by Jack Whitney
She watched from her window when he left the castle on horseback around midnight and rode into the darkness back to his realm.
And she cursed herself for avoiding him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE LETTER CAME the week after the next dead moons cycle.
Willow delivered it to Aydra at the breakfast she shared with her siblings on that morn. Aydra nearly ripped it open sitting at her seat, and it fell from her hands into her egg scramble.
The boats are here.
—was all it said.
Her heart skipped. The boats. Draven…
She hadn’t expected him to fulfill his promise to inform her after she’d treated him so terribly after the last meeting. But her chest constricted at the thought of him, and she could hardly contain herself.
Aydra wiped her mouth and stood from the table with such haste that she nearly knocked her food onto the ground.
“Everything all right?” Dorian asked from across the table.
Aydra nodded quickly. “Yes. Yes, everything is fine. I have to… fucking Infi… I have to go.”
She exited the Great Hall without a second look back at her siblings, and immediately went to her room to pack. Lex fell in behind her the moment she caught up with her.
“Where are we going?” Lex asked.
Aydra handed the letter back to her. “We leave in an hour.”
“Boats… oh, the boats! Fucking Infi— And we’re going where?”
“The Forest.”
Aydra didn’t need to see Lex’s face to know she was smirking at her.
“Shut up,” Aydra cut before Lex could coo at her. “Diplomatic mission. Nothing more.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” Lex mumbled.
Dorian and Nyssa bid them goodbye from the gates. Aydra didn’t go into detail about where they were going, only telling them she would send word in a few days of what she’d found and whether she needed help from the Village.
It was on the morning of the fifth day on their journey that they finally ventured inside the Forest of Darkness. Aydra could feel the morning creatures stirring through the wood, waking rabbits and deer stretching and welcoming the day as it wrapped around them.
They traveled an hour inside the wood before Aydra’s raven suddenly flapped in front of them and called out, Archers!
Aydra pulled on the reigns of her horse and looked into the trees. Lex’s horse stamped impatiently.
“Why have we stopped?” Lex asked.
Aydra didn’t have a chance to respond. From within the darkness, she saw a figure appear, hood pulled over their head.
“Your business, Lady Ravenspeak,” the man said without removing his hood.
“I was summoned,” she replied. “Take me to your King.”
A quirk of a smile rose on the man’s face. “I’m beginning to think you like it here,” he muttered.
“Take us to your King, Hunter,” Lex spoke up. “Else watch your kneecaps be shattered.”
The man pulled his hood off his head, and Aydra smiled at Dunthorne’s smirking face.
“Calm, Lex,” Aydra said. “Dunthorne means us no harm.”
Dunthorne’s dark eyes danced at her, and he gave her a quick nod. “This way, Sun Queen.”
Aydra could hear the men moving in canopy of the trees as they followed she and Lex back to their home. It was another hour into the wood, the trees growing grander and grander, until finally a clearing swept open beneath great branches, and Aydra had to pause to take in their forest kingdom in the daylight.
Men walked on the thick branches above them, climbing down on ropes to reach the ground as they approached. Aydra exchanged a glance with Lex, and then they continued forward. Hunters gathered around, all whispering amongst themselves. Aydra noticed a few people she did not recognize, and she knew by the dreads in their hair that they were not in fact of the Venari.
And then she saw Draven standing by the armory shelter with Balandria, a large piece of parchment in his hands. The sun basked down on his walnut hair and made her stomach knot at the sight of him in his battle leathers.
Draven did a double-take upon seeing them. A frown spread over his face, and he twisted the map in his hands up tightly, the squeeze of his hands apparent against the parchment. She couldn’t figure out the look on his face as he pressed the map into the chest of the man behind him.
“I see you found trespassers, Dunthorne,” Draven called as he crossed the space between them.
“She says she was summoned,” Dunthorne answered.
Aydra’s jaw clenched as she and Lex stepped down from their horses. Draven paused over her, staring down his nose at her figure. She raised an expectant brow, unsure of the apparent annoyed twinge pulsing through his core.
“You can escort yourselves to my home and wait there,” he said shortly with a glance at Lex. “Second Sun,” he acknowledged her with a short nod.
“Forest King,” Lex replied with the same nod.
Aydra wasn’t sure why she’d expected anything more than a cold shoulder from him, but it hurt nonetheless, and she reminded herself this was the freezing temperature she’d treated him with the last he was in her realm. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Draven turned on his heel away from her.
“Bael, take their horses to the stables and give them food and water. The rest of you get back to your duties. We don’t have time to waste.”
Aydra stared after his retreating figure, and then she caught eyes with Balandria’s flaring facade. Balandria said something upon his reaching her, but Draven grasped her arm and pulled her backwards with him.
“Something tells me he wasn’t expecting us,” Lex muttered at her side.
Aydra’s narrowed gaze took a turn around them. “Something tells me you’re right,” she mumbled back. “Come on. We’ll wait for him upstairs.”
It wasn’t long that they had to wait. Aydra put the kettle on to make tea, yearning for something warm after their long journey. She’d just poured she and Lex a cup when she heard footsteps coming up the staircase.
