AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At every turn, he had been there for her. He claimed to be loyal to the Empire above all, but they had both blurred the lines between duty and desire. She hadn’t realized just how hard she’d fallen until he had come for her in the mines, until she had seen the agony and desperation in his eyes as he fell to his knees before her and cupped her face in his hands.
She loved him.
A knock came at the door. Riona straightened and dried her tears, wincing as a flare of heat shot through her torso at the movement. It quickly receded, but didn’t vanish entirely, pulsing like a second heartbeat just below the bandage covering her wound. That was odd. She must have pulled her stitches. “Yes?”
Valerian opened the door. “Prince Auberon has left, my lady, and I’ve sent a guard to fetch breakfast from the kitchen. How do you feel?”
“About as well as one would expect. You tended to my injuries, didn’t you?” Riona asked, trying to wade through her hazy memories of the past several hours. “I remember hearing your voice, but I couldn’t make sense of the words.”
He ducked his head. “It was Kentari Imperial.”
She studied him—the way his gaze slanted away from hers, his weight shifting from one foot to the other—and frowned. Why had Auberon brought her to the duke, of all people? How had he known that Valerian would help her? “How did you come to know how to heal?”
“Being the politically useless puppet of a tyrant has its advantages—one of those being extensive time for study. I chose healing. After surviving the Kostori siege on Glenkeld, I have a vested interest in learning how to keep my people alive.”
“I should be dead right now.”
“The wound appeared worse than it was.”
She gave him a pointed look. “I felt how deep that dagger went. I shouldn’t have survived the night, but Auberon knew that you would save my life. That’s why he brought me here, instead of to a healer. How did you bring me back from the brink of death?”
Valerian ran a hand through his golden curls, looking conflicted. Finally, he breathed, “I used blood magic.”
Her blood turned to ice. “What?”
He took a step toward her, reaching out as if to reassure her, but faltered when she shrank back in fear. He winced, his hand falling to his side. “I’ve been studying blood magic for years, trying to find ways for healers to implement it into their practice,” he said. “I had never used it on anyone until Prince Auberon was poisoned. That’s why he recovered so quickly. He confronted me about it after the ballet, and I told him everything. That’s why he brought you here tonight.”
Riona gaped at him, dumbfounded. She knew the folk tales about blood mages. She had seen firsthand the destruction the Cirisians had wrought on Sandori during their war with Beltharos. Yet Valerian had never given her reason to feel unsafe around him. In fact, he reminded her of Tamriel and Percival—honest, honorable, and selfless. She didn’t fear him.
Riona met his gaze. “Thank you, Valerian. I owe you my life.”
“No, you don’t. If the wound had been fatal, I would be dead. Your wound was serious, but any healer—if he’d gotten to you quickly—would have been able to sew the wound and stop the bleeding. I only accelerated your own body’s healing.” He hesitated, then asked, “You’re not angry? Or afraid?”
“I am nothing but grateful.”
The duke visibly relaxed, the tension in his shoulders easing. “I am glad to hear it. Now, I’ll leave you to rest. I’ll have your breakfast sent in when it arrives.”
“Wait,” Riona blurted, just as he turned to leave. She didn’t dare admit it aloud, but she found she didn’t want him to go. The quiet would leave her too much time alone with her thoughts. “May I ask you a question?”
He nodded and claimed the armchair Auberon had left beside the bed. Riona bit back a gasp as the light from the bedside lantern struck his face. His cheeks were pale and hollow, shadows hanging under his eyes, and his skin was so translucent she could see the web of faint blue veins at his temples—side effects of the blood magic, she assumed with a mixture of horror and curiosity.
“What do you wish to ask me?”
“What does one do when she suddenly finds her court filled with monsters?”
A shadow passed across Valerian’s face. “You survive, no matter the cost. You bide your time. And when the opportunity presents itself, you purge the monsters and rebuild from the rubble.”
“Is that what you plan to do in Kenter?”
“I pray for as little destruction as possible, but I will do what I must to restore my country’s independence. When the Kostori claimed Kenter as a vassal, the nobility who refused foreign rule met the executioner’s axe in the city square. Once the first head rolled, it didn’t take long for the rest of the nobles to lay down their weapons and pledge fealty. My father was the first man on his knees.” Valerian paused, shame darkening his features. “That day, I hated him. Seeing him kneeling in the blood of his friends, knowing that he was the one who let the Kostori troops into the city. He did what was necessary then to save our people, but we have suffered enough under Kostori rule. So yes, I have known my fair share of monsters, and I plan to rid my country of them all.”
Riona looked away from the duke’s intense stare and tugged at a stray thread sticking out of her blanket. Her uncle was the heart of the kingdom. She hated his methods, but he was the only thing standing in the way of the empire’s complete control of the Tranquil Sea. What if Emperor Hyperion did not honor the terms of the alliance they would soon strike? What if he decided that he wanted the eudorite mines for himself? Even if he kept his word, it would not be long before foreign armies arrived to claim the eudorite ore for themselves. Rivosa would need a strong king to stand against them—a king who had been at war since the day he was crowned.
If she revealed her uncle’s treachery to the court, she would leave Rivosa with a gaping wound. Most likely, the king would be deposed and his son placed on the throne. Prince Domhnall would make an excellent king in times of peace, but that was not the future they faced. Every battle, every death, would chip away at his resolve. Eventually, he would give in. Their enemies would win, and Rivosa would be ruined.
Riona met the duke’s eyes. She felt like a ship left unmoored in a storm, swept into unfamiliar seas. “What do I do, Valerian?”
He set a hand on hers and gave it a comforting squeeze. “That is for you to decide. This is your kingdom. Your people. You must do what you feel is right.”
