It’s Prometheus who nods this time, gravely. I wonder if he, like me, sees in Kaia both the gentle hand he needs right now and the irrepressible spirit that’s going to help his gray-seeing eyes adapt to the brightness of our world.
* * *
A few flaps of my wings bring me up to Griffin, and I can’t believe I managed to take care of Prometheus first. I fly through the window and plow into my husband, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. He stumbles back, catching me and holding on tight.
“Oh Gods, oh Gods.” His ragged exhale breaks over my neck as he clamps me hard against his chest. “I was afraid it wasn’t real. That you weren’t—” His words falter. Griffin breathes hard and fast, a staccato, manly sort of utter breakdown I feel both against my skin and deep inside. “You’re real. My Gods, Cat, you’re real.”
I find his mouth and crush his lips under mine. I want to get closer still. I want him to be all I can feel.
He kisses me back, but it’s through a broken sound that’s both of ours. With each touch and breath and brush of lips, we put each other back together again from the soul out. In Griffin’s arms, I finally feel whole again.
I clasp his face in my hands. His eyes open, two bright, magnetic storms in the predawn light.
“I will always come back to you.” I repeat the vow I’ve made to him before. Magic roars to life in my veins, sealing the pledge all over again and making me realize it held no weight in Tartarus. I welcome the jolt from the binding promise. Griffin is my glue. And despite my dark edges, I’m his light.
Griffin sets me down, and his hands rise to cup the sides of my head. His grip isn’t too hard, but his touch isn’t truly governed, either. It trembles. “Your hair is short.”
“The God Bolt fried most of it off.”
“I was so scared.”
A spasm jerks my chest. “I’m all right.”
“And Little Bean?” he asks hoarsely.
I take his hand and place it low on my belly. I send my life force swirling around her, and Little Bean thumps outward in return. Griffin’s eyes widen and then glisten in the low light. His smile is like the sun breaking over a hard winter frost—joyous and blinding.
Despite his obvious happiness and relief, his voice stays low and raw, his emotions riding every word. “Where were you? Where did you go?”
“Tartarus.”
Shock wipes his face blank. He pales. “Oh my Gods! Are you all right?”
“Yes.” I lift both hands to his chest, trying to reassure him, or at least comfort him. “It wasn’t, you know…fun.” And I doubt I’ll ever tell him more than a very abridged version of what happened to me there. I don’t need to hurt him with all the things that hurt me. “I broke Prometheus out.”
Griffin glances toward the window, although we can’t see down into the courtyard from where we now stand. He looks back at me, his expression tight with worry. “Zeus won’t be angry?”
After everything Zeus has pulled, I don’t really care. I don’t say that out loud, though. I still have some sense of self-preservation in me.
“I don’t think so. I think Prometheus’s punishment was over, and I was supposed to get him out. I think that’s why we ended up as neighbors there, and I’m pretty sure the main trio of Gods approved the escape while we were on our way out.”
Just a blink floods my mind with their images again, power incarnate, all-encompassing, letting their blessing wash over me in the tunnel of light. In my life, I’ve experienced their benevolence, their manipulation, their help, and their punishment. My head spins with it. Frankly, it’s hard to know which foot to stand on with Olympians. All things considered, I think I’ll just stand where I want.
Griffin frowns deeply. “How did you get out?”
I flex my feathers, knowing I can fold them away inside me now whenever I want—and also get them back out. “A door made of lightning and these pretty new wings. I finally figured it all out.”
His eyebrows lift. “All of it?”
I make a face. “No, not all of it. But enough.”
He traces a finger over the arch of one wing. “I like the new colors.”
I smile. I thought he would.
“Was Kato with you?” he asks.
My smile crashes to the floor. “What? No. He had no reason to be”—punished—“in Tartarus.” I wrap my hand around my ice shard necklace, remembering the day Kato, Flynn, and Carver gave it to me. Barely able to push words past the wedge of sorrow in my throat, I ask, “Where did you bury him? Are you sure he had his coin?”
