Chapter 37 Eryx
ERYX
The walk across the garden was quick, and we were lucky that the downpour had relented somewhat, and was now a mere drizzle. Ember met us at Hemlock House’s back door. Rhiannon slid out of my arms and into Ember’s.
“The queen doesn’t have long,” Ember whispered before turning to me. “She’d like to talk to you first, Eryx.”
Cassandra appeared at Rhiannon’s side, glowing with the golden light of the afterlife.
Her form had turned translucent, and she was little more than a beam of light.
Even still, she managed to take Rhiannon’s hand.
“Come, love,” she said in a voice so far removed from the spirit we’d interacted with, I wondered if she might not be the same person.
But as I watched her sit with Rhiannon in the kitchen, I understood. She had one foot in whatever world came after this one—and in that world, she was happy. Cassandra was finally at peace.
As Rhiannon bent her head towards her aunt’s, some of that peace seemed to transfer to her. It was the calmest I’d seen her in weeks, and it helped me to leave her so soon after the horrors of the day.
Ember took me through the house, back into the living room, where Rhiannon’s mother lay on a velvet couch by the bookshelves.
She was deathly pale, but she still looked almost exactly like Rhiannon.
Ember’s hand rested on my shoulder for a moment, and when I glanced back at her, there was a warning in her eyes.
But she said nothing, only closed the door softly behind her.
“So, you are the man my child has fallen in love with,” the queen said from the couch.
Even a day ago, I never would have dreamed someone would have described me that way, let alone Rhiannon’s own mother. “Yes,” I finally answered.
“Come sit by me,” the queen commanded. “My sight and hearing seem to be failing me. Without Cassandra here, it is worse.”
I went to her, sitting next to the couch so I faced her. She smiled faintly as I got settled. “You are quite handsome. And a Necroline prince, I hear.”
My head bowed, but I couldn’t manage to keep the smile off my face. “We don’t have Dynastical royalty anymore,” I explained, knowing full well that she already knew that. “But a thousand years ago, that would have been true.”
“Of course,” she replied, sharp as a honed blade. “I don’t ascribe to these modern ideas about the dynasties. You are Roman Necroline’s child, which makes you a Necroline prince. That would be a fitting match for my daughter, if Otreran queens could marry.”
Though I would have borne it if she had not approved of me, I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that her words warmed me. I wasn’t worried about the implied threat that Rhiannon’s new role would take her from me, and I got the feeling her mother would only argue if I brought it up.
“Thank you,” I replied, not knowing what else to say.
Her eyes narrowed. “Cassandra tells me that you lost someone, your first love, due to your work for the dynasty.”
I had no energy to be angry with Cassandra for telling business that was not her own. “Yes,” I answered honestly.
“Did you love her more than my child?”
I noticed that the queen continued to refer to Rhiannon in reference to herself.
Many things made sense that had not before.
All the ways that Rhiannon had burned out so fully were clear now.
She had never been allowed to exist outside her mother as a child, that much was obvious.
Her way of understanding herself was based on how others felt about her.
That was changing, but it was good to see where those feelings came from firsthand.
The question the queen asked me was inappropriate, but I answered it truthfully. “No. She was my first love, but had she lived, it’s very likely we would have ended things quickly. We didn’t agree about much.”
“And you and my daughter agree about many things?”
I had to laugh then. “We agree about what matters, I think.”
The queen pursed her lips. “You think me impertinent for asking such prying questions.” I didn’t answer that. There was no need. She sighed. “As you know, I haven’t much time, and as Rhiannon will likely tell you herself, I am not a good person, nor am I a good mother. But I do love her.”
I nodded, slowly. “Of course you love her.”
The queen’s eyes narrowed further. “What does that mean?”
I rested more fully against the couch. The day was finally taking its toll. “You know Rhiannon. You raised her. It is impossible for me to believe that anyone who had ever met her wouldn’t love her.”
The queen let out a little huff of disapproval. “Men in love are so emotional.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “But it is the truth.”
“She is weak,” the queen snapped. “You will have to take care of her for the rest of your lives.”
The laugh erupted out of me before I could stop it. My head fell back as it reached my belly. When I managed to open my eyes to wipe them, the queen glared at me, obviously scandalized. Perhaps no one had ever laughed at her before.
“Rhiannon Bronte is the strongest, most resilient woman I’ve ever met,” I replied. “Of course I will care for her. I adore her. But it’s a pity you don’t know who she is.”
Before the queen could muster up a response to that, the door opened.
Rhiannon rushed to her mother’s side, as Cassandra appeared behind Silea’s head.
She smiled gently at me as Rhiannon sat back, her back resting naturally against my chest. Just that small show of trust was worth more to me than anything her mother might have said.
