“She has enough juniper and winterberry. She’s helping Amara prepare for the Sheffield wedding. The King needed some wrangling. Something about cold feet.”
The South Corridor had long been ruled by the Sheffields. In the first few years of our friendship, Emmerick had admitted to me what had happened to the boy’s uncle.
Under Caym’s influence, Em had knocked King Sheffield from his horse while he was out for a morning ride along the coast. Em had looked haunted the whole time he’d recounted the way Sheffield begged for mercy before Caym wielded Death against him. He had been able to do nothing to stop it.
“Is it going to cause problems?” I asked. We had enough at stake. We didn’t need worries of rulers in Henosis muddying relationships in the Corridors.
“No, no. You know Lyl. He’s much like his uncle. Kind and reasonable. Just young and indecisive. He’s no Bringham.”
I grated my teeth at the mention of the West Corridor King—a nuisance at best and a liability at worst. He’d held steadfast in his ruling that the West Corridor would still be a magic-free land, and he still made unruly demands of us.
“Bringham’s a weasel,” I muttered.
Cass unsheathed her long sword with a chuckle. “A weasel that desperately wants in your breeches.”
Scoffing, I pulled my swords from my back and spun the leather hilts in my palms. I preferred the lighter weight of two shorter blades. “I mean, who wouldn’t?”
She huffed a laugh. “If I entertain that statement, Wyeth might vine from the bushes and strangle me.”
I cracked a smile and shook my head. “Things are alright—between you?”
Cass sighed. “She’s upset that I don’t want to go back to the cabin...”
This was what we did. We shared, and then we beat the living shit out of each other to forget the sharing.
Centuries ago, Cass and Wyeth ran away from courtly life to raise a daughter together. Wyeth had been married to a Prince ofPhynx, an older brother of Ryn’s—there had been so many Toth heirs. Their father, the King of Phynx, made a hobby of quelling any threat against him through execution. Including when the threat came from his own kin.
“Why won’t you?” I pressed.
“Because it’s a shit place to revisit, even in honor of Rena. It holds both wonderful memories and horrid ones. The bad sticks with me more, whereas for Wyeth she only sees the good. Would you want to visit the wreckage of the amphitheater every year?”
I shook my head. “No…”
Their daughter had been killed during the Great Wars. When Firose had offered them positions in the high towers to enforce the new Order, to dismantle the kingdoms, their grief had clouded all reason to refuse her. Yet their relationship had grown strained from strict rules against the High Enchantresses holding any bonds of the heart.
I swallowed and fought the burn at the back of my eyes. Everyone I loved had endured so much suffering.
Paren’s wings beat the air, and he shrieked before taking flight, off to fish in the lake. Mayra nudged my elbow as though asking for permission.
“Off you go.” I shooed her. “Listen for the whistle,” I said, reminding my easily distracted beast. She had a penchant for wandering too far. With a happy swing of her neck, she spread her wings, and her golden feathers ruffled before she sprang after Paren and trailed close behind him.
Cass took her place across from me. “Do you think that should King Mattock ever wake, he would continue his alliance with Bringham?”
A good old topic reversion. Cass was excellent at those.
I snorted. “Not a chance,” I said too surely, and her brows rose.
“You seem convinced,” she teased.
Shrugging, I added, “I suspect that alliance only thrived because of Caym’s influence. That is not how King Mattock would rule.” My tone was too defensive, and Cass raised a hand.
“I meant no ill will toward him.”
“I know,” I ground out. “Are you ready? Or would you like to continue to chitchat about a bunch of men who aren’t here?”
She smirked. “I was born ready to fight, Red.”
With a sweep of her free arm, a gust of wind clawed at the thickets and pulled branches free. They knocked me from my feet. My stomach met the ground, and the air burst from my lungs and wouldn’t return.
