Chapter 53 - Blood for Blood
My heart pounded in my ears, counting down the seconds of freedom I had left.
The morning wind ruffled my hair, and I swore I could feel Alastar’s claws around my neck. Riyan’s footsteps thundered on the stone steps as he joined me at the top of the Bloodstone Fortress gate.
He looked down at the Lycaster army that had appeared out of the trees. Our bond strained with worry the moment he found his father, but then lit up with fury when he saw Derrick at the front line.
Riyan might not have known the terms of my bargain, but he must have pieced the fragments of my emotions together, just as he had when he was in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun.
His hand wrapped around mine and his touch pushed the low heat of primal rage into my skin.
Though Derrick was merely in front of the gate, he matched Riyan’s building disdain brick by brick.
“I will give you one hour to surrender what you have stolen, monster!” he shouted. His black horse shifted from the tension, but Derrick’s glare remained firm. “If you fail, I will roast you alive!”
Brietta glided to the top of the gate. Her shoulders were back and her red hair was radiant amongst the dark sky. She positioned her body between two battlements and looked down at her husband.
“We will never surrender,” she said. Low mumbles rippled through the army. “And I was not stolen. I ran from you.”
Alastar’s rage echoed in my mind.
“And you think you can threaten me?” Riyan shouted with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “You think you can threaten her? ”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as he raised my arm, my fingers still laced with his.
“She is now more powerful than Fraleigh ever was,” he yelled through the thick morning air. “And we have a sealed blood bond.”
Derrick’s eyes widened. Alastar roared and sent shivers down my spine.
I could not let Riyan antagonize him any more. I could not let anything get worse. “Riyan—”
“Behold!” General Hyton’s voice boomed. “My son! The rightful heir to the House of Hyton!”
Warmth passed through Riyan’s hand to mine as he lowered my arm. “ My son ” echoed through our bond. He held his breath and I held mine, but for a different reason.
General Hyton was not claiming a son at the edge of a battle for sentimental reasons.
My eyes flitted amongst the rows of soldiers. Swords were still sheathed. None of the archers had notched their arrows. Even from the top of the gate, I could still spy Grigory Thornebow’s smirk.
The General was not going to siege the fortress, he was establishing a line of succession. He was about to depose Derrick.
Ice trickled down my spine as Derrick’s eyes shifted to General Hyton. He gripped the Conqueror’s spear.
Did he have enough sense left to know what was happening?
General Hyton turned his horse to the army, facing the line of Barons specifically. “He is the Hero of Lycaster and he blood-bonded with a sorceress even more powerful than Fraleigh!”
Fraleigh’s eyes widened as she slowly stepped back from General Hyton’s horse. The army rumbled with cheers but Riyan’s face fell. Tension built in the mist. Thunder rolled in the distance.
Derrick turned his horse to General Hyton, but then a soldier ran up and sliced a sword at its back leg. The horse screamed and reared up, throwing Derrick off before it ran.
Derrick landed in the grass with a hard thud. He lifted his face off the grass with a wince and my heart ached.
He was hurt.
General Hyton’s horse trotted over to him. He pointed Traitor’s Bane down at Derrick. “This is where my brother’s line ended up! Weak! Powerless!”
“Hear, hear!” Baron Elvar cried. The other Barons cheered in agreement.
Like a wolf in the bushes, Ragnar had waited decades for his perfect opportunity. The path to the Lycaster crown had fallen into place—support of the Barons, a sorceress bound to his blood heir, and Fraleigh ready to perform her famous bow, solidifying him as her owner.
I looked for Fraleigh amongst the crowd, but I could not find any sign of her Hyton Blue robes or golden eyes.
I had not seen Daigen all morning, either.
General Hyton pointed up at Brietta. “His Duchess ran from him. Even she sensed his weakness!”
His arm trembled and he quickly lowered Traitor’s Bane. How was a man with his amount of strength struggling with the weight of his sword?
General Hyton dismounted his horse. He walked to the line of Barons just as two soldiers forced a struggling cloaked figure next to him.
“My brother had the same weakness, letting women run all over him…and it led to his downfall.” His sneer smoothed into a cold smile as his eyes swept over the line of Barons. “A traitor is in our midst…”
General Hyton tore away the cloak and my heart dropped. Mother fell to her knees in the grass, bound and gagged while the other Barons jeered.
I held out my hands and awoke the magic in the air. Maybe I could pull myself through the air, maybe I could save her.
Just as I nearly stepped off the battlement, Mother’s emerald eyes found me. White light gleamed between her furious eyebrows and the sound of pine needles on a forest floor rustled in my mind. I sent out a small tether and her mind screamed one word:
“ Wait. ”
Derrick pushed himself up from the grass with gritted teeth, but he still clung to his shield and spear. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest as I watched him struggle.
General Hyton glared at Derrick. “He may dress himself in our relics, but he never had the spirit of the Conqueror.” His eyes flicked up to the Barons. “And neither did his father.”
The crash of a wave breaking pulsed through my mind as Riyan’s hand gripped mine. If Ragnar was claiming he had the spirit of the Conqueror all along, why had he not just taken the crown? He already had everything lined up…
General Hyton turned to a cart covered in canvas. “The impostor in the grass wasted his time with his lover, wasted his body with faerie dust and spirits, and nearly wasted our great Hyton Palace, but under my rule…”
He reached into the cart. “…we shall have the entire world on bended knee!”
