Page 20 of A Kiss of Hammer and Flame (Fated for Hael #1)

Terryl left Cahra to her slumber, his coverlet hugging her form, the steady rise and fall of her chest a sign of hard-won peace.

He was not sure where he would sleep, but it mattered not.

Cahra was finally resting, a temporary recess in their turbulent journey.

After the day’s trials, she had unquestionably earned that. They all had.

Just as he had earned reading his sister’s letter.

In the torchlight, he pulled Sylvie’s envelope from his breast pocket and tore it open, deciphering the coded words as he rushed to read:

T,

Darling brother. Ignore what the Commander has told you so far.

You know where his loyalty lies, and regrettably, it is with Father.

I have been battling Father and Mother since you left us, not only about my duties (Mother implored me to relinquish my post and get a hobby – needlework!

Could you imagine? I should rather stab myself with one, which is precisely what I have been trained for.

Ridiculous!), but also about talk of suitors.

Of course, they were all men. Yet, brother, these matters are not the reason for my letter.

For having finally given up on matchmaking for me, our parents have refocused their attentions on you.

This is what Tyne has neglected to tell you.

Father has decreed it. He and Mother have named you a bride.

And it is Lady Delicia.

I know that this will disturb you greatly.

Yet I do believe that you can fight it, as I have fought their pairings all these years.

However, I will say this: the longer you stray from home, the harder it will be to undo what has been done.

You know their will. I pray that you and the others are safe, and that you return to us soon.

Love,

S

Upon finishing, Terryl held on to the letter for a time before folding it carefully away into his pocket again.

Ire surged through him, its epicentre his closed fists.

He wanted to roar. Howl. Pound his fists against the cave floor.

All three at once. Not only at Delicia for her duplicitous manoeuvring, but also at his parents.

The raw offence of it seared into his chest like a red-hot poker.

For she had done it, Delicia had finally done it.

She had exacted her revenge, as she had vowed the day that he left her.

Though he was loath to depart from Cahra, he sorely needed Raiden’s counsel. Yet as he looked for his Captain, he found Raiden already watching him, a mug in hand beside the fire, its mound of smouldering coals sustained by Cahra’s little lump of tenebrite.

‘Where’s Cahra?’ Raiden asked, a nonchalant question that would have fooled most. The Captain’s eyes told him the man already knew.

He could tell exactly what Raiden was doing. ‘She is injured and alone in this place. And she was allocated a straw bedroll,’ he said, crinkling his nose at the thought.

‘How do you know she didn’t have one in Kolyath? I’ll bet all your classy wine that bedroll would’ve been an upgrade,’ Raiden said.

He dismissed Raiden’s words. ‘Cahra has proven herself as a member of our company. She deserved to heal comfortably. Besides, was her usefulness not the rationale behind your offer to instruct her earlier this evening?’

Raiden paused, his expression serious. ‘Sir, when did you meet Cahra?’

‘What?’ he asked, caught off guard by both the tone and the ‘sir’.

‘You seem – as if you two were socially acquainted, before today,’ Raiden said. And he realised: this had nothing to do with Cahra.

‘You know!’ he accused Raiden, stunned. ‘When did Tyne reveal my parents’ plans?’ He could barely control the anger in his voice. ‘And why did you not tell me?’

Raiden’s face fell, guilt glinting in his eyes.

‘Today, at the house. A letter arrived, coded and messengered through our network. Commander Tyne never bothers writing to me, he leaves my reports to Sylvie’s aides,’ said Raiden.

‘And as for telling you, how could I? When you returned to the house, Cahra was in tow. And has been ever since,’ Raiden argued.

‘Then we fled. But she cannot distract you. Not only because we’re approaching Luminaux, but because you have a bride now. ’

He bristled at the word ‘bride’, and at the intrusion of his parents into his personal affairs before he had even set foot in the kingdom. Yet exhaustion tugged at him and arguing with Raiden achieved nothing. ‘So my sister says. Do you know of her, this “bride”?’

‘I do,’ Raiden said.

He glared into the fire’s glowing coals. ‘As I wish that I did not.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

He kept staring at the embers. ‘Delicia is truly naive to think that I will stand for this. After so long and at such distance, has she found no other?’ He gazed in the direction of Cahra’s sleeping form, his distemper rising with his thoughts of home.

Raiden asked, ‘Why chance another, when she has you?’

‘She does not have me! She never did,’ he muttered, his fingers knit below his chin as he tried to strategise a way out of his predicament. For he would end this travesty.

‘Well,’ Raiden said, then stopped at the look on his face.

‘Yes, we courted, once, for a few months, years ago,’ he ground out. ‘And it ended when I chose to leave Luminaux.’ To serve it, in Kolyath. The simplest decision of his life.

‘Exactly,’ Raiden told him. ‘It seems Lady Delicia is picking up where you left things.’

‘Like Hael,’ he snapped.

Raiden gagged on his drink. ‘Thierre—’

‘I will not do it. I will not! ’ He was on his feet now, all noble bearing tossed aside. ‘She cannot compel me into such a union!’

Raiden stood, placing a hand on his shoulder. ‘She has no right. Unfortunately, however, your parents do.’ Raiden’s grey eyes were frank. ‘This isn’t Sylvie and her suitors. This is the Crown Prince of Luminaux, the future of the throne. Your kingdom.’

The words of his oldest, dearest friend fell heavy as Raiden said, ‘I am sorry, Thierre. But I don’t think you can win this fight.’