“I didn’t know who I was hunting—”
“Leo died there!” Her hands slammed into his chest and sent him to his knees. “My brother is dead, and you were there helping Irina kill him.”
The black dragon roared, smoke pouring from its nostrils, but Kol held up a hand to stay it. His eyes were stricken as he stared up at her.
Lorelai leaned down. “Oh, you’re going to want his help. Not that he can save you from me. You owe me your life, remember? And now you owe me for Leo’s, even though it was Irina’s spell that killed him. What do you think my brother’s life is worth, Kol? Is it worth the life of a king who would enslave himself to a monster and kill the innocent?”
“I’m so sorry.” He breathed the words, every syllable full of pain and regret.
Lorelai’s heart pounded, and magic seared her veins with the power to make him truly sorry. To make him pay for his part in Leo’s death.
Behind him, the black dragon began shifting to his human form, but Lorelai ignored him. Let him plead for the life of his miserable king. Let him threaten to kill her for laying a hand on Kol. Lorelai didn’t care. The terrible pain that had filled her when Leo died had found a purpose in hurting the king of Eldr. It would be justice, and Leo deserved that.
No one is going to give you what you want, Lorelai. You have to take it for yourself. Use your power and take it. Take it!
Irina’s voice, quiet as a breeze but hard as iron, filled Lorelai’s memory as she flexed her fingers and held Kol’s gaze. Beneath her anger, beneath the awful need to make him pay for Leo, a voice whispered that she was on a precipice. If she took the leap—if she used her magic to take the life of a boy simply because her pain begged her to without first making sure that it was justice, how could she look Irina in the eye and say that the queen was wrong for doing the same thing?
“Nothing I say can make up for the loss of your brother,” Kol said with quiet sincerity. The grief in his voice matched the pain that lived inside Lorelai. “Or make up for the fact that I was trying to kill the girl who saved my life.”
“No, nothing will ever make up for losing Leo,” she said, and though anger still shook her, she slowly curled her hands into fists, ignoring the burn of her magic. “My first mistake was to rescue you. My second was to believe that you had honor.”
“I didn’t mean to violate the debt I owe you. As soon as I recognized your bird, I put my human heart back in control and shifted. I don’t want to be a killer.” There was desperation behind his words. “I don’t expect you to believe me after all that’s happened, and I have no right to ask you for mercy—”
“No, you don’t.”
“I don’t ask mercy for myself. Only for Eldr.” His amber eyes held hers as the black dragon finished shifting and became the enormous boy—Trugg, if Lorelai remembered correctly—who instantly started running toward them. “You’re a mardushka, like Irina. You could save Eldr. You’re a good person—you wouldn’t have helped us in Tranke if you weren’t. Please, do what you want with me, but say that you’ll save my people now that Irina won’t.”
She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t hurt him.” Trugg threw himself between Lorelai and Kol, his arms held wide to block her from being able to touch his king.
“He tried to kill me.” She glared at Trugg. “And he is part of the reason my brother died.”
“He had no choice. Not really. Irina twisted her words—”
“I can speak for myself, Trugg.” Kol put a hand on the boy’s shoulder and then slowly climbed to his feet, his eyes still on Lorelai. Still full of regret. “But if it’s okay with the princess, I’d really like to put on some pants before we have this conversation.”
For the first time, Lorelai realized that she was facing two boys who didn’t have a stitch of clothing on. Her cheeks warmed. “Yes, please put some pants on.”
Kol turned toward a bag that was still strapped to the back of the silver dragon, but Trugg stood there, his arms crossed over his chest, staring her down as if convinced she would hurt his king the second Trugg turned his back.
“Pants.” She flapped her hands at him.
“I’m good.”
She glared. “I’m not.”
“Trugg, get dressed. We need the princess’s mercy, not her wrath.” Kol returned with clothes for his friend while the silver dragon began to shift into the girl with the short dark hair and narrow green eyes.
