Chapter 17 Champion of Zaraga, Do What You Were Born to Do
Champion of Zaraga, Do What You Were Born to Do
My jaw jutted out, my nostrils flared. My power pulsed in my veins.
“No.”
Rafaela frowned. “I already tried that.”
She and Alonso joined me in glowering at the parvnit, who apparently just wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone.
Marina eyed the little pest curiously, warily, as she stood meekly several steps behind me.
Now in the presence of the former king and queen, she could be no more than a servant aware of her place.
Cosette perched atop an exquisite sidebar that had lined the entryway for a thousand years B.A.
—before abduction. Alonso’s ancestor commissioned the piece specifically from a renowned woodworker, who’d carved the table from a single piece of wood.
For its size, that alone was an incredible feat.
Add to that the intricate, lifelike carvings of a forest and its creatures peeking from every angle, and it was a priceless creation that represented the pinnacle of Zaragan arts.
The parvnit sat with her legs crossed, the top leg swinging, slapping the historical artwork. She leaned back into her hands as if she owned the table. As if she owned the whole scorching palace.
“She is set on accompanying you,” Rafaela said.
My head swung toward my mother. “What? No. Absolutely not.”
Rafaela’s own jaw clenched. “She insists.”
“So what? Get rid of her, then. Or lock her up. Whatever. She’s not going anywhere with me.”
Cosette swung that leg some more. Tiny as it was, it landed with a tap each time. To my sensitive ears, it was a taunting boom that had my power coiling, preparing for me to call on it.
“Keep right on going,” Cosette said. “I have an excellent memory. I’m adding another count of threatening an officer of the empire to your long list of charges.”
I blinked at her. Swiveled back to Rafaela.
“How have you not killed her already?”
Not even the centuries I’d been gone would have been enough to soften this woman.
“I have not killed her,” Rafaela said tightly, “because I don’t just kill creatures.”
I blinked again. Glanced at Alonso. His face was blank, as if he were lost to his thoughts.
“I adhere to the dominion of Emperor Junot.”
Yeah, suuuuuure you do. Aloud, I said nothing.
“As she has repeatedly informed me, Cosette Darling is an investigatory soldier of the Blue Band and an officer of the empire. As such, I find myself obligated to…” Rafaela’s fangs lengthened until their tips crested her bottom lip. “…accommodate her request.”
I threw my hands in the air in exasperation. “Which is what, exactly?”
“Alonso and I have convinced her to show leniency—”
“Leniency and judgment aren’t for me to dole out,” Cosette interjected.
Rafaela dragged her fangs across her lower lip until two small beads of blood blossomed. She licked her lip and continued.
“—due to the bloodlust that consumed you against your will. You were a victim of a violent abduction. None of what you’ve done since has been your fault.”
“That’s not what the magistrate was about to conclude,” Cosette said.
“Yes, well. Alonso will see to that.”
At his name, he looked up, focusing on us, before zeroing on Cosette. “We have agreed to allow you to accompany our daughter as a courtesy to the emperor. You are not to interfere with her or apprehend her, and you are certainly forbidden from dampening her power.”
Cosette stopped swinging her legs and sat up straight. “I will dampen it if I see the need.”
“Then you will experience not only my immense wrath, but that of my daughter, and hers is not to be trifled with.”
Cosette twisted her torso toward him, then Rafaela, the woman who was a giant to her, both in size and power. “Are you threatening me right now?”
Rafaela glowered. But Rafaela the Ruthless, who’d earned her moniker many times over, only shook her head. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Her words, at least, were as cutting as the many daggers I had stashed on my person.
“The drake and I show honor to the emperor,” she bit out, the words seeming to claw their way up her throat. “Now, my daughter is on a time-sensitive mission.”
Cosette arched her tiny brow. “To … explore the changes to our realm since she was gone?”
“Exactly. And you will not delay her.”
“I’ll do as needed.”
“You will not delay her. You will not harm her either, or by the Fuerin you’ll have me to answer to, and I promise you, I’m rarely this agreeable.”
She was never this agreeable—before this encounter.
“Neither am I,” Alonso said. “She is my daughter, back from the dead, and you will treat her with the care and appreciation she deserves, or I’ll be having words about your conduct with the emperor himself.”
Cosette simply harrumphed, squeaky due to her size.
“You will wait for her outside,” Rafaela said.
I expected resistance. But Cosette flew toward the double doors, which she couldn’t possibly open. When a guard stepped forward to do so for her, she zipped out.
Immediately, Rafaela embraced me—for the second time in one week. She really was different.
As she clutched me to her, she breathed into my ear, so softly only Alonso would hear.
“Kill her. But it must look like an accident. Leave no trace to lead back to you.”
I nodded against her head.
“The same goes for the … other. No evidence. No witnesses. There will be a lot of scrutiny after he’s dead.”
“Understood.”
Without so much as a kiss to the cheek, she passed me off to Alonso. He, at least, kissed me and held me like our embrace mattered.
Against my ear, he too whispered: “May the Fuerin guide your hand and light your way. May the Fuerin protect you against all harm. Sora, my dear little serpunta, you are a champion of Zaraga, the one we’ve been waiting to return to us. Now, go do what must be done, what you were born to do.”
Then he actually shoved me toward the doors, which were already open once more, waiting for me.
The born killer.