Chapter 26
Kiera
Warmth invaded my heart.
His words were like sharp rays of sunlight. Pure honesty. Gone were the murky clouds lined with vague niceties of the last few days. And I wished them never to come back.
“If you two are done flirting, can we get back to planning our deadly mission?” Maz’s drawl was like a bucket of cold water.
I jerked away from Aiden, my cheeks heating further when I realized everyone was staring at us.
“We were arguing, same as you,” I fired back, my voice not nearly as strong as I’d hoped.
Maz smirked. “No siblings argue like that, lovely.”
“Definitely not,” Yarina said, wrinkling her nose at me.
I glanced at Aiden for assistance, but he merely leaned back with a smile.
Sigrid sighed loudly. “So the consensus is we will not just let the two of you rot in the mine, but—”
“Because we won’t get caught,” Maz interrupted.
“Sure,” she ground out. “Then tell me why we’re bringing two untrained warriors with us.” She pinned me and Ruru with a one-eyed glare.
At least she hadn’t said untrustworthy, but it was still an insult.
I narrowed my eyes. “I may not know how to wield every weapon in existence, but I know how to fight. I throw a knife better than anyone here. Most importantly, this is my kingdom, these are my people, and this is my gods-damned fight.”
Sigrid quirked an eyebrow, looking the mildest bit appeased.
Ruru straightened next to me. “I’ll tell you what I told Kiera—I go where my friends go. Even if that’s all the way to the Abyss.”
“Good enough for me,” Jek said.
Yarina nodded. “And me.”
“Fine,” Sigrid grunted. “Are we done here?”
“Not quite,” Nikella said.
Aiden frowned and tossed the Wolf mask back into the pile.
Nikella continued in the same steady voice. “Renwell will send Korvin to hunt us.”
I reeled back, deaf to everyone else’s reactions. How did she know that? Was he hunting us right now?
My skin crawled as if a dozen spiders had landed on me.
I glanced at Maz, whose face was white beneath his shaggy golden hair.
Frieda scowled. “Is that monster coming here?”
Nikella shook her head. Her scar seemed more prominent than ever now that I knew her brother had carved it into her face. “He’s hunting me. I won’t come back here until after he’s dead.”
“He will be,” Jek promised with a guttural growl.
The others chimed in with their murderous threats, which brought a small smile to Maz’s face.
Naughty little Nik, you’ll finally get what’s been coming to you for years.
What Renwell had said to Nikella in parting—that was about Korvin? I remembered Nikella’s stiff body, her expression. It’d been fear. She’d known what he meant.
My gaze fell to Aiden, who almost looked angry.
“We leave at dawn tomorrow,” he said abruptly. “Be ready.”
Everyone gathered themselves to leave. Maz stuffed all the Shadow-Wolf gear back into the bag while his sisters hovered near him like guards, as if Korvin were waiting outside in the shadows.
The foreboding in my gut thickened.
“A moment, Kiera,” Aiden murmured, brushing past me.
Immediately apprehensive, I followed him out of Frieda’s lodge to the barren garden.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, and even then, his features were blurred. Perhaps he wanted it that way.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my plan beforehand.”
I blinked, surprised. “Oh. Was it because you were worried I’d argue?”
“No, I wanted you and the others to argue with me. I didn’t want to hide my reasons.”
My eyebrows rose. “You were that confident you’d win?”
A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Yes.” He paused. “But I’m not so sure we can win Calimber. We are eight warriors against Dracles, his army, and the guards in the mine. And I won’t let the prisoners become collateral.”
I laid my palm on his warm chest. He immediately pressed his hand on top.
“We’ll find a way,” I whispered. “Because we have to. That’s why we’re spying on it first. Perhaps there’s a weakness we can exploit.”
“Perhaps. But we will need more allies, eventually. For this battle. Or the next.”
I swallowed hard. “Is that why you wanted Frieda to send more runners? To rally more of the clans behind us?”
Aiden rubbed his jaw. “I thought perhaps Renwell destroying the Urzost village would be enough to unite the clans, but bad blood runs deep. Frieda is not hopeful and would rather preserve her clan than fight a battle that may swallow the Yargoths whole.” He turned his face away from me. “It’s what a good leader would do.”
I bit my lip, remembering the comment I’d made on Mynastra’s Wings. And the guilt that I knew weighed on him for Mother. “You don’t needlessly sacrifice lives either, Aiden. Unless it’s your own.”
“You think my plan is foolish?”
I hesitated. An idea had taken root in my mind since learning that Renwell had told Aquinon there were no other heirs to claim the throne. The idea had only strengthened after I decided we should find a way to destroy Calimber.