Lorelai took a step back and looked at Sasha, still perched on a branch, her thoughts a steady litany of death threats toward every Eldrian in the clearing. Just behind the Eldrian girl, Gabril limped toward them, his sword out, his expression the kind of icy calm that meant someone was about to die.
“Why are we worried about her wrath? We can shift and kill her if she becomes a threat,” the girl said.
“If she becomes a threat?” Gabril reached the bottom of the hill. “Do you have any idea whom you attacked? There isn’t a single moment that she isn’t a threat. The only thing keeping her from bringing this entire mountain down on your miserable heads is her commitment to becoming a just queen.”
Trugg and Jyn bristled, but Kol inclined his head toward Gabril. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to explain my actions.”
Gabril gave Kol a long, cold stare. “You’d better pray she accepts your explanation. Dragon or no, I will kill you for putting my princess in danger.”
“Understood— Hey!” Kol whipped his arms above his head as Sasha swooped low and yanked at his hair with her talons.
Let him speak, Sasha. I want to hear what he has to say, Lorelai sent, and Sasha reluctantly left Kol and perched on the princess’s shoulder instead, her black eyes locked on the king.
“Thank you,” Kol said to Lorelai.
“I don’t want your thanks. All I want is an explanation for why you tried to kill me and why you’ve asked for my mercy for Eldr.”
He straightened and met her eyes. “Eldr is overrun with ogres—ogres that are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The dark enchantress who has ensnared the kingdom south of ours let them out of the mountain where they were imprisoned, but it also changed them. They’re huge, bigger than our biggest dragon, and nothing we do stops them. Their skin is impervious to fire, to boulders, and to blades. My army was simply slowing them down, not stopping them. Even our best warriors—like Trugg, who is a beast in the sky—”
“Ladies.” Trugg raised his brows and gave Lorelai and Jyn a little smirk.
“This is not the time,” Lorelai said as Jyn muttered, “You’re a pig.”
Kol took a step toward Lorelai, and she raised her hands.
“So your kingdom is in trouble,” she said. “That doesn’t explain why you got in bed with the devil.”
He flinched, but held her gaze. “Here’s the truth.” He swallowed hard, and closed his eyes for a long moment before finally looking at her again. His voice was quiet as he said, “I was never supposed to take the throne. My father was a strong, fair ruler, and he was training my brother to follow in his footsteps. I wasn’t even a very good prince. I spent all my time pulling pranks and skipping school. But now . . .”
His voice broke, and he looked at the sky.
“Now I’m all that’s left. Me and my little sister. I’m all Eldr has, and I can’t save my people. I can’t stop the ogres. Every week brings a new flood of refugees from southern Eldr into the capital. Every day brings the ogres closer to the capital as well, and we have nowhere left to run.”
Despite her anger with him, a small thread of compassion entered Lorelai’s heart. She knew what it was like to be desperate. To see the people you were supposed to protect lose everything and to be powerless to stop it.
Kol looked at her again. “I was out of options. I can’t fight magic. So I came to Ravenspire to offer Queen Irina a deal—enough of my kingdom’s treasure to buy food for her people for the next ten years in exchange for using her magic to seal the ogres back into Va
llé de Lumé.”
Lorelai’s voice was grim. “You made the mistake of believing Irina cared about the fate of her people.”
“Yes.” Kol reached up and ran a finger along the thistle and bone collar that wrapped around his throat. “She made a counteroffer.”
“My life for the lives of your people.” Lorelai held his gaze and dared him to justify his choice.
“No.” He shook his head. “She told me to return you to the castle. That’s all I agreed to do. But then she required a blood oath, and she changed the wording to say that I agreed to do whatever she asked of me—”
“You made a blood oath with Irina?” Lorelai asked sharply. “Do you have any idea what she can do to you if she thinks you failed to uphold your end of the bargain?”
Kol’s shoulders drew back, his chin lifted, and suddenly he looked every inch a king. “I die. Horribly. Which is why I’m asking for your promise to show mercy to Eldr.”
Jyn’s face paled, and she stepped forward. “Kol—”
“I’m not going to hold up my end of the bargain,” Kol said. His expression was resolute. “I’m not going to cut out the princess’s heart and give it to Irina. Which means Eldr still needs someone to save it from the ogres.”
