Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Bael
Daire
I grin as I balance on the top branch of the wizened olive tree in the courtyard behind Consort House. The first fingers of dawn are reaching toward the dying moon.
I stretch out my wings.
This is what I have been bloody missing — sneaking out of the Shadow Court, while the wildflowers are clothed in dew and the larks are rising, to finally set my plans in motion.
If I squint, then I can imagine that I am back in the forests of the Unseelie Kingdom, about to spring another campaign of guerrilla warfare.
In a way, I am.
I curl my bare feet on the branch, touching across it with my fingers.
The world is starting to blur, but my other senses are good enough to compensate.
I can climb trees blindfold, which is a trick that I would pull off when I was still free with Bai in the forests. He would bet that I couldn’t climb the highest tree that he could find while blindfolded.
I never lost.
A king must keep up the morale of his army, aye?
I have left Freya’s favorite honey and apple breakfast by our nest, and when she wakes up and finds me missing, she’ll know that I made my move.
I fucked her hard enough, and multiple times throughout the night, that she is likely to sleep through my meeting with the Frost Clan anyway.
When I whistle, three ravens swoop down to join me like fragments of the night.
“The King of the Ravens greets you,” I say, politely. “Two of you do me the honor of leading the guards away, aye? One of you stay by my side and become my sight. I need to reach our Frost Clan friends in their dorm in the barracks.”
My ravens caw, deep and guttural.
One of them lowers his head, before jerking it sideways, quick and deliberate. His brother next to him snaps his sharp beak.
“Get ready,” I whisper.
The two raven brothers open their broad wings and disappear back into the dark.
I grin with delight when I hear wild flapping, followed by cries of pain and vicious cussing from around the corner.
“Good boys.” I open my wings. “Now.”
I glide over the wall.
My heart leaps, when my wing with the freshly grown pinion feather doesn’t hold, swerving me too far to the left.
I can’t quite fly yet.
Yet it is still thrilling to fall elegantly, before crashlanding with a grunt of pain on the stone ground, while the guards are under attack by my ravens.
My raven guide brushes her tail feathers over my forehead. I push myself to my feet with a grimace.
I follow my raven’s lead, sprinting through the silent streets.
Excitement rushes through me.
I haven’t seen my family since I was paraded through these streets in a cage.
Did they see my humiliation?
I bloody hope not.
I have only managed to send brief notes back and forth between myself and the Frost Clan. The ones that I have received have been written by Elatha.
I’d recognize my best friend’s writing anywhere.
Bai has never been good at learning his letters anyway, although I bet he has been dying to send me a note. Although, his poor handwriting is my fault. I didn’t have the time or skill to teach him in the middle of leading a war.
As the most educated amongst us, Wren should have become Bai’s tutor. Yet Wren’s fanatical nature means that he’d have been a more frightening tutor than the elders who taught me.
Once, Wren was my rival.
I understand now that he resented me because I was loved by my parents, while he was alone as an orphan who was strictly raised by the Druids.
He was also jealous that I enjoyed more freedom than he did.
The Druids controlled everything that he did, holding him to impossible standards because of his magical abilities.
I spent as much time as possible running away from the elders that he couldn’t escape.
Aurelius would tell me that I was irresponsible and failed Bai. I can hear his judgmental voice in my head like he’s my tiny dragon conscience.
Yet Bai, my Bug, would never say that.
The little idiot hero worships me.
I run my fingers along the rough stones of the houses, following the raven as she branches off at a crossroads. The air is thick with the scent of spices, figs, and incense. I must be close to the shops. But it’s early. The streets are still quiet.
I splash through a puddle, grimacing.
Elatha’s notes about Aurelius had been simple but filled with concern for me and praise for Aurelius.
The King is keeping his promises to the featherglass.
The King has housed us in the barracks. He has stopped any mistreatment.
The King insisted that we were paid the same as the other mercenaries. We are under his protection.
“Maybe she should marry the King,” I mutter.
I stroke over the golden dragon ring that Aurelius placed on my finger yesterday.
I’m not sure how I feel about seeing the dragon ring sitting next to Da’s Rebirth Ring.
What would Da and Ma feel about me wearing the ring of the people who killed them right next to their own?
My oppressors?
Yet didn’t Aurelius explain that it was from the forgotten generation? One without war?
I never thought that Aurelius, out of everyone, would promote that. He never stops talking about the benefits of empire bringing order.
