Page 16 of A Crown of Tears and Treason (The Curse of Silver Secrets and Cruel Shadows #1)

Chapter

Sixteen

EVIE

“ H er leg is mangled .”

“She will heal.”

“A razorback snake couldn’t do this, juvenile or not. Not on its own.”

“She cut herself to kill it. An admirable act. Or one born out of sheer desperation.”

“They’ll try again. I’m going to kill them and be done with it.”

“We both know you cannot without endangering the Clan. Not yet. And you don’t know for sure they were behind this.”

“Who else would want my future wife dead?”

The whispers brought me back from the shadows. My head hurt. My back hurt. My leg throbbed. Even my teeth ached.

If this was death, it was more painful than the legends described it. And if these were the gods, they were too gossipy, with rich, amber voices. How was I supposed to ask for forgiveness to ascend into the sacred garden from them?

But…if I felt pain, then I wasn’t dead.

That would have been too easy.

I woke with a start, but didn’t open my eyes. I let my senses tell me the story my eyes couldn’t.

I wasn’t alone.

I wasn’t on the floor, bleeding out of this existence.

I was cradled in soft, Citadel sheets. Not mine. They had a different, woodsier smell, and the mattress was softer.

The bed dipped somewhere near my leg. Someone sat, barely an inch away from my thigh, which was swathed in a tight, soft fabric.

Silence pulsed in the room.

I only had one chance and no weapon.

“I know you’re getting ready for an attack, but it’s me,” Zandyr’s voice rang out.

I was so exhausted from my ordeal, I was actually happy to hear him.

“That only makes me want to do it more,” I mumbled, half the words slurred.

Fighting the ache, I opened my eyes. His ice gaze bore into me, even in the shadows of the room. No candles, only the glimmer of the stars reflecting through the closed window.

The tension in my body slackened, bringing in a fresh wave of pain.

His eyes sprinted over me, thawing with an intensity I hadn’t seen on him before. When he found whatever he was looking for, he blinked his gaze back to me, cold again. “How do you feel?”

“Like someone tried to kill me.” I licked my chapped lips and moved my legs. That small motion burned so hard and fast through me, I almost passed out again. “How am I still alive?”

The snake had bit me, that much I remembered.

“Razorbacks don’t have venom until they’re old enough to mate.” Zandyr’s deep voice enveloped me. His hand found my wrist, thumb resting on my pulse point. I didn’t move. “How did it get close enough to bite you?”

I kept my gaze glued to his. “I couldn’t move.”

I could barely recall exactly what happened. The images flashed in my mind, as if an invisible force was trying to rip them from me.

“Something was holding me. I was levitating,” I said slowly. It sounded crazy.

Zandyr’s eyes narrowed with understanding. Maybe it wasn’t so crazy. “What happened before?”

“Kaya came to visit. She brought me a gift.” Which now lay in tatters.

“That gift saved you. Goose heard the noise and acted fast. You were bleeding on the floor.”

“Then I owe them both my life.” And Allie, for the spell that had protected me. And my own stubbornness. Maybe it wasn’t a weakness, like my parents had wanted me to believe.

“Did anyone else come inside?” he asked. My blood pulsed against his thumb.

“Only a guard, he brought the box.” I took a breath, letting the information steep. “Fray-something, I’d never seen him before, but Kaya knew him.”

Zandyr’s jaw clenched.

“When you found me,” I said. “Were there any windows open in the room?”

“No.”

I frowned. “Impossible. I heard…I heard chanting, coming from outside.”

More ice frosted his eyes. “We will find out how.”

“Good.” I nodded to his thumb; Allie had done the same thing at my wedding. I was inexperienced, but I learned fast. “If you’re done checking if I’m lying through my teeth, tell me what in the underworld happened. Why couldn’t I move?”

A flash of surprise lit up his gaze. A slow smile bloomed as he swiped his thumb against my wrist, sending a calming shiver through the pain. As he let go, coldness seeped into my flesh.

“I am bound to keep the secrets of my Clan’s magic until you become one of us,” he said pointedly.

Bound to keep the secrets, but he could hint at the truth, it seemed.

Magic.

From inside the Blood Brotherhood.

Against me.

Allie had been right. Someone in the Capital was unhappy I was here–to the point of wanting to murder me.

“The Commander did the same thing at my wedding,” I said. One swipe of his hands and the guests had frozen.

“That was different and I trust him with my own life. He has sworn to protect you and your cousins. As have I,” he said, voice turning rougher. “This won’t happen again.”

“It already has.”

The angles of his face turned dangerous. “When?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember much apart from a pair of dark eyes.” I patched whatever memories still lingered in my brain. “The snake…it felt like it was controlled too.”

Like it had been mapping my skin to know exactly where to bite.

Zandyr remained silent. After a few tense moments, he nodded. “The bite marks are near your femoral artery. It’s a miracle he didn’t pierce it and that you didn’t cut through it yourself. Lucky.”

“Stubborn.” I’d refused to die. “Who did it?”

“If I knew for sure, they would already be bleeding at your feet.”

The blazing intensity of his words was so at odds with the cold, detached way he was looking at me now. I forced myself not to let my eyes drift toward the darkest corner of the room. “You suspect. Who ?”

He worked his jaw, as if measuring his words. “Either whoever attacked your first wedding…”

If my eyes hadn’t still stung, I would have rolled them. I was getting sick and tired of not knowing. “Or?”

