“Youwill be the one to appear before her, Your Majesty?” I asked, raising a brow.
“Indeed,” she snarled. “Did you assume that it would be you?”
I couldn’t admit to the bitch that I was indeed hoping for such power.
“It was just a question, my queen. I wasn’t sure if it would be you or the High Witch,” I lied.
“Well, what say you then, Adler? Do you have any thoughts regarding such an action?” Azenna demanded of me, trying to ensnare me in a trap of disagreement.
“I would say that…something of such power may come in great use to us,” I answered, taming the growl that was working its way up my throat.
“Excellent,” she snickered.
“Just to be sure that I have all knowledge of what this beholds…you indeed cannot sense where she is with the spell?” I wondered.
Azenna’s eyes narrowed in on me, their crimson rings swirling. “Correct, but that is none of your concern.”
“Well, I would argue that anything to do with what this war brings upon us is my concern. I will be leading our army to our victory, will I not?” I challenged.
One of her eyes twitched at my words, and a pulse of satisfaction rolled through me.
“Very well,” she hissed. “To answer your otherwiseinvasivequestion, Captain, no. We would not be able to locate her exact whereabouts with the spell. It would simply transport your queen’s consciousness to whoever she demands it land before. All that is necessary for theworkings of this magic is that the two of them have once met.”
“She is alsoyourqueen, though, no?” I tacked on with a smirk, and the queen’s eyes flared at the small tidbit she didn’t catch in the witch’s explanation.
“Yes, of course,” Azenna mustered through a fake smile that didn’t meet her eyes. She turned to Idina. “Apologies,myqueen.”
Her eyes then flashed down to me, boring through me as if I were lower than the dirt that coated the dungeon’s floor, but my stance remained confident.
“There is one more item we are to go over, Captain,” the queen stated.
“Aye?”
“We are to send your wyvern beyond the Sylis Forest, for Sylvae will be able to lurk through its eyes. You have searched our side far and wide, and you are now needed here for the final touches of preparing our army. We want to fully understand what we are up against, and any settlement found in its pursuit will succumb to its flame, further weakening any chance Elianna has to build her own armies.”
My eyes flared, and I bit my tongue as the mention of Silcrowe being rebuilt almost slipped through my teeth. The queen was still unaware of the entire first battle that occurred as we tried to draw Elianna out from the confines of the city.
“Do you have anything to add regarding this, Captain?” Azenna asked, knowing I had no room for argument.
“Let me accompany the beast.” My voice was more demanding than I intended.
“Are you deaf? I stated what you’re needed for currently, and you shall remain here in Isla,” the queen interjected.
My stare darted between the two cunts before me. I blinked as I contemplated how to word what I needed to say without further exposing the knowledge I held.
“If you are to send my wyvern away without me, wasting time thatyoustated I needed to bond with the beast, then I want to be sure he does a full sweep of what lies on the other side of the wood. Be sure he covers the entire side of the Ezranian Mountains until they meet the sea.”
“As you command, Captain,” Azenna answered.
An odd feeling mimicking panic clogged my throat the moment the words left my mouth, but I was too deep beneath the witch’s claws now to reevaluate the circumstances the queen’s decisions had led us to.
The queen was coming for Elianna’s blood, and she would make sure every last bit of it was spilled upon the realm’s soil if it was the last thing she ever did.
Chapter forty-seven
Elianna
In the main bathingchambers of the Cadoria Estate, Avery aided me in readying for mine and Jace’s wedding day—a day I never thought would become a reality.
