Page 48 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“Something you want from my trip? A bracelet, earrings, a spine?” I asked, backing inside the portal. “Self-respect, perhaps?”

Hot wind beat all around the cliff I stood on, facing Theros city. There was a barrier of light over the ivory and aquamarine castle. Melanthe’s magic was almost useless before a white witch, but not mine.

I bolted, tearing through it and landing right in the middle of the castle grounds. Not even a second after, horns blared all around the city and guards poured from every crook and corner of the ivory castle walls.

As if they had been waiting.

So Magnus knew his son was deserving of death.

Yet, he seeked to protect him.

“What did you give him?”

“A promise,” father had said.

Magnus’s son had betrayed his oath, his family, his position and an agreement between us for a promise. For power he’d sold his family. He’d sold mine, too.

A flash of horror shaded Solaryan faces as they aimed their weapons toward me, unsure whether to attack or not. The skies began gurgling with distant rumble and soon grey clouds dimmed day and the sun altogether to the point that none of those golden rays could be seen. Before the first arrow broke the air in my direction, hundreds of lightning bolts poured over the city, emitting a cold wave of white to blind vision for a few moments. And then, amidst the chaos and noise, I bolted further away inside the open castle. And as I’d predicted, all of it was empty.

An arrow landed an inch from my foot when I took a step forward, the metallic tip that had embedded in the golden floor sizzled, melting deeper through tile and concrete.

“The sun does not take mercy to those who chose the dark. We will hurt you if you do not leave, Your Majesty,” a tall man shouted, holding a hand up. Armed to his teeth, the son of the sun and the soldier of seas stood unphased by my presence.

“So you were warned, Caspian.” I tilted my head to study the crown prince of Solarya. “Did your little brother confess his sins to your noble father?”

His hand lowered and he took a step forward. Brave. But he was brave by blood. “We understand your pain, Snow.” Compassionate, too. Those born under the sun were healers, lovers and forgivers—they were everything I was not though we’d once gotten along.

Me and him had once been…acquainted. Friends, some might call it. Before he’d lost his older brother to the sea, he’d been like me. The second child, the spare, the one who hid at every ball under tables and observed. And we had observed together. He’d shared his sweets with me along with stories of vast seas that I had used many nights to battle away nightmares.

“Then you will do the smart thing and move. I would not know mercy even if I saw it. I wouldn’t know mercy even if I was capable of feeling it. Consider not levelling your shining city to embers an act of respect.” I took a step forward. “Move before I lose that, too.”

He shook his head, and every bow was strung tight with me as aim. “This will be considered an act of war.”

“It was war the moment you brother caused death to someone I cared about.”

“And he will be punished for it.”

“Not the way he deserves to be punished.”

“My father is a fair king.”

“Believe me, Caspian, what I do to him will be fair. Deny me, and once I take my father down, it will be your kingdom I come for next. But it will not be just my kingdom and I that will come for you. The woman your brother had killed was Queen Moriko’s lover, she will come to my side as well. There will be no other war. Solarya will vanish as if it never stood at all.”

His hand lowered just a little. “That is a threat you should have not made.”

“I do not threaten. My word is as you might have heard—law. Which side will you fight beside? Mine, or your traitorous brother who will risk nothing to spy your secrets to my father. It was because of him he got that sceptre in the first place.” I stepped forward. “Reasoning with you is not something I would have done considering the debt I am owed. But my husband respects your father, and I respect the help he has granted us during these times. I give you grace. What will you give me?”

Every heartbeat around us was loud, almost too loud, except his and mine. His bow lowered, and despite the plea in his ocean eyes, he nodded. “You will kill him no matter what, won’t you?”

“He is already dead, Caspian. Now you decide your fate and those you will soon rule.”

“I do not wish for you to be my foe, Snow. Never have, not even once, not even after finding out of your magic. But mostly, I will not deny you relief for the pain my brother has caused. As someone who has seen every sort of pain enough to recognise it, I can see it in you. My power is to heal, no questions asked.” He moved a step to the side and all of his men lowered their weapons and retreated. “End of this corridor, fourth door to the left.”

I slid past him, with a heavier heart somehow.

“For your friend,” he called. “I am sorry.”

A breath stuttered out of my chest for a moment, and I swallowed the bitter pain down. “Send word to my husband that in two days we will be heading to Breshall for the last sceptre piece. Let him know that Silas will join us as he plans to meet with the new Vrammetheni Princes in secret while we are there. I suspect he will do so after I retrieve the sceptre first.”