Chapter 29

29

W as Endre all right?

I couldn’t keep thoughts of him from my mind, not after what I’d learned about the Crystal Realm. I only felt slightly guilty that I thought of him before my father and brother. If the Night Realm was truly marching on the empire, none of them would have stayed behind in Vaenor.

A knot settled in my stomach, making the food I balanced on my plate as Izidora and I traversed the winding halls of Ryza look like shit.

“To the apartment?” I asked, if only to break the silence and shatter my worried thoughts.

“Mhmm,” Izidora responded around her food, scattering a few crumbs from her mouth as she did so, then chuckling to herself for making a mess. My mouth twitched up as I tried to smile, but the nausea churning in my belly made it hard to feel the levity of the moment.

She swallowed down her food, then popped a fat purple grape into her mouth. “Thinking of Endre?”

“Ugh, how did you know?” I whined, rolling my eyes. Sometimes having an empath for a best friend was a good thing, other times, not so much.

She shrugged, picking up a bunch of grapes and dangling them above her mouth. “You usually only worry about one thing.”

“It’s because I’m so confident in all my abilities,” I attempted to tease, flicking my braid over my shoulder, but the words were as hollow as I felt.

“I’m serious, Liliana,” she said, slowing her gait so she could meet my gaze.

“I know,” I replied, blowing an errant strand of hair out of my face.

“Tell me how you feel,” she encouraged, and as we trudged up the stairs that spiraled to the top of the spire where our apartments were, I sorted through the complex web.

“I know I sound like a parrot, always repeating myself, but I want him to choose me. To choose the right side of this war. We are going to win, and I don’t want him to get killed because he chose to stay loyal to Kazimir.”

The double doors at the end of the hall were a welcome sight, promising a hot shower to wash away my worries and the blood splattered over me.

“Say it as many times as you need to. That’s how you feel, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Izidora nodded to the sentry stationed outside the apartment doors as he opened it, allowing us entry into the luxurious space.

We placed our leftover food on an end table, then traipsed to the enormous bathroom. Well, it wasn’t the biggest one Ruslan had – the one at Roc was much bigger and much nicer, and I had gotten spoiled using it while Izidora slept through the seasons.

My birthday had come and gone during that time, and the males had done their best to celebrate with me, but while Izidora had lain in the bed on the other side of the doors to the living area, it wasn’t the same.

Who knew thoughts of Endre would make me so sentimental?

“You can shower first,” Izidora offered, hopping up on the marble counter and kicking off her boots.

“You sure?” I asked, crossing to the knobs and turning them regardless of her answer.

She grinned back at me. “As long as you don’t take all the hot water.”

I shrugged, peeling off my clothes. “I make no promises.”

“That’s fine, if we run out, you can go ask Drazen to heat it with his Dragon fire,” she teased, bringing a laugh from somewhere in my chest.

The water was warm and inviting when I stepped into the glass box. Fog gathered and rolled out of the top, sticking to the glass on its journey. “You know when he breathes the hottest fire, right?”

“When you’re on your knees?”

Laughter bubbled up from us in unison, and I dunked my head beneath the artificial rain pouring from the ceiling. My hair was instantly soaked, the chocolate brown darkening even more and clinging to my body. Reaching for soap, I rubbed it over my body, lathering away sweat and blood that wasn’t mine. “We make a good team,” I called out as a tiny ruby river swept away from my feet.

“That we do. We should have a kill count on the battlefield. Make it a competition,” Izidora replied, and I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see me.

“You’re almost as bad as Ruslan,” I teased.

“Well, we’re mated so I think that means we just become more alike as we grow closer,” she quipped.

I swiped at the steam coating the glass so I could see her sitting outside the shower. She faced the mirror, slowly unplaiting her hair. We locked eyes, and something like hurt shone in her aquamarine orbs.

“You want vengeance that badly?”

“It’s more than that. I want them to see my power and fear me.” She chewed her lip and lifted a coarse brush to the ends of her hair. “I am so fucking tired of these males thinking they can scare me or walk all over me. I want it to be the other way around for a change.”

Sighing, I nodded and retreated. I understood exactly where she was coming from. It was hard being a female in the Night Realm, especially a pretty one. There, I was treated more like property or an asset, especially in the eyes of the court. Vadim had tried to provide me with a semblance of control over my life through fighting, but in the end, I knew King Zalan would marry me off to whomever was in his favor when the time was right.

Thank the Goddess that never happened.

In the Iron Realm, I felt like I had far more autonomy and opportunity, and not just because my best friend happened to be the future empress.

When I was finally clean, I didn’t bother shutting off the water. Instead, I reached for a towel and wrapped it around myself. “It’s all yours.”

Izidora hopped off the counter and left a trail of bloody clothes in her wake as she entered the shower. I took her spot on the counter and used a large-toothed comb to brush out my long locks as she washed.

“I don’t want to end up like Immonen.”

Izidora’s confession drifted toward me on a cloud of steam, but there was no airiness to her words.

A muscle feathered in my jaw as I clenched it around the tears that burned my eyes. “She didn’t deserve that.”

“No she didn’t.” Izidora’s voice was as hard as the marble upon which I sat.

“What about Domi?” I asked, fisting an especially tangled spot in my hair and working the brush over it.

The crashing of the water lessened as Izidora stepped beneath it. “I hope she’s not suffering. She saw what we saw during Béke.”

“But Kaztar practically worships the ground Kazimir walks on.” A disgusted noise slipped from my throat, and Izidora made a similar one.

“If Ruslan ever made such a grave error of judgment, I wouldn’t bow to his desires,” she swore.

Izidora was fire incarnate, and Ruslan knew better than to play with a flame he could not control. If she said she didn’t like something, he wouldn’t hesitate to eradicate it from this earth – that’s how much he loved her.

“That’s because Ruslan is pussy-whipped and will do whatever you say,” I snickered.

“Don’t let him hear you say that. You know he wants people to think he's ruthless and unhinged.” The water ceased flowing, and my best friend emerged from the fog. Water dripped from the ends of her long hair and pattered against the floor as she approached me.

“He is unhinged. Especially when it comes to you,” I grinned at her in the mirror before gesturing for her to sit on the counter and spin around so I could brush out her hair. “So, what are we going to do until night falls?”

“Sleep until tomorrow,” she laughed. “We’ve been up for nearly two days straight.”

Acknowledging how long it had been since we’d slept sent a wave of exhaustion through me, tugging at my eyelids and pulling my jaw open in a wide yawn. “Let the males deal with the battle plans. We deserve our beauty sleep.”

“Exactly,” she said, sighing as I raked the comb across her scalp.

Izidora was the friend I’d always wanted, and I knew I was the friend she’d always needed. We crawled into bed together, wrapped in fluffy robes, not caring that Ruslan would probably shove us to the side when he was ready to sleep. It wasn’t long until the lazy afternoon sun lulled me into a deep slumber, and despite the worries that plagued me about Endre, I allowed myself to rest and recover.

We were on the right side of the war, and by the time it was over északi would be united and at peace