Page 38 of A Crown of Tears and Treason (The Curse of Silver Secrets and Cruel Shadows #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Eight

ZANDYR

O ne kiss could be written off as a mistake, brought on by the relief of surviving the blood rite ritual, reuniting with Evie, and the sacred beach’s magic.

Tonight, there had been none of that. Only deep, raw desire. It still burned through my veins, blazing through my already heated blood.

The ritual’s effects still kindled through me, but I couldn’t blame them. I’d heard of legends of blood singing and dismissed them as nothing but the kind of superstitions a Clan built on violence could have. My parents had never been forthcoming about their bond, guarding the feelings between them as if I would steal them, given the opportunity.

Yet there was no other way to describe how my veins simmered now while tangled in the sheets with Evie. An ancient hum burned through them, reveling in our proximity.

She’d fallen asleep in my arms, as serene as the sky after a storm. She slept with her lips slightly parted, as if another quip played on her tongue even in her dreams. Her soft breaths were lulling me into slumber with her.

I had to resist.

I slid my hand from underneath her head as gently as I could. Still asleep, she frowned and leaned toward me, making me feel more monstrous.

I tore my gaze away and my body off the bed, every fiber of my worn, wretched being protesting it. This was ridiculous, the way my very essence begged to be near Evie. Among the many enemies I would fight in this existence, I never imagined one of them would be me.

The bedroom door shut behind me with an ominous click.

The night was too silent. No chitters, no growls, and no croaks. Only my shadow kept me company as I walked soundlessly down the hallway.

I didn’t knock.

I slid my nails on the door in one quick patter. She’d taught me that trick back when we’d been stationed up in the freezing northern plains during my first military year. Those who didn’t know the signal could logic it away as a draft or a figment of their imagination. Those who understood it answered.

A light tapping echoed from inside.

I opened the door to find Adara seated in front of the smoking fireplace. The flames illuminated her frowning face as she sharpened her favorite dagger, her back as straight as the day I’d met her.

There she was. The Grand General of the Blood Brotherhood.

Former Grand General. Officially disgraced, yet more feared than ever.

The one who’d taught me how to fight to survive and protect others at the same time.

“It took you longer to seek me out than I estimated.” She didn’t turn, but the swipes of her sharpening stone screeched louder.

I closed the door, leaning my back against it. “You know what I’m about to ask.”

Adara nodded.

The fire crackled, filling the heavy silence. I never quite understood why Adara always insisted on heating her body to the point of discomfort. Perhaps she wanted to burn away the memories of that hideous avalanche that had caught us unprepared up the Veilstorm mountain. We lost thirty good warriors that day.

“How did you do it?” I asked, half-hoping and half-dreading the answer. “How did you break the oath?”

It was a feat nobody had managed in all the history of Malhaven–except for Adara. She broke her oath of loyalty to the Clan and went away to find her purpose with the mercenaries and their swift ships.

Her hand stilled. “You can’t do it, Dragon.”

“Tell me.” I clenched my jaw. “Please.”

I’d made that blasted oath, the only one I would have ever accepted, before I’d known Evie was still alive. The plan had been simple back then. It would have solved so many problems, saved so many lives.

It could accomplish all of that, but the price was higher now.

Much higher.

“I had something you lack.” Adara began sharpening again. “Broken oaths demand your blood, whatever way they can obtain it.”

“You’re still alive.”

Silence.

“I am.”

The blade hissed underneath the stone.

“How?” I asked.

“Because my twin sister is not.” Stroke. Hiss. “I spilled her blood and broke my oath. As I said, you cannot do it.”

I sucked in a breath. Nobody had even known Adara had a sister, let alone a dead one that she had killed. The Grand General had always guarded her secrets well.

“Who was she?” I asked softly.

“Somebody nobody will miss.” From the way her neck muscles tensed, that was a lie, but I didn’t press on. “And whose murderous soul will be tortured beyond the grave by the lives she took.”

My mouth tightened. There was nothing I could say to that. To Adara. She regarded pleasantries as worse than cussing out her ancestors. Sentimentality has no business on the battlefield, she’d taught me that and enforced it with the Blood Brotherhood troops, with her knives if she had to.

I sighed. Whatever glimmer of hope–or madness–had possessed me quickly vanished. “You’re right. If that’s what it takes, the oath has to stand.”

