by Gwynn White
She rubbed her stomach. “Not yet. But soon. I can feel he’s getting restless.”
Tatiana tilted the informa down so Axel could see Lynx’s pregnant belly. A flurry of emotions flashed across his face: sorrow, regret, adoration, hatred. The intensity of it made Lynx shiver.
Lynx smiled at him. “And yes, I couldn’t do this without Tao.”
“I know. I will be forever in his debt for taking care of you while I can’t.” His face softened. “You have no idea how much I love you.”
“I do. You took a poisoned quarrel for me. I don’t know how I will ever repay you.”
Determination illuminated Axel’s face. “I know.”
Lynx’s eyebrows shot up.
“Come with me. You and Tao and your baby. I can’t promise you safety or comfort, but other than that, everything I have is yours.” His face was so intent, Lynx and Tatiana leaned forward to get closer to him. “I anticipate that my trip to the palace will be short—very. Then I’ll come for you all.”
Tears swamped Lynx’s eyes. “I would go with you just for your smile, Axel, but Tao and I have ice crystal trackers now. We can’t leave the forest without them killing us.”
Axel exhaled sharply, and a crushing shadow of defeat flashed across his face. It was gone almost before Lynx recognized it. Axel reached up to touch her. That was impossible, and his hand dropped from view. “Ice crystal is beautiful, my Lynxie. One day, I promise, I will take you to Treven and show you what it looks like when the sun gleams through it.”
“I’d like that.” Doubt laced her voice. “To believe ice crystal could be good would be . . . wonderful.”
“That’s what I’m fighting for, my love. So we can stand together in peace in a place so beautiful it takes your breath away. I won’t give up until you’re free.”
“Then you will come for me?” she asked, full of hope.
Axel laughed. “Try to stop me!”
Lynx brushed a tear away. “Until then, we both have work to do. Tao and I will raise my son, and when he is sixteen, old enough to raid an egg, we will hand him to you.” Her voice dropped. “Help him fulfill all we need him to do.”
“I make you an oath.”
Lynx smiled. “Winds! Axel Avanov, I will hold you to that.” She licked her lips and then shot a glance at Tatiana. “Can I keep this informa?” A seductive smile at Axel. “Then you can talk dirty to me at night.”
“Not my informa. Not my decision.” He gave her an equally sizzling look. “But in principle, definitely. I would love to talk dirty to you.” He frowned. “It will have to be carefully encrypted, though. I don’t want to risk your life by letting Lukan know we’re talking.”
“Can you do that?”
“I can, and I will.”
Lynx poked a finger at the device. “How long will it last?”
“A lifetime. Guard it well, my Lynxie, and we will never really be apart.”
A voice called to Axel, and he looked away from Lynx. She didn’t hear what the person said, but when Axel faced her again, he looked irritated. “We’re about to tether in Cian. I have to go.” A tender smile for her. “Until next time, my love.”
The connection broke.
Lynx stood and waddled across the room to the window. She stood with her back to Tatiana. “I’m sorry for doubting you. It seems my debts mount up.” She turned to face her friend. “I make you an oath that one day I will repay you tenfold for what you have given me.”
She winced and slumped forward, clasping her belly.
Tatiana stood to help her. “I think you already have.”
Chapter 42
Axel jumped the last rung on the airship ladder and looked around the busy airbase for his ride to the palace. A steam carriage awaited him. He had expected his father to be here, but Felix was conspicuous by his absence.
Axel wasn’t sorry. It would’ve been a frosty meeting indeed. Also, he didn’t want his father snooping around here today. Not with his sister and Stefan hiding out in a hanger on the base. The airship they were supposed to be on had left as scheduled, but now carried nothing more than additional supplies for Axel’s war effort in Treven. Stef and Mali would leave Cian today with him, once Axel had finished at the palace.
Axel turned to his escort, three airmen who had accompanied him from Treven. “Officers, dismissed.”
They saluted and headed off toward their barracks.