Griffin stares at me in confusion. “We couldn’t bury him. There was no body. He disappeared with you.”
My eyes widen. I knew he disappeared out from under me, but I never thought he disappeared entirely. “That’s not possible.”
Griffin shoves a hand through his hair, grating out a curse. His distress and bafflement seem to equal mine. “I swear to the Gods, Cat, we got everyone out. The soldiers. The dead. There were two people missing. You. And Kato. Not even Lycheron could pick up your scents.”
Shock immobilizes me, even though I already knew some of this from watching Ianthe. What I didn’t know is that Griffin and Lycheron had worked together, and that Kato had vanished without a trace.
“He…” I shake my head. “He must have been transported straight to the Underworld.” To the Elysian Fields, if the Gods are in any way just. Unfortunately, that’s wholly debatable. “There’s no way he would have gotten dropped in Tartarus. That was…”
Griffin’s eyes sharpen on me. “Punishment? For what you tried to do?”
I nod.
“What were you trying to do, exactly? Bring Kato back?” The question is quiet, without censure. And pitched like he thinks I could have done it.
I nod again. “I had to try. I couldn’t…not.”
His expression mirrors my heartbreak and shows no reproach, although he does say, “Is his fate something you should try to alter?”
I slice my hand through the air with sudden violence. “To the Underworld with shoulds and should nots! Frankly, I didn’t much care. And I still don’t. I’m not sorry. I wish to all the Gods and magic on Olympus it had worked. The fight was over. He didn’t need to die.” The bitterness in my voice sours the air between us.
“Cat…” Griffin pulls me into his arms again.
I go willingly, but I want answers now more than I want comfort or care. “I don’t understand. Even when we die, we leave a physical form here.”
Griffin shakes his head. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
What could have happened? This makes no sense!
But one thing does and always will. I press my hand against Griffin’s heart, needing that proof of life and vigor. “Home,” I say firmly.
He covers my hand with his. “Wherever you are, agapi mou.”
Despite our confusion over Kato’s missing body, certainty settles inside me like an anchor. I’ve been adrift for too long. “It’s time to finally finish this fight with Mother.”
Griffin tenses under my hand. “Are you ready for that?”
“We’re ready.” I lift my eyes to his. “Our army is ready. Thalyria is ready, too.”
“We won’t just fight, Cat. We’ll win.”
I nod. I believe him. We’ll go together, because we’re strongest that way. And I have a plan now—a plan that might not even require bloodshed.
“I know what to do.” It’s what I’ve wanted to do since the moment I realized it was possible.
“Tell me,” he says gruffly.
“Later.” I reach up and smooth back his hair. “Right now is for us.”
Griffin’s hands circle my waist. Our bodies gravitate closer together. “What do you need?” he asks. “A bath? Food? Sleep?”
“You. The only thing I need is
you.” Tugging lightly, I bring his head down to mine and kiss him with all the sighs I built up in a dreary gray prison on a high-up shelf of rock. Their weight leaves me through our lips.
“S’agapo,” I whisper against his mouth.
Griffin lifts his head, recognition flaring in his eyes. For questions of the heart, Southerners have always honored the old words, the ones with power, even though their Hoi Polloi blood carries no magic through their veins.
“I love you, too.” He answers me like a Northerner. Plain. Simple. The truth.
“Forever,” I vow.
“Gia panta,” he echoes softly, and the exploding arrow straight to my chest proves that words are the most binding of all promises, especially in their oldest form.
Griffin’s eyes sear me. The love and passion I have for him must sear him right back. He swings me up into his arms, and I know he’ll sweep away the misery of Tartarus with his own healing touch.
CHAPTER 30
“We have all the aces in our hand,” I insist. “A ready fighting force. Lightning. Elemental Magic. Wings. I can fly right through her window. I can do it invisibly if I choose.”
