Fear of Fire and Shadow

by S. Young

  Kir sighed. “I didn’t know it was you. I got word that a fancy gent and lady were here and I knew the markiz would be interested.”

  I gaped, feeling disoriented and lost. “The markiz?”

  Kir nodded grimly. “Things have been changing in Vasterya for a while now, Rogan.”

  Wolfe frowned. “Changing how?”

  Gesturing to the bed for us to sit, Kir slumped down into the armchair opposite. As I took a seat beside Wolfe on the bed, I noted how much older Kir appeared than Wolfe, despite them being the same age. It would seem life had treated my old friend with more unkindness, or at least difficulty, after his escape from Syracen.

  “Who do you think set up the rookery, Wolfe?”

  Wolfe sucked in a breath. “Markiz Solom.”

  “What?” I squeaked, any color in my cheeks surely having leached out now. What on haven were they talking about? Why would the markiz create the rookery?

  “The markiz cottoned on to the fact that the princezna’s powers were weakening in Vasterya. Suddenly, all these ideas and feelings he had buried inside himself were bursting forth, being allowed free rein. Markiz began making plans.”

  “What kind of plans?” Wolfe asked.

  “I was working for him, he found a Glava useful, and he paid me well. When things began to change, he put his plan to take over the sovereignty into action.”

  My stomach plummeted. “Take over the sovereignty? Is he insane?”

  “Yes.” Kir nodded. “Quite possibly. He’s training an army. He paid me to create the rookery, hoping a gangland at the border of the city would deter outsiders from visiting and then carrying tales of the markiz back to Silvera. So far, it’s worked.”

  Wolfe was frowning. “I sent men in only a few weeks ago. There was no mention of an army.”

  “No, there wouldn’t have been. The army is trained out in the west near the sand dunes. And the people of Pharya are almost religious in their belief in the markiz and would never betray him. Without the Dyzvati power, these people are easily brainwashed, especially with food and money.” He snorted and gestured around him. “Even I’ve been brought low by it.”

  I narrowed my eyes, understanding his role in this. “You would have let him do this? Bring an army into Silvera? Betray Haydyn?”

  My old friend remained expressionless as he replied in a flat voice, “I suspected Haydyn was unwell and that it was being dealt with. I expected this madness to be over soon and that I would return to working for the markiz who would remain a markiz, not a kral.”

  Remembering the boy who had fought so savagely against Syracen when he hurt me, who had taken a lashing unlike anything I had ever seen, I wanted to believe him. But there was a hollow darkness in Kir’s eyes that hadn’t been there those many years ago.

  Wolfe cleared his throat, breaking the strained look Kir and I shared. “So what were you planning on doing with us?”

  “Making sure you weren’t spies. I thought the markiz would pay good money for you. And he certainly would pay good money to get his hands on the captain of the Royal Guard and the Handmaiden of Phaedra.” Kir shook his head, grinning wryly. “But he won’t find out about you. I would never let any harm come to either of you.”

  I exhaled sharply, my relief palpable. “Thank you, Kir.”

  He threw me a boyish smile, one so genuine we could have been children again, planning new ways to harass Syracen, consequences be damned. He looked me over, and his gaze sharpened. “Rogan, sweetheart, look how well you turned out.”

  Wolfe stiffened beside me while I laughed off Kir’s roguishness. He’d been a terrible flirt even as a boy. In fact, he’d once kissed me on the cheek when he’d accompanied Syracen on a visit to the palace. Kir had gotten away from him and come to find me. I think I’d been hiding out in the gardens, terrified to be in the same building as Stovia. Sensing my unease, Kir had teased me into playing a game of tag. A few games in and we heard Syracen bellowing for Kir from the bottom of the gardens. Kir’s eyes had hardened but when he saw me watching, he’d turned his bright smile on me and swooped down, planting a kiss on my rosy cheek, promising he’d return for me.

  “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  His expression told me he disagreed before he turned to Wolfe. “What about you, Wolfe? How is life treating you these days? Got a wife yet?”

  Wolfe grunted.

  Kir chuckled at the captain’s monosyllabic response. “Well, you look like you both could do with a bath and some food.”

