Chapter 7
Seven
Kira
The oshota blocked Finn and Talon before they could follow Kira and Jin into the chamber. “Roake’s heir and the child may enter. No one else.”
Finn’s jaw ticked with anger as he stared the oshota down. His aggression showed that he was about one second from forcing his way through if the other Tuann didn’t move.
Talon kept a cooler head as he grabbed his friend by the shoulder. “Easy, now. They’re just doing their job.”
“Finn,” Kira warned with a shake of the head. “Don’t. I’ll be fine.”
Finn’s expression cracked, revealing a brief flash of frustration and fury that felt like a punch to Kira’s chest. “You keep saying that.”
He stalked away, leaving Kira reeling.
Talon watched him go before bowing his head to Kira in a gesture that was more mocking than respectful. “Heir.”
He strolled after his friend with a lazy amble.
“You do, you know.” Jin smirked when Kira’s gaze dropped to him. “I understand why, of course. But it’s really annoying for those of us that you continually leave behind.”
“I don’t know what you expect from me,” Kira griped.
She already felt terrible. She didn’t need him piling on.
It wasn’t like she’d chosen this situation. She hadn’t told the oshota to prevent Finn and Talon from following her. That order came from on high. Likely straight from the emperor himself.
She was just the poor hapless victim caught in the middle, trying to ride the waves while avoiding getting sucked under.
“Everything, Nixxy. We expect everything. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
“Asshole,” Kira muttered under her breath.
Ignoring Jin’s quiet snicker, she turned her attention to the chamber and its occupants.
After what just happened between the emperor’s oshota and hers, she wasn’t entirely surprised to see Roake’s Overlord sitting alone, several seats on either side of him empty.
The other Overlord’s had given him a wide berth. Most were seated on the opposite side of the table. Their oshota lining the wall behind them.
Only Luatha sat on Harlow’s side. At the very end.
Despite the overwhelming hostility being aimed at him, Harlow’s expression remained impassive. Almost cavalier. As if those across from him were no more than a nuisance. Easily dismissed and ignored.
At Kira’s entrance, his gaze lifted to find hers briefly. He summoned her with a jerk of his head.
Not taking his abruptness to heart, Kira stalked in his direction as she studied his features.
It always surprised her the level of resemblance that she saw between her and Harlow. If you didn’t know their history, you’d think they were father and daughter rather than uncle and niece.
His hair was a red so deep it was nearly black.
Just like hers. And their facial features were an echo of each other’s.
The biggest difference lay in the color and shape of their eyes.
His were a tawny gold that possessed an intensity and intelligence that had enabled him to become Overlord after the death of his twin. Kira’s father.
Scars dotted Harlow’s face. Among them, the most noticeable was the long vertical slash that dragged over one eye and down his cheek. Another scar hid in the trim beard that shadowed his jaw. The last was located on his forehead. Right next to his hairline.
Roake’s Overlord was a vicious fighter. One-on-one, the Overlords stood little chance against him.
Maybe that was why they’d forced him to attend this meeting alone. Without any oshota to protect him. Kira doubted it would help. The only way the other Houses might be able to overpower Harlow was by working together.
She found that possibility highly unlikely.
The Major Houses were notoriously terrible at cooperation. Already, Kira could see the infighting starting. The dirty looks between the different factions of oshota. The snide and biting remarks the Overlords used to address each other.
With the attacks, tension was already high. All it would take was one poorly received response and they would descend into anarchy.
It was the Tuann’s greatest weakness. Their inability to work together toward a common good. And what the mastermind behind this attack was likely hoping to take advantage of.
“You could cut the animosity in this room with a spoon,” Jin remarked lazily. “You’d think they’d realize they were at war. It feels like they’re going to rip each other apart over one carelessly spoken word.”
Kira skirted the end of the table and moved toward Harlow. “They’ve already made peace with what is to come.”
They were just fixated on the wrong adversary.
“Idiots,” Jin grumbled, trailing after her.
Dylan brought up the rear. A quiet, unobtrusive presence. Unlike Finn and Talon, he’d been allowed inside unchallenged.
“How do they expect to survive?” Jin asked.
“That is the question,” Kira said, conscious of Dylan listening to their conversation.
Hostility gave way to confusion as those present caught sight of Jin.
