A coin, half the size of her palm, propped against a small rock, already dirty and wet from the soot and rain.
She ducked under him and snatched it up before Topp could spot it or think about prying it away from her. On the front was a sword stuck in a pile of coins.
It seemed Gage was pissy and not above interrupting what he likely assumed was Elysia having sex with the prince. He was probably laughing wherever he was now. She’d completely forgotten she’d promised to go to his house this evening. Knowing she was out on a job for Beatriz, he'd gone looking for her like some worried, overbearing brother who sometimes killed people. A more nerve-racking thought struck her. She almost closed her eyes as it hit her—had word had already gotten to him about the House?Shit, shit, shit.She didnotwant to explain this evening to him.
Elysia shoved the coin into her pocket, dancing back and out of reach from Topp, into the street and heavy rain. The smell of fish and salt crashed down, mingling with the rain’s fresh scent. Remy’s dress stuck to her and she stood there for half a breath, staring at the man who held her heart and life in his hands.
She pressed her lips together with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry.” The words were quiet, but she meant them. Gods, did she mean them.
He took a step closer to her, out into the splattering rain. Frustration marred his face, and the rain flattened his ever messy woodland hair.
“Why won’t you trust me?”
She wanted to, but everything in her screamed against it.
Her whisper barely sounded over the rain. “I can’t.”
And then she ran.
Chapter 14
Topp Blatz poundedthrough the halls of the castle, his fingers clenching and unclenching. His guards fell back on days like today when they swore there was more than static charging off his fingertips.
Crown Prince of Kava, yet he had spent over half his life outside its borders. He could find no record of when the tradition had begun, but he was told that all the kingdom’s princes and princesses were trained and schooled by traveling from land to land. Making connections. Learning other customs and cultures.
For a short while, it was a great adventure. He and his older sister, Isamaya, ran amok in all the beautiful corners of the world. They went through a string of nannies and tutors who all eventually threw up their hands, exhausted by the Blatz children. Even when she was old enough to return to Kava, she stayed with Topp, wishing to stick together even if it meant putting off her own adult life. But then on one fateful trip home, Isamaya, barely into her twenties, caught an illness, and the royal line was slashed to one. It happened so fast that he hadn’t even been able to say goodbye. And then she was gone, leaving him alone and without his one constant in life.
Topp touched the thin gold band he sometimes wore on a chain around his neck. He needed her today. Her laughter, her ability to remain a light even after their mother died. She was only five years old at the time and he hadn’t even cut his first tooth.
Topp had no memories of their mother. Maybe that was why he had loved Isamaya so fiercely. She had been his closest friend and confidant, guiding and protecting him the best she could while their father was consumed with grief and trying to save their failing kingdom. Losing a wife and magic in the same year might have killed a lesser man, but Garrison Blatz had clawed his way through the black hole of his grief to do what needed to be done.
Topp had often wondered if it was as Isamaya took her last breath that whatever lived inside him had taken its first. That the undead gods had not wanted him to be so alone, and so they had both blessed and cursed him that day when he set a small storm free within his rooms and watched his pain ravage the place whole.
It was that same day after his sister’s funeral that his father took him out into the city. He’d thought Topp ought to see the part of their work that he called the family business. Topp had gone along curiously enough, happy that for once they were escaping the castle walls and getting outside. As far as he was concerned, the Crown meant pushing paper and being dragged into meetings where you were forced to sit still and pretend to pay attention.
His father did not take him to any of the places he usually conducted business, though. Instead, they walked on foot all the way into the south side of the city. He’d never spent much time there as a kid. If he was in Relaclave, then he was at the castle or making a break for the forests that lined the landlocked portion of the city.
The buildings in the south side were cleaner, their lines sharper. Made of mainly new constructions from within the last twenty-odd years, the soot hadn’t scarred their outsides as much yet. It was inevitable, though. There wasn’t anyone or anything that could escape the dirty filter of their kingdom. The buildings had a certain efficiency in this part of the city. People needed somewhere to live that didn’t steal their entire wages and the south side was happy to provide it. If the cost was beauty, then so be it.
The cobbled paths turned to smooth black as they entered Relaclave’s younger half. Topp remembered listening to his father’s feet strike down over and over, watching how assured and tall he stood, moving through his city like he was invincible. Or at least, that was how Topp saw him. An invincible beacon of truth. The hero who had saved their kingdom from decay. Garrison stopped in front of one of the short towers filled with countless little homes, all scrunched into one stilted rectangular box.
He’d questioned his father, filled with doubt. “Here?”
The king had placed a strong hand on Topp’s back. “Today is about the safety and protection of not only the Crown, but the very soul of Kava.” Garrison paused, ensuring that he had Topp’s attention. His hand moved to Topp’s shoulder as he looked him in the eye. “Magic is the antithesis to life, son. It tried to steal everything from us once.”
His hand clamped down harder, and his face drew painfully tight just as it did when anyone talked about Topp’s mother. “And I will not allow that to happen again. This kingdom will be made clean. This is the only way to keep everyone safe. You’ll see.” He looked mournful now.
He’d found there to be a strange religious undertone to his father’s words that previously he had only heard in other lands. Kava was a land of no gods after all. No magic, no gods, no faith.He hadn’t known what to make of it. Only that it made unease crawl inside his chest.
The barely hours-old secret inside him turned heavy as his father’s words played over and over in his mind. And the youthful hope that he could tell him what had happened burnt to ash inside his mouth.
They walked past an old grandfather smoking in the hall of the apartment building. The man ignored the king, perhaps did not recognize him, but then he winked at Topp with a tiny bow of his head and took another drag. Topp could still remember the intense aroma of so many different families cooking dinner all at once and how his trepidation and curiosity had grown with every step. His father stopped and rapped on a door. There was a bit of shouting, the sounds of a mother herding children, and then a tentative crack of the door.
“Yes?”
The king caught the door, prying it open a little farther. “I’m looking for a lad called Pyre. I’m told he lives here.” The king smiled pleasantly enough at the tired mother. She eyed him as any mother would, wondering if her boy was in trouble. Topp could tell she was trying to gauge her recognition of the man in front of her, but without any of the king’s usual finery, his father easily passed for any other well-groomed man of Kava. Despite being in his sixties, Garrison still had a headful of Topp’s same chestnut locks and his stone gray eyes sparkled kindly.
The woman called over her shoulder, “Jedd, there’s a man here for you.”