  Haydyn’s face swam across my vision. “Actually, Kir, we really need to leave.”

  “Where are you traveling to?”

  I wasn’t sure we should share that information with Kir, and apparently Wolfe agreed when he lied. “Ryl.”

  Wolfe didn’t quite trust Kir either. I felt a pang of guilt that I shoved away. Nothing and no one could get in our way of saving Haydyn. Not even an old friend.

  Kir nodded. “Well, you’ll need horses, which I can supply, but I need time to acquire them. I have a lot of explaining to do to the gang, and well … you both look like you could do with some freshening up. Let me have the bath filled, and Wolfe, you need to take care of that wound.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but Kir shook his head. “It’ll take me time to get the horses, so you may as well bathe and rest here in the meantime.”

  Kir had men fill the bathtub with hot water, and I left the room with Kir while Wolfe bathed. He took me to another room down the hallway, away from the gang members. It, too, was kept quite clean—a couple of armchairs, painted theatre posters on the chipped walls. I sat down, confused by the strange mix of alien and familiar in being with Kir. I smiled in thanks as he handed me a glass of water, which I greedily drank.

  My eyelashes fluttered when Kir touched my face, but he was just tipping my cheek to the side for a better look. His green eyes darkened to the color of the forest at night.

  “Who did that?” he bit out.

  Not really caring if I got Jesper in trouble, I told him. Kir cursed profusely yet his fingers were gentle on my skin as he stroked my cheek.

  “I’ll kill him for that.”

  I pulled away when his gaze dipped to my mouth. “Please don’t.”

  He quirked an eyebrow, retreating. “You don’t want me to punish him for beating you?”

  “I think I punished him enough.”

  Kir laughed. “I forgot how bloodthirsty you can be. What did you do to him?”

  I told him, and Kir laughed harder.

  Wiping tears from his eyes, he sighed, his expression soft with nostalgia. “I have missed you, little Rogan.”

  Smiling sadly, I shrugged. “It’s been a long time, Kir.”

  “It has,” he agreed. “But we went through a lifetime together in only a year.”

  As we both remembered, a chilly silence fell over the room. I flinched, still hearing his screams as the captain of the Guard lashed him over and over again with the horsewhip.

  “Do you dream about it?” he asked so quietly, I almost didn’t hear him.

  My teeth clenched tightly as I gave him an imperceptible nod.

  His rough hand clasped mine. “No one understands, Rogan. How could they? No one understands but you.”

  I nodded, feeling as if the last eight years were melting away and I was huddled in Kir’s arms as we cried together by a campfire. In Silvera we saw one another once or twice a month, but I remembered how empty I felt when I heard he had run away, like some of kind of bond between us had snapped. “You left me,” I whispered.

  His features hardened as if he were in pain, and he grasped my hand tighter. “I had to get away, Rogan, please understand.”

  “I do,” I replied. “I do.”

  “You could stay. Here. With me.”

  Shocked, I could only stare at him.

  His lips quirked up at the corner. “It’s not such a strange request. We were close once. We loved one another as children.”

  Tears stung my
eyes because what he said was true. We had clung to one another with a fierceness born of our grief, and we’d tried to protect each other. “I can’t stay, Kir. Haydyn needs my help. I can’t stay.”

  “She is ill, then?”

  Biting my lip, I gripped his hand tighter, pleading with my eyes. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

  His eyes widened and he cupped my cheek. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  I believed him.

  But …

  “What about Wolfe?”

  Kir frowned. “What about Wolfe?”

  “You seem surprisingly friendly with him considering you had to live with his family for a year.”

  As I studied him, his eyes narrowed. “I have no problem with Wolfe. He was a good lad when we were young. As much a victim as any of us.”

  I struggled to breathe evenly. My heart thudded hard. How could Kir … what did Kir know that I didn’t? How could Kir forgive when I couldn’t? “What do you mean?” I was desperate to know. I needed to know.

  He leaned in close, his expression quizzical. “Why do you care?”

