My lead.
From my gun.
I would make sure Savion was dead.
* * *
The bedroom door clicked as someone unlocked it.
I never slept well, so I just held still until it was opened, then shut and locked.
I threw a ball of pure magic at whoever was there and hit them squarely in the chest.
“Ouch!” Aiko exclaimed from the floor.
I grabbed the sheet—When had I started sleeping naked? Oh.—and jumped off the mattress. “Aiko, I’m sorry! I just heard the door—”
“At least we know she packs a punch,” Odom said, the laugh clear in his voice.
I sent some magic at the switch and flipped it on, brightening the room. Odom, Kane, and Aiko were near the door. The other two were helping Aiko back to his feet.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sitting back down on the bed, pulling the sheet tighter.
“It’s fine.” Aiko waved me off. “You were defending yourself. I like it.”
I raised an eyebrow, and Odom coughed.
He almost growled at Odom. “I liked that she was able to defend herself against me without a sword, you insufferable prick.”
I cleared my throat. “Gentlemen. If you don’t mind?”
Kane nodded. “Mistress, tomorrow night is the Blood Rite. It is overwhelming when it begins, and we have to make sure that the general can get away without issue. Aiko will be the only one tomorrow night who can keep an eye on you.”
“There’s usually only one of you keeping an eye on me.”
“Even though you don’t see it,” Odom said, “we have the backing of those who support it to keep you safe. The guard who caught you on the stairs was one of us. Even the ones who lifted him above the fountain were loyal.”
“Why, if you are everywhere, is he still the king? There were so many opportunities to take him down. Ever since I’ve been here.” I looked between the three of them.
Kane answered me. “There are two reasons. One, most of the Lord Knights are still loyal to him, and their guards are still loyal to them. There are still more of them here at the stronghold. We do what we can to undermine him. And second…”
His eyes darted over to Aiko and Odom, and he cleared his throat. “The second is that we have to be ready for true madness if we kill him. He is the only one who can control the queen, and she will unleash a hell like no one else in S’Kir ever has.”
I stared at him. “The Queen.”
Odom nodded. “Niniane won the crown. Savion killed all of her potential kings and took the title. Killed everyone, including the man she thought was her soul mate. She was defeated and conceded the crown to him.”
Aiko took over the story. “He locked her away. The only thing she ever asked of him was a child. But a prophecy told him any daughter under his roof would be the death of him. He had also seen a family thrown to shambles because of a child. So he never took her. Refused her bed. Took as many other women as he could.”
I blinked, my voice quiet. “Which was how your sister died.”
Aiko nodded. “If they got pregnant, he killed them. Eventually, in a fit of bloodlust and blood rite, he took Niniane. She became pregnant, and he was going to have her executed.”
Odom took a deep breath. “He couldn’t have the throne if she wasn’t living. So he couldn’t kill her.”
Kane came in again. “He gave her a drink calledleadium, a red wine boiled in lead pots. His only reason was to make her miscarry and make her feebleminded. Except she didn’t miscarry, and she didn’t become feebleminded at all.”
“Niniane had been a good person when I first knew her.” Odom’s voice was quiet. “Theleadiumdrove her insane in short order. She was stark raving mad by the time she was halfway through the pregnancy. The other half of that was that she’s highly intelligent. She knew exactly what was going on in her madness.”