Griffin’s eyes narrow. He knows as well as I do that I’m not a sneak in the dark who assassinates people from the shadows. “That’s not what I call going to war.”
“War’s not necessary. At least not yet. What we need is a show of force.”
His lips purse. He doesn’t look wholly convinced, but he does look ready to keep listening.
Alone together, we sit at a small table, what’s left of a light meal still between us. I’m clean, fed, and renewed. My loved ones are nearby, Little Bean is well, and I’m certain of what we need to do. But this is still Griffin’s and my decision. Together.
“Picture it, Griffin. We bring the army to her doorstep. We get Lycheron and the Ipotane to come. Beta Team commands the forces. Mother will look out her window and see the future of Thalyria. She’ll know it’s not her.”
“What you’re proposing requires a person who can be reasoned with. She’s megalomaniac to the core,” Griffin points out. “She might not see anything the way you want her to.”
“That’s true,” I admit. “But there’s precedent. I’ll control her with superior magic the same way Galen Tarva did. Now that I’m finally in full command of my power, I’ll show her I can beat her—just one-on-one.”
“And you’re sure your power outweighs hers?” Griffin asks.
It’s a reasonable question. He’s seen what Mother can do, lived it firsthand. But I’m sure. My problem all along has never been having great magic, it’s been mastering it.
I nod. “This is why we needed my magic to be reliable and consistent. It’s why we went to Frostfire in the first place. This is the benefit of finally figuring it out. We do have an army. But we don’t have to have a war.”
“And then we do what with her?” he asks, spreading his hands. “Leave her there like Galen Tarva did? Ruling Fisa? Forever a threat?”
My plan sours a little in my stomach. “No. We all know that won’t work. We’ll bring Fisa into the fold. We’ll reunite Thalyria, just like we planned. As for what happens to Mother… That’s up to her. I’ll do what I have to in the end.”
“You have to be clear, Cat. You have to know what you’re willing to do.” Griffin looks at me hard. “Do you know?”
Mother’s fate is probably the thing I spent the least time thinking about in Tartarus, and yet the answer is perfectly clear. “I know what I’m willing to do.” In fact, I’m betting my life on it.
Griffin still looks troubled. “If you can fly in, then you can also fly back out. If your plan fails, we have a plan B.”
“Oh, I even have a plan C.”
“And what’s that?” he asks.
“Prometheus.”
His dark eyebrows creep up his forehead. “I’m not sure he’s ready for war. Or even for the outside world. He startles at just about everything.”
“Which is why he’s our plan C. And why he’ll stay here to protect our family and the royal seat.”
Griffin looks torn, both skeptical about Prometheus’s mental state and interested in utilizing the Titan’s great power. “He’d be an asset.”
“He is an asset,” I agree. “Here.” With the army gone, Prometheus will be a one-God battalion in Tarva City, protecting people and a place his giant heart has already wrapped itself tightly around. “He’ll take care of any threat to the palace while we’re away.”
Griffin eventually nods. “I think you’re right.” He reaches for me, taking my hand from across the table. “If part of our show of force and power is you flying into Castle Fisa like Winged Victory, then how do I get in with you?” Griffin asks. “You can’t fly me up.”
And that’s the final question. Because we’re in this together. Even when I didn’t realize it yet, we were in it together from the start.
“I’ll fly around Castle Fisa and the city to make sure everyone sees me, especially Mother.” If eyes can sparkle, I think mine suddenly do. Eleni and I escaped so many times, and Mother never knew how. You can’t have two powerful kids and what turned out to be their Olympian protector without them digging a tunnel. It was a given from the time we could crawl.
I skirt the table and slip into Griffin’s lap, bringing my arms around his neck. “But you and I, my love, are going in through the back.”
CHAPTER 31
Our forces surround Castle Fisa. Ipotane hooves brought down the previously unshakable gates of Fisa City. Ianthe screamed triumph from Lycheron’s back. She leads the creatures with their Alpha. Beta Team commands thousands of men and women at the ready, Bellanca now in charge of Kato’s forces. Each leader raises the new standard of Thalyria: a banner, white and green. Peace. The olive branch. Hope and victory in a spray of leaves.
