Immediately, he turns his eagle and soars back to his tower, where I’m certain my command will spread faster than Ember fire. I’ve trained my soldiers to respond efficiently to any imminent threat. If either Stellen or Maxim tries to breach the border, I’ll know about it.
Finally, I check the Oracle.
I should have already risen off her, released her, and I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to shake me off.
I’m more startled to find that her faded blue eyes have remained closed, and her breathing is deep and unhurried. Calm even. Her cheek is cool where it presses to mine, and her lips…
So fucking close.
So fucking enticing.
I inhale the scent of her skin like it’s food, and I’m starving, drowning in its softness, filled with the need to find out if her whole body feels and smells like this.
Her faded blue eyes slowly open, and she whispers, barely louder than an exhalation, “I still don’t know what you want me to call you.”
Captor. King. Tyrant.
“Antony,” I say.
Instantly, I regretit.
She can’t call me by my name. Nobody outside my immediate family is allowed to use my name, and even then, only in private.
She closes her eyes, and I tell myself to move away from her now. I no longer need to shield her, and lying in this position is difficult for multiple reasons. For one, my muscles are screaming at me. I’ve held my weight off the Oracle for so long that they’re cramping.
Confusingly, she replies, “I will ask you again soon enough.”
Ask me what?My brow furrows.About my name?
I’m about to question her when the Starlit City comes into view, and with it, in the distance, the constellation of towers that forms the stronghold where Mother holds court.
Too soon, we’ll be fully visible to whoever has gathered to welcome me. The fact that I haven’t wrapped the Oracle in chains won’t go unnoticed, especially by Mother. The chances of her taking advantage of that are high.
But I didn’t take any chains with me. My eagle hates the clanking sounds they make, and so he should. He was shackled for half of his life before I became aware of his existence and gave him a purpose.
I lift off the Oracle, fighting the ache in my muscles and the numbness in my hands. I’m also suddenly conscious of the pulling sensation in my right shoulder, reminding me of the moment when something struck my back.
I still don’t know what the fuck it is. It isn’t so large that it protrudes far enough for me to see it, not even when I crane my neck. It has to be metal for it to have pierced my armor, but that’s all I’m certain of.
It doesn’t hurt, so it’s easy to ignore.
The Oracle stretches up in front of me, a slow unfurling thatbrings her back all the way to my chest. I catch the winces she makes as she lifts herself into a sitting position, the press of her lips, the way she scrunches her shoulders and releases them, then stretches her neck before she leans all the way back into me.
“Those creatures,” she says, her voice unexpectedly tense. “What were they?”
“We call them vampyrs.”
“What’s keeping them from following us?”
“The sunlight,” I grind out, struggling to believe she doesn’t know this already. “It burns them.”
She half-turns her head, revealing the crease in her forehead. “What about at night?”
“Starlight and moonlight burn them, too.”
I expect her to make a snide comment about starlight. The land within the Iron Kingdom’s borders was afflicted far more harshly by the False Queen’s curse than any other kingdom, and I tense at the possibility that the Oracle will gloat about it, but it seems she’s more concerned about the threat the creatures posed.
“They can’t leave the bloodlands?” she asks. “Not at all?”
