“Careful, Majesty. Speak of her in that way again, and I’ll cut out your tongue.”
My heart stuttered as Kellan’s threat rolled off his lips with practiced malice.
Someone scoffed.
“You’re quick to defend someone who wanted you dead last year,” Bayne replied. “One thing you’ll learn is Lyvia’s allegiance changes quickly. I’d be careful what you put on the line for her.”
My stomach plummeted, a twisting of shame and grief colliding with the nauseating, plunging feeling that accompanied friendship’s death.
“You have no idea what she’s capable of,” Bayne continued. “You think you know her?—”
“I know her better than any being in this realm,” Kellan snapped.
The sensation that propelled me through the Abyss flared to life in my chest.
“Are you upset she didn’t run into your arms when we returned?” Kellan drawled after a moment. “That she didn’t weep into your chest?”
Silence cleaved the room.
“The gate never closed,” Kellan quietly continued. “You could have come after her.You didn’t.”
“You have no right to question my choices,” Bayne hissed. “You’re no king. I am bound to the people of this realm. I amboundto my kingdom to protect them with the Soleia?—”
“Exactly.You have the power of the godsdamned sun,” Kellan cut in, his voice trembling with a vicious edge. “And youstayed behind.”
A vice wrapped around my chest, and I struggled to breathe.
“Don’t begin to tell me?—”
“What I willtellyou, Majesty,” Kellan cut Bayne off once more, “is if I had the power of the fucking sun searing through my veins, I would have burned the entire godsdamned realm down to bring her back.”
CHAPTER TEN
LYVIA
See what you make of the creatures. Daimos was on to something.
–Undisclosed correspondence from Lotrennia to Lord Haro of Marisarma, Captain of theSiren.
Lyvia – Onyx Tower, Kayj
“Sobraen?” Ursa’s soft voice echoed from the end of the hall.
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Relief swept through me, grateful for the interruption to my spying. I whipped my head around to find the pale-skinned elf holding the door open for her wife.
Selvina’s straight hair lay in long folds down the back of her rose-pink gown, a complement to the mauve beaded designs sewn into Ursa’s tunic that draped over her dark leggings. My hand fell, and I nodded to the two of them as they approached.
“Cousin,” I murmured, before clearing my throat and meeting Ursa’s gaze. Her sister’s face flashed in my mind’s eye,and a deep sense of grief washed over me as I remembered Eira’s final words before she’d sacrificed herself with the dagger I still had strapped to my ankle.
Ursa ran a hand through her cropped golden hair as if she sensed the painful memory. Her thick brows pinched.
“We came to discuss your departure,” Selvina explained, eyeing the doors.
“When you saymydeparture, I take it you’ve decided not to come?” I asked, still uneasy with the presence of Selvina.
She was a Bellator, that much was clear. The Ramadiel power seemed as if it were made for her, and she used her healing powers without hesitation.
A strand of blonde-white hair fell over her shoulder as she shook her head.
