Page 10 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

My knees weakened, and I dropped in the middle of the corridor. The white and obsidian marble beneath my hands coated crimson and the murky reflection that stared back at me grew bigger and bigger, splashes of crimson giving the terror looking back at me a horrifying colour.

His blood. It was his blood.

With shaky fingers, I tried to remove my gloves and wipe the blood coating my skin away.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Red blurred my visions and I slammed a fist on the floor and then another and another till the marble cracked, my knuckles splintered and all I could feel was pain—numbing the ache in my heart that was rendering me breathless.

And that is how Cai found me.

Bloodied.

Weak.

Breathless.

Disappointment. Confusion. Worry. All I could read from my council members. None had said a word, not while I explained my findings in Isjord, not when I spoke of the divine weapon no one knew of, not when I told them I married the Adriatian king and was now their queen, not when I told them that Adriata was now my prisoner different to how we’d been planning for years.

I initiated my plan almost two years ago with the majority of the support from my court. Olympia rarely had engaged in armed conflicts in the past, never to initiate war, but this was a new era. My era. The era where my kingdom would get its glory back. The era where my people did not have to live cowering, hiding, haunted and hunted. Instead, we would hunt and haunt all that had closed an eye to our downfall and those that had caused our downfall.

There was one person, however, who kept me footed from advancing my plan sooner.

“We cannot afford to handle Adriata at this time,” Alaric spoke right on time. If Alaric had a thought, it was everyone’s thought to deal with. “The plan was to attack after we’d dealt with Silas and Isjord. Not while we figure out how to keep Silas from these sceptre pieces.”

How very convenient for him. “I need Adriata, Alaric. They will be under my mercy until I am sure their sceptre piece is safe and away from my father.”

“You presume they will let you have it?” Alastar, Alaric’s father and the Dravan tribe leader, asked.

Let me have it? That was funny. “No presumption, they have no choice.”

The old man frowned. “How?”

I shrugged. “Simple diplomacy.”

“You mean threats?” Alaric asked.

“Why are you repeating my words?”

He heaved a sigh. “Snow, heavens.”

“Their cities are still under my mercy, our troops still guard Highwall, Visha is lifting back the Highwall veil and…their council is in my dungeons.”

Gasps and murmurs buzzed at the revelation.

Alaric shook his head with visible disappointment in me. “He is the Night King, Snow. You do not threaten the Night King.”

“Not threatening anyone, only getting them to pay their dues. And from what I’ve gathered, he won’t be missing any of the ten I got down there. Adriane, Stregor, Lucian, Adrastos, Zander, Esther, Ambrose, Calliope, Leon, Maya. Those names familiar to you, Alaric? They certainly are getting familiar with the darks of Taren right now.” Each and every name I’d read on the signed documents retrieved by the soldiers. The ten signatures approving of the attack.

When his face twisted with surprise, I continued, “You know me well. Well enough to know that I stopped being petty when I found being vindictive more productive.” Their council was in my hands for all the right reasons. When Albius brough word of the agreement meeting in Arynth and mentioned head council Adriane Drakos was attending, I was ecstatic. I was ecstatic to know one more person who owed me had not been claimed by early death.

He ran a hand over his thick beard and offered me an apologetic nod. “I had no idea he’d kept the same council, kid.”

Ten out of ten signatures that sealed fate that solstice night were in my dungeons. All ten alive. I’d not touched a single other member of his court. Only the ones who owed me.

“As much as I am thrilled to hear that you are finally getting Adriata to pay their dues, I have to ask,” Bayrd, Lazarus’s father and the Volant tribe leader said. “Will the Night King reprise his position beside you—as our king? Though by law of humans you are married, your marriage was not blessed. The throne you hold has never seen such violation and disrespect.”