He looked up at me with glassy eyes and a faraway look. “Kill her,” he whispered, his voice graveled and choked. “Before she kills everyone else.”
And then he was gone. Dead from the poison Ravanna had been feeding him for years. And from the guilt that had taken his family.
I turned to Caspian, not knowing what else to do. “Okay.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, what?”
“Okay, I’ll marry you. If it gets me Vorestra, I’ll do it.”
We stood together, neither of us knowing what else to say. When I turned to face the army and guards, Curtis yelled, “All hail the Queen of Elysia! All hail the Queen of the Realm!”
And then the guards who had not protected the Crown of Nine and the army that had been too late to stop the Blackthorne queen, my maid, my sister, and even Caspian, dropped to one knee in reverence.
I was a queen without a crown.
A witch without much power.
A woman who had no idea what to do next.
ChapterTwenty
“Do you have a way to get word to your brother?” I asked Caspian as we marched toward the war room. The castle was upended with servants and guards and my uncle’s advisors running everywhere. Curtis had ordered my uncle’s body be prepared for burial. Maids had jumped in to the melee to tidy the throne room.
In a few minutes, it would be as though nothing had happened in that room. As though my uncle hadn’t died suddenly, thrusting the Seat of Power onto my very unprepared shoulders. As though my aunt had not just declared war and threatened to make me watch as she killed everyone I loved. As though I had not yet agreed to marry Caspian.
Everyone that had something to say or suggest had assaulted me as soon as Ravanna’s army was out of sight. But I had demanded thirty minutes of privacy to wrap my mind around all that happened. I knew it would not be enough time to accept what had happened and plan what to do next. But I couldn’t... couldn’t jump into war plans and battle strategy just yet. My uncle had died. I’d agreed to marry Caspian. After only just learning that Ravanna Pressydia was my aunt, she’d sieged the castle, stolen my crown, and threatened war. And I’d finally learned who had killed my family. Who had actually been the one to slit their throats. And who had orchestrated the whole gruesome affair. I wanted to curl up in a tight ball on my bed and cry until no tears were left.
Instead, I’d asked for a half hour and planned to use it to remember how to breathe properly. This was what it meant to be queen. And I planned to embrace this destiny as fully and stalwartly as possible.
Katrinka trailed behind us, looking unnaturally pale and utterly overwhelmed. I wanted to take her hand and promise her everything would be all right, but Elysia needed to prepare our borders for an attack. I had to find a way to warn Soravale and Barstus, assess the damage in Heprin, and send word to the remaining kingdoms—whether they had sided with Ravanna or not, nothing official had been delivered to me—and somehow stop a war before it began. Oh, and marry the prince of Vorestra.
My agenda was a little full.
“Yes,” Caspian agreed. “I’ll send a rider and a bird.”
Our steps faltered at the same time, and we shared a look. Birds could no longer be trusted.
“A falcon,” he assured me. “Non-magical in nature.”
“How can you be certain?” I asked, hating that my entire outlook on the natural world had been altered.
His lips twitched as if holding back a smile. “She laid eggs not long ago. She’s been my personal courier for a couple years.”
A grin tickled the corners of my mouth. “Okay. I think it’s safe to assume birds laying eggs are not secretly humans.”
“I would hope so.”
“Then do it. Send whatever message you need to in order to keep Vorestra allied with the Seat of Power.”
“Of course.” He shot a sidelong glance my way. “At some point, not this moment, I suppose I don’t need it exactly this moment... but I’m hoping you can offer a better explanation of what happened. Of what I saw. The birds with weapons... the Blackthorne queen... how is any of this possible?”
“You’re right to say now is not the time.” I swallowed the rising bile back down. “But you are also right in that you deserve an explanation. And I promise to give it to you. Just as soon as I...” I gestured at the flurry of movement around us, knowing I didn’t need to finish the sentence. He understood. We would communicate with those we needed to count on. Plan for what was ahead. Get married. And then... Well, there would be time to discuss birds and evil queens later. I swallowed again, only this time it was a ball of complicated nerves. “Caspian, we will marry tonight.”
He paused mid step, reaching for my hand to collect his balance. “My brother will answer the call, Princess. There is no need to doubt him. And no need to, er, to rush, uh, this.”
I let him clasp my hand, taking strength from his confidence in his brother, in his kingdom. “I do doubt your brother. But... somehow I trust you, Caspian. And that is enough for me.”
He held my gaze and smiled softly for just a moment. But it was enough to steady my racing heart and free my lungs from the invisible constraints that had increasingly tightened over the last, oh, eight hours or so. But then he let go and walked in the opposite direction I was headed and all the nerves and fears and nightmares returned.