Axel made his way to the steam carriage and grimaced; the last thing he wanted was to go hunting with either his father or his cousin, especially now he knew, without a doubt, that they had both lied to him about Lynx and Tao.
A shiver of lust and longing stirred as he thought about talking dirty with Lynx. Despite being bloated with pregnancy, he burned for her as much as he ever had. What he wouldn’t give to make love to her and then to hold her in his arms for hours as they caught up on everything that had happened to them both.
It wasn’t to be. Thanks to Lukan and his father.
He despised them so much he couldn’t even summon a smidgen of guilt over all the lies he had told them over the past months.
King Chad and his almost eighty thousand people were still very much alive. A truce-breaking Lapisian army had already joined Chad in the mines. They waited for Axel’s arrival in Cian for his “glory feast,” as King Jerawin called Axel’s visit, so they could start the next stage of the war.
Axel paused in his steps, pulled out his informa, and sent the three kings a pre-coded message. Once they received it, Jerawin would instruct his army to attack. This first assault to recapture the mines would be with traditional crossbows. More sleight of hand, Axel hoped the attack would fuel his cousin’s paranoia and greed for ice crystal.
If Lukan fell into the trap, Axel would probably be sent straight back to Treven. As soon as Axel arrived back at the mines, he would deploy the shotguns. If it all went according to plan, the next time he returned to Cian would be at the head of Nicholas’s conquering army. Years away, it would give him plenty of time to weaken Lukan and his Dragon with a sustained, low-key war of attrition in Treven.
He shoved his informa back into his pocket, hoping all his allies’ gods were in a good enough mood to help the process along.
The driver of his steam carriage saluted and swung open the door for him. Axel saluted back and hopped inside. The door clanged shut behind him. He was about to sit on the velvet-clad bench when he heard a familiar voice.
“Care to explain what happened to your finger? Or should I guess? It was part of your pact with Chad and our other enemies.”
Every drop of Axel’s blood seemed to rush to his feet. He slumped down onto the bench to face his father. Of course Felix would be here. Just as surely as he had monitored Axel. It was naïve to have imagined anything else.
But did he know about Mali and Stefan? His father’s face was giving away no secrets. Axel would be equally as shuttered about them.
“If you already knew, then why are you asking?” Axel asked coolly.
The carriage moved forward with a jerk and a squeal of steam.
“I hope that if you explain it to me, I will understand why you have chosen to risk your own life and your family’s in such a reckless, brainless, traitorous pursuit!”
“My motives are very clear. I stand for a world in which you and Lukan can never again embed the people I love with ice crystals.”
“Pah! You would risk your sister’s life for this? Lucky for you, I am still leagues ahead of Lukan in encryption, so he knows nothing of your perfidy.”
Against his better judgment, anger stirred like a waking dragon in Axel’s breast. He leaned forward and snarled, “Malika would never doubt my love for her, just as she would never question putting my loyalty and care for our cousin Tao before her immediate needs. Not to mention protecting her friend Lynx. She knows that there are greater priorities in this world than just protecting her.”
Felix slapped his palm down onto his knee. “There is nothing in this
world more important than protecting your immediate family, other than preserving the Avanov throne. You would do well to remember that, Axel.”
“I did protect Malika. In fact, I did more for her than you did. I gave Lukan his flaming ice crystal mines in exchange for her freedom. And I allowed my best friend to be beaten almost daily to protect her. What did you do, Felix?”
Axel’s father flinched at the use of his proper name. “I balanced the needs of my family, protecting all of you, while still keeping the throne intact. It is that order of things that has made the Avanov family great for four hundred years.”
“So that’s your excuse for not sticking a dagger into Lukan the minute he dared threaten Malika?”
“A dagger would not have worked, Axel. You know that as well as I do.”
Axel rolled his eyes at his father’s cowardice. “Why? Doesn’t Lukan bleed like the next man? Funny that, but I saw him snivel often enough when his father punched him.”
Felix leaned back in his seat with a sigh. “Don’t you think I would have loved nothing more than to kill the cretin?”
