Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

FINN

‘Where are you going?' Hestia cried out, hurrying after him as far as the main entrance hall. Finn stalked onwards, ignoring her. The Sassone house wasn't far from here.

His ancestors had chosen the embassy with care, near to the outskirts of Pelias's lower city in case they had to leave in a hurry, but still in a rich and prosperous area populated by the old families. Being almost next to Castel Sassone had been the concession that got them the location.

No one from the court of Sidon would stand to be accused of slumming it. And the people of Pelias could feel safe knowing their strongest nobleman guarded the way. But if Sassone had turned on the crown now…

Finn didn't make it outside. Something unseen wrapped itself around him, something dark and determined, and oh so powerful.

‘Stop, Finnian. I can't let you leave.' Hestia held out her hands, shadows tangling around her fingertips and flooding her eyes. She held him. He knew she was powerful but he had never considered how powerful. ‘It's too dangerous. And you are too important to us now. We need you.'

She thought she was protecting him? Furious, he tried to tear himself free, not caring what she had to say, not now. There was no time for this.

Light burned up through him, bright and desperate, the Aurum reaching out for anyone who would serve it. All of the knights had to be feeling this, a wild and desperate urge to get to the fight, to defend Elodie. They would break themselves apart on the gates and the walls until they reached her.

And beneath it…laughter, dark and terrible laughter. With its power wrapped around him he could hear the Nox, feel its sense of impending victory. Elodie would die and Wren's defences would crumble and he…he…

It would take him as its slave. It would make him love it.

He wrenched words from his throat. ‘Hestia, stop. I have to help Wren. Let me go.'

As if using her name summoned it, light filled him as it had once in the forest, when Wren had filled him with the blessings of the Aurum. Bright and terrible, blinding him from the inside, it roared along his veins. It tore through the spell holding him as if it was no more than smoke.

Had he done that? No, not possible. He couldn't do anything of the sort. That kind of magic wasn't possible for his line. Leander could wield shadows and summon shadow kin to do his bidding, but not Finn, and none of them could command light.

When he looked back at his cousin, she was on her knees, the effort of holding him draining her.

‘Hestia,' he tried again. ‘Wren needs me. Please…'

The light grew even brighter, like a blade in the heart of a forge, white hot and transforming to something new. The force holding him recoiled so suddenly that he stumbled forward as the spell snapped, ploughing through the open doorway.

‘Come back,' Hestia called weakly, but she couldn't hold him now. ‘You have to come back. You don't understand.'

There wasn't time for this. No time at all and no one from Ilanthus needed him. They had made that more than clear over the years. But the pendant felt cold and heavy around his neck, an unwanted weight he should shed, if only there was time.

The light in him subsided to a dull glow and he knew there were a thousand questions to answer. No time for that either.

Laurence, Hestia's son, was in the courtyard outside, peering out through the gates. He ran back to Finn as he emerged from the building, ignoring his shaken expression. ‘You're going to help, aren't you? Prince Finnian, you have to help.'

‘Tell me what you know,' he said.

It was amazing what an adolescent boy could discover in the lower city. Quickly, and with an efficiency that shouldn't have been a surprise given he was Hestia's son, the boy told him that Sassone had put out word that the queen would confess, that he had taken her to Castel Sassone and planned to execute her there. He was calling on the people to rise up, to follow him instead of the false queen. Finn closed his eyes, imagining for a moment the chaos that was going to unleash across Pelias. Sides taken, old grudges reawakened, and loyalties torn apart. Sassone must have lost his mind. Or he truly believed Elodie a traitor and that was its own kind of madness.

‘He's going to kill her,' Laurence said. ‘They say he's already torturing her and when he's finished…and the knights can't get inside.'

Where was Anselm? Finn wondered. He'd know a way. He'd spoken about secret passages and?—

The currents in the ground beneath him twisted and bucked, trying to wrench themselves free. Shadows and light, tangling together, torn from their paths and redirected by sheer force of will. And rage. Blind rage. Such fear.

It might have been Elodie, or the Aurum itself.

What happened when someone tortured the Chosen of the Aurum so close to its heart?

Then again, it wasn't only the light he was feeling. The Nox was there too and the shadows were rising. Everything was twisted and confused, as if someone had grabbed both powers and tangled them together. It all felt wrong.

Wren would be feeling this too, all the wild rage, grief and loss. It would funnel up inside her and if it came out…

Wren wouldn't let anything happen to Elodie. And she had been with Anselm.

He could feel her, her scent tangling around him, her voice calling him. And he wasn't entirely sure if it was Wren, the Aurum or the Nox, or something else entirely. It was power. And it was dangerous.

Now he knew where she was. All he had to do was follow those currents rippling through the ether.

‘Stay inside,' he told the boy.

‘I can help you, guard your back. They're going to kill her. There isn't much time.'

Just what he needed. A boy in tow. And yet he felt a surge of relief that at least someone in his light-forsaken family had some sort of priorities. It didn't matter to him that she was the queen of Asteroth or anything else.

He grabbed Laurence and pulled him into an embrace, kissing the top of his head. ‘You go to your mother right now and protect her. She's…she's exhausted and won't be able to help herself if anything happens. Lock the gates after me and tell Gaius to double the guards. Tell him he's right and everyone should get out as quickly as they can once this is over. Understand? I charge you as…' He couldn't remember the honours and knighthoods of Sidonia. He'd never learned them. They had never mattered and he had not cared. ‘As my cousin,' he finished. ‘As a member of the line of Sidon. Will you obey me in this?'

The boy stepped back, face shining with gratitude and faith and something Finn didn't even want to consider. ‘Yes, Prince Finnian.'

Light, Finn hated that title.

Outside, the city was in chaos. The noise was already deafening, armed men everywhere, and every knight in Pelias converging on the area.

There had to be a way in. Finn could feel the current of shadows pulling him onwards, faster and faster, the urgency of it roaring through his mind. The light Wren had planted in him burned now, brighter and brighter. He had to find her. He had to protect her.

Probably from herself.

Screams filled the air, people crying out for their queen or venting their anger, and he heard the gates breaking before he reached them. There was a blast of something powered by a scream, something made of rage and terror. He felt it shake the air and the earth and forced himself to run.

The knights charged through the breach as he reached the broken gates, pressing the advantage. It felt like an earthquake shook the city. Lost in a whirl of darkness which suddenly rose from the stones and descended with the fall of night, Finn ran, sprinting through the chaos of the attack. He caught sight of Roland leading the charge and then lost him as he raced inside the courtyard himself, sword drawn. Sassone's guards fled or fell before the Knights of the Aurum.

But the river of shadows beneath them was still there, surging like rapids, driving him on. The light in him grew even brighter, like its own beacon, reaching out for her in return.

‘Finn!'

It was Wren, her voice frantic. Finn plunged towards her without a moment's hesitation, heedless of danger.