“What’s that?” Vexxion asked, shrewd curiosity alight in his voice.
“Ask the monsssster. He may tell you. They will not free Amronth.” He tipped his head back and shot blue flames at the ceiling, scorching across the black stone until the flames winked out. He thrust his head toward Vexxion, stopping when the tip of his snout was so close to the boy’s belly that he flinched.
That one uncontrolled gesture told me Vexxionhadn’tbeen fully molded yet, that he still held out against his father. By the time he was fully grown, he’d learned to hide his response to something like this.
“The bone coins can make things better,” Vexxion cried. “I don’t know how yet, but they will.”
“You knowssss nothing.” Iasar lowered his wings, crumpling them against his sides. “Amronth,” he said in such a mournful voice that my heart shattered. “Amronth.”
“I’ll right this,” Vexxion said. “I’ll fix everything, and I’ll do it with these.” He carefully slid the bone coins into a black pouch and placed the leather bag in his pocket. “I’ve collectedmany. He took most, but I know where they are. Trust me. Please.”
“I will never trusssst one ssssuch as you.” The scorn dripping from Iasar’s words could burn through the stone beneath his claws.
“It will take time, but I’ll make it happen.” Vexxion flitted from the cavern.
I woke up, splayed out on the sofa, my feet dragging on the hardwood floor. Only smoldering coals remained of the fire I’d built. Rising, I limped over to the fireplace and fed the hungry flames again.
Then I hobbled across the room and collapsed on our bed, rubbing my thigh that spasmed as if I’d worked with a dragon from dawn until the sun had been consumed by the horizon.
“What can bone coins do?” I murmured.
Drask flew over to perch on the lower rail of the bed, watching me with his head tilting one way and the other.
He stretched his neck back to caw.
I swore, if I looked close enough, I’d find the answer to this question and every other in the crow’s inky eyes.
35
VEXXION
As long as Tempest didn’t share my bed at Weldsbane, I could feel coldness encasing me in its icy arms. Each moment without her tore me apart. My elusive feelings for her were a constant, gnawing agony that mingled with the fear I’d never know what it was like to love her fully again.
Only a whisper of my feelings for her skirted around my soul.
Since it was late when I arrived at Weldsbane, and my first thought was to reinforce my wards and make sure everything remained as it needed to be, I decided to wait until the morning to go after my court’s core.
Darkness could hide almost anything.
After eating, I used traveling magic to go to Bledmire. I’d been away too long already, though with the Lieges dead, the king might’ve discovered his Nullen treats were in short supply.
I found the despondent king sitting on his throne in hishigh court, surrounded by his sycophants bowing and polishing the floor with their knees. High Advisor Adwarin and Kerune stood to his right, stoic sneers lurking in their eyes.
Ivenrail hadn’t replaced Madrood, and the gaping hole on his left exposed how Tempest had gutted his power. From the twist of his mouth and the spikes created on his brow from scowling, the rage generated by her insult churned through him.
A mass of Nullens stood below the dais, milling about with stark terror cratering their faces. They were a mix of women, children, and men, their torn, soiled clothing telling me they’d been taken from their villages by his fleet of flying dregs.
Traveling was not the same as being here masked by my threads, but I didn’t dare come any other way.
“Have you found him yet?” the king snarled.
High Advisor Adwarin dipped forward in a smooth bow. “No, Your Highness, though we believe he found a way through the curse and is hiding in Lydel Manor.”
“The curse doesn’t allow anyone inside,” Ivenrail snapped. “Even him.”
Kerune snorted. “Yet he’s there.”
Ivenrail’s gaze narrowed on the younger man. “I collared that boy. I should be able to see him no matter where he hopes to hide. My command should bring him to me immediately.”
