People did stupid and senseless things when in fear. The princes and I weren’t any different.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I'd heard the names they called my sister. The Red Witch. The Cursed Sister. Vermin. Names familiar to me but not ones my sister deserved.
I sat outside the dungeons, where I'd just visited her and given her food.
The princes accompanied me. Rylan had a hand clasped around my hip. He pressed me against his steady form, trying to bring comfort.
"Must she be in there?" I asked. I wanted to barge in and free her myself.
"They are holding protests outside the palace gates even now. If I give no accountability as king, then they will not see me as one anymore. We are treading on thin waters here."
"And so Bianca must die? How are they so shortsighted?"
Micah sat across us and wore a contemplative look. "Perhaps a failure of our education system. Or it could be a failure of dragon-kind itself.”
A day had passed and still the goddess had not come. I reminded myself she did not exist with the same concept of time as we did. A minute to us was not worth a second to her—or did time not matter at all?
I tried not to think too much about it. I began to hate both gods. Why create a world with so much suffering? Why fight over the state of dragon and mankind? Did it not make more sense to build a place where everyone would forever be happy?
"What are we going to do?" I asked Rylan. And then there was Frederick. We had no idea where Vancel had taken him. Rylan had guards searching all over Raynea but it seemed like Vancel was just as good at hiding as he was manipulating.
"If we have Bianca strung up, it will shut them up," Gaius said from beside me.
"That is out of the question," I said. We only kept her in the dungeons to placate the soldiers and people. Micah had word that the soldiers could turn on us at any time. They saw the red skies as an omen against the Everbornes, and despite us telling them that it was Gaean, they refused to believe one of the gods they had loved and worshipped so much had forsaken them. If that were true, it would mean their creators had no affection for them, and it would put the weight on their shoulders.
There were even rumors going around that Rylan had murdered Gisiroth. The servants saw the blood in Gisiroth’s chambers and the old king was missing.
Rylan rested his palm on the back of my hand. "I'll take care of things. At the end of it, I'll make sure nobody gets hurt, all right? That's what I'm supposed to do." He sighed. "That is the least I can do for failing you."
"Failing me?" I asked. I turned around, staring into Rylan’s blue eyes. "I don't understand."
He released a heavy breath and pulled me on his lap. The regret coming from him left a bitter taste on my tongue. He caressed my arm before pulling my jaw closer to his. He eased my mouth open, and when our tongues met, I tried to get lost in his scent and the feel of his skin. I was certain the Everborne family was related to Gaean. It explained the pseudo-mate bond we had. Some part of Gaean in them must have been attracted to the part of Aereala in me.
Kael was drinking again—the liquor was so potent I smelled despite him sitting next to Micah. "Bah. It's your fault, Rylan."
A snarl ripped from Rylan's teeth. "What do you mean?"
"Life is about chances and probability. You've been so perfect with everything as a child, the next failure needed to be catastrophic so the odds were even.” He tipped his bottle to the red sky above.
"You didn’t fail with me," I said sternly, trying to swat away the nonsense coming off of Kael's lips. "The last year had been the best of my life. I felt safe. I felt happy. What more could a girl ask for?"
Rylan hugged me tighter, encasing me with his broad frame. He pushed his hand into my hair. He moaned softly as he tasted me and my soul sung in response.
"We'll find Frederick," Rylan promised. "And I'll make sure Bianca doesn't get killed."
"I don't think you need to search for Frederick," Gaius said, glancing to the left. "He's right over there."
I ran to Frederick as quickly as my legs could take me. He stood beside two pillars, next to the hallway lining our courtyard.
"Holy carrots, Sera," Frederick said, making a praying gesture with his hands. "I thought Vancel was going to kill me."
“Holy carrots indeed.” I gaped like a fool.
“I’m alive. I’m surprised I still have my head. That dagger hurt.” Vancel had left a shallow mark on Frederick’s neck. It would heal in a week or two, but it still didn’t look pretty.
