Chapter 14
Wren
Torryn’s snout is warm beneath my palm and the ridges along his nose fit into the curve of my hand as though they were always meant to. I can’t help the curve of my lips that pull up as warmth settles within my heart.
He’s really here.
The thought keeps echoing as the rest of the wall fades to a dull blur on the edge of my awareness.
Soldiers stand frozen around us and I can feel their terror pressing in from all sides.
Torryn’s golden eye remains fixed on me, the vertical pupil thin and focused, and for a fragile moment I let myself bask in that single point of connection.
Then the air behind me shifts and I’m hit with a sudden, instinctive awareness of being watched by a predator.
One heartbeat I’m standing with my hand on Torryn’s snout enjoying our reunion, the next a blur of movement slices through my peripheral vision, stealing my attention.
A gust of wind blows my hair back for a moment and just as I turn over my shoulder, two piercing red eyes materialize next to us.
Riven.
I have no time to process the situation as Ryoden seems to instinctively move to block me in protection from this unknown entity in his mind. A snarl rips out of Riven as his eyes lock onto the human colonel just before his hand snaps out and fuses around Ryoden’s throat.
“Stop!” I shout, blinking and trying to process the fact that the vampire I’ve been desperate to see again is actually here in the flesh, but also hurting the one person here that can keep all of the twitchy humans from shooting us.
The only reason they’re likely holding their fire for now is due to the chance of hitting their colonel. That won’t last for long, though–until the moment their loyalty switches to guarding their own lives first.
Ryoden’s hand flies for the gun at his hip on pure instinct, but Riven is faster. His other hand clamps around Ryoden’s wrist and slams it back onto the wall and the gun drops to the ground.
“Touch her,” Riven says, voice low and lethal, fangs just visible as his lip curls back, “and I’ll rip your head from your shoulders before letting your men watch your body pushed over the edge.”
Torryn rumbles, a deep note that vibrates through the wall and the humans alike. Guns shift with barrels jerking toward Riven and Torryn.
“Please, stop!” I yell as my heart hammers in my chest, confused at how much fear I feel for Ryoden’s life right now.
He may have held me as a prisoner of sorts, but he’s ensured no harm comes to me and that I’m cared for, despite his suspicions. I told him if I could prevent blood from being spilled today, I would, and I don’t intend to let Riven make a liar out of me.
I rush forward and wedge myself between them, both hands shoving hard against Riven’s chest.
“Let him go, Riven!” I yell before smacking my hand against his chest that refuses to budge. “I will never forgive you if you hurt him further.”
Those red eyes stay locked on Ryoden, pupils blown wide with feral rage.
I know with exceeding clarity that if Riven wanted him dead, that Ryoden wouldn’t be alive right now.
That first touch to his neck could have been a snap or a full decapitation, but it wasn’t.
There has to be a way to get through to him.
I cling to the thought as I glance at Ryoden and gasp, shocked to find his gaze focused on me and not the vampire currently choking him out.
His face is lightly red, but I can’t tell if it’s from a lack of oxygen, embarrassment, or anger.
“He trusted me when I told him I’d prevent anyone from losing their lives today!” I snap as I look back at Riven’s scowling face, digging my heels in and pushing against him harder. “And he trusted me enough to order his men to stand down and not hurt Torryn.”
For the first time, Riven’s gaze flicks fully to my face. The glow in his eyes dims a fraction, the blazing red fading to a black at the edges as he takes me in and his eyes drop to my hands shoving against him.
“Why?” he asks, the single word rough in a way that hits me square in the heart.
There’s so much in that question that doesn’t have to be said and I feel it nonetheless. He thinks I’ve chosen the humans, just as I feared.
His fingers loosen just barely at Ryoden’s throat and I take the advantage, pushing further until Riven’s hand drops down to his side. “Tell me you’re not truly choosing to stand in front of a human who has caged you. Tell me this isn’t the side you’ve decided to protect.”
I shove myself firmly between the two men, and behind me, Ryoden drags air into his lungs and starts to speak, his voice scratchy. “If you think I—”
I whirl my head around and drop my voice into a cold and commanding tone that feels wrong in my mouth but has to exist right now.
“Do not speak right now,” I snap at him, “if you want your people to keep their lives today.”
His jaw snaps shut and shock flickers across his features, followed by a flash of hurt, but he swallows whatever he was about to say. His chest heaves with deep breaths, bringing color back to his cheeks, and he watches me with narrowed green eyes that flare with indignation.
I hate speaking to him like that, but one wrong sentence here or one poorly chosen tone, and this city becomes a mass grave.
I turn back to find Riven’s eyes narrowing slightly as he glances between Ryoden and me. It seems that watching me bark that warning at the colonel helps ease the tension within him. His hands slowly unclench at his side just as a new problem arises.
Shadows gather and slither up from the cracks in the stone and coalesce into the shape of a man.
Azyric steps out of them with an infuriating calm as his silver eyes flick from Torryn’s massive form to Riven’s clenched jaw, then finally to where I stand pressed between the vampire and the human colonel.
He leans back against the parapet as if he’s lounging in a sitting room, one ankle crossing over the other, shadows curling lazily around his boots.
“So,” he drawls, as if we’re all enjoying a pleasant chat and aren’t one breath away from a massacre. “Did you finally find where you belong, Wren?”
