Chapter 46 #3
“I will not tell your father and mother what I saw,” she said.
“How can I trust your word?” Anastasia asked.
“Because I was once a female used as a bargaining chip. Then, I found inner strength and the power of a well-handled blade. I want every female in Drystan to experience what you did this evening.”
Anastasia’s chest heaved. “Fine, but we can’t talk here. The manor’s guards will catch us from the roof.”
Anastasia led them deeper into the garden, and the wedges grew taller, towering over them and obscuring them from sight.
Tovi studied her. “How are you hiding your scent from your parents? It’s a dangerous line you’re walking with your soldier.”
She blushed. “I’m taking a tonic. There’s a witch on Bash’s unit. Well, a vampyr-witch.”
Tovi stilled, trying to detect a lie in her words. “I’ve never known a vampyr to wield magic before.”
“She was turned and kept her powers. Though from what I’ve learned, they’re different now.” Her green eyes widened, and Tovi gathered she talked when she was nervous. “She’s nothing like that Ingrid, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Tovi’s head spun. “You know Ingrid?”
“She and your brother have visited General Oziel many times in the last few weeks.”
“But not your father?”
Anastasia sighed, crossing her arms. “No. Look, my father might try to play part owner of this legion he’s promised you, but the general is pulling the strings.”
“What else can you tell me?”
Anastasia wavered from foot to foot, and a shadowy figure emerged from the hedges—Bash.
“Stay right where you are.” Yennifer’s bow groaned, and as she stepped out of the hiding, the nocked arrow glinted in the night’s dim light.
Anastasia stepped in the line of Yennifer’s shot, and Bash hissed, “Ana.”
Tension rose in the gardens, dropping Drystan’s already cool air.
“I can say with confidence that all of us are on the same side—ensuring we break the curse,” Anastasia said.
Yen peered down her arrow. “What are you two lovebirds doing about it?”
Bash stepped forward. Arrogant and proud, Tovi almost wondered what he’d been before he turned—that’s when she spied his most peculiar pointed ears.
“Planning to take General Oziel’s army from him,” he said.
Bash’s words jarred Tovi to the present, her curiosity regarding what he was, short-lived. “How?”
“Killing him,” Anastasia said.
No hesitation, no lie. But truth and want.
The archer lowered her arrow. “Moons.”
“What about your father?” Cold prickled up her skin. “I just made a deal with him to use the army against my brother.”
“Make the deal with me instead,” Bash said.
Tovi ground her teeth. “You don’t have an army to make deals with, only a plan, one that hinges on mere hope.”
“As do you,” Anastasia said. “One that makes Drystan better by breaking the curse.”
Yennifer snorted. “She has you there.”
Tovi snarled, agitation leaking from her body. “You’re all downplaying the risk I take here. I need that army.”
“General Oziel doesn’t care for your future, Queen Tovi. He craves the curse and enjoys it. He’s simply waiting for your brother’s next move.”
Tovi’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re aware he plans to draw the Void all over Sorin.”
“Riven’s plans are far worse than that,” Bash said. “He will unleash darkness, but by opening the gates of Hel. The Void will be a reprieve in comparison.”
The snowfall slowed as if time itself did, too. Tovi’s blood ran as cold as ice. Yennifer’s being deflated, shock rippling across her expressions.
“Where? When?” Tovi asked, her voice shaking.
Bash shook his head. “I don’t know. Ingrid hasn’t shared that with Riven, let alone Lord Oziel.”
Yen muttered a curse. “We need to return to the werewolves with this information, Tovi.”
“You’re right. I need to warn Eldrick.” Tovi halted, while the others stilled, too. She’d not meant to say his name out loud. Bloody hel, she’d not thought his name these last weeks, and yet, with the grave news of Riven’s plan, Eldrick was the first she considered in this world.
Tovi could argue he was an ally, a leader amongst the werewolves, and to maintain that alliance, she needed to warn him, but it was her heart that had found those words, not politics.
Of course, there were plenty of others who needed to know. Lorkan and Blair, those researching prophecy. Perhaps they knew where the gates of Hel were. Not to mention Evelyn and Kade, if they were back.
But Tovi refused to return south empty-handed. She couldn’t dare waltz into the Drengr Village without the forces to defeat Riven. That was what she’d set out to do, her part in defeating the darkness.
“When can I expect this army to be under your command?” she eyed Bash.
The vampyr with pointed ears tilted his head, and Tovi guessed he’d been predatorial being before he was turned.
“Two weeks.”
“Goddess,” Tovi breathed. “I can’t believe I’m considering this. What are our next steps here? Ana’s father expects me to have a decision on the legion in the morning.”
“Give it,” Bash said. “Delay your funds until our plan is finished. Trust us. I’m not from this world, Queen Tovi, but I’m willing to sacrifice my life to save it from the Blood Curse.”
What a fickle, stomach-churning concept in this world.
Trust. Yet, Tovi assessed Anastasia, a young lady much like she once was, stepping out of the norm and rebelling against vampyr society expectations for females.
Distain coated Tovi’s tongue that her subject had to sneak out of her home and hide that she’d mastered a blade, but perhaps that boldness and risk-taking attitude was what she needed to harness now.
“You both have yourselves a deal,” Tovi said.