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Two
Kalen
“The Kingdom of Storms looks as though it’s readying for battle,” Alastair said when I met him, Niamh, and Toryn in the war room. My oldest friend was looking better now, though exhaustion still hung around him like a heavy cloak, and his scars would never heal. His eyes were bloodshot, and his body moved with a creaking stiffness, as though his bones had transformed into the branches of a tree. He hadn’t been able to access his storm powers since the attack, either.
But he’d insisted on joining us in our battle preparations. It had been a long time since Dubnos had been in so much danger, and he wanted to be by my side through it all. All three of them did. I was more grateful for their loyalty than I could ever explain.
I closed my eyes and fisted my hands against the wooden table. “What exactly do they think they’re going to accomplish with this?”
“Kill you, I’m guessing,” Niamh said frankly. “Then, they’ll take your throne and make Dubnos theirs.”
“Oberon has clearly gotten to them,” Toryn said, running a hand along the top of his buzz cut hair. “He’s offered them an alliance. Together, they’ll find a way to bring back the gods.”
It was what Oberon had wanted almost four hundred years before, though I’d never fully understood it. The gods would be no kinder to him and his people than they’d been to those they’d destroyed centuries ago, when they’d first claimed these lands. They would not care to make a fae king one of them. In fact, they would likely smite him for having the audacity to believe they’d lower themselves to his level.
“Let’s say that’s true,” I said, staring down at the cluster of swords outside my border. “Why would the storm fae want that? They were against him centuries ago. Why aren’t they against him now?”
“Oberon must have promised them something,” Alastair said with a grunt. “And it was enough to tempt the bastards.”
“Perhaps we could use a valerian fog against them. Knock them out before they can attack the city,” Niamh offered.
I shook my head. “And then what? Drag them somewhere? Toss them into our dungeons? We don’t have enough space for their entire army, and besides, I don’t know if we have enough valerian for that. Oberon is the only one with a cache that large.”
My eyes drifted back to the city of Albyria, trapped behind its chasm walls and the mountain range that swept around the western edges. I curled my lip at that miniature crown and its glittering colors. I wanted to wrap my hands around that king’s neck and snap the life out of him. Now more than ever.
Niamh gave me a knowing look. “Manage to get anything out of Tessa?”
“More than I expected. I saw the look on her face when I told her about her father. She had no idea that he was trying to release the god’s power. I don’t think she was trying to do it, either. We were wrong to suspect the worst.”
“I told you,” Toryn said, folding his arms. “You should have given her a chance to explain herself.”
“Well, shit.” Alastair fiddled with the rings in his ears, the bright silver a contrast to his deep bronze skin. “What are you going to do, Kal?”
“I don’t know. Oberon has her.” Something in my gut twisted. If I’d been upfront with her to begin with, she never would have run off to take care of him by herself. She wouldn’t be in this mess, trapped and forced to wed her cruel king.
Albyria was a short journey from Dubnos, but the distance felt insurmountable right now. With the attacking army at my doors and Oberon’s barrier keeping me out, it was impossible for me to reach her. The thought filled my veins with acid. Despite what she’d done to me, I could not bear the thought of her trapped in Oberon’s dungeons, waiting in the darkness for her wedding day.
She’d never be free from him once she made the marriage vow. Not until his death.
I would not wish such a fate on my worst enemy. Not even on the mortal girl who had stabbed me with a blade she thought would turn me into a pile of ash.
“I know you must think I’m mad,” I said to the three of them. Well, maybe not to Toryn. “She did stab me.”
Alastair just chuckled. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t still want to help the girl.”
“I don’t think you’re mad,” Toryn said quietly. “She’s been given a bad lot in life, and Morgan presented her with a truth she couldn’t ignore. No matter that it was exaggerated. We can likely thank Oberon for that, the bastard. He controls Morgan far more than we’ve wanted to admit.”
I nodded, but there was a heaviness in my heart that was impossible to ignore. Of course Tessa had believed Morgan. Swallowing the lump of pain, I turned away from Albyria’s pocket of land and stared down the border between the Kingdom of Shadow and the Kingdom of Storms. Tessa had no reason to trust me over anyone else. We barely knew each other, even if it felt like she’d been in my life far longer than a few months.
She had been pitted against me since birth. She’d been taught to fear and hate me. And somehow, she’d seen past all that for a brief moment in time. She’d thrown away her prejudice against me, even when I’d told her I wouldn’t change a damn thing I’d done in the war. I thought she’d understood me.
And now she knew I’d killed her father. Any hope of reconciliation was gone.
“What do you want to do, Kal?” Toryn asked as he hobbled a few steps closer, his eyebrows pinched with pain and worry. “Tell us the plan.”
With a deep breath, I nodded. “I’ll speak with a few of our spies inside Albyria. See what they can tell us about Oberon’s plans for Tessa and her family. I might be able to persuade one of them to smuggle her out, though it’ll be hard to do that a second time. Oberon will expect it.”
Toryn gave me a tight smile. “I meant with this battle. What are we going to do about the Kingdom of Storms?”
