Rage and resolve vibrated down the bond in equal measure.
“He will pay for it,”Elyria replied.“He will pay for it all.”
His fingers folded around hers. He drew her close, the feel of her at his side grounding, calming. The sharp inhales from Barcroff and the council members, from the royal guards watching them, rang in his ears.
Cedric didn’t care.
He meant what he said before. Knew it to be true. Havensreach and Nyrundelle never needed to be at odds. They would not be again.
Cedric and Elyria would make it so, someday.
For what it was worth, King Callum barely seemed to notice the two of them. He was far too busy reeling from this new revelation, even as the toll the attack had taken on him—physically and otherwise—became more and more apparent.
“Where is Portentia?” said the king, his shoulders heaving, his face white. “Does she know what her father has done? Is she in league with him?” He looked to Kit. “You said Levia—Varyth Malchior held the crown in a blood-locked safe. How did you get past it?”
Kit nodded. “Tenny helped us. She didn’t know—doesn’t know. She is still here, in the palace, and she can?—”
“She’s not!” Tristan’s voice was wild as he raced into the throne room with a sobbing Addison on his heels.
“He came,” cried Addison, her cheeks splotchy and wet. “We thought—we thought he was there to help us. To get us out. But there had been so much chaos, so many traitors amidst the palace already. And one of the guards, Donnie, he asked a question—just one question, and—” Her words came in fits and bursts, wedged between sobs. “Aurelia help us all—he—he—” She dissolved, sinking to the floor.
Tristan’s voice was as sharp and cold as steel when he continued for her. “Donnie was already dead when I arrived. Addison said Tenny bargained for the rest to be spared. That she would go with her father willingly if he left them alone.”
Cedric’s stomach bottomed out.
“She’s gone, Ric. He has her.”
54
BEFORE THE DAWN
ELYRIA
The doorto Elyria’s borrowed bedroom shut behind her with a soft click. She sighed as she looked around the simple space—a modest bed, a side table, an oversized armchair, and one small dresser. No luxurious four-poster bed. No fireplace. No beautiful balcony with wafting curtains.
Not that she was complaining. No, this was perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually, considering this room was still intact. It hadn’t been torn apart by raging cultists, wasn’t newly decorated with a lot of not-very-nice words scrawled across the walls and floors and furnishings. In blood.
Cedric’s room had fared slightly better, but the rather pointed “fairy fucker” and “blood traitor” inked on the front of his door still madeit an easy choice to seek new accommodations for the evening.
They only needed the respite for one more night, after all.
“You’re sure about this?” Elyria asked Cedric, looking to where he sat in the chair, the moon’s rays filtering in from the window overhead bathing him in ethereal light.
“Not particularly,” he admitted, unlacing his boots. He kicked them off, one by one, then slumped back in the chair. “But I do not think we can afford to delay. The longer we wait to go after Tenny, the more opportunity Lord Church”—he grimaced—“Varyth Malchior will have to regroup, to call in reinforcements, to lay a better trap.”
“So you agree it is definitely a trap, then?” Elyria shucked her own boots off and, with a flap of her wings, flitted across the room to him. She perched on the chair’s armrest, legs dangling over the side. Stars above, she was sore. A full day of debriefing and regrouping with Cedric, Kit, Nox, Tristan, and the remaining members of the king’s council who had yet to flee the capital, not to mention the hours spent overseeing the cleanup of the palace and trying to wrangle some semblance of order in the wake of last night’s mutinous display, had left Elyria thoroughly exhausted.
With a sigh, Cedric looped one arm around Elyria’s middle and pulled her backward. She let out a light squeal as she slid onto his lap and he wrapped his other arm around her.
“It would be stupid not to assume so.” And then as if already anticipating the question sitting on the tip of her tongue, he added, “But I don’t care if it is a trap. Not if it means getting Tenny back before it’s too late.”
Elyria laid her head on his chest. “You really think he’d hurt his own daughter?”
“Had you asked me yesterday, I would have sworn up and down a dozen times over that there was no way in any quarter of hell he ever would. But now?” Cedric’s jaw flexed. “It’s as though I can feel his desperation from here. With his coup failed and his plans foiled...his identity revealed? Who knows what he will do next. We already know what he is capable of.”
“Is it bad that I’m wishing Sephone hadn’t already left?” Elyria said. “I understand her desire to get the fuck out of here as quickly aspossible, believe me. I even understand the excuses she gave. I wouldn’t trust sending a message back to Aerithia with news of what happened here either.” She inhaled sharply. “And as much as I hate the idea of her skipping home to inform my father”—her lip curled—“of all that has occurred, King Lachlandris does need to know about Malchior.”
“It was good of her to have volunteered to take Dentarius’ body back to Nyrundelle too,” Cedric said, voice low.