“You took the oath with someone,” Adara said. “Any glimmer of conscience on that side?”

“You know there is.” Just from the tears Kaya had spilled these past two weeks, the oath was eating her up as much as it did me. Her kindness was too innocent sometimes.

“I’m asking because I had a sister. Both of you have parents. I doubt it would work, but there’s no reason not to try and that would solve everyone’s problems,” Adara said. “Have Kaya kill Banu and Valuta.”

“That is not possible,” I managed to say, even as a warning spasm rattled down my spine. I was getting dangerously close to revealing too much and the ancient magic of the oath sensed it.

“Ah, I see. The oath somehow protects those snakes,” she said.

Not for long . But I couldn’t say that. Even thinking it was clouding my brain.

“I should have murdered them when I had the chance,” Adara rumbled. “You can’t kill Zavoya and Eldryan, either.”

My hands fisted against the door. “I didn’t go after Evie and save us all from the wrath of the Council just to slaughter my parents on a hunch.”

“Then sacrifice your happiness, Dragon. It’s the only way.”

“It’s not about my happiness.” I doubted the gods had blessed me with it in this existence.

“It never was for you, was it?” Adara finally turned to me. There was something very close to compassion in her dark eyes. “All about duty. All about the lives you can save. I’ve trained you too well.”

“You did what my parents should have.”

Adara turned back to the fire. “You criticize them without knowing what’s in their hearts.”

“Too much, that’s what.” Too much love for each other. Ignorant, destructive love. “Now I have to deal with Banu and Valuta because of it.”

To appease the Northern Clans they’d offended with their marriage and to stop the carnage, my parents had agreed to have Banu and Valuta on their Senate of Sages, to prevent any future attack or slight. My parents should have sensed their foulness from the speed at which the advisors had forsaken their own Clans to swear loyalty to ours. But the snakes had gained my parents’ trust after they’d saved me from getting my heart carved out as a child. After that, they’d risen in the ranks. Now they controlled all the guards in Phoenix Peak and had their slimy hands in almost every business in the Capital. Killing them outright would turn them into martyrs and cause another blood bath.

First, I had to destroy them. Their power, their reputation, their reach. Have all their allies turn against them.

Only then could they be struck down.

If only my parents had known the real reason Banu and Valuta had deigned to save me. I wasn’t entirely sure they hadn’t orchestrated the assassination attempt in the first place. I’d found no evidence; Banu and Valuta were masters at hiding their tracks.

Removing them from power would be the fight of my life.

They’d played their cards well, and I’d only started to notice their manipulations during my teenage years. By then, the damage had been done.

Then Kaya had confirmed just how wretched her parents truly were.

Adara’s grinding stone hissed against the blade once more. “Be careful not to make bigger mistakes in your quest to not repeat Zavoya and Eldryan’s.”

Ice ran down my back. I kicked myself away from the door. “You know .”

Of course she did, nothing got past Adara’s scrutiny. It explained her sudden change, the one that had rattled Evie so much, and the way she’d been avoiding me since my return.

“I figured it out while you were gone.”

“Did you tell her?” I asked, desperate to know the answer. If Evie knew and hadn’t cursed me to Xamor, that meant she understood and–

The blade hissed. “There’s something foul in the Protectorate. She talks with her cousins. I don’t trust them.”

Neither did I. From what my Brothers and Sister told me, their fiances weren’t the brats we thought them to be. But Adara was right. Something was very wrong within their Clan. Silas on the throne, their armies dwindling, their magic faltering.

Until we found out who was responsible for the blithe, nobody could be trusted. Even a drop of information leaked to the wrong person could tear both of our Clans and lead to war across all of Malhaven.

“Did you tell her?” My voice echoed against the flames. I heard the urgency in my own voice.

“No.” Hiss. “I haven’t dedicated my life to saving our Clan just so I could endanger it with one careless word. Neither should you.”

“I know.” As much as it pained me, as much as I regretted it, I saw no way out where someone wouldn’t get hurt.

Hiss.

“But I am not the one marrying her,” Adara said. “You can’t break the oath without killing yourself–”

Hiss.

“–you can’t warn her without endangering your Clan and hers–”

Hiss.

“–and if my suspicions are correct, you can’t stay away from her, either.”

Hiss.

“So tell me, Dragon…”

Hiss .

“What do you think the Blue Queen will do when her second wedding will be worse than her first?”