The words slide under my skin, deceptively smooth and edged in venom.
My shoulders stiffen and I open my mouth, ready to retort, but another ripple disturbs the air before I can deliver it.
A moment later a portal rimmed with frost appears, the air spilling out from it sharp and cold, carrying the crisp scent of his mountains and evergreen forests.
Sylvin steps through as if he’s arriving fashionably late to a party rather than to the brink of war, because of course.
His white-blond hair is tousled by the storm, bright against the dark blue of his coat. His bright blue eyes find mine almost immediately, cutting through everything else on the wall, and for a second, the wind and noise around us seem to fall away.
The adoration simmering in his face nearly steals my breath.
In the quiet, desperate hours in Ryoden’s spare room, I’d convinced myself I’d snapped the threads of their trust clean through. I didn’t think they would come after me. I didn’t think they would give me a chance to explain at all even if they did.
Yet here he is, stepping toward me like I’m the most singularly important being in existence.
“Sylvin,” I whisper, the sound barely audible under the loud gusts, but his lips curve.
Before he can reach me, Torryn lets out a loud chuff as his large head swings toward a nervous group of soldiers pulling their guns up.
I glance along the wall as far as I can see on either side of us and all of these humans who had just barely swallowed their panic at one dragon, and then one vampire, are now faced with four supernatural kings and me.
Then several sights settle on me as well.
“Hold your line!” one of the captains shouts, voice breaking high as he scrambles to keep some semblance of order. “Aim steady! Await the Colonel’s—”
I spin toward Ryoden, heart slamming against my ribs so hard it hurts. His men’s eyes keep flicking between his face and their targets, fingers fidgeting on triggers that could end this fragile peace in seconds—and not in their favor.
“Don’t let them fire,” I say, the plea ripping out of me like a tragic loop. “If they open fire, you will lose this city. They will tear through your defenses and you will not survive it.”
Ryoden’s gaze snaps from the kings to me. His eyes are green and thunderous, anger and fear roiling behind them in equal measure. The wind plasters his hair back from his forehead and the shadows under his eyes look even deeper than they had in the hallway this morning.
“It seems,” he says, voice low and shaking with a contained rage, “there’s a great deal you withheld from me. More than I ever thought possible.”
Riven lets out a quiet, humorless scoff behind me.
“She owes you nothing, human,” he says, the word laced with disdain, each syllable dripping centuries of resentment.
Ryoden’s jaw tightens at the derision, but his focus never fully leaves my face. The situation is poised on a knife’s edge—his men ready to fire, the kings ready to kill, Torryn crouched above us all waiting for any hint of aggression from the humans.
Every nerve in my body feels stretched to the point of breaking as I struggle to figure out how to deescalate the situation.
“Ryoden,” I say quietly and take a step toward him. “Look at me.”
His gaze drags from Riven to me and the words I intend to say get caught in my throat. It’s clear he thinks I’ve deceived him and there’s no hiding the hurt flashing in those green eyes.
“I will finally give you all of the answers you’re looking for,” I promise, each word slow and deliberate so there can be no mistaking them. “Everything you’ve been asking for, after this. But right now, I need you to trust me just one more time.”
A muscle ticks in his cheek.
My voice dips as emotion grips me. “I know I’ve asked so much of you with so little in return, and I see that now. I’m sorry.”
Snow gathers on his uniform, melting slowly into dark patches.
He looks from me to the dragon whose talons are dug into his wall, to the vampire who almost crushed his throat, to the wraith whose shadows are slinking over the ground toward me, and finally to the fae king who literally brought a storm to his doorstep.
I don’t even know if Ryoden realizes these are the kings of his enemies and just how much that means.
Their powers are the four most destructive on the entire continent, and they’re practically begging for a reason to stop being polite.
I see it in their quick glances and the tension lining them since the guns raised toward me.
Finally, Ryoden draws in a slow breath, his chest lifting and falling with the weight of the choice.
“Men,” he calls out, his voice suddenly loud and carrying down the length of the wall, the full force of his command pouring into every syllable, “lower your weapons and leave the wall, now.”
Murmurs break out, incredulous; meanwhile, I feel like I can take my first deep breath since stepping onto this damned wall.
“Colonel—”
“Sir, with all due respect—”
He doesn’t look away from me as he speaks again, sharper this time as a thin vein pulses in his forehead. “That was not a request. Every man is being ordered back down to the ground level for your own safety. Fall back to the inner position to defend the city and await further orders.”
For a few tense seconds, no one moves, but then the training wins out.
One by one, guns are lowered toward the stone floor.
Boots scrape and crunch over heaps of snow as the soldiers begin to retreat, some backing away slowly, while others seem to all but jump at the chance to get away.
They file toward the stairs on either end in a line.
The captains shout, directing them to move faster, but even they risk one last look at their colonel standing alone and unshielded, beside the woman he’s just chosen to trust over every protocol he’s ever lived by.
The wall slowly empties of human soldiers, leaving only the six of us. Slowly the kings gather on one side near Torryn’s hulking figure, while Ryoden stands firmly on the other, leaving me caught in the middle.
My eyes find the four kings who once held my heart in their hands and then the human colonel who has led me to believe there is hope to be found here for their kind.
It’s time to face the decisions I’ve made.