“I have your sorceress, beast!” Brietta shouted. “Kneel!”
A small smirk crept up on Riyan’s face and we exchanged glances. The ruler of Lycaster could not be handed power, she had totakeit.
Riyan slowly knelt and laid his axe in front of him. He lowered the crown of his head to the top of his knee.
The last Hyton heir had yielded.
Brietta lowered the blade from my neck and I turned. She shifted the Hyton dagger to her other hand as Evereon handed her the Conqueror’s spear. The Taurus shield was strapped to her arm. Daylight broke through the clouds and illuminated the crown on her brow as a gentle breeze fluttered the Hyton Blue cape around her shoulders.
Brietta made her demands without ever opening her lips. She was a Hyton—stubborn, unyielding, and fixated on problems that she intended to solve.
Most importantly, she would show all of Lycaster that she had the spirit of the Conqueror.
She was ready to play her role and I needed to play mine. I had just tortured the entire Lycaster army, seen their evils, resurrected the phantoms of history, and ripped a blood bond before their very eyes. Unlike Fraleigh, I truly was powerful, and unlike Fraleigh…
…I would submit to the crown of my own will.
I swept my arms, letting my white sleeves billow in the breeze. Slowly, I lowered to my knees and bowed, ensuring that everyone outside the gate could see me.
The most powerful sorceress on earth would not kneel before a tyrant, but she would serve and protect a friend.
Brietta held the spear firmly in her hands, but a tiny smile that only I could see rose on her face. “Do you, Great Sorceress of Nordingaard, pledge yourself to the House of Hyton?”
A flush spread across my cheeks. “My eternity is yours, Brietta.”
A low rumble echoed outside the gate as the Lycaster army realized the auburn-haired woman wielded not only the Conqueror’s spear, but every bit of my power as well.
Brietta turned to the open gate and held the Conqueror’s spear in front of her. With a swift jerk of her arms, she snapped the spear over her knee.
The army and the Barons gasped as the pieces of one of Lycaster’s oldest relics fell to the dirt.
Brietta held her head high. With a signal from Evereon, trails of red-uniformed soldiers bled from the stone walls and flanked her.
She stepped through the open gate and Riyan rose to let her pass. He walked toward me, each one of his steps getting heavier and his shoulders sagging with the weight of what he had just done.
The whinny of a horse made my head snap to the gate. As soon as Father’s mare made it into the courtyard, Father slid from the horse’s back with Mother in his arms.
Mother’s small body convulsed and twisted. The Thornebow thistle had her.
Brietta addressed the crowd outside the gate as Mother and Father crumpled into a heap. Her voice was bright as the dawn, “People of Lycaster—”
A muscle in Father’s cheek twitched, even though his eyes stayed clear of any poison. Their blood bond was taking them both into the black fire.
Not if I got there first.
I ran through the soaked grass and dropped to my knees next to Mother.
“You did it, dear,” Father whispered. “Ragnar is gone. Anders is gone. You avenged our boys.”
Mother’s eyes were squeezed shut. Something between a grimace and a strained smile spread across her twitching face.
I grabbed Mother’s shaking hand as my white light flowed into her skin.
“Easy there, Viper,” I whispered into her mind as my magic purged the poison from her veins. “Freya wants you to stay and see the new Lycaster.”
Mother’s heartbeat slowed. Her blood bond with Father glowed brighter as my white light extinguished the black flames.
A tear leaked onto her cheek as she slowly fluttered her eyes open.
