“More than a touch,” Leena corrected. “But once I used my magic while we were traveling, it shielded us from some of the…discomfort. If I do that from the beginning next time, I think we’ll fare better.”
“I still can’t believe any of this was even possible.” Raven let out a low whistle. “What about Yazmin? Varek?”
Leena stiffened against me. “She was there, but we escaped before she could find us.” Slipping out of my embrace, she crouched before her Telesávra. He let out a happy croon and then rammed his head into her extended hand. “This little guy did wonderfully. I can’t thank you enough, Raven, for gifting him to me.”
“You’re welcome,” she said.
Leena lifted her chin and tracked the flurry of activity around us. “Did something happen?”
“In a sense. We’ve gained more troops. We need to leave right after you address everyone in order to meet up with them,” I said.
“More troops?” Kost asked.
I nodded, tilting my head his direction. “Thanks to you. A Sentinel has abandoned her post with Varek and brought her soldiers in search of the true heir to Wilheim. They’re waiting for us at Midnight Jester.”
“I’ll make it quick then.” Leena stood, sending her Telesávra home and pivoting toward the throne room. “Have the Rhynelanders and Cruor join, too.”
Gaige and Raven didn’t hesitate to follow the Crown’s orders, and they each took off—Gaige in the direction of the assassins, and Raven toward the captain of Rhyne’s tent.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Hazel eyes resolute, Leena gripped her bestiary. “I will be once we win this war.”
And with that, we set off toward the throne room so Leena could share the horrors of what she’d found in our country’s capital—and how we planned to stop them.
Thirty-Three
Leena
Whispers filtered through the throne room as Charmers, Rhynelanders, and Cruor stood in packed rows before the dais. With our combined forces, there wasn’t enough space to accommodate everyone, and people clambered around the entrance and surrounding lawns. Countless wary gazes studied me as I waited for everyone to settle in. Once the rest of the Council had made their way to the dais, Gaige gave me a tight nod, signifying all our people were in attendance. I stepped forward, and a hushed silence fell over the room.
“I’ve discovered something I wish weren’t true,” I said, projecting my voice. “But I wanted you to hear it from me. Yazmin was right. Many of the Charmers we thought missing or dead are being held prisoner in the capital.”
A collective sharp gasp sounded from the crowd, and the sea of faces before me turned parchment-pale. Even the Rhynelanders and assassins flinched. Then, the questions came flying at me in a flurry.
“How many were there?”
“Are they okay?”
“What’s happened to them?”
I waited until their voices faded before clasping my hands in front of me. “Twenty or thirty of our people have been placed in a deep sleep somewhere in Wilheim’s castle.” My gaze bounced from face to face, and I inhaled deeply. “King Varek is experimenting on them in the hopes he can learn more about our magic so that he can take it.”
The outraged cries that splintered the air sent shivers racing down my spine. Beside me, Kaori had turned to stone, her face stricken. Shadows spiked around Gaige in deadly spires, and Raven… Raven was ready to murder. Her entire body trembled, and Oz sidled closer to her. Though he was concerned for his friend, I could see his own anger in the bulging veins along his neck and arms, as if he were trying to hold back his rage. Calem’s eyes had turned into dangerous pools of mercury, and Kost placed a tight hand on his shoulder.
On my other side, Noc peeled back his lips in a grimace. “Varek.”
As much as I wanted to give in and join the Council in their anger, I couldn’t. Not yet. Succumbing to that rage is what Yazmin had done—and it’s what we needed to avoid at all costs.
“Wewillsave them,” I said, voice rising as I stepped off the dais to walk among my people. “I will not rest until we do. But we will not make the same mistake that Yazmin has.” The enraged outcries faltered, and I kept going. “Because while Yazmin was right about Varek’s egregious activities, she is also wrong.
“We are angry, but we cannot raze the world in fury. We cannot hope to create a better future for us, forallof us, if we burn everything to the ground.” I paused when I came to a section of the congregation where Charmers, Rhynelanders, and Cruor alike had all meshed together. I stared at each one of them as I spoke. “She would put a wall between us—or worse, kill us. All because she doesn’t believe we can live together peacefully.” Dipping my hand into the pocket of my breeches, I extracted my parents’ bestiaries and gripped them tight.
“We can’t let that be our future. We belong to this world. Unifying with Cruor, with Lendria, even with Rhyne”—I found Isla standing beneath the open archway leading out to the lawns and tipped my head in a bow—“is how we can save the captive Charmers and set right the wrongs of the past.”
A strange energy seemed to pulse from the crowd. It built with every second that passed, climbing higher and higher, until the whole room surged with electricity. Determined eyes, shining and raging, stared at me as I came to a halt.
“We aredonehiding in Hireath. Our goddess is with us.” I thrust my hand toward the statue of Celeste behind the thrones. Her face had always been upturned, but now I swore her lips had curved up in an approving smile. Her half-open eyes stared into the future—our future—and the rightness of what we were doing settled deep in my bones. This was our war. And we would not shy away from it.
