Chapter 55
ACKER
Women and children from the dungeons huddle in the middle of the courtyard as the stronger of their counterparts push against the Kenta soldiers manning the gate. The rest of the soldiers along the battlement are fighting a battle unseen from the other side of the wall.
I stick my pointer finger and thumb in my mouth and whistle in succession three times, the signal familiar enough for the soldiers to halt. “Ceasefire,” I yell as I cut through the yard. “Yield!”
The prisoners part for us and I spot Zion in front of the gate, two men lying on the ground at his feet, a third nestled in his arms. When he sees me approaching, he drops the unconscious soldier, the body hitting the ground in a wet heap.
“My word is the decree, I am telling my soldiers to stand down,” I say, addressing the entirety of the court. But I don’t look away from Zion. He is the greatest threat and liability to me, my men, and my Match. “My word is the decree; I am telling my soldiers to stand down.”
A commander calls down from the parapet. “The king?”
“Dead,” I announce. “I hold the crown.”
Zion’s eyes shift to the man beside me, Fredrich. “This true?”
“Killed him myself,” Fredrich says. The cocky bastard.
There’s not enough time to deal with the guilt of his father’s death or to verbalize an apology. For now, I give him what I can. “I’m sorry. Your father was a good man.”
His eyes shine under the torchlights. “The best,” he agrees, gruffly.
I’m risking a lot when I grab him by the front of his shirt and jerk him into an embrace, and I’m both relieved and unworthy of the hug he gives me back.
It’s brief, and we jump apart at the sound of arrows flying above the palace, followed by a moment of silence.
Then screams.
“What’s your order?” the commander yells down. “We’re still taking fire.”
I glance at Fredrich, and he gives me an already exasperated nod, confirming he has Jovie secure as I ascend the stairs to the battlement.
Arrows continue to rain down, thudding against the shields as soldiers line the battlements to protect themselves.
Between the gaps, I take inventory of the fight happening within the city.
Maile has well and truly infiltrated. Their army outnumbers my men by two to one.
They hold the rooftops as well as the streets, moving through the city blocks like ants on a hill, converging with the siege happening below.
Their archers are proficient, hitting one of my men within feet of where I stand, the shaft of the arrow protruding from the man’s eyeball.
I lean over the side of the parapet facing the courtyard and motion Jovie up with a crook of my fingers. Fredrich follows her up the stairs, but it’s Zion’s inclination to also accompany them that soothes a worry inside of me. He’s with me. He’s with us.
Jovie takes my hand when she reaches the top of the stairs, and I lead her and Fredrich to the nearest gap in the battlements, between the shields.
She doesn’t need direction, and uses my hand as leverage to pull herself onto the stone wall.
She stands tall, without fear of the height or the arrows as they ricochet off Fredrich’s shield.
“I am Jovinnia, Queen of Maile,” she declares, voice clear in the winter air. “And I am ordering you to cease your attack.”
The siege below stutters, but the attack doesn’t let up. Lifting her sword high above her head, she ignites it in a blaze of white light. Only then do the arrows begin to slow, the honed sound of arrows hitting metal slowing as the news spreads of their queen’s orders.
The last time she stood on this wall and wielded a sword of light, I thought she was stunning, and she’s just as magnificent this time. Now, she’s divine. Strong. Confident. Angry.
When she turns to look at me, I’m considering sinking to my knees in worship. She knows it too, a smile flashing before she’s able to hide it.
The commander’s face is ruddy with fear and adrenaline as he turns to me. “What’s your order, my king?”
“Raise the gate.”
He’s taken aback by my command. “W-what?”
Fredrich answers. “He said raise the gate.”
The sound of metal grinding against metal drowns out the silence as the gate begins to lift from the ground. There’s a hesitant yet persistent surge from the prisoners as they filter out of the courtyard. Once on the other side, they make haste in their departure, fleeing into the city streets.
Turning to the west, I march to the farthest end of the battlement. The army in the distance is visible even to the naked eye, but nothing more than a smudge on the horizon. A soldier hands me his spyglass, and I raise it to my eye. The lens sharpens the image and my breath catches. Holy …
The enemy army dwarfs ours. Possibly by tens of thousands. They’re equipped with catapults and battering rams, flanked by two ginormous trolls lumbering like mountains in motion.