"He wouldn't kill you," I said, huffing. "We listened to his demands, and you're his bargaining chip. So he wouldn’t kill you, if only to ensure his own safety. How did you get back?" I hugged him, then checked him for more wounds, and then I hugged him again. Torley would want to see his boyfriend. He hadn’t stopped crying and blowing into tissues since we told him Frederick had been taken away.
Frederick groaned. “Okay, you're getting too touchy. I’ve already had a pretty chopped-up day. Don’t want to add unimaginable pain to that list."
I took a step back. "Sorry."
"I think he was getting sick of my vegetable puns," Frederick said. "I used every single one I knew on him. He kept asking me to shut up but I was relentless. He threatened to cut off my tongue. And then I asked him, 'Are you going to kale me?' I think that was the last straw for him. He told me I wasn't worth the trouble and left me on the palace doorstep."
I grinned so big, my face almost hurt. “I apologize for all those times I asked you to stop making puns. It saved your life.”
"Where is Vancel?” Rylan asked, quick to start talking business.
Kael threw a welcoming arm around Frederick and gave his friend a pat on the back.
Frederick scratched the back of his ear. He looked fresh, albeit a little bit peckish—his tummy rumbled and I knew he was hungry. “He had me blindfolded during the trip back to the palace. We camped over Geckari Isle Street for a little while, I think. That’s all I can recall, really.”
Micah nodded. “I’ll send for a scout team to go over there.”
“He’s probably gone,” Gaius said. “We’ve been searching for him for over a year and he’s proven to us he’s good at keeping his tracks covered.”
Frederick tapped his shoulder with a fist, likely to ease out the tension. “I need a shower and a long massage. Do you know how uncomfortable it is getting carried like livestock even though I’m a grown man? At one point, he had me picked up by the collar. The collar! I thought my robes were going to rip, and the fabric dug so much into my skin that it made it difficult to breathe.” He stopped waving his hands about and gave me a pinched expression. “So how are things going?”
I explained the whole situation with Bianca.
“People can be daft, can’t they?” Frederick asked.
“No kidding,” I replied. “I’m just glad Bianca stood up for me.”
Frederick ticked up a brow. “Now that’s a change of tune. I don’t recall you saying things like that at the council. You spent hours every day whining and complaining about your family.”
“Hours? I don’t think I’m the type to whine that much.”
Kael added, “Oh yes, you can—especially when it comes to that time of the month. Then you can’t stop talking about the council and us and the servants and Frederick and—”
“Me?” Frederick asked. “What does she say about me?”
“The smallest of things. Like how she didn’t like your hairstyle that day and it somehow, through some work of the Dragon Mother, managed to offend her. I think it’s just women. They get like that when their hormones—”
I smacked Kael over the shoulder, but because his body was rock hard, it resulted in me hurting myself instead of him. “That’s sexist.”
“You aren’t representing them well enough then,” Gaius chimed in. “Don’t blame Kael for pointing out facts.”
“Do the both of you want your bums stung by some glacilis?” I teased
.
Kael wiggled his eyebrows. Was it the alcohol or his personality that made him bolder? He caught my wrist and placed it on his ass. “I don’t mind being more inventive in bed.” He growled, sounding sexy as sin. “Who knows? Maybe I might like it.”
Frederick blushed red and coughed into his hand.
Frederick’s return had managed to calm the previous oh-no-Sera’s-going-to-die tension surrounding the princes and me. It gave me a short reprieve from all the dying and blaming and terrible prophecies threatening to drive me mad.
But then Theo Cadriel had to show, and his presence immediately soured my mood. I might have forgiven Bianca, but I hadn’t heard a word of apology from my father. I actually hated him more for putting Bianca through what he had when I was gone. He climbed up the steps, next to the courtyard in front of the dungeons.
