Chapter 39 - Thunderstorm
Murdered in his bed is what I had grown up hearing.
So that is where I sat.
I folded my legs beneath me in the middle of the Duke’s bed, careful not to let the Hyton dagger cut my leg. The pearl headband from Riyan kept my hair from falling into my face. Even while in a fold between worlds, he still took care of me with his gifts.
I held Ilsa’s Nordingaard crystal in my hands. Gentle humming pulsed into my palms, beckoning me to see the Diamond of the North’s secrets.
Just as I was about to dive into the memory that whispered into my mind, my eyes suddenly pulled to an empty spot on the floor near the door. My heart tugged near that spot, but I had no idea why.
I shut my eyes and focused on the dozens of memories the crystal held.
Show me your husband, Ilsa. Show me the man he was.
A whisper of feathers carried me into the memory and deposited me in a chair in the palace library. Derrick lounged in a chair opposite me, the firelight casting a warm glow on his face.
What was Derrick doing in the memory? I thought I was seeing Ilsa’s life not…
I got a closer look…it was not my Derrick, it was Alastar the Wise. He had the same square edge to his jaw like Riyan and General Hyton, but his resemblance to the Derrick I knew was uncanny. From the dark curls to the sad eyes, he looked nearly identical.
Ilsa appeared next to me as quietly as a whisper. The crystal around her neck glittered in the orange firelight.
She turned her face to the light of the fire. “Derrick, you have your son. Now I want mine.”
The chill of her voice could have dampened the fire. Just as she had pledged on her wedding day, she held no love for her doting husband.
Alastar the Wise looked up from his book. “What do you mean, my darling Ilsa?”
Ilsa tightened her grip on the back of her chair. “You raise your heir the way you want—with logic and discipline. I raise my child the way I want—with love and tales of the North.”
Alastar the Wise let out a low sigh and snapped his book shut. “Anything you wish for is yours.”
A raised voice behind a veil pulled on my consciousness. Was something happening in the physical world? I dropped my magic as the memory dissolved around me.
I grounded myself on the Duke’s mattress and listened again.
“Do you not have ears, Thornebow rat?” an irate voice snapped. “I asked you where my sister was!”
Had Annalisa gone missing?
I quickly shoved Ilsa’s crystal pendant beneath the blankets and jumped to my feet. A chill rushed through my body as I passed the spot on the floor that had taken my attention moments before.
I reached the door just as Grigory replied, “Can you dogs not let her rest? She needs time to pack before we escape from this tastelessly opulent brothel disguised as a palace.”
I opened the Duke’s chamber doors. Grigory and Sapphira were standing toe-to-toe in the hallway.
Sapphira glowered down at him. “Not Anna, I meant Rubia! I cannot find her or Pearl.”
Grigory sneered. “Not my problem. If you will excuse me, Empress, I have an urgent appointment in the Duke’s study.”
Sapphira rolled her eyes and disappeared through the nearest door in the hallway, but my eyes followed Grigory as he went down the hall.
Was Derrick back in the palace already? Why did Grigory want to speak with him?
The flame around my heart sparked to life and tugged me forward. I glanced over my shoulder at the abandoned crystal in the bed. I needed to see Ilsa’s memories so I could find a way to kill the monster in Derrick’s mind…
…but leaving Grigory alone with Derrick could provoke the monster to cause even more damage.
I shut the door behind me and crept down the hall. I counted three doors down from Annalisa’s bedroom and pulled the sconce on the wall.
I was within the walls in a heartbeat.
My magic swept through the dark narrow halls. The small droplets of my blood stains on the walls sparkled in my mind’s eye like a tiny path of glowing moonstones.
The paths would lead me either outside or to Ilsa’s vault. Ilsa’s vault might be near the Duke’s study, so maybe if I followed that…
Then my magic picked up a glimmer of a new path…and it seemed fresh. I inched closer to a smear of blood on a brick—the blood was darker than mine, but still sparkled with magic.
I smiled—Daigen.
With the white light in my chest guiding me, I followed Daigen’s trail through the halls until I found a small “X” in smeared blood on the back of a large portrait.
I held my breath and placed my fingertips on the portrait, only pushing slightly forward…
“You got what you wanted, now I want the rest of it.”
Grigory’s voice made my arms freeze. I had only opened the portrait enough so that I saw a sliver of the Duke’s study on the other side.
A low chuckle echoed through the study and a shiver crawled down my spine. I did not need to see him to know it was Derrick but his voice sounded…rougher. “And what exactly did I pay you to do?”
My brows furrowed. Derrick had made a deal with Grigory?
I dared to push the portrait open only a sliver more. Grigory’s strong, folded arms were in view and I caught the corner of his sneer. “You wanted Bloodstone dead before he could seal that blood bond and you got it. Hand over the rest of the eight thousand marks.”
