“I see.” He began scratching away at the paper once more, leaving me to face the silence alone.
“It’s a paltry alternative,” I admitted. Last night, I’d been high off lavender-scented steam and giddy at the thought of at least seeing Evie on her wedding day to truly acknowledge what we were missing. “But I, for one, won’t turn my nose at it. I want to at least feel like I’m there for Evie.”
“You think I don’t?” he asked, a bite to his tone.
“I don’t know what you want,” I bit my words, too, suddenly annoyed. I didn’t like the plan anymore than he did, but I felt like he blamed me for not pushing for more.
For not already magically fixing the heinous situation we all found ourselves in.
Maybe he was right.
He clenched his jaw. “I want us to finish this marvelous, neverending task, find whatever clue Uncle Alaric didn’t deign to tell us about, then use it to take back Aquila.”
My sigh deflated me; good thing he was too focused on the parchment to see me. “That’s easier said than done.”
“We’re Protectorate, aren’t we?” Frustration dripped from every word. Even his quill dug harder into the paper. “We get by with the barest of this existence. Our power itself was crafted out of scraps. It’s in our blood to find solutions and survive. While I’m excited to witness Evie becoming queen, I want our Clan back.”
My head rose as a sharp idea struck.
It was insane.
It was the worst timing.
But it could work.
“Evie will become queen of the Blood Brotherhood in a few days,” I said, almost breathless as adrenaline drummed through me.
“Yes, yes, blessed union with a killer. The joy. At least he’s better than the last dolt.”
I grabbed his hand, stopping it. “She will become the queen of the fiercest army in all of Malhaven. An armywecan use.”
Chapter 17
Ryker
The purple rays danced underneath my fingers like it didn’t want to recognize me.
There was no vengeful pull. No wallowing hum bouncing off the cave walls or hissing in my mind.
Solkar’s Heart, the last true fragment of the fallen star which had birthed the crater, pulsed languidly.
Slowly.
Dimly.
Like it was deciding whether to answer me at all.
Finally, the Rays twisted and coiled around my skin, easing the strain in my chest.
“What changed?” I muttered, pushing harder against the rock, as if I could plunge into its very depths to uncover a wound which should have been impossible.
The Northern Clans were the prime suspects. But they wouldn’t have been baring their teeth for more power if they had any way of accessing more than I’d been willing to negotiate years ago, when I’d broken my Clan from the alliance and joined the Blood Brotherhood without any battle or retaliation.
I wondered if they regretted not allowing our sick children on their shore. Not because of the little ones’ deaths, but because they’d lost their reluctant ally as a result.
I growled. And Allie wanted me to still believe in blood relatives. My mother, the only true family I’d had, rested above me in the Memory Hall crypt, her statue clutching her famed broadsword even in death.
I cared for people not out of misplaced obligation, but because I wanted to. Then again, Allie had never made it seem like cherishing her relatives was born out of simple duty, down to the last distant nephew. She liked who she liked and she didn’t hide her disdain for the others.