“I was about to visit your sister,” my father said. He shrank back as he spoke. The last time we had a conversation, it was the ingorias who surrounded me. And now it was the princes. The princes were quite the sight, and despite them being more handsome than the wolves, they were also more intimidating.
“She’s right there,” I said, pointing to the wooden doors blocking the entrance of the dungeons.
My careless reply ticked my father off. My father snapped, “She is your sister!”
“And?” I asked. I did not feel hatred for Bianca but I also had no need to coddle Theo Cadriel. “You are my father. I don’t think familial obligations run that strongly in our family. It has never been the case.”
“I can’t condone this tone you are having with me. Bianca is your younger sibling, which means it is your job to make sure she’s not in the dungeons. Why is she the one in there? You’re the one with the curse. It should be you—”
I wanted to cuff my father, but Kael had already done that for me. His eyes flitted into a dragon yellow and not a hint of the cheeriness often covering Kael’s features showed.
Theo’s cheeks flared a deep red. “I-I… I just… was concerned for my daughter… Your Highness.”
“You have another daughter,” Gaius said, “and she’s standing right here before you. Have you not heard of the news about the goddess? And not once have you asked her how she felt or showed an inkling of concern.”
“It’s . . .” Theo had nothing to say.
“When did you stop seeing me as your daughter, Father?” I asked. The question flew out of my mouth, and when it did, it ached more than it should have. I knew my father had stopped seeing me as his child long ago.
Theo froze. He gazed downward and shamefully replied, “The day when your hands caught the boy’s, and you made him fall to the ground shrieking. I always wondered if you belonged to someone else. Your hair wasn’t like the rest of ours, so I always suspected your mother had an affair. When your curse was revealed and confirmed, I decided I didn’t want to have anything to do with you. But of course, we couldn’t abandon a child on the streets. My heart is not wicked enough for that.”
“I gave up so much for you.” I expected my chest to hurt more, but instead, all I felt was numb.
Theo glowered. “We had to put up a lot of trouble—”
Rylan growled, shutting my father up.
“I need to rest,” I said to Rylan. I sank into his arms. “It’s been a long day.”
Kael released Theo’s collar from his fist. My princes surrounded me, giving me the comfort I needed.
I watched Theo Cadriel amble toward the dungeons and sensed nothing but emptiness inside. A guard opened the door to let him through.
Silence permeated the air, and Frederick broke it by saying, “So . . . It’s a long walk from here to my quarters. Will any of you be so kind as to—”
“No,” Kael said.
“Aw, really? But I almost died.”
“You can walk.”
“I was so scared my feet couldn’t move.”
Kael rolled his eyes. “Then crawl.”
I elbowed Kael. “I think you should.”
He raised his brows in question and darted a confused look at me.
“You should give Frederick a lift back.”
Frederick beamed at me. He pumped his fist in excitement. “Are you serious, Sera?”
Kael took a moment to come back to Constanria. The befuddlement had sent him somewhere far off. “Yes, are you sure you haven’t gone mad?”
I smiled. “It’s not every day Frederick comes back alive. Come on, be a good friend. It’s not that hard to carry someone around. You’re a strong, muscular man and you do it with me all the time.”
“Yes, but, you’re you and Frederick—”
I shushed him with a finger.
I watched a thousand expressions flicker on Kael’s face, and then his brothers egged him on. Eventually, he caved. He sighed with exaggeration and took Frederick’s wrist in his hand.
Briefly, I saw him raise his hand to Frederick’s collar, so I quickly said, “Ah, no collaring Frederick. He’s had enough of that.”
Frederick nodded and grinned like an impish devil. “Oh, hold me gently. Not like Vancel did. Torley would kill me if he saw us but . . . Oh, my prince.”
Kael drew Frederick into his arm, gently, but there was nothing gentle in his expression. He growled like a grumpy cat, and I laughed.
“Don’t push it,” Kael and I said in tandem.
Frederick winked at me. “I’m just kidding. I’m just glad I don’t have to walk all that distance after such a scare.”