“I think you’re desperate to win,” I said softly. “But it doesn’t have to be alone or with a distant alliance. What if . . . what if we sent word to my sister’s soldier, Henry? He’s a captain in the army, in charge of hundreds of Rellmiran soldiers—”
“And you think they would join us so easily? Betray their oaths to serve the king? Destroy a mine they might benefit from? I wanted the Dag warriors because I trust them to see Renwell as an enemy who’s killed and imprisoned their people.”
“He’s a false king who probably intends to use Henry and his men in battles they don’t wish to fight. Their fellow Rellmirans are imprisoned in that mine, too. They’d be freeing their people.”
Aiden shook his head. “Even if we got a message to Henry, neither of us actually knows him. We could give up our plan to someone who would then feed it to Renwell for a pat on the back.”
“My sister is in love with him. They’ve carried on a secret affair even when he would’ve been thrown in prison for such a thing. I don’t think he’d betray us.”
“Have we not been betrayed enough to avoid such a risk?” he asked gently.
The words pierced my heart like a well-aimed knife. My eyes prickled. “Have we not lost enough to risk everything?”
He brushed his fingers over my brow and slid them down to rest against my throat. “There are some things I refuse to risk,” he said roughly. “There are other battles I need to win.”
Was he speaking of me? Us?
I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing in his nearness, his words. My pulse raced beneath his fingertips.
“I will not be the reason you fail again,” I whispered.
His fingers slipped around my neck, pulling me closer. “I didn’t fail completely. You were the only reason I won at all.”
Oh, gods. There was no air. In my lungs, in the world, in the space between our lips. Some illogical, wild part of my mind insisted I would find it if I pressed my mouth to his.
Suffocating seemed easier.
“Breathe, Kiera,” Aiden murmured, as if he’d read my thoughts, caressing my throat. “You don’t need to worry. I won’t be stealing anything else tonight. Even if I am a dirty little thief,” he added with a teasing note.
Air rushed into my lungs, and I swallowed hard, my throat rubbing like a rock against sand.
“You like that name a bit too much,” I rasped. My heart still beat erratically as he kept hold of me.
His smile flickered in the dim light. “Now I understand why it made your eyes flare every time I said it to you.”
“It did no such thing.”
“Liar.” But there was no heat in the word this time. Only a softness that felt safe. “Get some sleep . . . my little thief.”
I jerked away from his grasp, heat rising up my neck. His chuckle followed me out of the shadows.
We left the Yargoth camp under a blanket of fog.
Children ran alongside our horses, waving and shouting goodbye until we reached the edge of the woods. Then the trees swallowed everything behind us and what lay ahead.
Jek led the way once more, and Sigrid took up the rear. But everyone’s gaze roamed the forest, looking for any threats that might’ve trespassed across the border.
I peered into every shadow, looking for Korvin’s greasy black hair and evil eyes.
When the trail became wide enough for two horses, I eased Ozlow up next to Maz and his golden horse.
He smiled at me, but there were telltale shadows under his blue eyes.
“Did you know?” I asked quietly. “About Korvin?”
Maz shook his head. “Aiden told me later that he wanted to spare me and my sisters the added worry, but Nikella insisted. I told him we didn’t need protecting.”
I stared at the back of Aiden’s head as he rode behind Jek. Of course, he’d wanted to protect Maz. But more and more I’d found that secrets were a sort of slow death. Of trust. Of honesty. Of relationships.
What had Delysia said to me when I visited her the night of Asher’s death?
Keeping me in the dark doesn’t keep me safe.
I frowned. Oh, Lys, how much better I understand that now.
“You look sad, lovely,” Maz said, watching me carefully. “If you’re worried about me, I’m fine. This plan was always going to be dangerous. I expected to encounter Korvin in the mine when I told Aiden I wanted to go with him.”
“You volunteered? Why?”
Maz ducked his head under a low-hanging branch. “We’d both been there, and I didn’t want him to be alone. Or with someone who didn’t understand. He refused at first, but I won him over.” He winked at me, and I saw a flash of the old Maz beneath the tired, worried one.
Korvin’s torture and Davka’s death had dulled his usual shine. Perhaps a victory would restore him. Or perhaps those shadows would cling to him forever.
I knew a thing or two about shadows of the mind.
I rubbed Ozlow’s warm neck for comfort before I spoke again. “Aiden told me of the night my mother died.”
Maz’s eyebrows rose. “Did he now? Is that what I walked in on the night Ruru arrived?”
“Yes,” I said, my throat thick.
“Good. I’ve wanted him to do that since we were onboard Mynastra’s Wings.”