Page 31 of A Court of Truth and Thorns (Royal Scout #2)

KALI

I wake to a soft feather mattress hugging my body.

Snow, white as my sheets, sparkles beyond a velvet-curtained window.

Everything hurts. I shift my head to the side and have the disorienting feeling of being both alert and asleep, as if one of my limbs failed to awaken with the rest of me.

I check and find all my limbs accounted for.

“There you are.” A disheveled Wil springs up from the chair beside my bed. “Rune will be pissed as a hungry bear. He’s been waiting for you to wake up for three days.” Wil grins.

Rune. That’s the sleeping limb. I’m not sure how I know it, but I do. Just as I know that he’s waking up now and that Wil’s prediction is right.

“What happened?” I ask.

Wil sprawls back into his chair and swings one leg over the side. “Let’s see... A few hundred whisperers and I were all wondering where in the bloody hells you and Rune had disappeared to, when the Eye of the Goddess exploded into shards and the weather turned to Everett.”

I lick dry lips, the memories returning slowly. The rooftop, the Eye. “Bahir?”

Wil hands me a glass of water. When he thinks I’m not paying attention, a lake of worry and fatigue fills his eyes.

“Luca’s men have been going through the temple rubble.

They don’t think they’ve found him yet.” With visible effort, Wil chases the shadow from his face.

“But it’s hard to identify the bodies. We may have him buried already and not know it. ”

I swallow. “Of course. There is nowhere else for him to have gone.” A lie. But perhaps it’s all right to lie to yourself sometimes. Even if Bahir is still alive, he’s castrated without his ring and Eye and whisperers. At least for now.

“We did find Bahir’s journals in his room,” Wil adds.

“I think Leaf is in her own personal paradise amidst the pages. It appears that Bahir has been working toward seizing control of Dansil for decades, ever since discovering himself a mage and starting to hoard living crystals for their power. Everett seizing control of the Sylthia mines shattered a lot of his plans. He’d gotten the Eye out of Sylthia before the attack, but was never able to return for other large pieces.

It drove him mad with fury. Especially once Everett started breaking down large stones into small, practical chunks for transport and sale. ”

“Was the Drought always part of his plan?” I ask.

“Not originally. Bahir intended to harness the Eye’s magic into a weapon, but it didn’t work out.

Something about the breed of the crystal not being what he needed.

So he changed tactics, decided to make the most of what he did have until he could get Sylthia back.

” Wil shrugs. “Bahir called the Eye’s effects ‘unexpected but fortunate and illuminating.’ I think he really believed himself to be the Goddess’s chosen. ”

Yes, he probably did. “And the ring?” I frown at my empty hand. “It allowed Bahir—and me—to siphon the Eye’s magic directly.”

“Melted into goo when the Eye shattered. Leaf is trying to figure out where he might have gotten it, but as of now, you are back to siphoning the old way.” Wil sighs.

“After seizing Dansil, Bahir planned on retaking Sylthia and harvesting more stones to feed his power. The whisperers he collected were being groomed to tune and stabilize whatever other crystals Bahir obtained. The man was nothing if not thorough.”

I rub my eyes. “Leaf. Where is she?”

Wil reclaims his smile. “Supervising the relocation of the Eye’s debris beneath the ground.

She says it’s safest for now, until the pieces can be examined for.

..” He runs his hands through his hair.

“I don’t know for what, actually. She so bored me with her explanations that I just put her in charge of it all.

I can do such things now. Even more so once I am crowned king. Not bad, right?”

My heart squeezes, the one name not yet mentioned stoking my fears. “Violet, is she...” I choke back the words as the frightening truth shows in Wil’s eyes. My next words come as a whisper. “She destroyed herself when she got Bahir’s ring for me, didn’t she?”

“No.” Wil pulls back, life leeching from his voice. “She destroyed herself when she realized she’d handed our father’s head and throne to a monster. She was already a shell when she stepped onto that roof. She just wanted to do something right before leaving.”

No. No, no, no. I snatch his hand. “Violet drew Bahir to that roof to discover the conduit he used to harness the Eye’s power. She went up there to fight. She was a hero.”

He shakes his head and touches his breast pocket, a piece of paper crinkling beneath his fingers.

A letter. “Violet took her life before she ever set foot on that roof. Drank a poison that Leaf kept amidst her medicines. She...” Wil’s eyes glisten and he turns his face away.