Shit.
I return to relay the information to everyone, but Jovie is already brimming with energy. I don’t get a word in before she’s descending the stairs from the battlement, and Fredrich and I have to keep up.
“What the hell is this?” Zion asks from behind us. “Are you both fucking her or something?”
Fredrich erupts in laughter just as we reach the courtyard’s ground, and I level Zion with a glare.
But it’s Beau who intervenes. “Jealousy never suited you, Zion,” she says, coiling the metal rope in her hands.
At the sight of my sister, Zion freezes in place. She is the only person on this earth to render the man speechless.
Jovie throws her arms around Beau, but the embrace is short-lived as she reaches out a hand toward the metal rope in Beau’s hands.
“What is it?” Beau asks, eyes searching Jovie’s.
She breathes out the words. “Messer? Did you find Messer?”
Beau shakes her head, confused. “A soldier found my rope and a belted sword, but that’s it.” Then she considers the last detail before saying, “And blood. He said he wasn’t sure who’s, but it wasn’t a lot.”
As hopeful as that tidbit of information sounds to me, it doesn’t do a lot to ease Jovie’s fears. “He can’t shift when he’s injured. And if no one removes the arrow…”
Putting the pieces together, Beau’s facial features go slack. “Messer?”
Jovie’s tears threaten to reemerge as she struggles to answer, simply nodding as she turns away from Beau to hide her emotion. She misses the look on my sister’s face, but I do not. Beau’s tanned features turn a ghostly white, eyes wide as she realizes Messer’s likely fate.
“Fuck me,” Fredrick mutters.
And we all swiftly look in the direction he’s looking, toward the palace.
Evelyn troops out of the front doors with a sword in hand, a handful of Maile soldiers in her wake.
She’d obviously planned the ambush as a diversion from her real plan to sneak into the backside of the palace and steal her daughter from my–
Fuck.
Fredrich hits the snow a split second before I do, both of us choking.
“Mother!” Jovie yells. “Stop.”
My soldiers take the defense, but there’s nothing I can think or do, except fight for breath. It’s futile, I know, but it doesn’t eliminate the effort. Falling to all fours, my hands slip on the wet ground, vision turning black around the edges.
Somewhere in my periphery, I hear Jovie’s voice. “Where’s Sam?” But it distorts as it begins to fade from existence.
This is it.
Dying by the hands of my own mother-in-law.
The Mother is laughing, I know it.
Then, right before I totally black out, air fills my lungs.
It’s as painful as it is blissful. I gasp, sucking in glorious, freezing air.
Sitting back on my haunches, I look up at the former queen of Maile.
The woman who issued me the dagger Jovie made with her father to keep on my travels.
And I know, without a shadow of a doubt, she hates me.
I bow my head in subservience. “Forgive me.”
Her tone is biting. “How can I forgive you for something you’re not even sorry for?”
Well, she’s got me there. I dare to look up at her. Dressed in armor, sword close enough to take my head. Jovie stands at her side, fingers gripping her mother’s elbow.
I could lie. I should lie. “I’m only sorry for the danger I put Jovie in, but I did it under the intention of keeping her safe.”
Evelyn sneers at me, disgust plain on her face. “You are nothing but a slave to the Bond, and that makes you weak.”
“Mother,” Jovie chastises.
I don’t deny it. “I have pledged my loyalty to your daughter’s crown. As long as she lives, I live at her mercy. My men are her men. My life is her life. She can do with them as she pleases.”
This declaration makes Evelyn pause. Even Zion cusses, taking a step back from me.
But I am not ashamed of the love I have for Jovie.
It’s the only decision that I’ve ever made that doesn’t feel tainted by outside forces.
She is mine and I am hers. There is nothing in this world or any other that could change either of those facts.
“Now that it’s settled,” I say, slowly coming to a stand. “There’s an army five times the size of ours to the west, and I suggest we begin preparing for the bloodbath heading our way.”