Chapter 35
HARK
‘Idon’t know why you’re so hard on her.’ Kase’s voice echoed down the hallway of the highest floor of Claret Hall. ‘She’s young, and the gods know you let her get away with murder. She’ll come round.’
Hark sighed, following Kase into the sitting room. Sebastian was already inside, drinking so much of Hark’s expensive whiskey that he snatched the bottle from his friend’s hand. He had listened to this argument too many times in the weeks since Arla had left.
‘She is a child,’ Seb grumbled, collapsing onto the settee and shooting Kase a look that would have sent anyone else running.
Kase snorted, twisting the rings on her fingers as she stared out of the windows onto the city below.
Hark had caught her doing it a lot recently, as if she were constantly searching for something no one else could find.
He bet if he stood close enough, he’d find her gaze fixed on the stone building by the river and the man who lay inside it.
She was always worse on the days Jack had treatment.
‘She’s twelve. I was doing a lot worse at her age than disappearing on horseback for a few hours in the afternoon.’
‘Just because she isn’t seducing her uncle’s friends as a leg-up for him in society doesn’t mean that what she’s doing is safe, Kase.’
A heaviness settled on the room that had Hark stepping forwards, braced to intercept the silver-haired viper that was about to erupt from the corner.
The attack never came, and that meant a wholly different sort of danger.
Kase turned so slowly he feared there was something wrong with her.
That’s when he saw the pure venom in her swirling blue eyes.
She was a sharp sort of beautiful, with angled cheekbones and a narrow nose, every piece of her a perfectly cut line that oozed lethal grace.
Where Arla was death’s own companion, Kase was its rival.
Hark palmed the blade sheathed at his hip.
‘I’m not proud of the things I was forced into, Sebastian,’ she snarled, poison dripping from her tongue, ‘but don’t forget what I did to my uncle that put me in Larkire’s dungeons. I’d be more than happy to show you exactly which parts I cut off first.’
Fucking gods! He didn’t have it in him to endure this today.
Seb straightened, his eyes darkening as he eyed Kase, his mouth settling into something cruel.
Hark often forgot just how deadly his crew could be.
He had, after all, conned them all into working with him in the first place, not because they had fit the mould for the sort of people he wanted as his friends.
No, he had wanted them for their skillset. Their violence.
It wasn’t often they turned it upon each other.
Seb’s lips parted, and though it was rare he ever spoke cruelly – especially to Kase – Hark could see the wound ready to be inflicted. Sebastian didn’t back down. Not when it came to Elin or Vivianne.
‘Well, forgive me if I would rather my niece didn’t follow the same fucked-up life you’ve led.’
The world seemed to stop spinning, and then she was upon him.
Arla had lost control many times – he’d watched them all with too much approval and … arousal. But Kase? There was nothing to approve in the way she threw herself over the small table by the settee and set upon Sebastian, her fingers clawing at his face whilst he fumbled to draw a blade.
Fucking gods, blood would flow before the night was out!
The pair of them crashed to the floor, grunting and growling, and they wouldn’t stop hitting each other.
He let it continue until the first bead of blood rolled down Seb’s cheek, a consequence of Kase’s sharpened nails, but then he marched over and hauled the girl from where she straddled Sebastian.
Attempting to control Kase was like trying to harness a storm. She thrashed and kicked and screamed such vile words at Sebastian that the maids were sure to talk.
What surprised Hark the most, though, was that Seb didn’t stop.
He came at them, those usually soft eyes having hardened into something dark and unrelenting. He swung his fists towards Kase’s face, and to her credit, she didn’t flinch – almost leaned into the hit as if it fuelled her fury.
Hark could understand it. He knew what Kase had been made to do by her uncle. He’d been witness to the long nights after he’d rescued her from Larkire during which she’d stared out of the window in silence and battled hells they had no chance of comprehending.
And Seb … he hadn’t grieved his sister properly, even now. But there was a fierce oath burned into his soul that he would protect those girls. And Elin … well, Kase was right – she was acting out. She’d taken a liking to Arla and decided she would follow in her footsteps.
He didn’t think Arla would approve of the girl ‘borrowing’ Vetta and disappearing into the mountains each afternoon.
Or maybe she would, because it was exactly the sort of thing she’d have done as a child, he imagined.
But there was too much risk now, too much danger when those strange soldiers of Elrod’s had been appearing in dribs and drabs and took more force than should ever be needed to be killed.
So Hark could understand the anger from both of his friends. What he didn’t understand was why they were both so willing to draw each other’s blood when up until now nothing had ever turned them against one another.
His slip in concentration cost him and Kase shrugged free of his grip, launching herself at Sebastian with renewed vigour.
The glass table shattered beneath them as they landed upon it, the crash so deafening he knew there were only minutes to get this under control before the entirety of Claret Hall arrived in the sitting room and wondered why the courtiers were ready to tear each other’s throats out.