“It means you’ll die,” Lorelai said, “and Eldr will be without a king.”
“Better that than for Eldr to have a murderer on the throne.” He knelt before her and touched his forehead in a gesture of fealty. “I have nothing to offer you. I will spare your life no matter what your answer. But I beg you to use your magic to stop the ogres in Eldr and save my people.”
“You aren’t going to die,” Jyn said, her small frame vibrating with anger. “I’ll kill the girl myself, and—”
“Try it, and you’ll have a sword through your heart before you can even finish shifting.” Gabril held his blade steady.
“You can’t kill two dragons in one blow, human.” Trugg sounded furious. “And if you want to hurt either Jyn or my king, you’ll have to go through me.”
“This is the only way.” Kol sounded stoic, but his hands trembled, and Lorelai could see the fear in his eyes as he looked at her. “Please. Promise me you’ll save Eldr.”
The others erupted into arguments and protests while Lorelai’s thoughts raced. If she promised to help Kol with her magic and let him die for betraying his blood oath, Irina would know that her huntsman had failed, and she’d search for another way to find the princess. Lorelai didn’t need the distraction of staying one step ahead of the queen when what she really wanted to do was put into place her plan to honor Leo and take Irina down.
She needed a way to make Irina believe Kol had succeeded in killing her. If Irina believed Lorelai was dead, she’d send her magic through the used-up, dying Ravenspire ground into Eldr, which might weaken the queen, and that would give Lorelai an advantage she couldn’t afford to pass up.
She studied Kol, his eyes full of determination and regret, his spine straight though his hands shook, and admitted that while she was furious with his choices, she couldn’t truly blame him for them. She didn’t like him, but he didn’t deserve to die for Irina’s treachery.
“All of you, be quiet. Quiet!” Lorelai whipped her hands into the air, and white light blazed in her palms. Jyn’s mouth snapped shut. Gabril hefted his sword a bit higher and watched his princess. Trugg stared at her hands and whispered a curse.
“Nobody is going to die,” Lorelai said. “And Irina is going to honor her side of the blood oath. Now listen carefully. I have a plan.”
EIGHTEEN
KOL WATCHED LORELAI pace the clearing, her bird swiveling its head to maintain eye contact with him no matter where the girl went. Skies above, the bird’s unblinking gaze was creepy. He looked away from the gyrfalcon and asked, “What kind of plan do you have?”
“We’re going to trick Irina,” Lorelai said without looking at him.
“That’s suicide,” Jyn said, her voice rising. “At least for Kol. Nobody tricks a mardushka—”
“Except another mardushka.” The princess gave Jyn a look that would’ve made a lesser Draconi tremble.
The gyrfalcon caught Kol’s gaze and snapped its beak at him, its intentions clear. He did his best to ignore the bird, but he couldn’t ignore the mess he was in. He had been reluctantly willing to honor his blood oath when he’d thought Irina was Eldr’s only salvation. But he wasn’t going to kill the girl who’d saved his life. And he wasn’t convinced she could trick Irina. He appreciated her attempt to once again spare his life—the thought of dying made his hearts ache miserably—but what he really needed was the princess’s promise to help Eldr. He had no leverage, nothing to offer, but he’d seen the rage in her eyes when she realized he’d been in Nordenberg helping Irina the day her brother was killed. He’d seen the sparks of power glowing in her palms as she stalked toward him while he was defenseless.
And he’d seen the moment she pulled back from her rage and decided to let him live long enough to explain.
The furious man with the sword who watched Kol every bit as closely as the bird did was right. Lorelai was a threat who held her power in restraint because she was just. She was kind. She was committed to doing the right thing, even when it cost her.
He had to make her believe that helping Eldr was the right thing.
“How do you plan to trick Irina?” the man with the sword asked without lowering his weapon.
“And what will it cost Kol if you fail?” Jyn snapped.
The princess lifted her chin. “If the trick fails, he’ll pay with his life. It’s the same price he was willing to take from me.”
