Chapter 1 When Ashes Fall
Briar
Knox kept his hand on my elbow as he led me through the hallways, past the Tree of Unity, and on toward the front door where Pierce and Lyra waited for him. Dromon’s boots tapped against the floor as he followed us.
Knox moved so fast that I had to jog to keep up or risk face planting. “Aren’t you going to get dressed before you go out there?” I asked breathlessly.
He glanced down at himself as if just realizing he was still nude, but his steps didn’t slow. Gizzi remained perched on my shoulder, his tail curled around my neck and his tiny claws digging into my skin. They weren’t painful, and I was glad for his reassuring presence.
Zephyr flew beside me, bobbing up and down. He was pale and his eyes kept darting around. He wanted to flee but remained by my side.
Taking pity on the sprite, I thrust my basket out to him and stumbled as I tripped over my feet. I managed not to fall when I staggered behind Knox. “Here take this.”
Zephyr caught the basket and clutched it against his chest.
“Take it to the healer’s room,” I told him. “I’ll see you there in a bit.”
Maybe.
I had no idea how any of this would go, and from what I’d learned in life, it wouldn’t work in my favor. Still, I couldn’t drag Zephyr along for this; there was no reason for all of us to suffer.
“You should go with him,” I told Gizzi through my mind.
“I’m staying with you.”
I wasn’t going to argue with the tiny lowleeto. He was small, but he could kill with one bite. Zephyr wasn’t quite as lethal, and I worried he’d get hurt if he continued with us.
“Are you sure?” Zephyr asked.
“Yes, go on,” I assured him.
He hesitated long enough that he fell back and hovered a few feet behind us. His blue and gold dragonfly wings fluttered lazily before he surged forward to fly beside me again.
“Knox, you need clothes,” I said sharply.
“The fuck I do,” he snarled.
My eyes widened at this as Bertie and some of the other sprites fluttered down to float beside the door. I wanted to protest Knox’s words; he shouldn’t be out there with my mother looking like this.
After everything she’s done to him, does it matter?
No, it didn’t, but I still didn’t want her seeing him. Unfortunately, he didn’t agree with me as he continued heedlessly onward.
Lyra opened the door before we reached it and Knox stormed through. Our feet thudded down the stairs and I ran to stay with him as we crossed the bailey.
“Open the gates!” he called as we got closer to them.
Though I couldn’t see the sprites gathered on top of the wall. The handles on the pulleys that maneuvered them started spinning and the doors creaked open.
On my shoulder, Gizzi’s claws bit into my skin again before he relaxed. Zephyr stayed beside me while Lyra, Dromon, and Pierce flanked Knox.
Through the open gates, I glimpsed the entourage of riders coming down the road. There were at least a couple of dozen men and women approaching; the hooves of the horses, and other creatures carrying the riders, clip-clopped against the red, brick road.
They were only fifty feet away and closing the distance fast. The white flags they waved flapped in the breeze and stood out starkly against the slate-colored sky. I couldn’t see her clearly, but I knew my mother rode the big, black stallion on the right side of the progression.
I gulped and resisted the impulse to wipe my suddenly sweaty palms on my pants. I’d hoped to never see that woman again, but here she came and there was a chance I might be forced to leave with her.
They can’t make you go if you don’t want to. But I suspected they could, and they would.
In the distance, the shadow dragon roared. The horses pranced nervously, and the riders had to work to keep them restrained while they also kept a wary eye on the sky. I did the same but didn’t see the beast.
“Will it kill them?” I breathed.
“It won’t expose itself to them unless it becomes necessary,” Knox replied.
While I wouldn’t mind if the shadow dragon killed some of those coming toward us, like my mother, I didn’t want it to kill all of them. If the representatives of the other kingdoms failed to return, they’d blame the shifters, and war could erupt.
The last war the kingdoms endured had destroyed the demigods and turned their kingdom into the desert wasteland of No Man’s Land. With only four shifters remaining, the kingdom of Wildwood wouldn’t stand a chance against the others.
I also didn’t want these shifters to die. Not to mention, I currently resided here too, and far preferred life… even if it did enjoy kicking me in the ass.
The giant beasts the cyclops rode were at the back of the pack. Those creatures stood at least twelve feet tall at the shoulders, had tusks over six feet long, and were the color of the sun that no longer shone in this kingdom.
I’d never seen a cadern before. I’d heard tales of the great beasts and their size and strength, but they mostly stayed in Volcania, the cyclops’ kingdom.
“Stay here,” Knox commanded.
I didn’t know who he was talking to, but if it was me, I had no intention of obeying him. As much as I dreaded seeing my mother again, I wouldn’t let him face this contingent alone. They’d come here for me, and I would be involved.
Fifty feet away from the gates, the riders stopped. Other than my mother, I recognized none of them. As far as I knew, Knox had no allies out there and I wouldn’t let him walk into a nest of vipers.
Then, my gaze settled on a tall, regal figure sitting atop a black stallion. A small breath escaped when I recognized Devnair, the elf Knox and I freed from the harem. If he was here, then Knox did have one ally, but he still couldn’t go out there alone.
Knox walked away from me, confident and undeterred by his nudity. When I started after him, he turned, and the look on his face froze me.
“I told you to stay here,” he growled.
The hair on my arms stood up as his eyes burned into mine, but his words angered me. “Stop commanding me.”
“You’re in my kingdom; you’ll do as I say.”
I ground my teeth together as my hands fisted. “But they’re here because of me.”
“Which is why you’ll stay here.” His gaze went past me to the other shifters. “Don’t let her leave these gates.”
“We won’t,” Lyra, Pierce, and Dromon vowed together.
And they would keep me here, but that didn’t mean they had to stay. “One of you should go with him.”
The three shifters ignored me as their stony gazes remained focused on the riders outside the gates while Knox turned and walked away. His long legs ate up the ground as he strode confidently toward the gates, still completely heedless of his nudity.
All the riders eyed him with interest as he approached… especially the women.
“It’s official,” Gizzi whispered in my head.
“What is?” I inquired.
“He’s crazier than you.”
I had to agree with that assessment. “Let’s hope it doesn’t get him imprisoned or killed.”
Outside the gates, Knox stopped ten feet away from the riders. “To what do I owe the pleasure of the tribunal’s visit?”
An elf on a pure white steed nudged his horse forward. “Queen Marina has come to us with the allegation that you stole her daughter.”
My breath sucked in as Knox half turned toward me. “I did no such thing.”
The elf looked toward me. “Then you won’t mind if we speak with her.”
Knox hesitated before lifting his hand and beckoning me forward. I stood for a moment, uncertain of what to do before gulping and starting forward to what I was feared was my doom.