Chapter Two
Antony, King of Iron
Pain. It keeps me alive.
As I race toward my waiting eagle, I thump my fist against the black, steel breastplate resting across my poisoned heart, accepting the agony the punch causes me, needing the clarity the pain brings.
I will give everything for my kingdom.
No matter if it means I have to hurt my own flesh.
Wind rushes across the top of the tower as I leap onto the back of my eagle, a giant, blue-feathered beast, the only bird willing to carry me.
He’s a monster, too.
Twenty paces ahead of me on the white platform that sits far above Starlit City, my sister is already waiting on her eagle alongside my two best male warriors.
Their leather armor and uncovered faces are a sharp contrast to the steel I wear over my entire body.
I catch my sister’s intense gaze through the slits in my helmet. Cassia’s jaw is tight, and her face is pale. The tension in her shoulders intensifies as she waits for my command.
Our mother will kill me when I return. She wants Cassia wrapped up in silk and pitting suitors against each other in games of Mother’s making, not fighting bloody battles beside me.
Fuck that. Cassia is one of the few fae I trust. She’s also one of our kingdom’s best warriors. She can decide her own fate.
“Fly!” I roar.
Fly like your lives depend on it. Because they fucking do. Because we will never have peace… I will never have peace…until the Oracle is mine.
My eagle spreads his wings and rises into the air with a single, powerful beat, carrying me high into the starry darkness.
The three eagles ahead of me, including Cassia’s, soar into the air and then quickly separate to allow me to take the lead.
It looks like they’re parting out of deference, but I know the truth.
The other eagles are terrified of my blue beast with its blood-red eyes and longer-than-normal talons. Just as my own people fear me.
Not Cassia, though. And not the warriors I’ve bled for. I’ve proven to them that there isn’t a battle I’ll send them into that I won’t enter myself to fight beside them.
As we take up our formation in the air, I trust Cassia and the two men to keep up. The determination on their faces when I passed them told me they won’t let me down.
We have to reach the female Oracle before our enemies do.
I must possess her before either of the other two kings can.
She’s the first female Oracle born since the False Queen shattered our world. This is the first chance we have to break the curse that binds us in an endless war against each other.
Finally, I know where she is. But so, too, do my enemies.
The handwritten message I received was clear: The Oracle is hiding in the coastal village called Perotia, but this information was sent to all three kings. It’s up to us who gets to her first.
The message’s origin is unknown. It came without a seal or any other identifying mark. The handwriting was inscribed in the common script, without flourish, and because it was slipped in with other messages, the fae who brought it to me couldn’t tell me how it got there.
It could be a trap or a ploy, but I can’t risk ignoring it.
Within minutes, we’ve soared across Starlit City toward the western coast.
The Iron Kingdom is wedged between the Frost Kingdom in the north and the Ember Kingdom in the south. Even though the three kingdoms are of a similar size, the location of my kingdom between the other two puts us at significant risk of attack from both sides.
As for the west and east, the western mountain range that we’re flying toward forms a near-impenetrable border down that side of all three kingdoms, while in the far east, the earth is nothing more than dust, miles and miles of barren land, its air polluted with dust storms.
We face another challenge on our journey west.
A visceral shudder passes down my spine as the bloodlands come into view in the distance, a place of pure darkness.
Roiling, black clouds cover a vast portion of the northwestern corner of my kingdom, and not a single ray of light can penetrate the dark magic that’s held within it.
A snarl of frustration follows my shudder.
The coastal village of Perotia sits in a nearly central location between the north and south. Because of the elongated shape of the bloodlands, the most direct route to Perotia is through its southern tip.
But I can’t risk taking Cassia through that dark place. No matter how determined I am to reach the Oracle before my enemies do.
I tell myself it won’t cost me too much time to go around, urging my eagle to fly faster to make up the shortfall as we fly wide of that cursed place.
Finally, we approach the vast mountain range that stretches from the north to the south, sheltering the coast behind it.
Years ago, my father tried to send an army through one of the few narrow passes in these mountains. I understood the tactical need to control the coast. The Iron Kingdom would finally flank the other two kingdoms, giving us an advantage.