“Once, yes, I might have believed that, but now—” Axel waved his arms around as if that explained everything.
Another pained sigh from his father. “It’s no longer as simple as it once was. Lukan is now protected by the Dmitri Curse. The only person who can destroy him is Nicholas the Light-Bearer.”
Axel didn’t bother hiding his surprise that his father admitted to Nicholas’s existence.
“Yes, Nicholas. Lynx’s traitorous son. Unless we can work around him, there is no deposing Lukan to put a more cooperative emperor—you—on the throne.” Felix’s voice sharpened. “And your way of working with our enemies is not how we get around Dmitri’s vile scourge, either.”
So his father still dreamed of putting him on the throne? Axel shook his head in disbelief.
His father must have mistaken his silence for compliance, because he said, “I know exactly what you want, Axel, and I will give it—her—to you, if you will work with me on this.”
Felix’s words snared Axel. “Her?”
“Yes, her. Give up all this rebellion in Treven, and Lynx is yours. The ice crystal will be safely removed from her neck, and her marriage to Lukan will be annulled. She will become your wife, if that is what you choose.”
It grated Axel that his father had obviously listened in on his conversation with Lynx, almost as much as it seared him to admit how tempting his offer was. But he rubbed his jaw, seeing nothing but obstacles. “And Lukan will agree to this? I can’t see that happening. Not in a million years.”
“I will program Morass to arrest Lukan. With the Final Word embedded in Lukan’s neck, he will be a spent force. We can keep him isolated until natural death takes its magnificent course. In the meantime, you will be crowned emperor. That will be a condition of Tao’s release.”
Axel could hardly believe what he was hearing. After lying to him about Lynx and Tao, both to his face and via the informa message, his father expected him to believe that Lynx and Tao could be freed? He sat back and stared at Felix.
Then because it was all so unbelievable, he asked, almost by way of a joke. “And what happens to Nicholas?”
Felix pursed his lips and shot a poisonous look at the carriage ceiling. “He should never have been conceived, but nothing can change that now. Still, I believe there are subtle ways of redirecting the Light-Bearer so he is no longer a feature of the curse.”
“Oh, you mean you won’t just kill him?”
An impatient flick of Felix’s handkerchief. “Stop being obdurate, Axel. You know as well as I do that the day someone kills him, Chenaya’s greatest general—you—will murder the ruling emperor and his cohorts.”
So that was what gave the Dmitri Curse teeth! Axel started and then caught himself just in time before betraying his surprise.
“Of course,” he said, as if he had always known that explosive revelation. “But if I am the ruling emperor, that would surely fall away?”
“I believe the Light-Bearer also enjoys Dmitri’s protection. In addition, Lynx has called upon her Winds to guard the boy. Like with Lukan, it would be tempting all kind of retribution if we harm him.”
“Then what do we do with him? Stuff him full of ice crystal?” Axel asked, trying to determine Felix’s plans for Nicholas.
“That goes without saying. But it is more complex than that. As in everything, we have losers and winners. But the loser who worries me the most right now is Tao. He deserves a son. The boy will be his. This small deception will be part of our negotiations with Lynx and Tao. The Light-Bearer must never learn who his true father is.”
“And you think Tao raising Nicholas will solve the imperative of the curse?”
“The wording of the curse is clear: a crown prince will rise up and destroy his emperor father. If Tao is never to be emperor and Lukan dethroned and imprisoned, the boy will never be a crown prince. Thus, he will have no incentive to fight anyone.” Felix’s eyes beseeched Axel. “Please, my son, see the wisdom in this.”
“I was under the impression Grigor and Meka are Tao’s boys?”
A dismissive hiss from Felix. “Tatiana. She can be so fanciful. The boys are no bigger than kittens and are barely clinging to life. Who can tell who they actually look like?” Felix’s eyes gleamed with malice. “They probably won’t even survive their first birthday.”
Axel shivered with fear for those unknown boys. How his father could ever believe him capable of agreeing to infanticide was beyond him.