Kael groaned in annoyance before lifting off.
I blinked. This actually happened.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I gazed from my balcony of Rylan’s study, looking over Constanria. The fall was so steep beneath me. I was never the kind to give up, but everything weighed heavily in my chest. When Aereala came, I wondered if that might be a relief because that would be the end of my days.
But then I imagined the princes and my loved ones being distraught. No, dying would be more disaster than reprieve.
Even the weather was not cooperating with my mood. I used to be able to count on a blue, sunny sky to cheer me up, but today, it looked like it was drizzling blood. The red sky wept and covered the streets with a drab slick. Dragon-kind below avoided the rain because when its reflections caught the color of the sky, it looked like poison itself.
Where was Gaean now? Continually creating fires to burn off crops more quickly? He called himself the crazy one; were there other versions of him keeping this one in check? Because why didn’t he just destroy all the crops with his fires earlier?
“Kael and Gaius are contacting the head priest,” Rylan said, he closed in on me, and his heat caressed my back. “They want to see if they can do anything to stop Aereala.”
“And then what?” I asked. “We’ll be hungry, and the rest of the world will pass on with me.” I walked to Rylan’s table and sieved through his letters. They looked like the ones others had sent for me when my curse had just been revealed. Many were hastily scribbled down, not even grammatically correct—funny how insults often came from the shallow and vapid—but all venomous nevertheless. “And the people think that killing Bianca, or me, or someone, as a sacrifice will somehow make all this better.” I snorted. “I guess they’re right. Just not in the way they think they are.”
“I will come up with another way to appease them.” His voice was smooth, but it did little to soothe the ache in my chest. I latched onto to him, using him to support my unsteady emotions. I wished I could be stronger during times like these but was glad the princes could be here for me. “The priests around are already giving sermons to calm the people,” Rylan added, brushing his hand on my cheek.
“I don’t think they’re working that well.” A huge crowd had gathered in front of the palace gates, even larger than the one at the fields. Their cries were ugly. I heard their shouting from this high up.
I used to hope people would band together in times of strife to solve problems; they did, but only
against a common enemy. Due to our expedition to Gaia, we were it.
Rylan slid my hair off my shoulders and placed a kiss on the back of my neck. “Micah might find something. He’s sifting through the libraries on information about the gods. We kept looking into soul magic, but we ignored the religious texts, thinking they might be—”
“There is nothing.” I was afraid that I, the girl who’d fought through the odds, had finally found the odds too overwhelming. I hated to give up, but perhaps now was the time. Fighting got tiring after a while.
A rest sounded nice.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said. “I will travel to the ends of the Drae Lands to find an answer.”
“We searched an entire continent, one thought to be long-lost. There is no more time, Rylan. I know . . . I know it’s hard . . . but . . . promise me you’ll take care of Frederick, Bianca, and even my father who probably doesn’t deserve it. Bianca will be grief-stricken if something happens to Theo, so at least make him comfortable if not happy.”
“I can’t.” He shook his head into the nape of my neck. He made a choked sound. Tears, warm and wet, trickled past skin. Power hummed between the both of us. I gave into the comforting warmth.
That was all I felt like doing today—giving in. “You ask too much of us.”
“It’s not me who’s asking,” I said. I turned around, away from the crimson clouds to face Rylan and his dim study. He glowed despite the darkness that surrounded us. The princes would always be my light, even when they were beaten. I planted a kiss on his cheek, but it was not enough for him. He placed both hands on the sides of my head and kissed me forcefully. I didn’t think Rylan could kiss with this much passion; he gave it everything he had.
He snaked a hand around my waist and pushed me to the desk. Letters fell from it and clattered onto the ground. The letters reminded me of Bianca. “What happens if the sermons from the priests don’t work? What will they . . . what will you do to my sister?”
Fall of Dragons (Sera's Curse Book 3) Page 21