  “I—” I had no answer for him. And even if I did, I would have been distracted by the heat that sparked to life in his eyes just as his mouth descended toward mine. Kir was going to kiss me!

  Was I going to let him?

  “Boss.”

  Kir pulled back, muttering curses under his breath. He whipped around.

  Jesper stood in the doorway, grinning at us. “The Hawks want to talk to you, Boss.”

  “The Hawks?” I queried, confusion wrinkling my brow.

  Kir smiled and pulled me to my feet. “My gang are called the Hawks.”

  I threw him a sardonic look. “Why? Because you always catch your prey?”

  He grinned wickedly. “Always, beautiful Rogan. Always.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and he laughed, and by the way Jesper’s mouth fell open in surprise, I was guessing it wasn’t something Kir did often.

  “I’m sure Wolfe will be finished with the tub. Why don’t you go along and check and I’ll be back soon with some food?”

  We strolled down the hall together, and when he and Jesper disappeared around a corner, I was so in a stew about what had almost happened between us, I forgot to knock.

  “Oh,” I gasped as Wolfe stood before me shirtless, droplets of bath water falling from the strands of hair at the nape of his neck to his shoulders, running in tantalizing rivulets across his muscled abdomen.

  He was beautiful.

  My gaze followed the trickle like a magpie following a diamond … and then I gasped again at the raised scar on his lower stomach. “What …” I trailed off as Wolfe wrenched a shirt over his head, covering what I had just seen.

  Wolfe had been branded.

  A dark horseshoe burn scar branded his lower stomach.

  Who would do such a thing?

  “Wolfe—”

  The door burst open, slamming into my back. I stumbled forward.

  “Oh, Rogan, I’m sorry.” Kir righted me as he came in, patting my shoulder in apology. “It’s just—we have a problem.”

  “What kind of problem?” Wolfe refused to look at me.

  “I’m about to have a bloody mutiny on my hands if I don’t hand you over to Solom.”

  I paled, instinctively wanting to edge closer to Wolfe. Reminding myself I was an independent woman, I stiffened my spine in resolve. “So what do we do?”

  Kir’s stare pinned Wolfe to the wall. “I’m sorry, Brother, but I had to.”

  Panic made my heart race. “Had to what? What’s going on?”

  “Does she know? About your …?”

  Wolfe nodded stiffly.

  Kir relaxed. “I know you tried to keep it hidden, but it was the only thing I could barter with.”

  “I understand.”

  My head swiveled between them. “Understand what?” I snapped in burning frustration.

  Finally, Kir turned to me. “I told them about Wolfe being a mage.”

  I gasped. “You knew?” Suddenly, I felt hopelessly betrayed. What was it that these two men shared? Why was Kir so amiable to Wolfe? Why couldn’t he have told me he and Wolfe were friendly? Why was I the only one who didn’t really know Wolfe?

  And why on earth did it bother me so much?

  Kir nodded. “Yes, I know. I managed to convince the Hawks that we could sell Wolfe to Solom.”

  “No!” I yelled, outraged at the idea. “Over my dead body! No!”

  The two of them raised their eyebrows at me and grinned.

  What on haven were they grinning about?

  Then it dawned on me.

  I flushed in mortification. “You’re not really going to sell him, are you?”

  Kir huffed in indignation. “Of course not. I’m going to let them think I am. They’re sending a messenger to Pharya to have someone come and collect Wolfe. That someone should be here in a few days. For now, I want you to rest up for the night, have some food. And then tomorrow when I come to get you, we’re going to pretend Wolfe blasted me with his powers and you escaped, when really I’ll be letting you out the back door where I’ll have a couple of horses waiting.”

  I impulsively threw my arms around him, drawing him in for a hug. Kir laughed and held me tight against him. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “Worth it just for the hug.”

  Later, after I’d bathed and both Wolfe and I were fed, Kir apologized before leaving and locking us in the bedroom. Wolfe had claimed the armchair, so I lay down on the bed, thinking about Kir, about Wolfe, and about the horseshoe brand marring Wolfe’s body.

  “I was surprised at your vehement refusal to let Kir sell me to the markiz,” Wolfe remarked. “I thought you wanted me dead.”