“I’m sorry it took so long,” she whispered, taking her mother’s hand. “Myrine is dead.”
Silea nodded, closing her eyes. “Stealing the swords was a mistake.”
“Thank you,” Rhiannon said, gracious as ever.
Silea’s eyes opened, sharp and cruel as ever. “It was a tactical mistake, Rhiannon. Had I seen her treachery earlier, I would have guessed that fracturing your cohort was meant to ease her way into the wider world, to keep you from catching onto her as she betrayed us.”
Rhiannon sighed. “All that is true. It was also a mistake for you to make choices that manipulated and hurt me.”
Cassandra placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Remember what we talked about.”
Silea nodded. “Yes, that was also a mistake.” Unexpectedly, the queen’s eyes softened. “Now, we must talk about what happens next. Cass, please help me finish.”
Cassandra closed her eyes, and golden light flowed into the queen. “Despite all that passed between us before you took the rites, you must be queen when I am gone.”
Rhiannon opened her mouth, but Silea shook her head.
“I do not mean for you to go home or to renounce your love. I mean for you to stay here. With our people. Melanippe Asterion will make an excellent regent, and you can trust her to handle things in Otrera until you can all return. And when you do…”
The queen paused, her eyes sliding to me. “You will do things differently than we have in the past. I understand this. I don’t approve of it, but I am realistic about who you are.”
From the surprise on Rhiannon’s face, I gathered this was a more generous offer than she ever expected to receive. And from the relief on her face, and the ring she wore on her finger, I understood that she had meant to accept the responsibility no matter the consequences.
I couldn’t be angry with her. This was who Rhiannon was, and I’d had no doubt she’d already be putting her beautiful mind to work to find a way around whatever obstacles might have been in our way before the queen had clarified.
“Is that someone related to Kara?” I asked, wanting to move the conversation along. I sensed from Cassandra’s worried face that we didn’t have much time left.
“Her mother,” Rhiannon replied to me. “Melanippe will make an excellent regent. But how do you propose that I be queen to our people from here? There are no queens outside the mist. There are only corporations, and corrupt politicians.”
The queen smiled. “I am aware.”
My blood ran cold at that smile. The queen pointed to a folder that sat on the coffee table across from the couch. I reached out for it and passed it to Rhiannon, reading over her shoulder as she opened it.
Rhiannon gasped. “You are O-Tex?”
My heart nearly stopped. Had she known about Frannie? Had she given the order to kill her?
The queen’s smile widened. “Yes.”
“Did you know?” Rhiannon asked, and I knew she had my back—that she never meant to leave me behind. I loved her more than I could ever imagine possible that she would think to ask this first. “Did you order the hit on Francesca Lyon?”
The queen frowned. “Who is that?” Before either of us could answer, she shrugged.
“I don’t run the day to day at O-Tex. I don’t have anything to do with the company itself.
I’ve let it run exactly as the other Corporations have.
It’s how I’ve kept such a secret, and created this opportunity for you. ”
A hollow place inside me ached for Frannie, for myself. For the truth being revealed now. It was such a near miss that I finally got it—nothing could have stopped what happened to Frannie. Not even Silea.
Rhiannon shook her head. “No. I don’t want this. The Corps are evil.”
The queen scoffed. “The Authority is evil. The Consulate is evil. And yes, O-Tex is evil. But you, my darling, are not. Change it all, if you want.”
Her mother was right. If anyone could make this work to their advantage, Rhiannon could. She swallowed hard, and I hated to see her so lost. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
The queen coughed, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Rhiannon sat forward, using the handkerchief her mother gripped to wipe the blood away.
“She doesn’t have long,” Cassandra whispered. “Say your goodbyes.”
The queen let out a long, shuddering breath. Rhiannon and I had both seen that before. We were intimate with death’s myriad ways.
“Do whatever you see fit, Rhiannon. I built it all in secret, knowing that someday you would rule it all. That you were eternal. That you would change things from within the beast.” She nodded towards me.
“And you’ve found a partner who knows as well as you do that ruthlessness will never win the day.
The old ways are useless in this modern world. ”
The queen’s breath came in shallow gasps now. She laid her head back on the pillow, her arm raising to stroke Rhiannon’s cheek. “Be the island in the storm, my child.”
Her eyes fell closed, and Cassandra’s light enveloped her. “Remember, children,” Cassandra’s voice said as she disappeared. “In the face of all we’ve endured, love is still the answer.”
Rhiannon clasped her mother’s hand to her chest, silent tears falling on her cheeks. “Goodbye,” she whispered.
And from somewhere just beyond where we were, her mother’s voice answered for the very last time. “I love you, my girl.”