Scorched feathers, still flying.
“Maxim,” I snarl before Cassia can answer.
Her lips part as if she’s about to say more, but I cast her a sharp, warning glance. There are too many listening ears here.
She seems to remember herself. A second later, her focus lands on Lady Delphina and then shifts to Thyra. Stopping on the ruby circlet.
She blinks at it for a heartbeat, but if she’s surprised I’ve put Thyra in the circlet, she hides it quickly.
“You got the Oracle.” Tears of what can only be relief streak down her cheeks. “You brought her to us. Brother, we’re saved.”
Without another word to me, she turns to the crowd.
Cassia’s indrawn breath is sharp as she raises her hands and shouts through what must be painful bruising. “My brother fought the Frost King and won!” she cries, her voice rising to a jubilant scream. “He fought the Ember King and won! Our king won!”
It isn’t entirely accurate. I didn’t fight them, but she may not know that, and right now, it doesn’t matter.
The crowd was already shouting with joy, and now they erupt. A roar of voices rises up around us as they shoot to their feet.
“Antony, King of Iron, has claimed the Oracle,” Cassia roars, pressing her fist to her heart. “Our king has saved us!”
“King of Iron,” comes the responding cry. “Our king! King of Iron. Our king!”
Cassia half-turns back to me, her eyes bright and her smile even brighter as the cheering continues.
A moment later, Lady Delphina sidles up to me with asoft, “Well, that turned out far better for you than I thought it would.”
She arches her eyebrows before she slinks away, her entourage scurrying after her. No doubt she’ll dash back to Mother to warn her that their plan backfired.
She may not need to.
The cries from the crowd are spreading, a deafening roar extending much farther than I thought it would.
I should be celebrating. My sister is safe. My people are on my side once more. And the Oracle is mine.
So why am I suddenly fixated on the hollow that has returned to Thyra’s eyes?
Why should it consume me?
“Brother.” Cassia’s voice breaks through my heavy thoughts, but this time, she speaks in a hush. “Take the Oracle wherever you need to take her. I will keep our mother busy.”
I consider Cassia’s offer for a moment, but I’m not sure I should take her up on it. “You need to get yourself to a healer, not pander to our mother’s schemes.”
“I’ll heal on my own. But brother—” Her focus flickers to Thyra. “When you’re ready, there’s something I need to tell you about Maxim. About what happened during my encounter with him.”
Every piece of information about my enemies is valuable, but the quietness in Cassia’s voice tells me she can’t speak freely until we have absolute privacy.
She steps away from me. “Go, brother. Don’t waste a moment longer.”
A whistle is already on my lips, my eagle soaring through the air toward me.
I haul Thyra up into my arms, deftly avoiding becoming tangled in the circlet as my eagle soars past.
Catching his wing joint, I swing us both up onto his back.
In the next moment, we’re in the air, but this time, I’m taking Thyra where I want.
Where I’ll have her all to myself.