Mother witnesses the takeover of her kingdom from the high-up balcony of her throne room. We come in force, mighty, united, and not a Fisan soldier fights. Not a citizen resists. The city falls to us without bloodshed, and all Alpha Fisa can do is watch. Not even her great magic can reach everyone, or destroy everything. She knows it, and maybe ruling over death and rubble holds little appeal, even for her. In perhaps one of the only moments of decency of her life, she chooses not to try.
Instead, she watches me fly over walls and rooftops. I rally everyone, addressing not only our brave troops but also the Fisans of the city and Mother’s own soldiers still on her battlements, unresisting. I tell them that today is a new beginning. I ask them to stand with me, with a new and unified Thalyria. I shout that this is the day that might meets right. I cry out that we bring peace, not war. I tell them that Elpis fights for them.
Finally, with Elpis’s name ringing on all lips, I find Griffin, take his hand, and turn us both invisible. With only Beta Team knowing about this final portion of our plan, I guide us toward the now-crumbling exit of the narrow tunnel Eleni and I made. My sister burned it through rock and earth, and I laughed in her wake. We had to crawl out then, and Griffin and I have to crawl in now, my wings tucked safely back inside.
We emerge in a shadowed corner of the storerooms. There’s no one here. Out of caution, we stay invisible as we make our way through the castle, moving toward the great galleries of the upper levels and Mother’s favorite room—the one where she lorded over us all. There’s only one throne. Father never merited a chair.
Castle Fisa is all but abandoned. A few servants flit here and there, looking as scared as rabbits and unsure. I don’t see any guards. Maybe they’re all up on the battlements, watching the new tide wash ashore.
We reach the throne room’s heavy, high doors, and I let go of the invisibility that has been cloaking us for little reason.
Griffin looks at me. He lifts his hand to my face. “You are the Queen of Thalyria. And the Queen of my heart.”
Emotion swells
in my chest, warm and wonderful. Like Lycheron and Ianthe, Griffin and I are so different now, so much stronger and more balanced together—as one. “I love you. You’ve helped me become the person I want to be. I see the future before us.”
Griffin lets his hand drop. He takes up his sword instead. “Claim your destiny, Cat.”
“Claim it with me.” I leave my weapons in my belt and let lightning heat my blood.
Griffin nods. Centering myself is so easy now, and I let my Elemental Magic swirl and build. Then I use a great, howling blast of wind to throw open the throne room doors.
Mother is about to taste my force and fury. And my mercy—if she’s willing.
CHAPTER 32
All is silence. There’s only the slight rasp of Griffin’s and my breathing.
The throne room is empty apart from Mother. No court denizens occupy the long and ostentatious space. I don’t see Father, but then again, I hardly ever did. There’s not a single guard. Only Alpha Fisa, who watches us from her gilded chair. The room seems cavernous without anyone in it, and as heartless and cold as it’s always felt.
A small smile plays at the edges of her mouth. It reeks of cool satisfaction, and my pulse picks up a notch. The lack of an immediate fight makes me wonder about an even more devastating clash to come.
But I’m not scared anymore. My mind, my body, and my magic are finally ready for this confrontation that’s been my whole lifetime in the making.
Griffin and I stride forward, and I take in Mother with the same critical eye I’ve always had. Ivory gown. Loose, dark curls. A wide circlet of fat Fisan pearls. If her green eyes weren’t so hard and her expression so cold, I could be looking at an older version of myself.
Even so, I don’t feel the similarities between us like I used to, like a corrosive weight inside me leaking poisons into my system. Our paths diverged—far longer ago than I ever let myself believe. I don’t fear becoming her anymore, but I do still recognize the need to check myself at times, and to have people in my life who will do it for me.
Heart on Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Book 3) Page 33