.
“Well?” he asked, twisting his cane the way Magus always had. “Spit it out!”
A second boom shook the Aviary.
Dust danced down from the ceiling. A few shouts rang out as people looked towards the arched black door with prison bars for a window. The one that led into darkness, deep into the catacombs, where—
“What happened to her?” Kinlear asked, his blood cold.
The boy’s voice shook in fear. “She escaped.”
Being Veilborne should have come with better perks, for Kinlear certainly hadn’t seen this.
His raphon, his greatest treasure, the key to everything...had escaped. And not out the door to the main halls, where all the war eagle tack was kept.
No, whatever godsdamned idiot had fed her last had let her out the other way. Into the Eagle’s Nest.
Where Arawn was, and Kinlear’s blood went cold his raphon rider.
He’d seen the visions of her having tamed the beast. He trusted it, knew it would come true someday, when it was older, large enough to carry them both with its wings. But gods only knew what it would take to get there first.
No one could enter Six’s cage. No one could even dare try without losing an appendage, and suddenly that was terror in Kinlear’s gut. Something he hadn’t felt since his own monster hunted him in his dreams.
It made it harder to breathe, made it harder to hold the cough back from slamming against his lungs.
He couldn’t run, but for her, he would try.
He hobbled across the Aviary, wincing at the pounding of his feet.
Gods, he prayed as he ducked into one of the weapons rooms. Please, don’t let it find her inside.
Indriya and Riven were lounging at wooden tables in the room, cleaning their blades from the battle in the woods.
“Crossbow!” Kinlear barked, as he practically skidded to a stop. The door was still held open by the tip of his cane.
“Since when are you interested in a weapon?” Indriya asked, as she twirled a dagger in her fingertips. She’d made snowflakes dance around it in midair. “Sit down, Kinlear. Stay a while.”
Riven nodded, setting down a bloodstained rag and picking up a stick of dried meat with the same hand. “We have snacks.”
“Get it now unless you want Arawn to die,” Kinlear hissed.
And of course, the mention of his brother’s name was all it took.
Indriya leapt for the weapons wall. The crossbow was in her hands in seconds.
“Sleep-runed arrows!” Kinlear barked to Riven, who’d ripped a sheath of arrows from the wall, hanging beside a mixture of knives. “No, that’s for instant death, you fool, I need paralysis!” Kinlear howled. “Move, Riven!”
Knives hit the floor with a clatter as Indriya grabbed the arrows herself.
A chair was knocked over by Riven’s enormous body as he scrambled towards the door and shoved the arrows into Kinlear’s hand.
“Get Alaris!” Kinlear yelled.
“But sir!” Indriya’s blades were already in place. “Let us—"
“Get. Alaris,” he ordered. “Crown or not, that’s an order from your prince.”
He didn’t wait for her reaction.
He slung the crossbow over his shoulder and limped through the golden doors into the Eagle’s Nest, unsure of what he’d find.
He would save her, gods be damned, even if he wasn’t a warrior. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her, because the future depended on it, because...
He paused.
Because there she was...with Six.
It was only a few seconds that he stood there, watching, but it felt like an eternity. Like the entire world had stopped moving, like even the gods were surprised by what they saw.
The Ravenminder was standing with her hand outstretched before her. Blood dripped from her nose, a brilliant crimson that rivaled the flowers inside the forest. It dripped from her hand, too...right onto Six’s beak.
It ran in rivulets down her jagged white scar, the mark of the crazed man who’d murdered her litter, months ago.
And both, the raphon and her future rider...
Their eyes were closed, almost peaceful as they touched.
The Ravenminder was crying.
Kinlear wanted to let it go on, to stay and watch, because there was something holy about their union. Something...that he had never quite seen before, not even between Eagle and Rider.
The future, his mind whispered, and it sounded like Magus this time. It’s all coming true, Veilborne. Just as you foresaw in your dreams.
Some part of Kinlear, a part that had been broken for so long, lost in a dark sea without an anchor to hold him in place...it shifted at the sight of them.
It clicked back into place, and he felt like he was home.
No sooner had he thought it, that he saw a familiar figure barreling through the trees.
Arawn.
He’d certainly slay the beast if he reached it in time, so Kinlear lifted his crossbow.
And fired.
The raphon screeched when the arrow made impact. A thump, and she was on the forest floor, a threat no more.
The Ravenminder gasped as if she felt it...and then she was falling, too. Shit. Kinlear threw down the weapon and limped the final few feet to her before he discarded his cane and caught her.
She was strangely light in his arms, as if the wind had broken her fall. And she was warm, and alive, and... she was real. A true being that had sprouted right from his dreams, scars and all.
“Are you alright?” Kinlear asked, as she blinked up at him.
Arawn arrived just over his shoulder. “Ezer.”
Her name.
It was the first time he’d ever heard it, despite the thousands of nights he’d held her in his dreams. And it was lovely. A perfect name for a woman who’d just looked a monster in the eye and chose to pet it.
They stared down at her, the Crown and the Spare, as Ezer turned her gaze away from them...and back to Six.