Chapter 87
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Tovi
“Now that the Void has fallen, my brother will bring the war to Sorin’s border. We can’t let him lead General Oziel’s army that far south.”
At áilleacht Castle, Tovi and her closest allies had gathered inside her office. The fire crackled behind her back, but it was the map ahead of her that had sweat prickling her brow. If she defeated Riven before he marched to meet Evelyn and Kade, perhaps they could avoid a war altogether.
But time was running out, and they had to act fast. Cass had scouted Lord Nathaniel’s lands, and signs suggested the army readied to travel.
Uncle Bran adjusted his spectacles. “What do you propose?”
She exhaled, studying the inked lines drawn into the map depicting her homeland. “We need to take Drystan Castle. It’ll not only weaken Riven’s stronghold and defenses, but it’ll bruise his ego.”
Cass scratched his chin. “It’s a sound move. Our fleet would have the advantage on the river.”
Our. Tovi winced. Flynn’s ships still belonged to him by technicality. They still hadn’t married, an event she’d been avoiding the last few days after leaving the Vadon Mountains. Though Tovi’s pirate fiancé didn’t stand amongst her council, absent from the meeting.
Her left hand splayed near Drystan’s snaking river on the map, her finger ringless.
She’d abandoned it on her desk a few paces away.
The metal had itched her pale skin, and each time she glanced at the blue gem, bile rose in her throat.
She couldn’t afford to wear it during the meeting when she needed complete focus.
“What about the Blood Goddess?” Yennifer leaned against a bookshelf with arms crossed.
Ever since Tovi had accepted Flynn’s proposal, the warrior had said little to her aside from anything related to defeating the darkness. Cowardice clung to Tovi like grime. She hadn’t bothered to have a conversation with her friend, but she’d rather not hear Yen’s opinion regarding her engagement.
It seemed Tovi had chosen avoidance as her actual strategy. Eldrick. Flynn. Yen. She might have been deceiving herself about confronting her brother.
But Sorin didn’t just face Riven, but the Blood Goddess, too.
“There have been no sightings of her since Callum.” Tovi’s mouth grew dry—another reason they had to make a move sooner rather than later. The Blood Goddess’s absence taunted her.
“Perhaps she’s waiting it out with Riven,” Bétar grunted.
“Why stall?” Tovi said. “Besides, if she was with my brother, he’d be parading around Drystan with the news.”
Uncle Bran sighed long and heavily. “Indeed. I’ve heard no whispers of it. Not even a celebration in her name.”
Tovi nodded. “We don’t have time to wait—“
The door burst open, and the fresh scent of the sea wafted in. Tovi ground her teeth as Flynn waltzed into the room with an arrogance unfitting for his tardiness.
His gray eyes landed on her, and her only. “I’d like a private moment alone with the queen.”
No one moved. No one breathed, not even Tovi. She’d expected this—Flynn had finally come to demand they marry. She flinched, but of course, she’d agreed to marry him before they used his fleet.
“Leave us,” she said.
Everyone funneled out of the office, Yennifer last. She lingered in the doorway with a deep frown etched on her face. A hundred words churned in her glacier-blue eyes, yet she left without saying a single one.
The door shut in her wake, and despite the fire at Tovi’s back, cold nipped at her skin. She tried to focus back on the map, but the Vadon Mountains region caught her eye. She ripped herself away from the table and marched towards her desk.
“You’re late to the meeting,” Tovi threw over her shoulder.
“I needed some time to think.” Flynn’s boots clattered against the stone floor, and Tovi braced as he neared the desk.
She turned to face him, but his dark gaze peered down at her engagement ring. He picked it up and inspected it further, brows furrowed and lips set in a thin line.
“Drystan doesn’t have time for you to think. We must start preparing—“
“Tovi, I can’t marry you.” Flynn set the ring down, finally looking at her.
Tovi reared straighter, hugging her arms tightly around her middle. “I . . . I don’t understand. You asked for my hand in marriage, and I need your ships—“
“I fucked it up once between us, and like some selfish bastard, I saw my chance at undoing my mistake of losing you. I wished only to make you happy, Tovi. Now”—Flynn laughed, staring up at the ceiling—“I’m afraid that’ll be an impossible task when your heart belongs to him. That is why I can’t marry you.”
Him. The magnificent deep green of the Vadon Mountains flashed before Tovi’s eyes, and the scent of basil and spearmint wafted under her nose.
“He’s your mate, isn’t he?” Flynn asked, tone distant, like he grieved something.