“She said she wanted her death to matter since her life hadn’t.

” My breath catches, no words coming to my rescue.

Wil swallows. “I miss the little fool,” he whispers, squeezing my hand once and then straightening.

A prince. A ruler. “I think I hear footsteps.”

I frown as much from the shift in topic as from the realization that the steps Wil was just hearing, I’ve been feeling for some time. Rune is coming. The door bursts open to let in a bare-chested silver-haired storm that launches an apple at my sheet-covered torso.

“I’m gone,” Wil says, saluting and scampering out the door.

“Coward!” I call after him.

Rune growls and points at the apple. “Eat. You’re hungry.”

I rub the back of my head. “No, I’m not. I think that may be you.”

He snatches the apple from me and bites into it. “Bloody brilliant.”

“Rune,” I say softly.

Lowering the apple, Rune hoists himself onto the bed beside me and extends his hand to my face, gently cupping my chin.

I press into him like a cat, my skin warming in response.

Rune’s hands slide down my body, tracing my shoulders, brushing the swell of my chest, and—

Need and desire, mine and not mine, pulse through my core so hard that my breath catches. “Stars.” I draw breath, looking at Rune, at the hard bulge in his breeches and, finally, his flaming red face. “Oh, bloody stars.”

He winces. “Yes, there is that. Not that you shouldn’t know that I want you, it’s just... I’d rather be able to tell you that myself than let this... whatever it is... do it for me. ”

“I don’t understand.”

Rune pulls away with visible effort. “Your heart, your breath, they were all mine after the Eye shattered. I was so afraid to sleep for fear of taking your air. It’s gotten better. No one knows whether we’ll ever be truly... separate again.”

“I don’t care.” The truth of the words grips my heart. “I don’t want to be.”

Rune’s mouth lowers to cover mine, and where I end and he begins is suddenly a moot point.

The balcony overlooking the palace courtyard is cold, flakes of gentle snow swaying down from a clear sky.

People crowding the yard below pull their cloaks tight and tentatively take the small heat crystals that children offer in baskets.

Having the children bring around tuned crystals was Raza’s idea. And it’s working.

The princess’s gaze follows her charges’ progress. Satisfied, she steps back into the shadows and pulls her hood further over her head.

Striding up to where Wil, Rune, and I stand behind the balcony’s side curtains, Calvin bows formally. “It’s time.”

My heart pounds, my palms sweating despite the cold. “I’ll wait for you here,” I whisper desperately. “I’m a scout. I don’t do crowds.”

“I understand,” says Wil in a voice so empathetic, it sets the hair at the nape of my neck on end. The next heartbeat, Rune drops a chip of ice down the back of my dress.

I gasp.

Grinning, Rune and Wil each grab an elbow and march me out to the center of the balcony between them .

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” I tell Wil. He has the decency to pale before taking a step forward to the railing.

“His Royal Majesty William Firehorn, King of Dansil!” announces the herald.

The crowd cheers. Rune squeezes my hand.

Snow dancing around his long lashes, Wil raises his head high.

“People of Dansil!” he calls. Picking up the strands of his voice with my magic, I project the sound over the courtyard.

“It’s our first winter in two decades, and I’ll endeavor to stop speaking before we all turn to ice.

Today we welcome an Everett ambassador as a resident of the Delta Royal Palace.

Dansil welcomes you, Prince Rune, especially your expertise on warm clothes and warmer fires. ”

A small chuckle brushes the crowd. I start smiling too until—

“We also celebrate Lady Kalianna, my cousin and a mage, who has brought an end to the Drought in our lands.”

“What?” The word is out of my mouth before I realize I’m speaking.

And projecting. The courtyard’s chuckling morphs into full-bellied laughter.

My teeth grind. “Wil, you are so dead,” I promise, remembering this time to keep the words from echoing in the winds.

Then, little caring whether Wil just introduced me or not, I back slowly from the balcony.

And find Rune’s solidness blocking my way. “Going somewhere?” he whispers into my ear. I dig my nails into the soft flesh between his thumb and forefinger. “Curtsy to them,” he murmurs. “They want to celebrate you.”

Seeing that there is no help for it, I dip to the floor, my face heating as the attention of many faces brushes and pokes and tickles my skin.