Draven met her eyes when he reached the entrance. His fists curled and uncurled at his sides as he stood there.
“Making yourself at home, I see,” he acknowledged.
“It’s tea. Would you like some?” she asked coldly.
He stared at her, and she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.
“Go ahead, Venari,” she uttered. “Spit it out—”
“What are you doing here?”
Aydra frowned. Her eyes met Lex’s, and her friend raised a concerned brow.
“You—”
“Oi, Venari,” came a voice with skipping steps up the stairs. “What’s the plan, why—”
An unfamiliar man no older than they paused in the doorway at Draven’s side. He stood nearly as tall as Draven, only a few inches shorter. His shoulder blade length blonde and caramel tightly wound corkscrew curls some of which had been dreaded, he had half pulled back away from his face. They not only made him look more of a darker, muted, ecru olive tan than he was, but much more handsome than Aydra wanted to admit. Blonde spiced hair danced along his jaw, short against his skin and wrapped around his lip, the color of it standing stark against his skin. His almond eyes darted between the three standing in the room.
She suddenly felt as though she were dazing into the ocean as his gaze found her, for his eyes were the clearest cerulean color of the ocean she’d awoken to out her window every morning of her life.
“Who’s the stiff?” asked the unfamiliar man.
Aydra balked as his words brought her back to reality. She blinked and nearly slammed the cup in her hands down on the table. “The stiff? Who do you—”
“Whoa—” Draven stepped in front of her and grabbed her arms. “Do not forget you are not in your kingdom any longer,” he said in a low tone. He let her arms go, and he turned around to the stranger. “Nadir, this is Aydra Ravenspeak.”
Nadir’s arms crossed ove
r his toned chest, the vein in his taut forearms splintering around his elbow. The lean build of his swimmer-like body reminded her once more of the ocean, and she started to have an inkling of what he was.
“Ravenspeak?” he repeated.
“The surname my giver gave upon my marking,” Aydra informed him as she pushed her hair off her neck to reveal the raven silhouetted triad marking on the side of her throat.
Nadir’s gaze traveled over her once more, and she suddenly felt as though she were being scrutinized, as if he were determining her worth for battle, whether she was truly who Draven said she was or worthy of the title.
“Where is your crown, Sun Queen?” he finally asked.
Her jaw clenched, and she bit the inside of her cheek. “I dare not wear it when in a realm I do not command,” she replied coldly. “And who are you?”
The right corner of Nadir’s lip twisted just slightly, and he raised a brow in Draven’s direction. “I didn’t know you kept the company of the Promised, Hunter.”
“It’s new,” Draven replied as he straightened some of the papers on his desk, eyes darting towards Aydra.
Nadir turned back to Aydra, and she watched as the gills on his neck suddenly flickered visibly, just for a second, as though he were flexing them to prove he was what he claimed. “Nadir Storn, leading commander of the Honest army.”
Aydra’s arms crossed over her own chest. “The Honest have an army?”
“Who do you think has been protecting our shores for the last few hundred years?” Nadir smarted. His weight shifted, and he looked to Draven again. “What’s she doing here?” he asked him.
“Good question.” Draven straightened up and leaned his weight against the table, his butt just sitting on the surface as he pressed his palms into the wood on either side of him. “What are you doing here?”
Aydra’s eyes narrowed at the way he looked at her then. “Did you think I would ignore you?” she spat.
Draven’s eyes squinted at her. “You wrote me back a letter with only one word. One. Single. Word. One word that told me you’d fallen for your brother’s and the Chronicles’ lies once more.”
“I didn’t write any letter.”
Draven reached back and snatched a piece of parchment off the top pile of his desk. It landed in her hands, and he stood haughtily over her as she read.
Lies.
Her heart skipped at the writing on the page. “I didn’t write this,” she protested, meeting his eyes. “Draven, I swear—”
“Did the Orel go straight to you or did your lady deliver it?” Draven asked.
Aydra’s stomach plummeted, and she avoided his gaze, staring into nothing as she remembered the morning on which she’d received it. “My lady, Willow. She gave it to me.”
“Just perfect,” Nadir mumbled.
Draven’s nostrils flared. “You’re under more of a watch than I previously thought.”
“My brother has had Belwarks escorting me, but he has no spies—”
Brows raised on Draven’s face. “Really?” He strode determinedly through the wide opening and onto the deck, where he leaned over the edge. “Then how do you explain the company of riders coming in from our west.”
Color drained from her face, and she stumbled hastily to the deck where he stood. The wind wrapped around her, and she knew he’d heard the noise of the company carrying on the wind. Lex launched herself out of the chair and went to stand at her side.
“They must be from the Village,” Lex said.
Aydra squeezed the railing in her hand. “Fucking Rhaif,” she hissed under her breath. “But if they’re from the Village, that means…”
Lex met her gaze, and at the same time they said, “Fucking Ash.”
A murmur of whispers and concerned voices had started in the yard below. Hunters were starting to gather, all looking up to Draven for their next move. Nadir cursed under his breath, his large thin hands gripping the banister as though he could ring the water out of the wood. “How far out?” he asked Draven.
