Chapter 56 #2
The queen smoothed the silk of her dress and stood.
It appeared as if she couldn’t decide whether she should prepare for another battle or a coronation.
A silver jumpsuit sculpted her shape. Draped from her hips, a sheer overskirt of pale blue floated after her.
“It was you,” she said pointedly to Broan, but her gaze remained on Ingrid, “that wanted her named my heiress, correct? I do not think she’s fit to rule, as obvious as it is now with her absence.
But the Vikings want her. You have made your bed with it.
I see no further reason to continue discussing. ”
Ingrid laughed. The laughter did not reflect amusement. “You intend to train her, I imagine, Queen Elira. Or perhaps our father was right about your ineptitude.”
Connak stood, but not to defend Elira, nor stop her from reaching up to set the Viking woman straight.
Tristian followed Connak’s line of sight and found himself, too, standing.
The sight of Kienna shocked him. He couldn’t tell why, but she walked upright, the ice of her blue eyes melting, harnessed with a steadfast fire.
Though muted, an orange flame glittered around her body.
It would be invisible to most who didn’t know how to spot magic the way he did, but he could see it. It was the start of becoming.
Ruva trailed closely behind her, Danek stationed on the other side. All voices fell in the room, echoes of footsteps and the wolf’s panting bouncing off the chambers of the tree.
“Nice of you to fucking show up, princess,” Broan scoffed, arms folded over one another. “I see Pretty Boy finally found you.”
Ingrid stepped forward, halting Kienna before she reached the council.
She eyed Kienna closely, gaze peering low and shoulders drawn back.
Danek crept forward. He didn’t interfere, but his fists scrunched into balls.
Tristian wondered if he’d be able to hold the weight that came with staying at Kienna’s side.
“I trust you are taking our alliance seriously,” Ingrid said after a silence. Her voice boomed behind her, though it sounded as if she intended it as a low growl.
Kienna matched her stance, broadening her shoulders. “Very.”
“Did you find your meditation to be fruitful?”
Lips curving upward, Kienna flicked her attention to Connak and then back to Ingrid. “I did.”
Alister leaned forward from his place at the council table, a thin smile twitching at the corner of his mouth.
“As riveting as this little interrogation is,” he drawled, voice oiled with mock courtesy, “perhaps we might save the dramatics for after more pressing matters are addressed? Time, after all, is a luxury some of us can ill afford.” He tapped a lazy finger against his council seat, the sound sharp and deliberate.
What was he in a hurry for? Tristian lingered on him but couldn’t fight the urge to turn back to Kienna.
Elira moved away from the Vikings, the silver folds of her gown hissing against the stone floor.
The woven crystals in her pale hair glinted under the council’s lantern light.
It did little to warm the chill in her voice.
“I’d ask for an explanation, but I don’t care.
You’re only here because you must be. Not because you’ve earned it. ”
Kienna tilted her head and bared her teeth, signaling she was prepared to bite. “I’m here because my place in the realm isn’t dictated by you.”
Murmurs rippled through the room. Ingrid’s brows rose in approval, and Broan shifted with a low grunt of his own.
Even Seredai leaned forward with intrigue.
Tristian glanced around the room, eyeing Connak for any sign that this would not turn ugly.
Connak only stared at Kienna like a man standing before something sacred.
His eyes were soft, lips parted. It was as if breathing might break the spell she cast on the room.
“Your place is as my heiress. Nothing more.” Elira’s gaze bore into Kienna.
Kienna stood unshaken. She stepped past the queen, Ruva at her side.
She did not bow or flinch. The chamber stilled, every eye snapping to her.
She faced Tristian, as if her address was for him.
“You once asked me who I was to myself.” Kienna’s attention sparked something in him he could no longer deny.
His heart unclenched where it had been tight his whole life.
The light of the water glowed with a shimmer of deep indigo and gold, waving through the air around her.
Kienna was no longer becoming. She simply was.
Which meant Tristian would have to fight harder against the power below the surface.
He could already feel it rising, reflections of it in the water.
Queen Elira lifted her hand to cut Kienna off, but Seredai stood. “Our people will be interested to hear this.”
It was the first time Seredai had overstepped the queen publicly.
Tristian ignored the power play and studied Kienna.
He fell into formation, hands behind his back, and waited for his briefing.
It was a motion that caught like wildfire as Danek stood behind her in the same formation.
Connak grinned, wrapping his arms behind him, eyes forward.
Jaw tight, Elira sighed, “Go on.”
“I was born Kalyra to Galric of Belok, but I was also born Kienna to Avenna Ashfell. King Vaerin raised me behind a wall in River Storm. My closest kin to date are Queen Elira of Belok, Calder Ashfell, and King Vaerin of River Storm. None of whom are on each other’s sides.
But I protect what is pure, what is floating above us. ”
Seredai and Elira shifted heavily. Tristian and Connak tilted their heads upward. She had to be talking about the Eternal Mother. Tristian was born from that island, though he never saw it with his eyes. Had the island revealed itself to her? If so, their timelines were shortening substantially.
“To the goddess, and to myself, I am Kienna. The Ashborn.” Her body blazed with the invisible orange. Tristian wished the rest of the room could see how brightly she burned. His chest pinched.
Broan stepped up to Kienna, eyeing the way she stood, the clothes she wore that were dirtied from a journey in the forest, and the wolf at her side. Ruva didn’t budge, her best behavior yet. The Viking huffed a laugh and slapped her on the back. “It would seem you’re fit to rule after all.”
Elira turned to him and nearly lashed him, face cold with eyes like pure ice.
“I’m not a princess,” Kienna said, stepping in between them. “I’m not looking to be a queen.” She looked at Broan and then shifted to Ingrid. “I will be your ally until the Dead Army no longer rises. I will carve the rest of my path later.”