I take a breath and drink it all in, the energy and excitement resonating against my chest. And then I do something I never expected—I rise and smile.

No, I grin. I wave. I share my joy and accept theirs in return .

The crowd breaks into applause that rings in my ears long after everyone has dispersed and I’m curled up in an armchair in Wil’s sitting room. The others file in one by one, finding their own favorite seats. Wil and Leaf, Rune and Raza, Luca and Calvin. I take out a dagger and twirl it in my hand.

“You can’t still be mad,” says Wil, throwing a pillow to the floor and sprawling atop it like a disheveled hound. “I know you enjoyed it. Eventually. Rune told me.”

I scowl at him. “You two could have told me you were planning to thrust me in front of the whole bloody city like a prize peacock.”

“If we had, I’d have had to carry you bodily onto that balcony.

” Rune pours wine into goblets, the sweet, fruity smell filling the air.

“Not that I would’ve minded, but it might have sent the wrong message about this new peace and cooperation and all that.

And we need my father’s spies to deliver the proper wording.

He’ll be delighted to learn of this new alliance, I’m certain. ”

Wil and I snort together.

“Speaking of spies, I’ve written to Lord Gapral,” I tell Wil.

“He won’t travel to Delta—it’s a matter of professional principle to keep his face from being seen more than it must—but he’s happy to continue supporting the throne.

I can stop by the estate in six months or so for a better sense of strategy. ”

“Excellent. Always a pleasure when someone volunteers to be the palace’s resident spymaster,” says Wil.

I snap bolt upright in my seat. “That’s not what I said, Wil.”

He grins. “Sure it is. And you are hereby appointed.”

“I’ll kill you,” I growl.

“Before the king is murdered, might we address one other matter with Everett?” Raza’s voice interrupts tentatively from the corner of the room. She passes a letter to Wil. “Might you see that my father gets this?”

“What is it?” asks Wil.

Raza adjusts her hood. “The details of my death. He’ll accept it. Everett has an heir again. Or will once the news of today’s announcement reaches the Everett palace.”

Rune takes the letter from Wil and chucks it into the fire. “No more.”

“I can be something here, Rune,” says Raza with no hint of submission.

“The former Children, the freed whisperers, the girls and their babies and shattered families, everyone whose life just got stripped of the only meaning they thought it had—who is going to take charge of them? Who will make certain they don’t just relive their history? Are you? Is she ?”

“At least I’ve graduated from ‘whore’ to ‘she,’” I mumble. Raza and I will never be friends, but the passing days do seem to nudge us from I’d-like-to-kill-you-in-horrid-ways to mere potent hatred.

“What Raza needs is a title,” says Wil, gesturing with a half-eaten apple that he pulled from stars-know-where. He and Luca are kindred souls when it comes to their stomachs.

“She has a title,” says Rune.

“Princess isn’t a title. Not the kind that matters.” Wil’s gaze looks at something beyond the walls, his fingers touching a familiar spot on his breast pocket. “Not the kind that helps you find a place.”

Leaf reaches out and gently brushes Wil’s hand. The young king gives her a tight smile. Tight andbrotherly. I smile. Luca, pristine in his uniform and now captain of the guard, catches my eye and nods at the unspoken thought. Yes, we are all melding together. A family of our own making.

“How about Minister of Integration?” says Calvin, checking the steeping tea.

Satisfied, he fills the cups and offers the first two to Wil and Leaf, who instantly disappear into the soothing brew.

“Raza is correct that the Order’s collapse left a great many young people with shattered worlds.

Let us not lose more of them than we must.”

Wil nods without looking up. “I’m unsure what we’ve in the budget, but—”

“Wil, the day you know what’s in a budget is the day Kali becomes a dressmaker,” Leaf says with a roll of her eyes.

She turns to Raza. “Delta’s abandoned Whisperer Guild headquarters has dormitories.

Enough for temporary housing while things are sorted.

We can stock supplies and get it ready for occupancy quickly enough. ”

“Why would I need to know what’s in a budget when you can bloody memorize anything you see and spit it back on command?” Wil says to Leaf before he, too, turns to Raza. “Clearly, my brilliance lies in surrounding myself with the right people. What do you think, Minister?”

“I think,” Raza says softly. “I think that I’ll call it Violet Abbey.”