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In his nightmares, he remembered everything. The way she’d come to Fanghelm, when Ksana was still alive and floating through Arkhady’s days like a dream he never wished to wake from. He couldn’t recall which of them had made the case to bring Magda into their lives, but he alone shouldered the blame for wedding her. Grief was a powerful yoke. It would never be reason enough for the suffering his family and people had endured when he was too distraught to confront reality.
“The witch is dead,” Lenik said, throwing wide the curtains with aplomb. He’d only said it a hundred times, each time casting a knowing glance Arkhady’s way like it was the first time, like he wasn’t quite certain the steward was done with his long sleep.
“I need my children, Lenik.” Arkhady slapped the nightstand for a glass of water to wet his throat.
Lenik fluttered over and placed it in his hand.
“Someone must know where Niko is. And Ana...” The sound of her name in his mouth recalled a hundred heartbreaking moments. Ana pleading with him to see the truth... him ordering her to fall in line. If only he’d said the words he should have:we must fight.How much might have been different...
“Grigor knows where Niko is, and has sent men to retrieve him,” Lenik explained. He crossed his arms and frowned at Arkhady, still in bed. “Ana will return. She said as much to the staff earlier when she gave her speech.”
“Speech?” Arkhady’s forehead knit tight. He willed his legs to move, but they may as well have been boulders. “What’s she up to, Lenik?”
“I couldn’t say, sir.” Lenik cast an odd look toward the hearth. Arkhady never got the chance to push further because a knock sounded on the door, and Lenik flew into motion.
Arkhady swallowed more wine and tried to pick up the conversation between Lenik and whoever was on the other side of the crack in the door. All he heard wasuninvited.
Lenik clicked the door closed and turned, his back pressed to it. “Steward Wynter, you willneverbelieve who has arrived to Fanghelm Keep. I daresay if I gave you a dozen guesses you’d waste all of them.”
Arkhady capped the wine with a groan. “If it isn’t one of my children, then I don’t care.”
“Oh,” the vodzhae said with a slow grin. “You will care about this one. Shall I fetch a wheeled chair, or do you suppose your legs may finally obey you?”
Arkhady closed his eyes. He could almost reach for the escape, the dangerous void where he’d lived, guileless and guiltless, for too long.
No, not guiltless.
The guilt was more powerful than any sway Magda had held over him.
“Help me to my feet,” he said, deciding. “And we’ll see if today is the day the Guardians deem me fit to fight.”
Your father is in the dining hallwas all Ana heard before she went flying down the corridor. Had she lingered a second longer, she might have saved herself from the shock that followed.
“Ota!” she cried, searching for Arkhady and finding, instead, a table full of beautiful men and women bedecked in black leather and feathers. She passed her eyes over every one, including the enigmatic High Priestess Elyria, deciding it was a trap until she finally spotted her father, thin and small, at the other end.
Ana staggered backward and into Ludya. She felt Tyreste’s presence at her side, felt him make himself big.
Elyria rose, prompting a flutter of rustled feathers and squeaking leather as the rest joined her. Ana darted her gaze around in a dumbfounded bid to decide whether to fall at the raven’s feet or turn and run.
Arkhady planted his palms on the table and tried to stand. He wobbled and returned to the chair. Lenik rushed to assist, but Arkhady swatted him away.
“My beloved Pjika.” He sounded so small, so unlike the formidable man who had been both sword and shield of her young life. “You need not fear the Ravenwoods. Sit. Listen.”
“With respect, Steward, I think we’ll stand,” Tyreste stated from beside Ana. He reached for her hand and clasped it tight in his.
“I understand our presence has alarmed you.” Elyria gestured for the others to sit but remained standing herself. “I’ve thought a great deal about the troubled phoenix who approached her penance with bravery and resolve. When my scouts returned and confirmed what we’d heard about the stewardess, I came to offer my congratulations to your father and rekindle the alliance we enjoyed for so many years, before recent tragedies.”
Addy yanked on Ana’s other hand to get her attention. She signed,I sense sadness but not anger.
Ana nodded briskly to keep Addy from catching the ravens’ attention, nudging the girl behind her. She swallowed the fear she couldn’t afford anyone in the room seeing. “High Priestess...” Ana sucked in a breath.
Tyreste’s hand twitched in hers, his eyes narrowing at the high priestess in warning.
“I was ready to die. I had accepted it. Others had not.” She turned her gaze toward the ground. Her heart pounded in her ears. “But upon being saved, I learned something that compelled me instead to fight. I returned home to help you, to help us all. And while I will not hide from the penance I avoided, I would ask that you... you allow me first to safely deliver my child to my family, as the child is not responsible for the crimes of their mother. They are the future of the Wynters. You have no reason to care, but my descendants have not wronged you. I have. It is not our way or yours to punish those who have done nothing to deserve it.”
“Ana.” Arkhady wobbled to his feet. He swayed, but Lenik was there to steady him. “Anastazja.”
“No. Fuck that,” Tyreste hissed and bolted forward, releasing Ana’s hand. “High Priestess, you had your chance—”
