Page 38 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

37

Bastian

I had drawn the short straw, staying outside at the party while my other half was with Kat, and then I’d lingered after to avoid any risk of us being seen together. I could escape inside if the Wild Hunt came. Besides, what were the chances of them coming to the palace twice so close together? Then, as the sun had set, an unnatural fog had rolled in—not something usually associated with the Wild Hunt.

I’d been half dozing, focusing on what my luckier self was doing with Kat when I heard someone barrelling through the gardens and crept out from my hiding place.

Eyes wide, she ran headlong into me. Something in the air made my skin itch, like angry wasps crawled over me.

I caught her by the shoulders as she stared up at me, gasping for breath. “You need to help. Please. Please .”

Her presence alone was enough to tell me Sura had to be nearby. People were drunk and tired. Dawn was unstable. The rift between the courts had never been bigger.

It was the perfect time for her to attack.

But on a new moon?

“Is your mother an idiot? Are you an idiot to follow her into this madness?” I gave her a little shake, unsure if I was more angry at her because I knew she was my cousin. My cousin , and she’d put herself at risk like this. “You know it’s a new moon, right? You must know what happens if they find you.”

And just like me as a teenager, she couldn’t resist snapping back and rolling her eyes. “I don’t need to worry about the Wild Hunt because I have this .” From her pocket she pulled a smooth stone, etched with symbols no one in this world understood but that kept the Horrors at bay.

A wardstone.

I’d never heard of them working on the Wild Hunt too, and this one looked a little different from the ones surrounding Horror territory. Had Sura discovered a new use for old magic?

“But…” She looked back the way she’d come. “My mother… she told me to run. I hid. I thought I could help, but…”

Sometimes I hated being right. “Wait here.” I urged her into my hiding place and slipped into the darkness.

Kat dressed and put together a hasty plan to leave her rooms and draw away her guards, so I could get outside and deal with whatever the fuck this was.

But Kat found the corridor empty. The guards must’ve figured she was safe in her suite for the night and clocked off early.

When I kissed her and went to leave, she shook her head. “This is our work now. I know Sura, too. You need me to help with this.”

We didn’t have time to argue, and the gods knew I could do with the help. So, we pulled up our cloaks and crept through the palace. I strained, listening for other fae.

“Shit,” I breathed, grabbing Kat before she rounded a corner. “Guards. And that’s the quickest route.” Any other would take us out of the way, slowing us down.

She nodded, mouth flat, and took my hand.

“This is the wrong way,” I whispered once we were away from the fae I’d heard.

“Trust me.” She strode ahead, confident, and I had no choice but to follow.

A few minutes later, we reached a dead end, and I bit back my frustration.

Glancing back, she raised an eyebrow, no doubt able to see my feelings. “I said trust me .” She pressed her fingertip against a leaf in the wall decoration, and with the softest click, it slotted into the wall, which swung open.

A secret passage. Of course.

I huffed a relieved breath and gave her a rueful smile as she led my inside. “Sorry for doubting you.”

“There’s an exit near one of the doors the servants use. I haven’t found it guarded… yet.”

“Then let’s hope your luck holds out.”

We worked together, me guiding her through the darkness and her murmuring directions.

After a minute, she asked, “What do you think is going on?”

“Sura must be planning to take the throne.” It was the only possible reason for her to be here.

“Then why is she fucking around in the gardens?”

That was a question I had no answer for. “I’m not sure. But she knows who I am. I just hope that means she’ll listen to me.”

“You think you can talk her down?”

I gritted my teeth, not at all sure. “She wants the throne, but there has to be a way. Either I’ll negotiate with her to keep Braea alive, or I’ll persuade Braea to let her and her daughter live.”

I couldn’t lose anyone else. I didn’t know Sura well, but she was the only relative I had left who knew the truth. All those questions I had about my mother…

“Maybe Braea will accept the daughter as her heir,” I went on, thinking out loud. “She might be the only way to keep them all alive. A bargaining chip.”

Kat’s hand went stiff in mine. “She’s only a girl. Barely fifteen.”

“She’s old enough.” Court life didn’t care about age, gender, frailty, or anything . It sucked everyone in.

“Was I ‘old enough’ when my uncle threw me in that grave? Because I was her age when that happened.”

It was a kick in the gut. I’d had my fathers—they’d helped me, guided me, encouraged and protected me. No one had protected Kat.

