Kael held his hand out. “Truce?” he asked.
Dean narrowed his eyes. “After all you’ve done?”
“Let’s survive this fight and then decide what to do after.”
Dean’s eyes flicked to Cyrene and back to Kael. “If she saw enough humanity in you to save you, then I can accept a truce.”
Dean took Kael’s hand. The two men squeezed more than shook. It wasn’t a gentle thing, but neither backed down. Neither said anything else. Some male thing that Cyrene could never understand.
Then, they turned as one to Cyrene.
Dean smiled. “I’m at your service.”
Kael put his hand to his breast in a formal guardsman salute. “You have my sword.”
“It’s about damn time,” she said.
She tossed Kael the Hohl blade, which he deftly caught and resheathed. Then, she turned and sprinted toward the castle. They came up to flank her.
“Do you know where they went?”
“Avoca sent me to get you,” Dean said. “She said Ceis’f knew where to go.”
“Of course he did. Because he’s sending you into a trap,” Kael said, his words coming out pained.
He looked a little pale. There was nothing she could do for the blood loss. She would have left him behind, but it was his neck that he was risking.
“Everything is a trap,” she fired back. “Do you know where she is?”
“Yes,” he said. “Upper-terrace balcony. She wanted the best view of your demise.”
“Of course she did,” she grumbled. She glanced at him once more. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“No, but…if I can help stop her, I hope it will make up for some of what I’ve done.”
That was admirable at least. Even if it was to save his own ass. He didn’t have to. He could have run. Run from his kingdom and wife and baby. Run as far as the ends of Emporia and started over. Never did anything to atone. This was a start.
They slowed as they approached the corridor leading to the upper terrace. Kael had to rest his back against the wall and close his eyes, breathing hard. Cyrene didn’t ask him if he was okay again. She knew she’d get the same answer. But she still looked at him with concern.
He opened his eyes and stared back at her. “I’ll be fine.”
Dean snorted. “Don’t bother lying to her. You’re white as a ghost. Maybe you should stay here.”
“I’ll survive,” Kael growled. Some color came back to his cheeks as anger flared. He pushed off of the wall and put his palm on the pommel of the Hohl blade. “It’s just up ahead. Let’s go.”
Cyrene looked to Dean as Kael strode past. She mouthed, Thank you.
He’d had enough tired soldiers to know what buttons to push to get them moving again.
Dean just grinned and nodded.
They followed behind Kael, nearly to the terrace, when a shadowy figure appeared at the end of the corridor. Kael came up short. Cyrene and Dean moved to either side of him.
The figure dropped his hood, and Merrick’s face appeared in the gloom.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” Merrick said with a sneer.
Cyrene had no idea how she had ever thought that Merrick was a man. At first glance, he’d had the appearance of a man. Edric’s personal guard and then Kael’s. A man who had come out of nowhere to the highest position for a soldier in the land. He’d even slept in Edric’s chambers for protection.
Though, now, Cyrene could see that he was very clearly a Nokkin. The first and deadliest of Malysa’s creations. Though perhaps the Voldere now outshone him. He had once been Doma. Until Malysa had gotten her hands on him and distorted him and all his kin into monsters who fed on magic and were nearly impossible to kill.
He radiated evil and wrongness. She didn’t know if he had been able to tamp it down before or if all the magic being used was feeding his sinister side.
Either way, he made her shudder.
“It has been a long time coming,” Merrick said, taking another step forward.
“Well, we’re here now,” Cyrene growled.
Merrick snarled at her. “I would end your life slow and feast on your magic for years to come. But alas, my mistress desires you. You are free to pass.” He stepped back and held his arm out.
Cyrene narrowed her eyes. It had to be a joke. He wasn’t just going to let her walk right by him. “What’s the catch?”
“None.” Then, he added, “For you. The others must try to go through me.”
Cyrene removed Shadowbreaker from its sheath. The familiar weight a blessing. “No deal.”
“Cyrene,” Dean said, “you need to get to Avoca and Ceis’f.”
“Not without you.”
“I can handle him,” Dean said.
“And I owe him a debt,” Kael growled. “I’d like to repay it for the last two years of torment.”
Merrick grinned evilly. “I was hoping you would say that.”
Then Merrick removed his own blade. It was black as night, double-edged, and twice the length of his arm. She’d never seen anything like it.
“Last chance, Domina,” he said like an insult.
“Go,” Kael said. “We have this.”
“Together,” Dean agreed, nodding at Kael.
Cyrene whirled Shadowbreaker once and then stepped forward toward Merrick. She waited for the double cross. Waited for the moment when he tried to grab for her magic, and then she’d be ready to slay him, as she had his brothers and sisters. She’d be happy to rid the world of the last Nokkin.
But she made it past him without incident. Her eyes flicked back to Dean and Kael. “Please don’t die.”
She got a wink from Kael and a small smile from Dean before she rushed past the Nokkin and to the main event waiting on the terrace beyond.
66
The Link
Cyrene strode toward the terrace with calm resolve settling over her. The terrace was a large balcony that jutted out of the side of the castle, overlooking all of Byern. Cyrene could see her armies still at battle. They’d made it through the streets of the capital city, and Indres were crashing down the cobblestoned walkways. The Laelish Market was overrun. Dead littered the ground. She didn’t know how many of her friends lived or died. But she could do nothing for them if she did not end this fight. Right here and now.
She focused in on the present. Avoca stood at the ready, facing two giant Voldere that appeared to be Malysa’s personal lap dogs. None of them moved. Avoca just glared at them, tears streaking her cheeks.
But the real focus was on the main part of the balcony where Malysa stood with Ceis’f on his knees. His own Leif blade at his throat.
“You can still turn,” Malysa told him. “You fought well. You have the anger, the vengeance. And I have no quarrel with your people. Your magic is natural, and I have no desire to kill you. Just the abominations that were created in the humans.”
“You killed my entire family in Aonia. Everyone that I knew,” Ceis’f growled at her.
“That was ill-advised. They were protecting Doma.”
“We had nothing to do with them.”