Chapter 40

40

Kane

I wasn't sure what had shredded the two-hundred-year-old tether on Griffin's self-control these days, but upon seeing Amelia for the first time since she'd betrayed us and ensured Arwen's almost-demise, he lunged for her like a rabid dog.

Snarling, my commander had the new queen's ice-white hair in a vise grip and had forced her down to her knees within seconds.

"Gods almighty." Hart dodged back, nearly knocking over my nicest stained-glass lamp but grasping its thin shade just in time.

Amelia, whom I'd never seen shed a single tear, cried out, clutching at her scalp as Griffin forced her lower, and lower still.

The young olive-skinned man who had helped Arwen and I flee Solaris drew his sword at Griffin, and my lighte flickered at my wrists as I roared, "Enough."

But my commander didn't drop the wincing Amelia, her hands scraping at his wrist and forearm as she pleaded for him to release her.

I nearly growled at him. "I said, enough ."

"Griffin," Mari urged, standing from her spot beside Briar, her face a little appalled. "Let her go."

Griffin gave Amelia a lethal once-over before reluctantly releasing his hold on her hair. She fell to the floor with a groan. "She turned on us," he seethed to the witch. "She's the reason you thought your closest friend was dead."

"And I'd do it again," Amelia said from the floor, rubbing her scalp.

"Bold." Hart shrugged, impressed.

I scowled at them both.

Amelia stood, righting the slinky layers of her pale green dress. "How is what Arwen herself was just suggesting any different? If I could have offered my own life for the safety of my people, I would have without a second thought."

When none of us uttered a word, she added, "But I am sorry for the pain my actions caused. Of course I am. Perhaps procuring the sword was the first step of many I can take in earning back your trust."

"You will never have our trust," I gritted out. "You will be lucky to still have your own head when all of this is over."

"So be it," she said, utterly calm. "Today at least, we fight for the same side."

"She's right," Arwen said. And then, to the kingsguard, "I can't believe you're alive. After you helped us I thought…"

The kind-faced man shrugged, almost bashful. "Lumerians are terrified of dragons. I told them Prince Ravenwood ripped you from my grasp…They didn't find my story so far-fetched."

Of course they were afraid of dragons. In Onyx, my shifted form was a symbol of our power. Our strength. In Lumera, the wyvern was one of fear and brutality.

Arwen smiled at him, and when my eyes found hers I saw they shone with a new resolve. I knew she saw the same glow in my own eyes.

We had the blade .

Flickers of triumph rose in my veins. Everything was different now.

"How did you even get here?" Eardley asked the newcomers.

"I fight with the aid of the entire Antler coven," Hart said. "We got word to Queen Amelia that the blade needed to be salvaged from the palace wreckage. With the help of Wyn here we retrieved it, and my coven portaled us to Evendell."

"Hart told me that if I helped"—Amelia's stoic eyes fell to mine— "I might be spared upon my return."

She was right, it was the deal we'd relayed to the rebel king. Still, I couldn't look at Amelia for too long without bloodlust misting across my vision.

"Where did you find the blade?" Arwen asked Hart.

"Lazarus wouldn't risk bringing the weapon with him, knowing he'd be in such close proximity to the two of you. That only left a few of his usual traps, and I've been studying the man for decades. I had a hunch."

Whore or not, it turned out we were lucky to have the rogue on our side.

"Hart arrived once Lazarus and his army left for Onyx," Amelia continued. "It was as easy as asking Wyn to use his clearance as a kingsguard to get Hart and his coven into one of the monster's lairs."

Wyn swallowed hard, some memories of what he'd battled swimming behind his hazel eyes. "I wouldn't say easy …"

Hart laughed hard and rough and I almost couldn't help my own grin. This ludicrous team of traitors and rebels had retrieved the fucking blade.

Arwen's gaze wasn't harsh on Amelia as she shook her head, amazed. "You and Wyn. Both in Solaris, and neither knowing the other wasn't really allied with Lazarus."

"Well." Amelia smirked at the kingsguard. "After you blew up half the palace, Wyn came and found me. He said he'd seen us talking at the Lumerian Solstice and asked how he could help."

Arwen's eyes shuttered as she beheld Wyn. "You knew?"

Wyn shrugged. "I'm not as feeble as I look."

Arwen shook her head, crossing the room to embrace him. "You never looked feeble to me," she muttered into his shoulder with a half laugh. "We'll need you in the coming fight."

"You've got me." He smiled faintly. "Put me to work."

Eardley loosed a rare grin.

Hart cleared his throat. "I've put my faith in you, Kane Ravenwood, and I don't intend to yank it back now, but I can't stay. I cannot go to war with you all."

"You?" Griffin balked. "Why?" After all I'd told my commander of the battle-loving bastard, I, too, was confused.

