“Yes, Alpha,” he rectifies, watching her carefully.
The slightly dazed look on Ianthe’s face vanishes, and she snorts.
Lycheron grins, a slow, predatory smile that probably makes every female within ten miles flush. I know I do.
He doesn’t insist, but he insists on something else. Lowering his voice, he leans in closer to tell her what he wants. “The only male or beast you’ll ride for the next six months is me.” It’s impossible to miss the possessive—and baldly sexual—undercurrent in Lycheron’s words.
Her back straight, her chin high, and not shaking in the least, Ianthe studies Lycheron, letting his words sink in. Looking at her, I see densely compressed spirit. Vitality, magic, courage, love—when she detonates, she’ll rattle the world.
“I swear it,” Ianthe finally says. “For the next six months, I’ll ride only you.”
She tenses as her vow crashes into her bones and blood. Her bright-green eyes dilate, and then she blinks. Satisfied, Lycheron holds out his large hand. Ianthe places her much smaller one in his. In the next instant, she’s on his back, her legs wrapped tightly around his huge frame and her hands gripping his bare shoulders for balance. She gasps.
Lycheron’s ocher eyes flare with heat, burning bright amber for a quick but alarming moment. Then, to Griffin he says, “You need not worry about the Fisan border. In three days, I’ll have it covered and impenetrable from the east.”
Without another word to us, he wheels and charges off, leaving a pounding of hoofbeats in the air along with a thundering call to his herd to make haste across the realm.
My heart in my throat, I lunge after my sister. “Ianthe!” I scream.
She doesn’t turn, her long, dark hair snapping on the wind and her lithe form fading fast. Maybe she doesn’t hear. Or maybe she doesn’t want to look back.
I stare until she fades from sight. After eight years apart, she’s gone again with only the clothes on her back, and we didn’t even say goodbye.
CHAPTER 10
Not long after we return to Tarva City, I know it’s time to see a hermit about a potion. And not just any hermit.Thehermit of Frostfire, a powerful witch known for her unparalleled concoctions. We’re going to war. Mother is a monstrosity of magic, hugely powerful and totally unscrupulous. I have significant power of my own, but it’s unreliable. The fight with Piers showed me once again just how fickle my lightning is. The magic is there. Now it just needs to work when I ask it to and stop being so Gods damn dangerously unpredictable.
The more we discuss the idea of going to Frostfire, the more Little Bean’s energy seems to jolt and jerk inside me. I can only assume she’s protesting a plan that involves my traveling to the Ice Plains north of Fisa and drinking a vile potion to unlock my magic. To be honest, it doesn’t tempt me much, either. But what choice do I have? Magic wins wars. Magic is the only thing that can intimidate Mother.
Unfortunately, we can’t spare anyone from their current posts, Griffin categorically refuses to let me go alone, and I categorically refuse to take Bellanca. I don’t know all that much about the hermit of Frostfire outside of her legendary potion-making abilities, but if anyone can make a hermit shut the door in your face and lock it ten times over, it’s Bellanca Tarva. There’s no way I’ll risk being turned away because Bellanca does something too loud, flaming, or abrasive.
Which leaves Griffin and me. Beta Team, and especially Carver, can take over his responsibilities to the army, but we can’t trust just anyone with a secret mission to shore up my magic. Soldiers will help us invade Fisa, but my lightning is what we really need in order to face my mother.
Of course, we get constant arguments from the people we’re leaving behind.
“You don’t needmehere,” Bellanca insists, glancing around our impressive new army encampment on the outskirts of Kitros.
“We do,” I say. “You’ll help with organizing, recruiting, and training. The army is Beta Team’s main responsibility now.”
“Alpha Team,” Bellanca corrects, although she looks pleased that I included her in the group.
I shrug. It’ll always be Beta Team to me.
“You and Griffin are our main responsibility,” Kato argues.
Griffin shakes his head. “We need you here. Too many people are arriving daily.”
The ranks keep swelling with new soldiers, both Sintan and Tarvan. Even a few Fisans are starting to trickle in. Thalyrians.
“Then take some other people. Good, trained soldiers,” Flynn urges.
Griffin and I both continue to balk at the idea.
“I really don’t want anyone to know about this,” I say. We haven’t even brought Anatole, Nerissa, Jocasta, and Kaia into the loop, even though we visit them regularly. They’re at Castle Tarva, spearheading civilian projects and working in tandem with Egeria to bring Sinta’s new benefits east into our expanded territory.
Griffin agrees with me. “If word gets out that Cat’s magic is unreliable, it could rattle the army, and even undermine confidence in our rule.”
“Or Mother could hear of it,” I add. “The last thing we want is her getting wind of our destination.”
