Chapter 13 Antony
Chapter Thirteen
Antony
The wall of rock rushes toward us, and I brace for the bone-shattering crash and descent into darkness.
A second later, we soar straight through what should have been solid stone.
I struggle to comprehend what happened, even as my eyes tell me we’ve entered a tunnel.
I try to rationalize how I didn’t see its entrance from the outside. It must have been the way the shadows fell across the side of the mountain, possibly the angle that the surrounding rocks jutted outward, concealing the tunnel’s opening.
Even with my acute eyesight, I didn’t know it was there.
Its dimensions are high enough and wide enough that my eagle can easily beat his wings and even rise further upward than he was before.
He still doesn’t slow down, but now his wing beats are more certain. My own heartbeats calm, but after a moment of relief, fear sets in again.
What if the walls are lined with vampyrs?
What if the tunnel is a dead end and we’ll be trapped?
What if that was the Oracle’s intention?
I scour the walls as we soar past them, seeking the next attack, but to my surprise, there isn’t a single moving form or dark mound that indicates a sleeping vampyr within this tunnel.
We seem to be completely alone.
More surprising, a soft glow builds ahead of us, a white light growing in strength.
Impossible.
No light exists within the bloodlands. None whatsoever.
But it’s there, and it’s growing stronger. Undeniably strong. If it weren’t so silvery in color, I’d imagine it was the sun shining at the end of the tunnel, and we were about to fly out into daylight.
I wince as it floods my eyes, my exposed skin stings sharply, and then—
We’re past it.
Whatever the light’s source, it’s now behind us, and I can’t risk craning my head to see it. At the speed my bird is now traveling, I need to keep my focus forward.
The further we get away from it, the more the white light fades.
Quickly, I mentally replay the moment we passed the light source. The light reflected off my eagle’s eyes, danced across the Oracle’s hair, glinted off my armor, its rays like that of a diamond in the sun, but the form and nature of its source elude me.
The stinging in my cheek calms.
My eagle doesn’t slow or stop. In fact, his speed increases, as if he were bolstered by the light, a reminder of the sunlight we’re flying toward.
He may be monstrous, but his mind is sharp.
If only I could communicate with him, silently exchanging thoughts, as fae were once able to communicate with dragons before those beasts became extinct.
The Oracle has fallen silent, her eyes closed once more, so for now, I can only trust in my eagle’s instincts.
A moment later, we shoot into the dark night air, and the tunnel we passed through is quickly a blur behind us.
My eagle’s velocity at this point is faster than he’s ever flown before, the force of the air rushing past us threatening to rip me from his back and the Oracle with me.
He must sense it, but he doesn’t slow down, not for another full minute while my muscles scream and I pray I’m not depriving the Oracle of air.
She’s so fucking quiet beneath me now.
Finally, I make out the faintest hint of yellow light in the distance.
The Iron Kingdom is within our reach.
It will be mid-afternoon out there, and the sun will be just past its highest. We’ll be safe as soon as we exit from beneath the black clouds.
The light is close enough to give me hope.
But hope is dangerous. I’ve seen too many of my brethren killed when their guard was down because they thought they were finally safe.
Just as I feared, a final shadow appears in the air off to our right. A single vampyr floating in the night, his dark robes billowing around him.
He remains where he is, too far away, and our speed is too great for him to catch us. But I read his message in his posture. His head is high, and his gaze, malevolent.
My kingdom won’t be safe forever.
I remind myself I have the Oracle now. She’ll change everything. She has to.
A moment later, we sail into the sunlight.
Within seconds, the darkness and the bloodlands are far behind us, and the landscape changes below us.
When I became king, I ordered the creation of a wide strip of protected land all around the edges of my kingdom, building stone towers at close enough intervals that each one is visible to the next.
I built up my army and my eagle flocks, ensuring we have as many as possible.
My fighters are all properly trained. Each one is bonded to a strong bird.
After the slaughter my father sent the Iron Army into, I was forced to take up a defensive stance. It’s only been within the last year that I’ve contemplated taking any offensive action like the other kingdoms have been able to do.
Of course, I’ve also had the vampyrs in the bloodlands to contend with, but the other kingdoms face their own particular challenges within their borders.
Now, up ahead, the nearest three guard towers appear to be bustling with activity.
As we soar across the air above them, two eagles lift from each of their landing platforms.
I urge my bird to fly lower to meet them, and within minutes, all six birds flank our back and sides, forming a protective shield around us.
They’re always alert for aerial attacks, but the speed with which they lifted into the sky speaks to a level of preparedness I hope means my sister returned before I did.
I haven’t allowed myself to think about her safety since I left the village, pushing those fears away as hard as I can, remaining single-minded in securing the Oracle.
Without being prompted, one of the male riders urges his eagle closer to us. I recognize him as the officer in charge of the central tower.
He offers up a call across the wind. “Princess Cassia returned a few minutes ago. She wanted us to tell you.”
