“I will admit, though,” Kol continued, his voice slightly bored. “I am a little disappointed in how shamefully predictable you are. Is this all you brought? A green Armature and my traitorous son?” Kol’s gaze slid past Mariah.
“Such a shame that you were so desperate to return to your queen that you were willing to sacrifice your brother to do it.” Kol tsked. “How selfish.”
Fear slammed down their bond. “What did you do to Gabriel?” Andrian’s question was low and soft, the seething growl in his words barely hidden.
Kol scoffed. “Whatever happened to him is a result of your actions, my son. Remember that.” His red-gold eyes flared. “But he’s not dead, if that’s what you're asking. Not yet, anyway. As unfortunate as it is, I still have use for House Laurent, even if its head is little more than a charred body.”
Mariah fought to control her breathing. Her mind swirled with images and memories: of Gabriel’s wife, of his infant son, tucked away in a cottage in Leuxrith. Of the promise they’d made, that Gabriel would not be a victim of this war.
No. She had to focus. They were so close. She only had to draw him closer, get a little nearer. Just close enough to sink in her blade and end this.
More footsteps came from the woods. Kol’s smile tipped higher.
“You are being so quiet today, little goddess,” he said. “So different from the last time we met.” He gestured behind him. “Maybe now, you’ll be a little more willing to talk. I believe with the right motivations, there is always the possibility of reaching peace.”
Three more figures emerged from the trees.
Mariah realized just how thoroughly she’d been wrong. About all of this.
A dark-skinned man walked out first. His braided wine-red hair reached his shoulders, and his eyes glowed a deep mossy green. An aura surrounded him, one of rumbling boulders and deep-growing roots and too much knowledge to fill a single mind.
A god. Ydros, God of the Earth, if Mariah had to guess. But he was the patron of Vatha, and?—
Mariah bit down hard on her tongue to hold back her choking sob. She tasted copper.
Ydros led them out by a woven rope, tied around their bound hands. Gags were fitted into their mouths, their clothes worn and stained.
A man with once-neat brown hair, hazel eyes filled with defeat and failure and regret and sorrow.
A woman with long blonde curls, tears from her amber eyes staining tracks down her freckled cheeks.
Wings beat the air. A dozenmudaelanded in the clearing, serrated claws clicking, as Ydros pushed Sebastian and Ciana to their knees at Kol’s feet.
Chapter 86
Mariah’s vision blurred with red.
Sebastian and Ciana knelt in the ashes of her home, cries slipping from their gagged mouths. Themudaeat their backs clicked their serrated claws, jagged maws grinning wickedly.
Behind her, someone muffled a cry that sounded a lot likebrother.
Mariah’s heartbeat racketed against her ribs. Her magic rippled through her veins, spreading to her trembling fingertips. The air was tight and heavy, each breath she drew a terrible struggle.
It was all so horribly familiar.
And yet, she couldn’t tear herself away.
“Let. Them.Go.” Mariah’s snarl was low and fierce, carrying across the scourged meadow.
Kol chuckled, adjusting the dark lapels of his jacket. Even that sound was too familiar, too similar. Mariah’s jaw clenched so hard she feared her teeth would crack.
“Why?” The dark god spread his hands. “I brought them as a gift. An offering of good will.”
“They are not objects to be handed over as some bargaining chip. They arepeople. And they havenothingto do with this.” Her anger loosened her tongue, words falling to the ashen ground like droplets of water. “Let’s keep this between us.”
Kol tsked. “But that’s not entirely true, is it?” His burning eyes flicked to Ydros. The earth god stood a few paces away, stoic and unreadable. “You made them a part of this when you sent them to meddle with the affairs of a foreign kingdom. If it weren’t for my intervention, I’m afraid my friend here would have planned a much darker fate.”
Ydros shifted, just the barest hint of movement, but it was enough to snag Mariah’s attention.
