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“I will carry it.” I couldn’t quite stop my grin. “I shall also need to learn to use a sword. When I killed the stonewraith by the bridge, I was sloppy with my footwork. I am in dire need of training.”
I left the Shadow King standing in the great hall with that look of shocked surprise on his face and went to find Zorander to inform him he’d just been demoted to be my teacher for two weeks.
38
ZORANDER VAYLE
“You’re my…what?”
“I’m your student, Zorander. For the next two weeks.” Anaria explained with mock patience, and no small amount of sarcasm. “You will teach me to ride and to fight, per your king’s order.” Her smile turned serpentine.
“I told you this was happening. I just ensured you had no choice.”
I’d faced enemies ten times as big as this slip of a female, backed by armies as vast as the cosmos and had never felt this outmatched. “Why, pray tell, are you even remotely interested in learning any of this?”
For the first time since she’d strutted in here, that wicked smile on her face faltered. Only for a second, but long enough to know I was going to—finally—hear the truth out of her.
“Because I refuse to be helpless.” Anaria murmured, her shoulders tightening beneath that dress. “I don’t care how hard I have to work, I willneverbe vulnerable again.”
Beneath the bright red paint on her lips, the twin sweeps of black that turned her pale eyes sinful, the dress she wore like a battle shield, Anaria was still so very young.
She was a pawn, as all of us were, in a conspiracy so vast and far reaching that when this war was over, I doubted anyone would remember our names.
But still…I’d…we’dall expected her to be more pliable, easily manipulated into her role, much like Adele had been, though her mother had at least been given a choice.
According to Tavion, she’d been trouble since the beginning, though his unshakable belief she’d willfully slain Julian did not match the girl standing before me, blithely asking to be instructed how to kill.
She had a backbone, though, standing fast in front of Solok on the field that night. Anaria had never backed down, even when he hurt her friend, taunted her helplessness.
And there had been a cruelness to Solok’s taunting…if he’d truly tortured Anaria in that prison of his…my gut twisted at everything that might mean, and a flicker of molten rage burned hot before I could think straight again.
I’d gotten her away from Solok before she did something foolish—like offer herself up in place of her friend, as the bastard suggested—but that night, for the first time in a very long time, I’d felt sorry for a Fae female.
“You have a terrible seat on a horse. I don’t know how much I can teach you in two weeks.”
“Yet you’re the best rider out of my entire rescue party.” Her cold gaze raked me up and down, leaving frost in its wake. “Surely you can manage?”
I ground my teeth together, knowing I would fucking have to. “Why me?”
“Because I don’t know where Tavion or Tristan are, and it’d appear suspicious if I asked for Raziel, after what happened last night.” Was it my imagination, or was she blushing? “You are the one who decided to check up on me, so I suppose it’s your bad luck to be stuck teaching me.”
“Tavion is most likely losing his half a million gilder in the gambling dens and Tristan is holed up in his castle, pretending he’s not part of this any longer.”
She frowned, her brows furrowing. “Part of what? Your conspiracy?”
I looked over my shoulder to make sure we were still alone. Fae hearing—even lower Fae—was something I wasn’t about to leave to chance. “Yes, our conspiracy, as you put it. Tristan DeVayne only did this to get back his family holdings. Tavion only did it because his head was in a noose. Neither of them particularly believed in our cause.”
“But you do?”
She seemed genuinely curious, and I supposed it would not hurt for her to know what she was embroiled in. At least the parts that affected her.
“I do. Raziel does. Julian did, when he was alive. A hundred years ago, he was given a prophecy by the Oracle of Tempeste. She believed a child of pure blood could claim the Fae’s ancestral magic. The Fae King is old and corrupt and over time, the magic has grown as twisted as him. Julian believed the ancient power wanted to find a new king. Or, in your case...queen.”
“It took you a hundred years to put this together?”
“No, it took a hundred years for the plan to work. Adele was not the first, she was the only one who succeeded.” I scanned the gawking crowd. We were starting to attract attention.
“Carex and Serpens Centaria were born a thousand years ago. Carex was, technically, the king’s first-born son and was groomed his entire life to ascend the throne. When they turned three hundred, their father was assassinated. Official records claim poison, but some say an assassin hid in the royal bedchamber and slit his throat while he slept. Serpens disappeared the same night, and his twin brother…”
