Icarus stepped to my side, his wings coming around us both. “Start with Altair, then. I have a feeling Thorn will come to his senses. And Roya, if you could forgive me… Kavin, that young Alpha, is so in love with you. Give him a chance to prove his devotion.” He nuzzled the top of my hair. “I know you want him. You want all of us.”
I squirmed, but not because he was wrong. Talon made a disbelieving sound. “Icarus, what are you saying? You would allow your mate to, what, fuck her way through the available Alphas? What madness is this?”
In less time than it took to blink, Icarus had his sword at Talon’s throat. “Apologize.” I found myself purring slightly, my inner Omega approving of our strong, quick mate.
Talon swallowed, his Adam’s apple brushing the gleaming sword tip on the way down. “I do. Forgive me sister, I was… taken by surprise.”
Icarus lowered his sword slowly when I sighed. “Talon, how did you ever convince an Omega to mate you? You judge so quickly, so harshly. I can see why she fled.”
Talon’s eyes shone with fury and despair. “What do you mean?”
“Kavin has books if you need proof. But my friend Vali, the only known Omega on the continent, has five mates. King Rigol of Rimholt, and his four generals. They have children, all of them, and have made a family.”
Icarus spoke. “I spoke with Kavin on the island, Talon. He is young, but he is a scholar. According to the books he’s read, Omegas never had one mate. They always had a group of Alphas, as many as they needed to protect their center.”
Talon took a breath and burst out, “Our mother did not—”
But at that moment, Naari burst into the courtyard. “Come fast! They are killing the prince; they are killing your men!” Talon glanced at Brute, his face a mask of pain. His guard, his friend, was dying.
“Stay here,” I said. “Take care of his wounds, and then come after us.”
“The hells with that,” Brute ground out, apparently not as close to death as I’d placed him. He lifted his head, and glared. “You two guard each other. And you, girl?” I narrowed my eyes. “That’s my king and my prince there. You keep the both of them from dying, or I’ll come for you.”
I nodded, understanding what he meant. “I’ll stand for you,” I said. Talon looked utterly confounded by Brute’s demand.
Icarus merely nodded. “My warrior queen,” he murmured, handing me a sword. I secured it, making sure I had two daggers tucked into my improvised belt. On my way from the courtyard, I noted a fallen Beta who had worn gloves. I tugged one off and put it on my left hand. “What’s that for?” Icarus queried as we ran after Naari.
I didn’t answer. He wouldn’t like what I had to say, especially if he learned exactly what I planned to do, to use, to secure our victory.
A week before what was to have been my graduation, Thorn had tested me through the preparation of all the deadliest poisons and their antidotes. At the end of the test, after I’d sealed the herbs in wax, he had silently lifted my cloak and slipped the packets of adderbane and bladewort into a small pocket along the hem, and instructed me to sew it shut. When I’d asked why he’d given me, a student, those forbidden herbs, his eyes had grown stormy. “You question your instructor?”
“Thorn, the Guildmaster says no student is allowed these poisons. I could be forced to leave before graduation!” I’d stammered at the frown that peeked out from under his hood. “I don’t need them. I-I trust you to keep me safe.”
“Roya,” he’d answered, his voice lower than a whisper. “You should never let a man, no matter his position or power, Guildmaster or warlord king, tell you what weapons you can wield. I won’t always be there to stand between you and danger—that’s why I’ve trained you so thoroughly. Cover yourself with poisons and blades, little queen. Fill your mind with every scrap of knowledge you can, and keep yourself safe.”
I prayed now that the poisons and blades in my hands and the knowledge in my mind would be enough to keep myself safe—and my men.
Naari stopped us at the end of a hallway, where we could hear fighting: swords clashing, screams and grunts of pain, and shouts. “Foreigners came in a ship. Kavin’s father and a woman I do not know. She could be your mother, Roya, only her eyes are filled with death.”
Valerie!It had to be.
“And two others, smaller men who wear cloaks like your Thorn.”
Guild members. I drew the poison packets out and slit a knife down one end of the adderbane, allowing it to coat the edge of the blade. I folded the packet closed again and placed it in the sealed pocket. “Anything else?”
Naari’s eyes filled with tears. “Your Thorn is dying.”
Icarus and Talon recovered first, running to open the doors. A split second later, I followed them through, taking in the horrific scene. There was so much noise and movement, it was hard to focus on any one battle. The world around me turned golden as I scanned the room to find Thorn.
In the center of the room, Kavin was fighting like a man possessed with a sword half as tall as I was. The man he fought was the one I had seen in Verdan City—the gray-haired warlord that I now knew was his father. I didn’t have time to deal with him, and kept looking. Altair and Valerie had swords in their hands and were battling their way through a clump of guards to get to a sniveling Gullen, who had hidden in the center of a circle of Haviran Alphas and hulking Betas.
Two of the guards fought alongside Altair, thank the Goddess. I had a feeling, once Naari got back, there would be more on our side.
But it would be too late.
Across the room, past the figure of a dead Guild member—Nordin, possibly—there was a heap of what appeared to be pillows and blankets and... hair? Just beyond that lay the body of my first love.
Thorn, motionless. The man who filled the very center of my heart, who had saved me, made me into the woman I was.
