Page 43 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“I want everything,” I said, picking some lint from her jacket that was soaked in perfume. “But you cannot give me everything, can you?”

“Snowlin, grandchild,” she begged on the verge of tears, “please.”

“On your knees. Beg on your knees, perhaps I’ll consider.”

She looked around, the graveyard still filled with Isjordians of the highest ranks. “Please, do not do this.”

I pulled away and made to leave when she dropped to her knees. “Please.”

Silence fell on the snowy expanse filled with mourners and relentless spirits, all the attention on my prideful grandmother on her knees behind me, clutching my dress.

“How does it feel?” I asked, spinning to her. “Humiliation.” After a good solid minute, I looked around, pulling my face into utmost concern. “Someone help. My grandmother is not feeling well.”

Elias rushed to her, wrapping an arm around her middle, and helping her up. “Are you feeling unwell, Your Majesty?”

She looked up at me, at my grin. “Y-yes.”

“Nonsense,” I said, turning to him and slightly pointing my head to Cerelia’s pocket where I slipped the letter I’d written last night, knowing I was finally going to get to see him. “She’s feeling spectacular. But are you, dear old friend?”

“Absolutely,” he answered, bowing his head just slightly to me before helping Cerelia to a seat, his hand sneaking in her pocket to grab the letter.

Chapter twelve

Black Pawn to B5

Kilian

The skies of Adriata that usually burned by the summer sun had been murky and filled with soot all through summer as forgers had beaten and carved metal into weapons for months to no end. Yet not enough. The last note Elias sent a month ago counted a growing number of beasts. People from all over, not only Isjordians, were joining Silas’s side of the war, volunteering their own bodies and betraying their faith. The world the way I knew it was gone in a blink. The new gods were now human. The old were still silent. And fear was inciting resistance not prayers.

Each city in Isjord was housing beasts and soldiers by the millions and even though numbers had never scared us, these numbers did.

Larg picked up a sword from the stands and lifted it up, inspecting the weapon that was missing only one element to make it as dangerous as I was—the heart of a sphinx. The last one Cai had managed to buy from the black markets in Seraphim had been already used. And the rest of the scraps left were now being embedded in smaller weapons, utilised in any way possible—even if it was only a pin, it would do.

My godfather grunted, throwing the sword into the rest of the pile. “Have you spoken to the Autumn Queen about the latest shipments you stole from Silas?”

The shipment had been men and women. Olympians. “I am about to head to her now. Have to speak to Alaric first.”

He grabbed my arm. “If he knows—if Silas finds out that it was you who intercepted his ships and stole perhaps his most prized possessions, he will hurt them. You heard what the soldiers said. Silas had paid three years’ worth of gold to those tradesmen. Searched far and wide for those ten Zephyrs.”

“Slavers, not tradesmen, and Silas will never find out.”

“Son,” he said, stopping me and I sighed, knowing what was to come. “Get some sleep, alright?”

“Too bright.” Too dark. Too quiet. Too loud. Too empty. I needed her. It was not about want. My soul needed its other half.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and threw a look over the stables. “What are you going to do about the…dragon? Our people are starting to ramble up tales again and it's grating on my bloody nerves.”

I felt myself smile. “I’m going to do nothing. It’s her dragon.”

“You still think she sent it?”

“Olympian spies sent word from Mahara’s channel that new Isjordian ships had docked Seraphim waters around the time it came to us. She sent that dragon,” I said, dusting my hands. “And I could also make a bet that it might have done some damage on the way here on her behalf. Tristin’s Nimbus had seen burnt wreckage of Isjordian ships floating around the Moor and Seer waters.”

“I don’t know how she is surviving Silas, let alone doing all this.”

“He needs her.”

“And your brother?”