I stroked her knuckles. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m just… We need to fix this.”

She made a sound of understanding and pointed us left at the next passageway.

But I couldn’t keep my thoughts on track.

If Sura was killed, who would protect her daughter? If she was to be believed, Braea had tried to prevent me from ever existing. Would she erase her granddaughter’s existence, too?

“I need reach Sura. Quickly.”

Kat touched my arm. “We’re here. Are you all right?”

I shook off my troubles—we didn’t know what we were dealing with yet. I couldn’t make any decisions until I had more information. So, I flashed Kat a reassuring grin. “I like sneaking around in the dark with you. Reminds me of the maze.”

But my joke and rakish grin only roused a half smile from her. She squeezed my arm, then led the way out of the passages.

The gods were on our side tonight and the servant’s entrance wasn’t guarded. After all, no one was foolish enough to go outside on the new moon.

No one but us and Sura and whoever else she’d dragged along.

We slipped outside, Kat holding my arm, since she couldn’t see in the darkness. Once the night swallowed us up, she whispered, “You know… we could work with Sura.”

I huffed, breath steaming in the cold air. “You want to kill everyone?”

“You once said I was treading water and no one could do that forever. Eventually I would drown. You and the courts are treading water, barely keeping your heads above the surface. Yes, you’ve found flotsam to drag yourselves onto. As long as you all stay still, it will keep you alive. But what if a wave comes?”

I stared ahead, jaw clenched. She didn’t understand. She didn’t know what it was like. How could she? She’d only been here a matter of months.

“Because I see a wave coming, Bastian. A big fucking wave. If you think this piece of driftwood is going to save you, you’ll doom your people to a slow death.”

Whether she meant to or not, her words cut me. A thousand little cuts that stole any reply. Was this what she really thought? That I would do such a thing to my people?

“Dusk and Dawn must work together, and that’s never going to happen when the Night Queen and Day King can’t look each other in the eye and learn to trust each other. There will always be mistrust and scheming.”

The air burst from my lungs, and I had to catch myself against the wall we skirted as we aimed for my cousin’s hiding place. “You want to use the Crown?”

“The fact your mind jumped straight there tells me you know as well as I do it’s the only way.”

I shook my head and forged ahead. “Dawn can’t be trusted to have power without enforced boundaries. Especially not Cyrus of all people.”

Can Braea be trusted, though?

I didn’t want to ask the question. And I really didn’t want to think too hard about the answer.

Little doubts like this had bubbled up since my athair had revealed my identity. I’d managed to fight them, but the voice had grown louder since his death, like his shade was the one whispering in my ear.

Glowering, I smothered it and pushed through a shrub’s low branches. I held them out of the way for Kat to pass. “It’s better for everyone if that thing remains hidden forever.”

“But—”

“We’re here.”

My cousin was a small shadow, curled up at the foot of the statue. She peered up at us, eyes wide. Confusion flickered across her face—probably at seeing me again.

“It’s all right. Someone has gone for your mother.” Vagueness meant I didn’t need to explain my ability to split.

Kat helped her up. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on? And what your…?” She cleared her throat, no doubt remembering our etiquette around names. “I’m Kat and this is Bastian.”

Slowly, the girl nodded. She really was as young as Kat had pointed out, and now, the way she looked at us, fearful, made her look even more like a child. “Amaya.” She swallowed and drew a long breath. “My mother came here to get this crown she’s been going on about for months. She wants to unite the courts. Said I’d be the perfect candidate—that I would help lead them. I’m not sure why she thinks Dawn would listen to me.”

Kat and I exchanged glances. Amaya didn’t know her father’s identity. Looking at her now, it was so obvious she was of Dusk and Dawn, and specifically Cyrus’s child. She had the same shaped eyes as him and the way she’d rolled them when she’d insisted to my other self that she was safe from the Wild Hunt—that was entirely him.

“I thought you’d gone to help her. Please—go after her. She said something about ‘the anointed one’ but I don’t really know what it means. After I hid, I heard a woman with her, and… I was so scared, I ran.” She hung her head. “I left her, even though I knew something bad was going to happen.”

A woman? Who had Sura met in the gardens? “What did you hear, Amaya?”

“She said… ‘I’ll do it myself, and you can be sure I’ll use iron.’” She covered her mouth, eyes bright in the darkness. “‘This time there’ll be no escape.’”