Hart swallowed, misery cresting over his face for the first time since he'd arrived. "I'd love nothing more than to soak my hands with the blood of Lazarus's men. But getting us here…Some of the witches in the coven didn't survive. Briar needs to send me back. The channel will take me too long."

"She'll do so after we slaughter Lazarus," Eardley said. "You have to stay and fight—we need all the manpower we can get."

Hart's brows knit. "Who are you?"

I sighed. Too many egos in one study—mine included. "Hart, this is my lieutenant, Eardley. Eardley, Hart is the rebel king. He's the only man I trust to rule over Lumera when my father falls. We can't risk losing him."

And Beth's vision…Gods forbid we succeeded in slaughtering Lazarus and found even Briar couldn't get us back to Lumera to begin extraditing civilians…The realm couldn't be left without a leader. Now, while Lazarus was here, was the best opportunity for Hart and his battalions to successfully lay siege to Solaris and take power.

"We will free the Lumerians," Briar swore to me, as if reading my thoughts, "once we've secured the stronghold. But if I go now, the ward I've cast will dissolve. It's a constant enchantment I'm maintaining over the keep, not a completed spell."

"Then just send Hart back," I said. "But first—"

I crossed the room to the spelled door and the glass display case in the candlelit hallway on the other side. Next to King Oberon's prized harpy talon and my favorite treasure—a piece of the original map of Willowridge drawn by Evendell's founders—was the first king of Onyx's diamond-and-amethyst armor. And atop it, his cherished battle crown. Leather for comfort in wartime but artfully crafted with jewels that still sparkled a millennium later.

I jammed my elbow into the case, shattering the glass, and fished the piece out before stalking back into the study.

Arwen and Griffin shot me equally questioning looks, but I only moved for Hart.

"Kneel," I instructed when I'd come to stand before him.

Hart, a man with a thousand witty one-liners and very little dignity, knelt immediately to the ground, eyes grave on mine.

"Hart Renwick, will you solemnly promise to govern the peoples of Lumera, both Fae and mortal alike, with justice, mercy, and ferocity; to protect them as if each were your own blood; to guide the realm to peace and prosperity as long as you shall live?"

Hart's eyes never left my own, even as Mari inhaled sharply. "I solemnly promise to do so."

"Hold this throne with honor," I said after placing the ancient crown upon his unkempt head. "It is yours by the authority of the heir to the Lumerian throne, Prince Kane Ravenwood. May your righteousness and just rule endure forevermore. Gods save King Renwick."

Though quiet and embattled, bruised and broken, the entire study murmured back in perfect clarity, "Gods save King Renwick."

And I'd hoped that they would.

Before he or I could utter a word to each other, a spell-cast wind and the smell of sorcery filled the room, sending pillow tassels whirring and a wicked chill through my bones. Briar and Mari hummed in unison as the undulating, gaping maw of a pitch-black portal ringed in softly glowing violet bloomed open, separating our world from whatever magic lay beyond.

"Rule well, Hart," Briar urged her old friend. "We'll celebrate when this nightmare has ended."

"Good luck to you all." Hart nodded once. "I'll take care of your people, Kane. I swear it."

"They're your people. They always have been."

He grinned that half smile once more, then stepped through before the portal slammed shut. Like an eye, winking closed.

For a moment, my ornate study was silent.

"I almost forgot," Amelia said to me, pulling something from her skirts. My black signet ring glinted in the stained-glass-filtered afternoon light. "I thought you might want this back."

"It's hers now." I gestured at Arwen, my entire body tense. Now that Hart was gone and the people of Lumera accounted for, I knew what would need to come next.

Arwen's eyes widened a bit, but she opened her palm, allowing Amelia's small, moonstone-adorned fingers to place the ring at the center of her hand.

Her olive eyes on mine, my wife placed the signet onto her left ring finger. My heart swelled sorrowfully.

Wyn was the one to narrow his gaze at her. "Arwen, you cannot offer yourself up to Lazarus like a prize. Not after everything he's done to you."

"I agree," Briar said, deep in thought.

"No," I interjected, the plan finally forming itself in my mind.

I had meant it earlier, when I'd said it was Arwen's choice. I'd made enough mistakes trying to control Arwen, trying to control the outcome of every fate that plagued us. She was capable of making her own decisions. If she wanted to spare the kingdoms and give herself up, even if it meant going back to Solaris, shredding me from the inside out, I would not stand in her way. "No, she…has to."

Griffin's head swiveled. "What?"

"I do?" Arwen asked, a bit of dismay spilling into her voice.

That sound, her voice when she was afraid, was worse than the shriek of a knife against porcelain. But I couldn't explain just yet. Not when Lazarus would have access to all our minds. "Eardley, send a raven to Lazarus's encampment. Tell him we have an offer."