Koen scanned them, worrying his lip as he did so. Koen was Reid’s dearest friend, the closest thing he had to a brother, and would now serve as a councilor during Reid’s tenure as headman. Koen’s face was entirely readable at this point in their camaraderie, and it was a mixture of anguish and worry that lived in the pull of his mouth. “What is it?” Reid demanded, barely mustering the energy to speak.
“They are papers of dissolution,” Koen said in Icrurian, meeting Reid’s eyes. “Ozik has annulled your marriage to Vaasalisa. He claims you have broken your original agreement by marching upon Asterya.”
Reid stayed utterly silent. His fingers twitched around his weapon, which sat starkly in his closed fist. This didn’t matter the way Ozik wanted it to matter. Ozik had no claim over Icrurian law, and they had been married in Icruria. He was still Vaasa’s husband, and she still his wife.
“These papers mean nothing,” Reid said.
“They are signed by their archbishop. This eliminates any lawful claim you have to the Asteryan throne,” Koen argued.
Reid grit his teeth. Fury tore through him like a knife. Flicking his eyes to the young lord, he wondered why Ozik would send this in an attempt to save the man’s life—it would only serve to anger Reid.
And that’s when he realized that Ozik wanted this man dead.
“I never said I would take this empire lawfully.” Reid stepped forward until his boot almost hit the knee of the young lord. “What do you know of my wife?” he demanded.
Some men might have argued, or stayed silent, or displayed a modicum of courage with their words. The young Lord Rezek was not one of those men. Koen translated every desperate word the man blubbered. “She is alive, walking the fortress of Mekës as we speak. All of the unmarried lords and heirs have been summoned to the castle—she is said to be in pursuit of a husband.”
Reid crumpled the papers in his hands. Turning to the general who helped lead their descent upon Innisjour, he commanded, “Demolish the dam.”
The general nodded, her stern eyes holding his for only a moment before she turned to bellow commands at the soldiers waiting for her instructions.
“And the lord?” Koen asked quietly.
Reid once again tightened his fist around his polearm. The young lord had surrendered, yet Reid couldn’t think past the red tinge of his vision or the roaring in his ears. Reid’s father had raised him in the light of many values, not the least of which was that a leader was ultimately responsible for the instructions they gave to their forces.
“The rest of his men will live,” Reid told Koen.
And then Reid turned, driving the wicked blade of his polearm through the lord’s gut before the young man even realized he was going to die.
CHAPTER
5
Guards crawled all around the inner ward of the Iron Fortress, their eyes fixed on Vaasa and Ozik as the two higher-ranked sentinels outside their carriage pulled her gingerly to unsteady feet.
Suddenly, they were gentle with her.
The other fortress guards watched, and Vaasa got the feeling this was the new story. It was unlikely anyone knew where she’d been these past six weeks. This entire fortress believed precisely what Ozik had spun in the city square—she had been rescued from the clutches of Icruria. Saved by Asteryan forces. Cleansed of the curse Reid of Mireh had placed upon her.
Most of the fortress staff kept straight-faced, but a few whispered to each other, and others just dropped their jaws in awe. Ozik extended her an arm. Amalie’s face flashed behind Vaasa’s eyes, and fear made a home in her gut. She took Ozik’s extended arm and hated herself for it.
The Iron Fortress jutted from the mountainside like claws reaching into the frostbitten air. Ten black spires grew to unprecedented heights, with dangerous iron-coated points that had graced the tops since her grandfather built the monument. It was he who had mined the deep mountains others called unworkable, he who had forged iron into steel and conquered the snow-bound bay. The Iron Fortress was a testament to her grandfather’s strength, something her father had inherited—something Vaasa and Dominik were meant to inherit, too.
Stained glass windows reflected light in a rainbow of color, snow blanketing the patios and exterior walkways. All the towers were connected by stone pathways arching over a garden or courtyard. Yet within the sturdy mountain rock were carved tunnels, effectively creating a system of travel around the fortress for servants and secrets.
Her eyes caught upon the far side; a greenhouse loomed, seemingly built into the mountain itself, and behind it, the valley between peaks created a natural game park where they hunted their food.
They plunged into an empty hallway with no windows and no open air. Vaasa put one foot in front of the other. Eventually the pathway wound to the western side of the fortress, and they passed one of the hidden entrances into the servants’ hallways, which were a maze of dingy, connected pass-throughs that gave the servants access to most parts of the fortress at any given time. Various tucked-away doors marked their entrances and exits. Some were entirely secret, built behind bookcases or tapestries. She’d snuck through those corridors more and moreas she’d gotten older, avoiding Dominik, avoiding her father, or sneaking around to meet Roman.
Each inch of space here was a memory, her body recognizing every step she took. She couldn’t breathe. Not as the air of the fortress closed around her. There was so much death, so much grief and darkness splattered along these wicked halls.
She forced herself to pull deep, calming breaths the way the coven had taught her, a desperate attempt to dismiss the onslaught of memories so vivid they could have been carved into the walls as relics.
“Is there a lead sentinel?” she asked, her voice shaking. A vice-captain, one of the highest ranks for a soldier in this fortress, and the person who would command her own personal guard. There was normally one assigned per member of the royal family, and they reported only to the captain of the guard. When Dominik took the throne, he likely instituted his own men instead of their father’s.
Ozik confirmed with a sharp nod. “There is.”
“And where is he?”
