Chapter 33

Ellery

The king staredat the coin before using his fingers to flip it between the knuckles of his left hand. "Time is up, Scourge."

Nervous laughter followed the king's use of Ryker's nickname.

"You've lost out on the money," King Ivan continued.

"That's what I have my father for."

Laughter followed this statement, and a few other aristocrats slapped the duke on his back.

"I thought you'd like a coin," Ryker said.

King Ivan stopped flipping the coin through his knuckles and tossed it back to Ryker. "Keep it."

Watching them, I knew that even with my ability to wield all five of the weathers, I didn't have as much power as the immortals gathered around King Ivan, and I never would.

I could destroy many of them with my abilities, but here was where the true power of Tempest lay, with the wealthy who sent the poor into the labyrinth for their enjoyment. We'd struggled in that maze for hours, and they'd probably lost interest in what was happening within minutes.

Sure, they'd most likely laughed every time someone screamed, and I was sure they'd reveled in watching amsirah flee the maze. But for the most part, I was sure they'd almost immediately forgotten our existence.

I could never wield this kind of power and didn't want it. However, these assholes were determined to destroy Tempest and its occupants.

King Leonidas's death had unleashed something in them that they'd kept hidden for centuries… or maybe King Ivan's cruelty had. Either way, they were ruining our once beautiful and prosperous realm more than the ghouls who invaded it and ravaged the lands they managed to cross.

I could always leave Tempest, but my mother would never agree to go. She and my father had lived at our manor for centuries; it was where they built a life together and raised me.

Before they took over, the manor was in my father's family for millennia. It was a source of endless pride for him, and he'd treated everything there with tender love, care, and respect… including all the amsirah who worked it.

Many of those workers went to fight the ghouls and never returned. Others moved on when we couldn't afford to pay them as much, and we had to let almost everyone go when the money grew tighter.

Now, only Scarlet, her little brother, mother, and father remained, and my mother paid them with housing and by sharing the profits as we all had to work much harder to survive. Those profits had gotten smaller under King Ivan's rule.

Until King Ivan took more control while his brother was away, nothing at our manor was out of place. We fixed everything as soon as it broke.

Taxes, and a lack of amsirah to work the fields and horses, had taken a toll on my home. It was falling into a state of disrepair that would have broken my father's heart.

And while the idea of leaving Tempest and starting a new life somewhere else was tempting, my mother wasn't the only one who couldn't leave the manor behind. I couldn't either.

It was my home. We'd struggled to keep it these past two years, and I wouldn't quit because of these greedy assholes, but I didn't know how to stop what was happening. I couldn't help but worry that it was only a matter of time before greed tore our home away from us.

I tossed my stolen knife into the bushes and turned away from the laughing men and women gathered around the king as some of them slapped Ryker on the back. They congratulated him on making it to the center of the maze. I could guarantee they wouldn't have been so receptive to me if I'd handed King Ivan a gold coin.

I stayed away from the crowd and slipped through the shadows toward a group gathered on the outskirts of the celebration. I suspected those in the shadows were still waiting for their family and friends to return.

I was still fifty feet away from them when the dim glow of the fire revealed my mother standing near the edge of the gathering. When she spotted me, she cried out, lifted her skirt, and raced across the grass toward me.

"Ellery! Are you okay?"

I didn't have time to answer before she crushed me against her. She was inches shorter than my five-foot-six height and a petite woman, but she had a death grip.

"I'm fine," I assured her as I hugged her. "But I would like a bath."

"Of course. We'll return to the palace at once."

Though I yearned to, I didn't look back at Ryker as we walked away from the celebration. He belonged to a different part of Tempest than me.