Maybe he’s truly changing.
I hope so because the notes from my best friend are also filled with my featherglasses’ restlessness for their lost forests, which have been their home for a decade. Yet they have also settled into Aurelius’ world in a way that I didn’t expect.
It hurts.
I mustn’t show them that. They don’t deserve to feel guilty.
They haven’t eaten or slept this well, without fear of attacks or death, since the moment that the Winter Court burned.
Bai has never known what peace feels like.
They haven’t spent this long without being hunted or ambushed.
Why couldn’t I have done better by them?
Experiencing everything that the dragons have to offer, do they resent me? That I didn’t surrender sooner and kept fighting?
But I did my bloody best. I kept them alive like my parents wanted.
I sigh, blinking up at the raven as she caws loudly. “Go on then. Give them the signal.”
I stare at the high white building in front of me, which must be the army barracks.
The raven flaps up to the window, cawing three times, before flying away into the velvet sky.
I glance up and down the street, listening hard.
I can’t hear anything but the thumping of my heart.
No footfalls, no patrolling guards, no cries of alarm.
Suddenly, there is a slithering sound like an uncoiling snake. Then something hits the top of my head.
I bite back my hiss of pain.
I rub my head, taking a step back. Then I reach out, feeling over the snake — rope.
I grasp it, bracing my feet on the wall.
I may be able to fly up to the window, but I still don’t trust my new pinion feather.
I nimbly climb up the rope, swinging myself through the window.
Then I am bowled onto my back on the dusty floor of the dorm room by an overexcited fae with red spotted ladybug wings.
“Thorn, you’re finally here!” Bai stares down at me like he hasn’t just jumped on top of his King.
I laugh. “Hey, Little Bug. It looks like the dragons have been teaching you etiquette.”
“What’s that?” Bai cocks his head; his fiery tangle of hair falls over his mossy green eyes. “And I’m not little anymore.”
“You do look like you’ve grown.”
My heart aches.
He must be putting on weight and going through a growth spurt because of the better food that he’s being served here, along with the more frequent meals. Aurelius promised that my featherglass wouldn’t starve.
I feel like a bloody failure.
Bai’s pale skin flushes. “I am eating everything. Wren is mean and insists that I do, even the nasty soggy green stuff.”
“He means cabbage. And don’t squash Thorn, we’ve only just got him back.” There is amusement in Elatha’s voice, but I can also hear how much she longs to greet me too.
Gently, my best friend pulls Bai back by his cloak, which is pinned with a crude wooden raven brooch.
I smile to see that he is still wearing it.
I whittled that brooch for Bai’s first birthday. He has worn it ever since. A frightened part of me that I didn’t dare name was scared that he would have stopped wearing it.
After all, he is wearing a cadet uniform now, underneath his cloak.
Is he still part of my Frost Clan? Are any of them?
Bai’s wings flutter, as he is pulled to his feet.
The dorm room is small and stark with three wooden cots pushed against the wall. It stinks of sweat soaked into the cot’s woolen blankets, oiled leather, and the smoke of the burning lamp.
The featherglass are housed in a separate dorm at the far end of the barracks, which means that I can risk this visit.
I stand as well, brushing off my clothes.
But then, I’m knocked back again, as Elatha throws herself at me, wrapping her arms around me.
“By the Shadow Devils,” she says, “I thought that I may never see you again.”
Elatha’s claws slice through the back of my robes, but I don’t react. Her commanding eagle wings unfurl like shadows. Her broad wings, the color of rain-darkened oak, wrap around me.
Being held in her wings is like coming home.
“I’m here now, Ela.” My eyes burn with tears.
At last, she pulls back.
Her blue eyes narrow, as she scans me.
At the same time, I study the freckles over the bridge of her nose and her sharp cheekbones.
Her brunette hair is wound into three long braids around her head, while the fourth trails down her back to her ankles.
I am relieved that the dragons haven’t forced her to give up her heritage and cut her hair or remove her braids like my people have lost everything else.
“Let me look at you.” Elatha grips my chin and turns my head from side to side critically. “No bruises, but you’ve been bitten.”
“Aye, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.”
She slams her hand over my mouth. “Bai is in the room.”
The small Beta crosses his arms. “I’m nine.”
Elatha rolls her eyes. “We all know how grownup you are. Also, how much you love vampires.”
I lick Elatha’s palm to get her to remove her hand. “Why do you like Bloods, Little Bug?”