My hands were braced on the steps in front of me, my fingers curling into the edges. I wanted to fight back. Go sword to sword. Show her what it meant to taunt and deceive and lie. But first, I needed more answers. “What gift?”
She stepped forward, her sword digging deeper into the tender middle of my torso until I felt blood trickle down my spine. “You still don’t understand? You kneel here, even now, waiting for the ultimate prize, and you still don’t get it?” She laughed a cruel, dangerous sound. “The Crown, Tessana.The Crown!Don’t you see? Your father’s line might have controlled it for all this time, but we are the ones meant to wear it. The ones it chose. Your mother was too foolish to take it from your father. So I did it for her.”
“You killed them. My parents.” Tears had begun to fall from my eyes and drop onto the backs of my hands. But I forced the words out. Made the truth ring clear. There would be time for grief, but not yet.
Tyrn let out a keening sound at my accusation. Ravanna said, “Well, not me exactly.”
“She loved me!” he screamed at his sister. “She loved me, and you made me kill her!”
My head was a hundred pounds, and I managed to only lift it high enough to meet Tyrn’s wet, sorrowful gaze. “You,” I hissed.
“She killed her husband,” he said, sounding sane but barely. “Poisoned him. Mynot was in love with her, but she didn’t care about him. She only wanted his throne.”
Ravanna didn’t argue with him. “He was in the way.”
Tyrn reached out and clutched my wet hand. “She did the same to me. Poisoned my mind. Distorted the things I saw. The things I believed. When I found your mother and father, m-my sister... I didn’t know it was me who had done those things. I didn’t know it was me.” He cried harder. “And now she’s moved her poison to my body. She’s killing me just like she did her husband, her sister”—he hiccupped a heavy sob—“our parents.”
Ravanna leaned forward and pushed his shoulder with her free hand so he fell back on his arse. She grabbed the crown from his hands and clutched it to her side. “I haven’t done anything they didn’t warrant. Stop with this self-pity, Tyrn. They deserved it! All of them deserved what they got. Our parents didn’t understand their three children’s powers and raised them to expect less than they deserved. Mynot beat me when he was drunk and had no ambition for Blackthorne or the people who live there, who depend on the throne for their well-being. Our dearly beloved sister used us to marry a king and then turned her back on us. Of course, I killed them, brother. And I would kill them a thousand more times if I could. They didn’t deserve the power they were given. Or the thrones they ruled from. They were weak, Tyrn.” She straightened, finding some of her poise again and releasing some of the sharp pressure on my back. “And it seems as though you’ve decided to follow their path.”
“You killed me,” he accused, his voice ragged and wet. “Long before you deemed me weak.”
She stepped back, pulling her sword to her side and addressing us both. “I will admit, the magic had a harsher impact on you than I had planned. But, if it consoles you any, I did not intend to kill you at first.”
“Just bend me to your will,” he screeched. “Just turn me into your willing soldier. Your puppet king.”
“Well,” she hissed. “If we’re being perfectly frank, you wanted the same thing. To rule without having to lead. To have power without having to work for it. To sit on a throne you did not deserve and will not keep.”
“He’s truly dying then?” I gasped, seeing the life go out of him even as we watched. His skin was a sickly grayish color, and his eyes were more sunken than even minutes before. I reached for his hand. “Is there no way to reverse this? To fix whatever you’ve done?”
“You want to save him?” Ravanna barked, laughing once more. “The man who hunted the realm for you with the intention to kill you? Even as a child?”
“At your bequest,” he rasped, his breath turning shallow in his caved chest. He struggled to lean back against the stairs and look up at his sister. “You wanted them all dead. But I saved two of them. Even when you had me so firmly in your control.”
Had he known I was in Heprin? Had he been the one to command Brahm Havish to send Katrinka to Barstus?
Mind control or elixir or whatever Ravanna had put him under, and he’d still managed to hide us away? He might not have magic, but I knew that had taken much willpower.
“And look where it got us!” she screamed at him, her voice shrill with rage. “You sold the Crown to a cheap substitute. Your sister’s death means nothing now. And you will rot, brother. Oh, how you will rot for it.”
I took the opportunity to roll away from both of them. My feet tangled in my dress, and it was hardly graceful, but I managed to make it to standing. I rushed toward Caspian, willing the ravens not to shoot us dead. Our guards immediately surrounded us, swords outstretched, bodies ready for battle. Or to cover us should arrows start to fall.
He stepped out of the ring of arrows and lifted his sword toward Ravanna. “You can have the Crown, but let her go. She hasn’t done anything to you.”
Ravanna’s smile was merciless. “I’m not going to kill, Tessana. I’ll let her watch as I kill everyone she loves.” Her cruel gaze found mine. “I’m sure you’ve heard about poor Heprin by now. Those peaceful monks never saw it coming, unfortunately. But I suppose Soravale won’t either. Poor dears.”
I cried out, emotion overcoming me. “I trusted you! I trusted you, and you lied to me!” I hadn’t always trusted her, but I had bonded with her recently. She’d shown me how to use magic. She’d seemed to want a relationship with me. With Katrinka.
“Darling girl, this is a kingdom built on lies.” She nodded toward the throne. “A thousand lies to make the Seat of Power. A thousand more to fashion the magical crown. And a thousand more with each generation of Allisand trying to bleed the land dry of magic and money.” There was suddenly violent pounding on the door. The Elysian army had arrived. She flicked an annoyed glance toward it, then back at us. “It’s too bad, though. We could have built a beautiful alliance. An unbreakable one. Had you not tried to steal the Crown from me.”
“I will never build an alliance with you. I will never let your evil rule this realm.”
She smiled wider. “Ah, maybe not. But his brother will. And then it will be you and some ruined kingdoms against me, the Crown of Nine, and all the power in the world.” She sheathed her sword and slipped the Crown into a pouch at her hip. “See you on the battlefield, niece. Come ready for bloodshed.”
And then she was a bird again, lifting into the sky with more grace than any natural thing should possess. Her company of ravens took flight with her, circling the room at first, cawing and swooping so that all of us had to duck and cover our heads. Then they flew out through the vents and into the sky.
The army broke through the heavy throne room doors as soon as they were gone, ready for a battle that would not happen. At least not today.
I rushed to my uncle’s side, grasping his hand in mine. “Tyrn,” I croaked. “What can I do?”