More than one forehead furrowed as whispers started.
Someone’s voice cut through the din. “What is a child doing here?”
Jin leaned toward Kira with a crafty expression on his face. “Told you.”
Yes. Yes. As usual he was right.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the mad heir,” Kashori’s Overlord drawled, breaking her staring contest with Harlow to glance at Jin. “Is child rearing a hobby of yours?”
Jin cemented his shy child routine by ducking partially behind Kira and clutching at her clothes.
Only she felt the way his shoulders shook from suppressed laughter as he tucked his face into the small of her back.
Despite her resolve to keep a low profile at this meeting, Kira had no choice but to respond now that Kashori’s Overlord had addressed her directly.
“I suggest focusing on your own matters rather than concerning yourself with mine.”
She didn’t blame Helena for her anger. In her place, she’d be out for blood too. However, she wasn’t going to sit still and let them take their anger out on her either.
If there was one thing she knew about the Tuann, it was that they respected strength.
“Send the child home, mad heir,” Danai’s Overlord advised. “The adults have important business to attend to.”
Objectively, Danai’s Overlord was an attractive man. Or he would have been if he wasn’t so damn sleazy. He didn’t even try to hide his desire to use her or the situation to his advantage.
Kira was left feeling as if it wasn’t her he was actually seeing but rather some pawn placed on an invisible chess board.
His arrogance was going to be his downfall.
If Kira or Jin didn’t kill him first.
Kira glanced at her uncle to find him as still as a statue. His expression not betraying him by so much as a flicker of an eyelash.
She took his stoic impassivity as permission, knowing that if he’d truly wanted her to shut up and be quiet he would have shown it.
“You keep throwing that term around—mad heir,” Kira drawled with an enigmatic little smirk that made the oshota lining the wall all tense. “Push me too far and maybe I’ll demonstrate just how mad I actually am.”
He didn’t want her to say “fuck it”. She could promise him that.
The Kira he’d seen so far was rather tame in comparison to the one who’d walked through fire to become the Phoenix. She’d burn the world down and roast marshmallows in the embers of its aftermath.
The oshota standing at Danai’s shoulder slammed a hand on the table. “Insolence!”
Kira fixed the stranger with a cool stare. She didn’t speak, letting her silence do all the talking for her.
One of the things she’d discovered since joining the Tuann was that her ability to intimidate humans with a simple look extended to them as well. There was something in her stare. A power that forced weak willed and weak minded people to submit.
Predictably, this Tuann was no different. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he worked to keep his eyes on her face, not quite daring enough to meet her stare.
Kira took pity on him, looking away to scan the rest of those at the table.
She grinned when she saw someone she knew. “Roddy, so good to see you again.”
“I would point out that that’s not my name, but I’m sure you know that and this is yet another attempt to rouse a reaction from me,” Roderick observed.
“Is it working?”
“Try harder next time.”
Tall and lean, Roderick possessed sharp boned features and the lilac colored eyes her mother’s people were known for.
He’d undergone quite a transformation since their first meeting.
He was still arrogant but now that arrogance had been tempered and he was no longer led by blind emotion.
It made him almost, Kira dare say, likable.
Next to him, Kira’s cousin, Liara, sat at the table. A trace of amusement was buried deep in her eyes as she watched Kira and her First’s interaction.
Luatha’s Overlord was a beautiful woman. Her long hair, the color of spun gold, had been braided and twisted into a complicated style that left her looking as regal as a Faerie princess.
Her expression was composed and still. Her firm gaze giving nothing away after that brief flash of humor.
Kira never knew what to make of this long lost cousin of hers. Her only blood relative aside from Harlow.
On one hand, Liara seemed to genuinely care for Kira. But on the other, she was an Overlord with all the duties and responsibilities that implied. Everything she did had to be with the welfare of her House in mind.
For that reason, Kira didn’t let her attention linger long. Instead, she swept a disinterested look over the rest of the table.
Danai, Kashori, and Luatha’s Overlords were all accounted for. The only one missing was Asanth’s, whose seat had been left empty.
Kira heard the Overlord had sustained heavy injuries from an ambush not too long ago. Judging by his absence, that must be true. Otherwise, he would have been in attendance to see Roake and Harlow be raked over the coals.