He yanked out a brown-headed woman with her hands tied. Amethyst. “Austland!”
He threw her to the ground and pulled out another woman. Rubia. “Latimus!” Then Garnet. “Rokuhama!”
One by one, he threw each of the bound Hyton sisters to the ground in a heap. They cried behind their gags and tried to get to their knees.
A chill like snow ran down my back as I watched the princesses struggle. The Hyton sisters were mean, but they were innocent.
“And most importantly…” he yanked out Sapphira by her hair. “The Sudrian empire!”
The army cheered as Sapphira struggled under his hold like a feral cat.
Derrick inched closer to General Hyton in the grass and murder gleamed in his mad eyes. Mother’s wide eyes followed him as she shook her head and curled her fists into a white-knuckled grip.
General Hyton dropped Sapphira into the heap. “We will hold each for ransom. If their countries do not give into our demands, we lop off their heads, sending their blood-bonded rulers to their graves!”
I nearly pulled myself out of my skin. Why did Mother want me to wait? Someone needed to help them!
Derrick shakily rose to his knees, using the Conqueror’s spear for leverage. Mother cried through her gag. Horses screamed in the distance.
General Hyton turned to Derrick and gripped the hilt of Traitor’s Bane.
This was not a staged deposition, it was an execution.
This was the final Alastar trial.
The little red ember in my heart blazed, sending a blast of warmth through my body. The blood in my veins twisted with a swirl of color and light.
I had to save him.
I reached out into the air. Magic sparkled around me.
Traitor’s Bane gleamed in the torchlight as General Hyton shouted, “Time to end the madness!”
Magic dragged against my skin with a scream and then my arms wrapped around a breastplate.
Ragged breathing filled my ears. Then steel sang as it thudded in the grass.
I looked up. General Hyton stood over me, his eyes down at his fallen sword and his right arm twitching.
I had finally stepped through the air.
I was on my knees with my arms around Derrick. His eyes were squeezed shut—he must have thought he was already dead.
General Hyton looked from me to my Mother. She smiled wickedly beneath her gag and uncurled her fists. The crescents her fingernails had dug into her palms leaked out beads of black blood.
She shared his food and drank from his cups—the Viper had struck the heel of the General. She had poisoned them both with Thornebow thistle.
The General was never going to harm Derrick. The poison made him unable to swing his sword and it was slowly killing him.
But would the magic of Mother’s blood bond save her?
A cacophony of screams echoed in front of us and I looked up. The princesses were free of their bonds and hauling themselves onto horses. Lycaster soldiers with slit throats littered the ground. Sapphira had knives in both hands, slashing red ribbons into every soldier who came near them. Rubia leaned over from her horse and yanked Sapphira up to ride away.
A soldier ran amongst them. Though his uniform was stained with blood, he appeared unharmed. He must have freed the princesses.
General Hyton’s shoulders trembled as he turned toward the chaos. “Do not let them get away!”
Arrows flew through the air, but the princesses broke through the ranks, their horses running into the forest around the fortress walls. The lone soldier did not follow them, but instead took his own horse and sped toward us. His helmet fell and his hair seemed too silver to belong to a normal soldier…
General Hyton’s head spun back around and his black-lined eyes strained. “Hold formation!”
“Run, Little Ember!” cried the soldier.
That was no soldier…it was my father.
Mother screamed behind her gag as Father reached down and scooped her up onto his horse. Derrick shifted, as if he had just realized he was still alive, and turned to face me.
A chill washed through me as soon as my eyes met his furious ones. I had lost his mind and his heart.
My white flame surged as General Hyton approached. I flung my arms around Derrick again and pushed us through the air back to the fortress.
We both landed in the courtyard with a thud. Dozens of footsteps crunched in the grass.
My chest met the curve of the Taurus shield as Derrick shoved me off him. I gripped the grass and tried to catch my breath as he glared down at me.
“After everything…” he panted, “…you chose the monster?”
Red-uniformed soldiers crashed into him and he shouted in pain. They grabbed him by the arms and legs as he fought them off. They stripped him of his shield and spear and dragged him into the keep, but his furious eyes stayed on me.
“ Mine, ” Alastar growled in my mind.
“Serafina!” Riyan called. He ran over and grabbed my hand. “What did he do to you? I don’t care what I promised, I’ll break him into pieces!”
My lip trembled. The call of the bargain pulled within my blood. I could not keep it from him any longer. “Riyan…I have to go to him.”
He gripped my hand and held the back of my head with the other. “What are you talking about? He is mad—!”
“Riyan, my bargain was to take Fraleigh’s place as the Duke’s slave.” The words tasted bitter, but a weight lifted off my chest.
I tried to pull away, but Riyan held me in an iron grip. “The hell you are! I will destroy him. Raze his palace to the ground. Slice the neck of every soldier—”
I took the embroidered flowers out of my pocket and slipped them into his hand. “Find your flowers, Riyan.” His blood lit up on my command and I raised onto my toes. “You will be deathless when you wake.”
I kissed him, enchanting him with the loving touch of my lips to dream. He closed his eyes and his knees buckled as he fell into the grass. My chest shook with a sob.
As much as it hurt to leave him behind, I had to fulfill my bargain.
A life for a life exchanged in love. Nothing could ever break it. Nothing could ever save me.