“He doesn’t deserve to die,” Trugg said.
“Neither do I. Neither did my brother.” Lorelai’s tone dared anyone to argue with her. “But Irina doesn’t care about any of that. She only cares about power. And because of the blood oath, she owns Kol.”
Lorelai looked at the man with the sword. “I have to test a theory before I know if this plan will work. Gabril, I’ll need your help.”
The man nodded and limped carefully across the wreckage of the trees Kol had destroyed as he’d chased the princess through the forest. As he walked past Kol, Gabril said quietly, “Don’t let the bad leg fool you, son. If you hurt my princess, I will be the nightmare you never see coming.”
“I understand the lengths to which we’ll go to protect those we love,” Kol said. He didn’t add that those lengths were what had put them all in this situation to begin with. Or that he wasn’t through fighting for Eldr.
The older man studied him for a moment, his expression unreadable, and then the princess said, “Gabril, let’s get started.”
Gabril turned from Kol and approached the princess as her bird lifted from her shoulder and flew into the sky.
“Where’s Sasha going?” Gabril asked.
“Hunting.” The princess turned to face Kol as Jyn and Trugg flanked him, their arms crossed over their chests and their expressions grim. “A mardushka uses her magic by calling to the heart of the thing she touches. Every heart feels a little different—the best way I can describe it is that it feels like the characteristics of the person, animal, or thing I’m touching. I’m going to see if I can trick my magic into believing the heart I hold is Gabril’s.”
“Whose heart do you plan on holding?” Kol asked, half afraid the answer would be his, though he thought he was far enough away from her to have a chance at shifting before she could hit him with her magic.
“An animal’s,” the princess said. Sasha returned, carrying the limp carcass of a rabbit in her beak. She swooped past the Eldrians and smacked Trugg in the head with the rabbit’s body as she passed.
“Stupid bird,” he muttered as he scrubbed a hand over his hair.
“My bird can drive her beak straight through your neck and into your artery in less time than it takes for you to draw a weapon, and she already dislikes you intensely. If I were you, I’d do my best not to antagonize her any further,” L
orelai said.
“I thought the bird obeyed you,” Trugg said.
“Better not antagonize me either.” Lorelai knelt as Sasha laid the rabbit at her feet.
“I’ll have you know that I am a Draconi warrior who graduated from the academy with honors befitting a cadet who— Oh skies, that’s disturbing.”
Trugg fell silent as Sasha tore the rabbit’s chest wide open with one strike. Her second strike ripped the heart free, and then the bird cocked her head and glared at the Eldrians, blood dripping from her beak.
“I see your point,” Trugg said.
The princess held out her hand, and Sasha deposited the rabbit heart onto her palm.
“Can you tell it was a rabbit’s heart?” Kol asked, stepping forward despite the forbidding look the princess aimed at him.
It was his fate on the line. His life, his kingdom. He had to see the magic at work for himself.
Brilliant white light shot from her palms and surrounded the heart. “It feels like a rabbit.”
“I should think so,” Jyn said.
The princess stared at the heart. “No, I mean the essence of the heart is very . . . rabbitlike. Arrow-quick thoughts, wariness, and speed. It would never pass for human, even if the size and shape were right.” She looked at Gabril. “Would you be willing to cut your hand and put your blood on the heart so I can see how that changes the essence?”
Kol took another step forward. “Let me. This is my problem to fix. There’s no need for him to have an injury, no matter how small.”
The princess locked eyes with him, and the disdain in her expression was worse than the disappointment he’d become used to seeing in his father’s face. At least with his father, he could tell himself he’d been misunderstood, or that something his father had done justified Kol’s behavior.
There was no misunderstanding here, and the justification that he was desperate to save Eldr didn’t change what he’d nearly done to the girl who’d saved his life.
“My magic has already touched Gabril’s heart. I know what his feels like.” She cut each word into sharp little pieces. “I’m not interested in having anything to do with yours, even if it could pass for human and not Draconi, which it can’t.”
The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire) Page 14