“Someone you have already met. In the Blood Brotherhood.”

“It might come as a shock, but after almost dying, I’m not in the mood for riddles.”

A corner of his lips tilted up. “Names are powerful in the Blood Brotherhood Clan, too. They can be tied to oaths. The kind that bleed you dry if you break them.”

Ah. “But insinuations are fair game.”

“Let’s call them clues.” His smirk grew, but it wasn’t the jagged grin he’d had at the wedding. This one didn’t feel forced or threatening.

“I hate this,” I whispered. “All this skulking around the obvious truth.”

He huffed a laugh. “You’re turning more Blood Brotherhood by the day.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Bite your tongue.”

“See? Already giving orders.”

I pursed my lips. “If you’re done mocking me on my sick bed, maybe you can tell me who’s watching from the corner.”

I finally turned my head toward the shadows and the deep, even breaths. The smell of freshly tanned leather was unmistakable.

The shadows moved as a figure melted away from them, emerging in the soft light of the stars.

A woman. A dangerous one who made no noise. She moved with precision, keeping her face impassive. The few wrinkles around her eyes and on her forehead revealed her age, but there was youthful strength in those bronze muscles peeking from underneath her leather vest, which had twin rows of gleaming daggers strapped to each side.

More knives shined from her belt, catching the light and flicking it back onto the floor.

Her dark eyes assessed me without hesitation.

“Perceptive,” she said, curt and efficient.

“I would like you to meet Adara, one of the few people who I’ve bled alongside,” Zandyr said.

“The few who are still alive, Dragon,” she said.

“She’s the best mercenary I know and a former member of the Blood Brotherhood Clan.”

I inhaled sharply, ignoring the sudden pang in my ribs. Nobody left a Clan with their hearts still beating unless they ran away for good–or they accomplished an impossible mission first. The Blood Brotherhood books in my library said so.

What unthinkable task had Adara done and survived to leave her Clan, and still be welcomed back in the Capital by the prince himself?

“And she might also be your personal bodyguard from now on,” Zandyr said. “Or until she decides to leave the Capital again. She hates our Clan about as much as your cousins.”

A dangerous mercenary who could vanish whenever she wanted to. Not exactly someone I could wholeheartedly trust. “You’d risk your life for me, a stranger who’s about to become queen to a Clan you despise?”

Adara nodded, the shaved sides of her head gleaming in the moonlight. None of that Your Grace and bowing mess. I liked that. “The Dragon offered a fair price.”

Ah, riches. I trusted that more than the hollow promise of loyalty from a dangerous stranger. “ Might be my bodyguard?”

“If she agrees,” Zandyr said. “She initially came here to be your fighting instructor.”

Adara’s eyes bore into mine. If I didn’t hurt so much, I probably would have squirmed under the weight of it. Finally, she nodded again. “I will protect her when you are not here. And train her.”

“Thank you.” I gave her the same solemn nod, before turning back to Zandyr. “And you.”

He frowned. “For what?”

“For…you know…” I let my gaze wander. A few small words. Thank you for not letting me die . That was it. My parents never thanked me for anything, but I did try to make an effort with others. Why was it so hard with Zandyr? My eyes snagged on the bedroom, the biggest in the house. The same one which I avoided. “This isn’t my room.”

“It should be. You were sleeping in a servant’s quarters.”

My lips tensed. “So?”

Zandyr tilted his head to the side. “Adara?”

“This room only has one entrance and two windows, one overlooking the walled garden, the other toward the path leading up to the house. It’s one floor up, so if an intruder manages to infiltrate unseen, and you’re alone, you can sneak out the other way. Its walls are thicker, harder for magic to pass through them. The stairway leading up to it is narrow, easier to defend,” Adara said. “I can go on.”

“I got the message,” I said. But I still felt exposed in this great, big space. “Where’s my switchblade?”

Zandyr rose. “It should be in the rubbish pile.”

“It’s saved me twice so far.”

Without a word, he dug into his black uniform. He pulled my switchblade out, followed by a silver bracelet wide enough to engulf my wrist. Deep engravings shone in the metal, with one big groove in the center, marked with a purple jewel.

“More efficient.” He slid the bone hilt of my weapon inside the groove. It glided in with a satisfying click. Then he pressed the jewel and the switchblade detached. “Or less. It’s up to you to decide.”

He set them both down on the mattress, right next to my hand.

“That’s—unusualy nice of you.” I snatched my switchblade, gliding my fingers over its comforting grooves. But a part of me wanted to run them over the bracelet’s engravings as well. “Adara, you’re an amazing fighter, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re officially my bodyguard, yes?”

“Yes.”

I looked straight into Zandyr’s eyes. “If the prince ever steals my weapon again, tackle him.”

A beat of silence passed between us. Then Zandyr threw his head back, laughing. The sound was sudden and rich, so different than his carefully composed royal fierceness. It filled the entire space so that the bedroom didn’t feel so big and empty anymore.

A corner of Adara’s lips quirked. “Funny.”

“Yes, she is,” Zandyr said. “What do you say, Adara? A tousle for old times’ sake.”

“I taught you better than going into battles you can’t win, Dragon” she said.

His deep chuckle reverberated down the stairs as he left. But it followed me as I drifted off into another dream filled with dark eyes.