  “I thought you wanted me dead,” I replied honestly, turning to look at him. His handsome face was a mask of complete shock.

  Shock that soon gave way to fury.

  “What do you mean, you thought I wanted you dead?”

  Was he really so surprised I’d think that?

  I’d had his father killed.

  I was so weary of a sudden. I didn’t want to be locked in a room with a man I realized I didn’t know at all. I wanted wildflowers and summers by the stream. I wanted tobacco in the air and lemonade on the tongue.

  Why would Kir protect Wolfe? Why would Wolfe protect me?

  Fighting tears, I turned my back to him. “Never mind,” I finally answered. “I’m just starting to realize I don’t know you at all.”

  “Yes, you do,” came his hoarse response. “You just hate that I’m not what you need me to be.”

  Trying desperately to ignore that enigmatic comment, I slammed my eyes shut … and dreamed of my little brother’s laughter.

  Chapter 16

  The mattress on Kir’s bed was lumpy and uncomfortable so I tried to blame my lack of sleep on it and not on my hyperawareness of Wolfe.

  I kept seeing that brand on his stomach, the pain in his eyes when he caught me looking at it, the secrets and friendship I knew he shared with Kir. There was something I was missing.

  I’d assumed that because I’d wanted revenge on the man who destroyed my family that Wolfe would want it too. But maybe Wolfe wasn’t built like me. Maybe I was wrong and Haydyn had been right all along.

  My guilt was compounded by Wolfe’s tossing and turning. The need to offer him comfort came over me, and I curled my hands into fists to stop myself reaching for him. When at last his breathing evened out, the tension drained from my weary body and I relaxed into the mattress beneath me. With his fall into slumber, I finally found my own.

  Too quickly, I was awoken by someone shaking my shoulder. Forgetting where I was, I assumed in my semiconscious state that Haydyn had come into my bedroom with some delicious secret. Last time she’d awoken me this early, it was to tell me she’d lost her virginity to Matai.

  “What now?” I mumbled. “You with child?”

  “What? Rogan, wake up,”
an irritated voice snapped.

  Wolfe.

  I shot up on the bed and cracked my head off his. “Ow.” I winced. Wolfe’s face hovered inches before mine, his pale-blue eyes narrowed in pain. He rubbed his forehead, already swollen in the upper corner from the blow he’d taken yesterday.

  “It’s like waking the dead,” he grouched as he retreated across the room.

  I rubbed my cheek sleepily and then cried out at the pain that shot up my face. “Wow, that hurts,” I whimpered and watched warily as Wolfe’s face turned black as a thundercloud.

  “If I see him again, I’m going to kill him.”

  No need to ask who he was talking about. “Does it look awful?”

  Wolfe walked over to me and lowered to his haunches so we were at eye level. The air whooshed out of my body as he reached up to touch my bruised cheek, his features etched with concern and some other emotion I couldn’t quite decipher. I had the urge to buss into his touch like Haydyn’s cat, Z, when one of Cook’s cakes was in the vicinity.

  A hot rush of tingles exploded across the top of my skin as our eyes connected. My stomach flipped. I couldn’t breathe.

  Clearing my throat, I pushed his hand away and stood, brushing past him with such force I almost knocked him on his ass. There was a mirror above the fireplace, dirty and broken, but it had enough of a reflection to show the red-and-purple swelling on my right cheek. Beautiful.

  I sighed and caught Wolfe’s eyes in the reflection. “Is it almost time?”

  He nodded, frowning. A strange tension sprung up between us. If I were honest with myself, it had been there since we’d been taken by the Iavii. For someone who had spent the last decade quarreling with Wolfe, I had never once been this ill at ease around him. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. I was so afraid of what it meant, so afraid of disappointing my family’s memory.

  The key turned in the door lock and Kir was there, smiling and befuddling me even more.

  “You ready?” he asked, shutting the door and striding in, every inch the confident rookery gang leader.

  I didn’t look at Wolfe. “Yes.”

  “Great—” Kir cursed under his breath as he reached me, his hand cupping my chin. “That looks bad this morning.”