Guilt bit. Not so long ago, he had been all in favor of murdering Chad’s babies to secure the ice crystal mines for Mott. How the world had changed. Pity his father hadn’t kept up with the times.
“And anyway,” Felix added, “Kestrel has been Lukan’s whore for longer than she was Tao’s wife. She has publicly stated that her marriage to Tao was never consummated. Other than Tao, there is no one alive to dispute that. He must agree to silence.”
Felix glanced out the window. “We are almost at the palace. This must be finalized before you meet with Lukan today. Accept my terms, and we will say nothing more of the Treven incident. I will even clean up all those shotguns for you. When our guardsmen have finished scouring those mines, there won’t be a person left who knew you were involved.”
Axel swallowed a mouthful of bitterness. “So, genocide, followed by a rewriting of history.”
“Not for the first time in the annals of our history. We’re Avanovs: We dare where others quail. But as part of that cleansing, I will expect you to handle and control Lynx, because there will obviously be some fallout in Norin.”
Axel folded his arms and canted his head, wondering if Felix was stupid enough to think he’d accept this deal. “And if I don’t agree?”
“Why wouldn’t you? I’m giving you everything you want and more.”
“You know what astonishes me the most?” A raised eyebrow from Felix. “Since Lynx arrived in my life, all you have done is connive, manipulate, and lie to me. Dragon’s ass! You even got me shot.”
Felix shot forward in his seat. “I got you shot? I did everything I could to see you safely transported to Norin!”
“You planned to kill Lynx when you knew I wanted nothing more than to protect her, so it amounts to the same thing. You might just as well have pulled the trigger on that crossbow.”
Felix’s eyes bulged, and his hand clutched his chest.
Axel hammered on, “And if that isn’t bad enough, you sat in Lukan’s office, looked me in the eye, and told me Tao and Lynx had fled to Kartania. Why should I believe any deal you offer me? Next thing I know, you’ll be betraying me to Lukan!”
“Me betray you? I had no choice in any of these things you accuse me of. And how was I to know you’d be stupid enough to jump in front of a poisoned quarrel?”
Axel slammed his hand against the side of the carriage. “Because I’m your son! You taught me to do anything to defend the people I love.
” He fell silent, shocked at that realization.
Even Felix didn’t react.
With just the sound of their heavy breathing, the air hung heavy in the carriage.
“Yes, Axel, you are my son, and that is why I will do all I can to protect you, just like I protected Malika.” Felix took Axel’s hand, squeezing it hard. “She’s safe now, and so is Stefan. They are on an airship as we speak, heading for Treven.”
At the conviction in Felix’s voice, Axel allowed a tiny sigh of relief to escape him.
“And once we remove Lukan from the throne, we will experience the joy of having their children—my grandchildren, your nephews and nieces— around us daily. I did that, Axel. It was my success, achieved without heroics and shotguns, with nothing but patience and careful planning on my side. I offer to do the same for you, if you let me help you.”
Axel pulled his hand away. “How did that message you sent me on your informa protect Mali or help me?”
His father’s voice spiked. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that! I risked Lukan’s wrath to give you my personal informa, filled with vital information to bring you up to speed on his plans. It’s thanks to me you even know about the rifles. And I stand by every word I said in that message. Going after Lynx at that time would have been reckless and foolhardy. Things have now changed, and we will act accordingly.”
They arrived at the palace, and the carriage juddered to a halt.
Felix grabbed both of Axel’s arms. “Are we in agreement? Because if so, I will flip the switch in Morass’s head right now. He will arrest Lukan, and Lynx and Tao will be with you by dinnertime. I will also call back Malika’s airship, and we will be reunited as a family.”
Despite all his anger and doubt at his father, hope bubbled up in Axel. Just one word from him, and Lynx and Tao’s torment would be over. They would be free. Nicholas could grow up as a normal boy in the palace, not as some feared pariah banished from all humanity. Axel leaned back against the bench and closed his eyes, imagining Lynx in his arms.
