He rose from his chair anyway.
“By your leave, Your Majesty, I believe I can help bring her around.” Cedric was already moving to follow Elyria from the room when the king gave a nod of assent—the movement sluggish, like all this arguing had already exhausted him.
Lord Church didn’t say anything. Didn’t make a move to stop him. But Cedric caught a glimpse of his expression just before the council doors swung shut, and it spoke volumes.
12
SPARKS
ELYRIA
The instantthe council room doors slammed behind her, Elyria had to fight the instinct to sink right to the floor. She released a long stream of breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding, shooting Ollie and Jocelyn a warning look as she did.
“I see the meeting went well,” Ollie chirped, blue wings flicking up from his back as he stepped out from his resting position against the wall. “Are we done here then?”
“I certainly am,” Elyria answered curtly.
“Everything all right?”
“Oh, everything will befine. So long as no one refers to me as a ‘symbol of unity’ again anytimesoon.”
“Duly noted.”
There was a beat of silence as Elyria took another slow breath. The trio of royal guards standing just outside the council room doors shifted nervously.
“We’ve been fine here too, thanks for asking. Been making new friends, haven’t we?” Ollie wiggled the tips of his fingers at the human guards. Two of them grimaced, though the third offered Ollie a wary sort of half-smile in return.
“That’s three coins, Oleander,” said Jocelyn, hand lazily perched on the sword slung at her hip. “I’ll take my payment now, or you can repay me in drinks later. Pick your poison.”
Elyria narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to regret asking what the bet was for, aren’t I?”
Ollie flashed a sheepish grin. “How long you’d last in there before storming out.”
“Well, I suppose that I should be flattered by your faith in me, then, if you lost.”
“Don’t give him too much credit, your ladyship,” said Jocelyn, smoothing a loose strand of ash-brown hair back against her head. “He lostlongago, having assumed you wouldn’t last the first hour.”
Elyria scowled.
Ollie lifted his palms. “Hey, now, I?—”
“Not another word,” Elyria warned. Truth be told, she wished shehadleft earlier. What a waste of fucking time that was. What a waste of time this wasallturning out to be.
All that waiting, with nothing to do but twiddle their fingers until they finally got their audience with the human king, and what did they have to show for it?
Not one fucking thing.
Elyria should never have agreed to come here in the first place. Should have followed her gut and started hunting down leads for Malchiorweeksago, regardless of whether she had the king’s sanction. She could have located a dozen different cultist nests by now, she was sure of it. Could have already found him. Could have avoided all this mess.
Instead, she really was about to be forced into playing the role of a prized pig, all to paint some picture ofunitythat didn’t really fucking matter if they couldn’t stop Varyth Malchior from executing whatevernefarious schemes he was surely planning. Celestials help them all if he found the second half of the crown before they did. Elyria had felt the power it held. Even the fourth quarter of hell would not be far enough to escape should Malchior figure out how to unlock it.
Stars-damned motherfucking pompous fuckwits, the lot of them.
Stars-damned Cedric Thorne, with his square jaw and gold-brown eyes and infuriatingly rational suggestion.
And with the unwelcome thought of that scarred lip and the way it looked when it was pulling into a smile, Elyria turned to walk away. Ollie moved to follow her, but she stopped him with the lift of a hand.
“Stay,” she commanded. “Wait for Kit and Dentarius. I’ll find you all later.”
