“We know how beloved Kaila is to our people. She can sell it,” my brother says with a definitive nod.
“We will have to move fast,” Keon says. “As soon as we can, we will need to visit Sixth, do some sort of ceremony to honor Midas’s life, make you the grieving betrothed for them to sympathize over.”
If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s to make a kingdom love me.
“I can do that.”
More sharp, gasping wails behind us make me want to grit my teeth, and I spare Mist another look.
She will still have to be dealt with.
If I’m going to try and take Sixth, I certainly cannot have her bastard heir being born from her womb. But that will be a problem for another day.
“There will be a lot happening now,” I go on quietly. “Once the other monarchs find out about Lady Auren’s ability to steal power, they’ll want to get involved. Plus, there’s the issue of Fifth.”
“I actually have an idea about that,” Manu says, and my attention immediately sharpens.
My brother isn’t my advisor for nothing. He has a brilliant mind, knows how to play a room, knows how to read people, and above all, he will always be loyal to me.
“Since our focus now needs to be on how to secure Sixth, as well as how to take care of Lady Auren, the last thing we want is to lose all the work we’ve done to create a foothold here in Fifth. So, I propose that we immediately put in the search for the closest kin of Fulke, because now that the prince is dead, Ranhold needs an heir. We will track down whichever ones have power, and sift through the best candidates. Thenwewill choose which heir gets the throne.Wewill determine who takes power. And in exchange for our support...they will support us, and us alone.”
I smile. “You are perfect, brother.”
He gives me a matching grin.
“And if anyone tries to oppose us in claiming Sixth or with having our hand in naming a Fifth heir?” Keon questions worriedly.
My smile grows sharp, twisted with ruthlessness. “Any voice that speaks up against me, won’t have a voice to use after that.”
And if Lady Auren thinks she can take what I’ve worked for, she’s going to realize soon that she’s not the only one who knows how to steal what she wants.
I may not have gold-touch, and I may not have rot, but words are the most powerful weapon of all, and I will wield them.
CHAPTER 2
SLADE
There’s a tempest dredging thesky, while I hold a lifeless body in my arms.
The impending storm is coming in with bared, frozen teeth to scrape the air with malice, its sharp frigidity beating at my face as it roars.
In my head, I’m counting the seconds. It took sixty for my timberwing to get to me, called from the whistle bursting between clenched teeth. Another forty to get on Argo’s back, for Lu to strap me in as I held Auren in my arms.
Another sixty seconds has taken us here, into the clutches of the clouds that are closing in. The night’s weather has decided to turn on me, the signs of an impending storm clogging the horizon like tufts of cotton in a drain.
Ice scrapes against my cheeks like jagged fingernails as my timberwing rushes on. I hold Auren closer, keeping my cloak over her, angling her face against my chest as my arms tuck her tightly to my body.
She’s too cold, too exposed, toostill.
Her heart doesn’t beat, her chest doesn’t rise, her skin has gone sallow. All because of me. Because of what I did.
With a quick glance over my shoulder, I see Ranhold Castle below, lit up with torches. The face of it has now been marred with a splash of angry, solidified gold, erupting through the mouth of the doors and staining the gray stonework like insipid gilt magma that went inert before it could do any further damage.
It looks like the gold was trying to eat its way through the whole damn castle. To inhale it from an unforgiving mouth and devour it with wrath. Like a dam giving way, this is what happens when power is suppressed for too long, left to collect, to rise, to beat against its containment until the cracks form and it can finallybreak free.
I turn back around and hold Auren a little bit tighter.
I’ve got to get away from the castle—from the gold—buthow much furtheris the question. Because every second I wait puts her in even more danger.