Tovi blinked. He didn’t need to specify a name. Flynn had been there when Tovi broke the news of their engagement to Eldrick, and she was a fool to think snow and wind would’ve interfered with a vampyr’s sense of hearing.
There was no sense in denying it, and the thought of lying about what Eldrick was to her had Tovi’s insides twisting—violently. Still, she couldn’t admit it out loud, afraid the truth would swallow her whole and she’d fail her people.
Tovi instead remained silent while her one triumph—securing his fleet—these last weeks slipped from her grasp. She could practically read it etched in Flynn’s eyes.
“It . . .” Tovi swallowed, words like shards of glass. “I’m a queen with a people who need her.”
The vampyr pirate scoffed. “That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be happy, especially after everything you’ve done for Drystan.”
“I released the Blood Goddess,” Tovi said.
Flynn shrugged, a hint of his boyish smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. “And you’ll still help break the curse.”
“With what army?” she asked, boots melding to the floor.
Flynn exhaled, pocketing the ring. “My ships will answer their queen’s call.
I won’t be late to the next meeting, promise.
And Tovi”—he took a shuddering breath—“just because you took on the responsibility of breaking the curse doesn’t mean you should blame yourself for it.
The only similarity you share with your father is his name. Don’t let his failures chain you.”
He left, and Tovi found she couldn’t move. Breathe. Her fingers itched for a glass of wine, and without thinking, she found a bottle stored in the cabinet near her desk, though not a glass in sight.
“Fuck it.”
Tovi cracked the wax seal and pulled the cork free. She swigged it straight from the top, and stewed berries and oak rushed across her tongue, followed by a harsh burn.
Tovi didn’t care, taking another sip. Then another.
The bottle weighed considerably lighter in her hand as she moved to her desk, leaning against it. Her heart yearned for the possibilities that lay outside the window—to run and not stop until she reached the land she’d been told never to return to.
Yet ahead, the inked lines of her homeland seemed to come alive and slither towards her like wicked, thorny vines.
Was she weak for wanting the first more than the latter?
The door burst open, and Yennifer stormed in. Cold painted her pale cheeks red, and her wheat curls unfurled from her braid. She glanced at Tovi head to foot, eyes landing on her bottle of wine clutched in her hand.
“I take it the wedding is off.” Yen walked towards her, outstretching a hand and gesturing for the bottle.
Tovi obliged. “Yes.”
Yen grunted and knocked back the bottle. She grimaced. “That—“
“Is a ruby port, aged for forty years.”
“You know, one doesn’t have to wait so long for ale,” Yennifer said, handing back the bottle. “It’s simply good in a month’s time.”
“Hard to find in Drystan, I’m afraid,” Tovi said, trying to fight a smile.
“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Yennifer laughed. Her attention fell to Tovi’s sword leaning near the window, where the amethyst stone reflected the fire’s blazing orange. “Do you know what the name of your sword means?”
Tovi eyed the six letters etched down the blade. “I’m afraid I don’t even know how to pronounce it, let alone its meaning.”
“Saoirse,“ Yennifer said. “It means freedom.”
Tovi straightened, and the word vibrated down her spine. “What?”
Yen shrugged. “The sword was Nadia’s idea, Todd designed it with my and Bétar’s input, and then Lou thought of the name.”
Never forget what you’re fighting for, her late friend had said.
Tovi’d held that truth in her hands all these weeks. She’d defended innocents from demons and slayed Visha with it. Soon, she planned to march across the battlefield with that sword, its given name exactly what she was fighting for.
“Lou tried to remind me of that before she died,” Tovi said. “She always believed I could break the curse.”
Yen sighed, reaching for the sword and trailing her finger across the amethyst stone.
“I don’t think Lou chose the name because of the curse or even Drystan, and I remember Nadia saying, ‘It suits her.’ I’ve known you a short while compared to them, but it doesn’t take one long to understand what you’re after. ”
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” Tovi whispered. Centuries of desperation coursed through her veins like acid. “For Drystan and my people.”
Yen gave her small smile. “I think Lou meant your freedom more than anything. It was freedom for yourself and for everything you’ve fought for. From your parents, brother, and Drystan’s expectations. To fight, lead, and perhaps love however you want.”
Love.
Tovi suddenly realized she’d never been frightened of anything before Eldrick.
She’d marched into ballrooms with her shoulders back and held high, bracing for the judgment to come.
She fought demons without a second thought, and yet, the pulsing thread between her and Eldrick’s souls left her paralyzed.