“If I tell you this, it stays between us. Let the secret strengthen you.”
I nod, urging him to continue.
“You’re not the backup plan,” he says. “Adria knew you would assume you were, and she wanted you to do so. You’re used to living in her shadow. You’re comfortable there. But you aren’t the backup in case Adria fails. Youarethe plan.”
I’m sorry,what?
Is Larus going senile? Did he somehow miss what happened today or the conversation we had not even five minutes ago about how big of a fuck-up I am?
“Think about it, Sylvie. Did you think one of you would face him in single combat? Did you think you were going there to challenge him to a duel or to fight him on the battlefield? Did you forget who he is and what he can do?”
Ronan, like most of House Alta, is light-born. The light-born are the top in the alchemical chain of magic and the rarest of all magic wielders. According to the Codex, our most sacred text, they wield the sun goddess Vayla’s powers as their own.
The full knowledge of what they’re capable of is a secret. But Ronan has a power that’s unique even for the light-born, and that one everyone knows about: he can read people. Not their thoughts, but their feelings. He can sense what anyone feels when they’re near him.
He can even sense when someone has murderous intent. It has saved him from assassins before. It will save him from us if we aren’t careful.
We need to keep Ronan from finding out our plans until Seth can raise our armies and Larus can prepare one of the navies of the Enez Islands to lay siege to Faros, using the cover of the Great Festival to hide their movements.
But until now, I’d imagined that when the time was right, Adria would strike. Then I’d use my magic to hide us and get us out of there. And if something happened to Adria, a dagger in the dark would work as well as her dart of flame.
I would be the backup plan. Like always.
“I know we can’t attack him outright, at least not in the beginning. But I don’t get how I’m meant to be the plan.”
“It could be months before we’re ready to strike. It could take the entire festival and maybe even sometime after it. We need to maintain access to him. From what we’ve learned of him, he allows few into his confidence. What do you think the chances are that Adria can stay on his good side for longer than a day?”
I smirk. Adria is many things, but I’ve known her to toss out friends more often than she changes her toothbrush. If she manages to get through a single conversation without losing her head and giving everything away, it will be a miracle. “Slim to none.”
Alright, sure, I’m less likely to immediately piss Ronan off, but then what? “The plan is for me to befriend him?”
Larus grimaces in the way that he does when he’s about to have to talk to me about something uncomfortable. “Befriendingwould be good. But Adria thinks—and, well, I agree with her—there’s a chance he’ll see you as more than a friend.”
Are they fucking serious?
I clench my fist. Ronan? They want me toseducethe one man in the world that I truly hate? My one and only enemy?
I drop my voice low. My eyebrow twitches with barely contained rage. “He killed my father, Larus. His father killed my mother. Even if I’m faking it, justbefriendinghim would feel like a betrayal. Anything more would be treason against my own heart. If the plan hinges on me seducing him, you might as well send me home right now. Because I am telling you that it’s never, ever going to happen. I’ll cut his throat before I’ll share his bed.”
Larus pulls back to look at me. Then he gets that know-it-all grin on his face that he gets when he’s taught me a lesson, but I haven’t realized it yet. “See? You do have what it takes.”
I’m still practically vibrating with anger when what I’ve said hits me.
Well, fuck.
I don’t know how he did it, but he somehow managed to convince me Icankill Ronan. And not just that I can, but that I must.
“You won’t fail,” he says. “Don’t forget who he is. Don’t forget what he did to your family. To all of us. And all for a bit of ash.” He spits at the ground.
All for a bit of ash. It was true. The phoenix cypress ash was the key to everything.
When Selaran alchemists started buying barrels of the ash, my grandparents hadn’t known what to make of it. Our own alchemists used the bark of the phoenix tree to help with a headache, but among our people, the ash had no known alchemical properties.
It was years before they learned the truth: the ash is the critical ingredient for one of the most elusive alchemical processes.
It can turn lead into gold.
It requires more than just the ash, of course, and the entire process is a closely guarded Guild secret. But access to the ash became Selara’s highest priority.
