Page 56 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

My shoulders slump as I look to my aunt for answers. She stumbles across the dunes, daring to come near me, although her focus is on Stellen.

“Frost King.” Her voice is quiet. “May I examine the Oracle now?”

Without a word, he unclenches his arm, still supporting Thyra but allowing Miriam to tug the thick, white cloak farther away from Thyra’s form.

My aunt reaches for the pulse at Thyra’s neck, then raises Thyra’s eyelids to check her pupils before holding her cheek near Thyra’s lips.

With a deep exhale, Miriam leans back on her heels. “She’s sleeping.”

“Will she be okay?” Stellen’s voice is hoarse.

A little tension returns to Miriam’s eyes. “We won’t know until she wakes up.”

“Until then?”

“She must be cared for.”

He’s quiet for a long moment and Miriam doesn’t seem in any hurry to rush him to a response.

“I thought you were trying to hurt her.” He glances at the ice burn on my aunt’s upper arm.

Miriam grimaces. “I’m afraid that was my intention.”

Stellen stares at her. “Why would you do that? I could have killed you.”

“Because only with the greatest violence of intent could I have severed that band,” she replies. “You needed to feel it, too. The very air needed to fill with fear to coax the blood out.”

He narrows his pale eyes at her, cutting to the heart of my own thoughts. “You know a lot about blood magic, Sister of the Former King.”

Miriam squares her shoulders. “I’m not a Blood Fae, if that is your suspicion.”

Stellen’s lips compress. I understand his reasons for being disappointed. The blood bind on Thyra’s arm will need to be removed by a Blood Fae. If I thought for a second that my aunt was secretly a Merovian, I would have demanded her help before now.

Her shoulders slump as she continues. “I learned the hard way how blood magic operates.” She gives Stellen a hard look. “Just as you must walk a hard road now, King of Frost.”

She reaches for Thyra’s right hand, the fist that was covered in blood. Now that the gore is gone, I can finally make out a delicate, yellow ribbon wound around Thyra’s hand. The material hangs in multiple places where my aunt cut it.

Miriam lifts Thyra’s hand without touching the ribbon.

Then she gestures to the storm.

“Will you embrace peace, Frost King?” she asks Stellen, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears. “Or will you allow your pain to continue destroying our world?”

Chapter Twenty

Stellen

Thyra’s steady heartbeat fills my mind, but the world around us is anything but peaceful.

The darkness is gone, but now I face my final pain.

Putting my past to peace.

But it requires truth and vulnerability in the face of my mortal enemy.

The Ember King hunches opposite me, dwarfing his aunt, who kneels to my right. Maxim isn’t as tall as me, but his upper body is broader, and he’s proven to be quick on his feet.

He’s a threat to me.