I held my breath so I would not gasp. No, Derrick would never—
Derrick slammed something that sounded like a goblet onto the desk. “The deal was one thousand up front to agree, then seven thousand when Riyan Bloodstone was eliminated and Serafina was safe at the palace.”
No. I could not, could not, believe my Derrick would have done it.
Boots thudded against the floor.
“And still,” Derrick said in a low growl, “I just overheard my uncle tell Baron Elvar that Riyan is still alive.”
Grigory shifted on his feet. “The Queen of the Giants took him, I saw it. He is as good as dead.”
“Not the same as dead.”
The cold truth sunk in and I could not deny it for a moment longer. I had patched up the wounds in his mind, stayed with him, and cherished him…
…and he paid Grigory Thornebow eight-thousand marks to murder my Riyan.
“I spent weeks hunting him!” Grigory shouted. “I shot at him in the lily field. I set off an avalanche on the mountain. I was even attacked by two birds, but everywhere I tracked him, he used your girl like a human shield!”
Every strange noise in the trees back in Bloodstone, every unsettling feeling…I had just written off Riyan’s heightened awareness as mere paranoia, or the strange feelings as magic, but no—it was Grigory Thornebow the whole time. He followed us through the mountain. His bootprints were in the snow at the peak of Nordingaard. He was the one who—
“I almost landed an arrow in his eye,” Grigory said, “but he moved at the last second and I got her instead!”
He had poisoned me. His arrows were tipped with Thornebow thistle.
A clatter echoed through the room and suddenly Derrick slammed Grigory into the wall. His white-knuckled fists gripped Grigory’s collar and his face was ruddy with drunkenness.
Had I not seen his corpse, I would have thought Anders had Grigory by the collar.
Alastar was taking over.
Derrick bared his teeth. “You shot my Serafina?”
Grigory threw Derrick off, twisting him against the wall, and slammed his forearm against Derrick’s throat. A flash of a blade appeared in Grigory’s hand and he stabbed the wall next to Derrick’s cheek.
My heart raced but my blood ran cold.
Derrick’s chest rose and fell as he stared Grigory down. Derrick bested Grigory in height, but he must have been too drunk to resist his hold.
“The whole Dukedom knows you have no honor, so I’m not surprised you are trying to cheat me again.” The edge of the blade kissed Derrick’s cheek, leaving a bead of blood on his skin. “But let me make myself clear…”
He dug the blade deeper. “I’m a fucking Thornebow. We don’t stay down after you Hytons step on us. I’m not handed what I deserve like the rest of you pampered dogs, I take it.” Grigory leaned closer. “So give me what I’m owed, or I’ll make sure you never see Annalisa again.”
Derrick’s eyes flashed. He shoved Grigory and cracked his fist against his jaw.
I held my breath. The portrait stayed open as I backed away.
Grigory fell back, but quickly rose to his knees as Derrick stood over him.
Blood dripped from Derrick’s cheek, but his eyes were murderous. “I will rip your tongue out of your mouth. I will break every one of your fingers. A quick death on the scaffold is more than you deserve—”
“Death?” Grigory flicked his knife to his own neck and shot Derrick a mocking glare. “You kill me, you kill your twin sister.”
Derrick’s brow stayed hard, but he took a step back as Grigory shakily rose to his feet. “You cannot threaten me, Derrick, so give me my fucking marks.”
I could have helped Derrick, but he had given me a dagger with a loving smile and then turned around and hired an assassin.
Alastar XII would never get the benefit of my magic again. I had wasted my days and nights trying to heal him so he would release Fraleigh, but I was done. I would burn him from the inside until “ Ipse Dixit ” sprang from his throat.
He offered eight thousand marks to kill Riyan? I would make him pay for it tenfold.
Then the raging flames in my heart turned a different direction. Those bastards had brought Annalisa into their plans. Grigory was threatening her safety and using her as a bargaining tool.
I had to warn her. I had to get her away from him.
My feet pounded down the hallway until I stared at the river of blue carpet on the other side of the wall.
I flung open the door of Annalisa’s room. She stood near a trunk bearing the Thornebow silver fox as she rolled up the canvas of her completed painting.
I slammed the door shut and clicked the lock. “Anna, I have to hide you.”
“Why?” Her voice was hollow and her eyes were downcast.
I crossed the room. “Grigory is angry.”
Annalisa shrugged. “Men get angry. Not much we can do about it.”
Damn it, why was she acting so strange?
I gripped her wrists and her eyes shot up. “He hurt Derrick and threatened him with hurting you too.”
The light between her eyes opened up. Thunder rolled in my mind.
Annalisa’s voice was distant as grey storm clouds moved into the edges of my vision. “But Grigory said he and Derrick were friends in school…”
Darkness blanketed my vision and the rumbles of thunder turned into claps of a sky’s rage. The rainstorm crashed into the surface of my mind, completely drowning out Annalisa’s voice.
I leaned into the storm, the sheets of cold rain barrelling down as I walked beneath the dark clouds.
