I feared he’d always be my undoing.
Today he wore a deep red tunic tucked into chocolate-brown trousers, all accented with gold threading,buttons,and details. The tunic’s smaller details near his collar bones and buttons had a swirling pattern that reminded me of the markings on his right arm. The brown, loose markings spiraling up his hand and forearm symbolized his connection to his Titan Wolf, Atlas—who never seemed to be too far away.
Thered of histop brought out the wine-red hues of his chestnut hair, which my fingers twitched to run themselves through. His freckles spread across his cheeks like tiny kisses overlapping, and the small scar on his jaw shone bright against his tan skin.
Each day I spent withhim,I found myself only falling for him even farther.
“You too, Matea. Ifyou’llhave us, that is,” Byn said, and I was suddenly hyperawarethat he had been talking to us this entire time. I alsocouldn’tignore the mixed emotions radiating from my husband—toward Matea, it seemed.
Matea dipped her chin. “It’d be my honor, Your Majesty.”
“Please, just Robyn. We are siblings by marriage, after all.” Byn offered her a half smile.
Matea returned it with a hesitant smile of her own, and we all ducked into the room, where I noticed the rest of theValwain—along with acoupleothers—hadbeen awaiting our arrival.
Seated around a large oval table were Chess, Rayven, Teagan, and Callum, whilestanding on opposite sides of the room were Caelia and Laurence. TheOcreinIsle Princess was rarelyvery farfrom her brother—even now she stood near his chair, leaning against the closest wall with her arms crossed over her chest.
Callum and Caeliaweren’tmembers of theValwain, which was made up of only those Byn—and nowmyself—saw fit. Since theOcreinIsle royals had come to our aid almost a monthago, andhad been helping us in this war ever since, they’d been permitted into almost each and every meeting we held.
Speaking of theValwain, wehadgained a new member recently. Laurence, the head librarian turned queen’s bodyguard, had been overjoyed at the proposition. Laurence was my first addition to the group sinceI myselfjoined its ranks; all other members had been invited by Byn before I had ever stepped foot here in the South.
A weekand a half ago therewasa public ceremony in which both Laurence and I vowed to serve the South in any way we could, and to always be loyal to theThorntierline.My vows had been slightly adjusted, as Iwaspart of theThorntierline now, by marriage, but we made sure the main point hadremainedthe same.
We would live, and die, for the good of the South ofInphis.
I had technically been a part of theValwainfor a while by this point, but with everything surrounding the recent battle at Wittuck Woods—which had been named the Battle of Shadows, in honor of theOcreinIsles—there hadn’t been time for an official ceremony until recently.
Laurence and Ihad huggedafter saying our vows to Byn, my husband, king,and partner in all things. I had been able to physically feel Byn’s joy overflowing into my own body in that moment.
Now, Laurence met my eyes and nodded once, silently welcoming me to the meeting.As I settlednext to Byn’s seat, I noted Laurence shifting to stand slightly closer to my chair.
Always on guard, that one.
Matea took the seat to my left, Byn taking the one to my right, as I had assumed. Teagan sat to his right, flattening the papers before her and Byn, as though the two siblings had been looking over them together just moments ago.
“Thank you all for making it here so quickly. Teagan and Ididn’tthink itwiseto put this meeting on hold, with thenew informationwe just received,” Byn began.
“Get to the point, Thorntier,” Caelia yawned, waving a hand lazily.
“Caelia,” Callum reprimanded his younger sister. “Carry on, Robyn.”
Byn’s irritation rose in my chest like a wave, so I knew he musthavebeenon edge if he was allowing Caelia to get to himso easily. I glanced down at the tattoo inked onto my inner left forearm, where the image of theThorntierfamily line lay on my skin like a brand.
A wolf’s head with the silhouette of the sun behind it.
In the same spot on Byn’s body was a tattoo of the Heartshire family crest—a flared wing with a crescent moon behind it. My family’s insignia,and alsothe symbolrepresentingthe entire North ofInphis. The tattoos had been embedded into our skin with a special sort of ink which allowed the two parties who shared the ink to feel each other’s emotions.
Quinn and Ezra had used these special royal inks as well. The inks that had only ever been produced by one bloodline in the South—and whose final member had recently perished. The Mirthlowe family was no more, and they had taken the recipe for these special inks with them when they returned to the Stars. Whatever ink we had left was all that would ever exist.
And yet,Quinn and Ezra had gotten ahold of some.
I could only imagine the types of emotionsshe’dhad to endure through the bond over the past month.
Since we had lost Ezra.
“We just received word thateach and everycorvid we sent with messages over the border into the North—theydidn’tmake it. They were all found dead, necks snapped, in a pile just across our side of the border, the notes attached untouched,” Byn said, diving straight into the meat of it, it seemed. “It appears the North does not wish to make contact with us at this time.”
Icouldn’thelp but notice the way Drayven’s face dropped from across the table. As one of the main caretakers for our messenger birds, hearing about the death of so many corvids must have taken a toll.