He reached for Kase again, only to find himself being shoved roughly out of the way.
Jack had arrived, and he was hauling her back against his chest with far too much ease for someone who could barely walk without aid.
It was the opening Hark needed to grab hold of Sebastian, to wrap his arms around the man and shove him against the far wall of the sitting room.
‘Get a fucking grip!’ Hark growled, the words clearing that dazed anger on his friend’s face.
Sadness leaked across Seb’s features then, and realisation of what they’d done as he surveyed the room, his eyes lingering on the shards of glass marked with both his and Kase’s blood on the carpet.
And then his eyes settled on Kase. To where Jack held her face in his hands, cane forgotten as he whispered to her.
Hark watched the fury melt away, her body going soft against Jack’s as he pulled her to him. It dragged a lump up his throat.
To see his friend able to walk – able to separate the fight. And … to see them together.
Sebastian whistled long and low, dragging a hand through his hair. He’d grown it to his shoulders recently, likely in an attempt to catch the eye of one of the men who worked in the forest. Or perhaps of one of the women who reared goats for them all to eat.
It didn’t matter, did it? Because no matter where any of their hearts lay, one thing was clear: with Arla gone, they were tearing themselves and each other apart.
He hadn’t been aware of it in the beginning, just how comprehensively she had ingrained herself in this group that she had become the centre of it.
But her absence had been a powerful thing that taunted each of them.
It sighed in every corridor and danced in every shaft of sunlight. They were falling apart without her.
‘What in the gods’ names are you all doing?
’ Jaz’s deep voice ruptured the tense silence, each of them turning to face him one by one.
He wore dark purple robes, the rings on his fingers gleaming in the light from the sitting room.
He clutched a book to his chest – he was always clutching a book to his chest nowadays.
‘Are any of you going to speak or should I pretend you don’t look like you’re all on a mission to kill one another?’
‘It’s nothing,’ Seb said, his voice surprisingly steady. ‘A misunderstanding.’
Kase’s eyes narrowed slightly and Hark didn’t miss the way Jack’s fingers tightened on her shoulders. The act alone seemed to disarm her, and she relaxed against him.
‘A misunderstanding?’ Jaz mused, slamming the book down on the wooden table by the door.
‘I don’t care what it was that drove you to act like dogs, but take your anger elsewhere.
What’s coming is bigger than us, bigger than whatever this is.
’ He gestured to the space between them.
‘There will be no room for misunderstandings. You’ll need every man and woman working together. ’
Lead settled in the pit of Hark’s gut. His tongue was heavy in his mouth when he spoke.
‘And what would that be?’
Jaz sighed, picking the book back up and clasping it tight in both hands. ‘’Tis no coincidence that those strange soldiers are appearing in our mountains. You’d better hope your girlfriend finds something to help her in Malarye … the gods know there’s nothing here.’
Silence smothered the group, yet its pressing weight could not drown the bright flame of anger that lurched in Hark’s chest. ‘Drop these riddles and start fucking talking, Jaz. If she’s in danger, I need to know.’
He hadn’t let himself think of the fact that they hadn’t heard from her and she had not returned.
It was just like they’d agreed, of course, but in the darkest hours of night, whether he lay awake in bed or trudged through the mountains looking for Elrod’s monstrous soldiers, he’d been unable to prevent his mind from believing Arla Dragonhart to be dead.
Jaz’s expression spoke of worry and Hark hated to see it. His deep brown skin was dull and worn with the signs of exhaustion as he spoke.
‘Those soldiers we’re fighting, they’ve been here before, back when the last dragonhart was alive. Damon created them using dark magic – forbidden magic. It is said only his sword could truly kill them.’
Kase gasped, and the way Seb shifted from one foot to the other beside him expressed the same anxiety rolling through Hark’s veins.
‘So what now?’ Jack asked, his voice strong and clear. The colour was back in his cheeks – at least, for now – and the straightness in his spine bolstered Hark against the information that had him aching to get to Arla. To keep her safe.
‘I believe,’ Jaz continued, ‘that we are seeing the same magic that was here a century ago. Whatever Elrod’s done, ’tis just as dark and twisted as what Damon did. If you ask me, he’s creating an army of dark soldiers, and only Damon’s sword will be enough to stop him.’
‘So if we can find the sword and stop Elrod, it will be enough to unite the kingdoms?’ Kase’s voice held a hope they’d all been missing, perhaps since Arla had left and the letters had begun arriving from their spies, relaying the grinding poverty and sickness spreading through the kingdoms. It was as if a faraway clock had started counting down and they were running out of time.
‘Perhaps,’ Jaz said with a sigh. ‘But knowing the fates, it won’t be that simple. I have a feeling there’s more to come.’
Unfortunately, Hark agreed.