But it was a fucking massacre.
My father knew the pass was too tight. He knew he needed an airborne army, which he was close to building. All he had to do was wait another year for the youngest flock of eagles to fully grow.
His senseless pride led to the decimation of half the Iron Army as Ember and Frost Fae picked them off from both sides, and still, he screamed for more soldiers to push through the pass. Still sent more men and women to slaughter.
I grit my teeth at the memory of his screaming mouth.
The mouth I punched.
I was only fourteen, but I was stronger than I should have been—a strength it was dangerous to reveal. But I knew the only way to stop my father was to break his jaw so he couldn’t speak another command.
It was a cruel relief when someone slit his throat that night.
My nightmare only continued.
And it won’t end until the female Oracle is found and her power is conquered. One way or another.
Perotia now lies directly ahead. We’ll reach it as soon as we cross the mountain range. In the distance, the sparkling sea is a vast azure-blue expanse, a beckoning tranquility, a promise of peace that feels too far away and nearly impossible to attain.
I’m acutely aware of three golden spots in the air to our left. It’s impossible to mistake the desert serpents belonging to the Ember King, Maxim.
The serpents have narrow heads reminiscent of ancient dragons, with two long horns similar to a stag’s antlers extending sleekly horizontal to their necks, but no wings or legs.
Their bodies snake through the air, remaining airborne through a combination of internal magic and their constant rippling motion.
I’m not surprised to see them, just grateful they aren’t further ahead of us.
But where are the white wolves?
I scan the mountains to my right, seeking the giant predators belonging to Stellen, the Frost King, making out four white specks racing past the mountain edge closest to Perotia.
Like the serpents, the wolves are too far away for me to identify their riders or to know which beast carries their king, but I’m certain Stellen is there.
Neither of my enemies would leave this task to their generals.
Seconds later, the wolves disappear down the far side of the mountain.
Damn. They’ll reach the village first.
They were always going to have the advantage over me, since they could cut directly across their land while I had to skirt around the bloodlands.
Cassia surges up beside me, her eagle keeping its distance as she calls out, “We can keep the Embers busy in the air and stop them from landing. Just say the word!”
I quickly calculate my best strategy. The Frost Fae are already out of sight. The Embers are in full view. I’m concerned about Cassia taking on Maxim, but I suspect that he, like me, will focus on the prize and leave his warriors to the skirmish in the air.
I need to find the female Oracle. If I come across the Frost Fae on the way, I’ll deal with them myself.
In fact, I’ll welcome a fight with them. The general who leads Stellen’s army, a woman named Lilis, has carried out relentless strikes on the outposts at the northern side of my kingdom, in one case while Cassia was visiting. I relish the idea of spilling Lilis’s blood the first chance I get.
“Do it!” I roar.
Immediately, Cassia banks to the right, deftly reaching back for the bow and iron-tipped arrows she carries. There’s no better archer in the air than her, not in any of the armies. She’ll keep the Embers well and truly busy.
For myself, I prefer close combat, the double-bladed iron axe I carry at my back having spilled the blood of countless foes.
I urge my eagle higher into the sky, where he will be somewhat camouflaged against the blue, and the sun will make it even more difficult to detect his location.
The moment we rise higher, the back of my neck prickles.
A brief warning.
On instinct, I lean left.
Raging hot fire explodes past me, grazing the right side of my face.
The heat and force of the attack burn part of my helmet right off. Melted steel splatters across the air.
A curse snaps from my lips.
I should have suspected another serpent would be waiting within the sun’s glare.
It can’t be Maxim himself, because it was a coward’s strike at my back. As much as it begrudges me, Maxim has proven he’ll look his enemy in the eye when he kills them.
I duck low and bank left, trying to locate my attacker, and anticipating their next strike while preparing for it.
A moment later, Cassia’s eagle shoots past me, her shout reaching me over the wind. “Go, Brother! I’ve got this fucking coward!”
She must have doubled back. As she soars directly to my left, a golden serpent suddenly darts out from the sun’s glare, its male rider escaping out toward the ocean, following the path of the fireball he shot at me.
Other than burning off the side of my helmet, he fucking missed me.