A strike of white lightning lit up a memory in the clouds—Annalisa’s bedroom lock clicking shut.
“ All right, Annalisa. Let’s get this over with. ”
The thunder rolled. The raindrops hit my face in hundreds of tiny punches.
Second lightning strike—sharp hands picking at fingernails.
“ Grigory, no…I am not ready yet. Just give me one night to rest and— ”
The rain fell harder. Faster.
Third lightning strike—dark eyes flashing with primal rage.
“ You’re my wife. You don’t get to tell me no. ”
A deafening clap of thunder threw me onto my back. The weight of the storm pressed on my chest. The rain turned into shards of icy hail that stabbed me over and over.
“ Please, stop! Please— ”
A hand squeezed the sides of my neck and the echoes of Annalisa’s voice turned into nothing more than a squeak. My hands flew to my neck as I coughed, drowning in the rain, but I felt nothing on my skin but the pain of burning fingerprints.
Shallow gasps and cries echoed through the raging clouds.
Fourth lightning strike—the violet and orange leaves of the tree above Annalisa’s bed. Then the two ravens flying away. Then black painted wings warped through frightened tears.
I gritted my teeth, fighting through the downpour, and shoved myself out of the memory.
Pastel shades flooded into my vision. My body trembled and shivered, the hairs on my skin standing pin-straight. My eyes snapped to Annalisa’s bed, then the ravens above it.
He…he violated her.
Annalisa dropped her canvas and gripped my forearms. Her voice broke. “What did you see?”
I tore my eyes from the painted ravens to her white face. I examined her neck—where Grigory’s hands had bruised her weeks ago.
But she had covered it up. She covered it all up.
My voice shook as my white flame incinerated my chest. “He hurt you.”
“No, Sera, he loves me!” Annalisa pleaded. “You do not understand, he just made a mistake!”
Twin flames burned behind my eyes. I could not see anything other than the glow of my outrage. My hands slid around her wrists.
Even though Annalisa begged me to forget what I saw, her door was still wide open. Her blood was glowing in her veins. Her inner self cried out, “ Help me. Help me. Help me. ”
So I answered her call.
Invisible fire hissed through my teeth. “My magic smolders in your veins. His hands shall sear if he touches your skin.”
Lightning from Annalisa’s mind struck against my magic. I did not fight it, but leaned into it—pushing my love for Annalisa to overpower what Grigory had done.
My body shook, but my voice was strong. “And should he ever try to take you again…he will burn. ”
The power surged from my heart, through my arms, and then to my hands where it passed into Annalisa’s body.
My curse wrapped around her veins like a ribbon, sealing my enchantment in her very blood. As soon as that ribbon was tied, I released my grip on Annalisa’s wrists and collapsed to the floor with a gasp.
I blinked through my blurry vision. Annalisa examined her arms with wide and fearful eyes. “You…you cursed me?”
“I protected you.” I let out a shaking breath and pushed myself off the floor. “He will never—”
“He is my husband and now he cannot even touch me?” she screamed. “I could be carrying his child right now!”
I furrowed my brows. I helped her and she was screaming at me? Was she just worried about a possible baby?
I stood up and held out my hand. “Here, maybe I can check to see if you really are—”
She shoved my hand away. “Just because you are never getting Riyan back did not mean you had to take me away from my husband!”
She pushed past me, but I matched her fire with my own. “Annalisa, I will get him back, but why are you angry—?”
Annalisa was nearly at the door before she turned and threw down her fists at her sides. “No! No matter what you and Brietta do, Derrick will never let go of Fraleigh, he will never sign a reformation, and nothing will ever change!”
My white flame blazed. “I will force him, I am powerful enough to—!”
But her watering eyes quieted the flame around my heart. She shook her head, as if no power in the world could chase away the storm in her mind. “We were never lionesses…we were just crazy like my mother.”
She opened her door but paused for a heartbeat. “And we were doomed like my grandmother.”
She slammed the door. My white flame intensified with every pound of my heart.
I could have found Derrick and forced him to bend to my will, but my heart’s desire did not lead me toward wrath.
Though the pull around the diamond in my heart went against all logic and sense, I chose to trust it.
I left Annalisa’s room and pushed open the doors with the carved bulls. The panel in the northern wall was already open.
Riyan was my reason for starting this journey, maybe that was where my heart’s desire was leading me.
I walked toward the northern wall when the air tightened around my neck and stopped me. I looked down as the magic in the air strangled me. I was in the same spot on the floor that had pulled my eyes earlier.
My white flame flared around my heart, pouring power in my veins. What about this spot was so important that my magic directed me to it?
Then I caught a sparkle of white light in the corner of my eye. On the Duke’s bed, Ilsa’s Nordingaard crystal flared white light through the blankets. The air around me was sticky, saturated with magic and memories.
I swallowed as I stared, and every question I had led to one answer.
Ilsa.