This news is a relief to me in more ways than one. If Cassia arrived sooner than we did, then it means she got away from our enemies quickly and easily, not to mention made it home safely.
“Good.” I acknowledge the rider’s message with a short nod. “I want the number of soldiers and eagles at every tower doubled. Every tower. The chances of a Frost or Ember attack are high. Ensure this message is passed between towers and acted upon immediately.”
“Yes, my king,” he cries. “It will be done.”
Immediately, he turns his eagle and soars back to his tower, where I’m certain my command will spread faster than Ember fire. I’ve trained my soldiers to respond efficiently to any imminent threat. If either Stellen or Maxim tries to breach the border, I’ll know about it.
Finally, I check the Oracle.
I should have already risen off her, released her, and I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to shake me off.
I’m more startled to find that her faded blue eyes have remained closed, and her breathing is deep and unhurried. Calm even. Her cheek is cool where it presses to mine, and her lips…
So fucking close.
So fucking enticing.
I inhale the scent of her skin like it’s food, and I’m starving, drowning in its softness, filled with the need to find out if her whole body feels and smells like this.
Her faded blue eyes slowly open, and she whispers, barely louder than an exhalation, “I still don’t know what you want me to call you.”
Captor. King. Tyrant.
“Antony,” I say.
Instantly, I regret it.
She can’t call me by my name. Nobody outside my immediate family is allowed to use my name, and even then, only in private.
She closes her eyes, and I tell myself to move away from her now. I no longer need to shield her, and lying in this position is difficult for multiple reasons. For one, my muscles are screaming at me. I’ve held my weight off the Oracle for so long that they’re cramping.
Confusingly, she replies, “I will ask you again soon enough.”
Ask me what? My brow furrows. About my name?
I’m about to question her when the Starlit City comes into view, and with it, in the distance, the constellation of towers that forms the stronghold where Mother holds court.
Too soon, we’ll be fully visible to whoever has gathered to welcome me. The fact that I haven’t wrapped the Oracle in chains won’t go unnoticed, especially by Mother. The chances of her taking advantage of that are high.
But I didn’t take any chains with me. My eagle hates the clanking sounds they make, and so he should. He was shackled for half of his life before I became aware of his existence and gave him a purpose.
I lift off the Oracle, fighting the ache in my muscles and the numbness in my hands. I’m also suddenly conscious of the pulling sensation in my right shoulder, reminding me of the moment when something struck my back.
I still don’t know what the fuck it is. It isn’t so large that it protrudes far enough for me to see it, not even when I crane my neck. It has to be metal for it to have pierced my armor, but that’s all I’m certain of.
It doesn’t hurt, so it’s easy to ignore.
The Oracle stretches up in front of me, a slow unfurling that brings her back all the way to my chest. I catch the winces she makes as she lifts herself into a sitting position, the press of her lips, the way she scrunches her shoulders and releases them, then stretches her neck before she leans all the way back into me.
“Those creatures,” she says, her voice unexpectedly tense. “What were they?”
“We call them vampyrs.”
“What’s keeping them from following us?”
“The sunlight,” I grind out, struggling to believe she doesn’t know this already. “It burns them.”
She half-turns her head, revealing the crease in her forehead. “What about at night?”
“Starlight and moonlight burn them, too.”
I expect her to make a snide comment about starlight.
The land within the Iron Kingdom’s borders was afflicted far more harshly by the False Queen’s curse than any other kingdom, and I tense at the possibility that the Oracle will gloat about it, but it seems she’s more concerned about the threat the creatures posed.
“They can’t leave the bloodlands?” she asks. “Not at all?”
“They’re confined to the pure darkness of their land.”
The tension in her shoulders dissolves so visibly that she slumps forward. “That’s good.”
My left arm snakes around her waist before she can dare to slide away from me, ensuring she remains right where she is, her backside pressed to my pelvis, her torso to my chest, the back of her head to my shoulder on the side where my face is partly exposed.
Her hair tickles my chin, and the salty tang of the sea coats my tongue. Beneath it is an alluring scent. Floral. But not light. It’s heady, like the thick scent of a rose garden.
I slide my free hand along the back of her right arm. It’s infuriating that I can’t feel her skin through the steel of my gloved hand.
She doesn’t pull away from me as I wrap my hand around her wrist, right where the blade’s cross-guard envelops her limb. A golden bracelet.
“You and this blade,” I snarl in her ear. “You’re going to do my bidding now.”
I have everything I need to change the course of my future. Not only to save my people from annihilation and stop the attacks from the Frost Fae and the Ember Fae, but to take charge of my own fate.
It doesn’t worry me that she would have only come into her power hours ago when her father died. He’s bound to have trained her in all things. She has knowledge and power, and she will give both to me.
She trembles in my hold. Perhaps it’s a reaction to the rush of air against her body, or maybe she feels cold, or maybe…just maybe…she’s as afraid of me as she should be.
My voice is a throaty growl as I turn my lips to her ear once more, but this time, I call her by her name. “You’re mine now, Thyra, and I’m never letting you go.”