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“The Blue Court was the only faction in Crescent City that sheltered people during the attack this spring,” Bryce said. “You guys went out of your way to help innocents get to safety. Appeal to that side of the River Queen. Tell her a storm is coming, and that after what went down in Asphodel Meadows, we need her to take in as many people as the Blue Court can accommodate. If there’s anyone who’s got the charm to sway her, it’s you, Tharion.”
“Ah, Legs,” Tharion said, rubbing his face. “How can I resist when you ask like that?”
Sathia, to Ruhn’s surprise, laid a hand on the mer’s knee and promised Bryce, “We’ll both go.”
“Then she’ll definitely kill Tharion,” Flynn said.
Sathia glared at her brother. “I know a thing or two about dealing with arrogant rulers.” Her chin lifted. “I’m not afraid of the River Queen.” Tharion looked like he might warn her against that, but kept his mouth shut.
“Good,” Bryce said to Sathia. “And thank you.”
“So that’s it, then,” Ruhn said. “Come dawn, we’re scattering to the winds?”
“Come dawn,” Bryce said, and her chest flared with starlight that lit up the entire countryside, “we’re retaliating.”
* * *
Ruhn was still mulling it over—what Bryce wanted to do. Opening the Northern Rift to Hel. She had to be insane … yet he trusted her. And Athalar. They surely had some other sneaky-ass shit up their sleeves, but they’d reveal it when the time was right.
Ruhn tossed and turned on his crunchy, spiky pallet of hay, unable to sleep. Perhaps that was because Lidia lay across from him, staring up at the raftered ceiling.
Her eyes slid over to his, and Ruhn said into her mind, Can’t sleep?
I’m thinking about all the Ophion agents I encountered over the years. I never knew them in person, but the people who helped me organize the strike on the Spine, and worked with me for years before that … they’re all gone now.
It wasn’t your fault.
Asphodel Meadows was aimed at your sister. But butchering Ophion, the people in the camps … that was to punish me. Ophion aided me in your escape, and Rigelus wanted revenge.
Ruhn’s heart ached. We’ll make the Asteri pay for it.
She turned on her side, looking at him full in the face. Gods, she was beautiful.
How are you feeling? Her question was gentle. After … what happened with your father.
I don’t know, Ruhn said. It felt right in the moment, felt good, even. But now … He shook his head. I keep thinking about my mother, of all people. And what she’ll say. She might be the only person who’ll mourn him.
She loved him?
She was attached to him, even if he treated her as little more than a broodmare. But he kept her in comfort all these years, as a reward for birthing him a son. She was always grateful for that.
Lidia reached a hand across the narrow space between them and found his own—his fingers still strangely pale and uncalloused. But her skin was so soft and warm, the bones beneath so strong. You’ll find a way to live with what you did to your father. I did.
Ruhn lifted a brow. You …?
I killed him, yes. The words were frank, yet weary.
Why?
Because he was a monster—to me, and to so many others. I made it look like a rebel attack. Told Ophion to get their mech-suits and be waiting for him when his car drove through a mountain pass on its way to a meeting with me. They left a flattened vehicle and a corpse in their wake. Then burned the whole thing.
Ruhn blinked. Beheading my father seems like it was much … faster.
It certainly was. Her eyes held nothing but cold anger. I told the Ophion agents in the mech-suits to take their time squashing him in his car. They did.
Cthona, Lidia.
But I, too, wondered, about my mother after that, she said quietly. About Hecuba. Wondered what the Queen of the Valbaran Witches made of her ex-lover’s death. If she thought of me. If she had any interest, any at all, in reaching out to me after he died. But I never heard from her. Not once.