“They’ll be here in an hour,” Draven answered. He pushed off the banister and started down the steps faster than Aydra could muster a protest.
“Everyone in the trees!” he bellowed out.
Echoes of his orders surrounded them. Nadir shouted something to his own men, and they bounded off the barrels and tree stumps they’d been sitting on. Aydra’s eyes widened at the quickness of the men and women moving around her, arrows and bows being thrown in the air to their persons. Men took spears from their walls, knives pushing into their boots. And then the Hunters began ascending to the canopies, clamoring up the trunks of the great trees and climbing the ropes hanging down.
Nadir ran down the stairs behind Draven, to which Aydra shortly followed. She drowned out the orders he gave his men and ran after Draven.
“There will be no shooting unless they shoot first,” Draven called out. “Be prepared for anything. If it is a war Magnice wants, we shall be ready for it.”
Aydra grabbed Draven’s arm and whirled him around to face her. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Preparing my men,” he said simply.
“Do you truly think—”
“I know you are a long way from home,” he cut in, brows narrowed as he stared down at her. “The last time you were in my realm, your brother accused me of kidnapping you. I will assume he thinks the same this time.”
“I left of my own accord,” she argued.
“Did you tell him where you were going?” he asked. “Did you tell him you were coming to help me? Did you tell him of the boats?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t.”
“And did you tell him about us?”
A pause washed over her, and she felt her weight shift just noticeably before straightening up, allowing her cold facade to possess the feeling in her heart. “What about us?” she spat.
Draven’s jaw clenched and he gave her a deliberate once over. “You’ve barely been home but a few months and suddenly you ride out again to a realm which your people have declared a resting enemy. Did you think he would not send his own company to follow after you?”
He turned briskly on his heel, and she quickly followed after him.
“Even if he did send his company, you’ve no reason to think they would be here for any reason except to ensure my safety,” she argued. “He probably thinks—”
Draven stopped so suddenly that she nearly ran into him.
“He thinks I’ve lured you here under false pretenses. He thinks I mean to ambush you, take you as prisoner and as ransom. He thinks I want his crown. He always has,” he said, now a little more calm than he’d spoken before. “I should never have involved you in this.”
“But you did,” she countered. “I am here. I want to help.”
A great exhale left him, and she could see his firm chest resting in submission as he looked over her head to his men, the vein in his neck straining under his frustration.
“Help us by making sure your Belwarks do not attack first,” he said, looking down at her again. “If they do… they will have started something neither of us will be able to finish.”
“It’s not Belwarks,” she told him.
Draven stopped in his tracks and turned around. “What?”
“No men followed us from Magnice. This is probably a Dreamer company from the Village. Which means—”
“Your fucking boyfriend is coming,” he cringed.
“Ash is not my boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend. Lover. Indentured servant— I don’t care,” he whipped. “The fact remains that he will come in here threatening my men worse than any company of Belwarks would.” He paused and met her eyes. “Get rid of them before I have their heads put on stakes and sent back to your kingdom.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AYDRA WAS FURIOUS.
She had the raven fly out and escort the Dreamer company through the woods so they did not get lost. She and Lex walked out some past the edge
of the Forest kingdom to meet them so as to not provoke a fight.
It was the smile on Ash’s face when they arrived that made her wish she’d had her brother’s fire.
“My Queen—” Ash dismounted the horse and strode straight up to her, his arms outstretched as though he expected to be welcomed into her arms.
Smack!
Her hand seared across his cheek the moment his feet reached her. Ash stumbled backwards, obviously bewildered by her hand striking his cheek.
“What—”
“How dare you follow me into a realm not of your own with weapons and threaten these people?!” she hissed at him. “Who sent you?”
Ash straightened and rubbed his cheek, his eyes darkening down at her. “Your brother thought you’d been taken advantage of. He sent us to follow in case you found yourself beneath an ambush.”
“Well, as you can see, I am perfectly fine. Your new orders are to leave this place before you find yourselves on the wrong end of the Venari fury. And I can promise you, Captain, you’ll not see it coming before your life becomes their’s.”
Ash’s jaw clenched. One of his men leaned down from his horse, asking if they should leave. Ash held his fist up to silence them and looked over his shoulder. “Haut, take our company back to the Village,” he instructed him.
Haut frowned. “And you, Captain?”
“I’m going to make sure our Queen stays safe in this realm,” Ash replied. “I don’t trust these Venari people.”
“It does not matter who you trust,” Lex butted in then. “I am her Second. I will look after her. Take your men and leave as your Queen instructed you to.”
Ash didn’t move from the spot. “I will leave after I’ve seen these boats the King told me you’d come to find.”
Aydra stared at him. “Rhaif told you about the boats?”
Ash began taking his gloves off, one finger at a time. “He asked that I personally report back to him with the reality of the situation… if there was in fact such a situation.”
Aydra’s fists clenched at her side, and she was sure she could have broken her jaw at the weight of her clenching. “Fucking curses,” she muttered. “Fine. You stay. The rest of your men are to leave.”