Page 49 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

48

Bastian

A fter, we found Krae clinging to the dining table.

“You’ve met your sibling, right?”

Sepher blinked at me.

“ Half -sibling.” Krae folded their arms. “He knows. He just doesn’t care.”

But Sepher’s mouth hung open in a way that said he really didn’t know. “You’re… our father’s…” Slowly, he approached Krae. “I just thought you were just Cyrus’s lackey, but you’re…” He took them in, finishing on their red hair, so similar to his own. “I have a sibling… who isn’t a dick… and who’s also a shapechanger.” Laughing, he shook his head. “I should’ve known who you were as soon as I saw that hair.”

Krae’s brow furrowed. “I thought Cyrus told you and you just didn’t… He told me, ‘Sepher doesn’t care for his siblings.’”

“I didn’t, when I thought I only had him. Can you blame me?”

No one could.

Later, as the day inched towards sunset, we all stood on the royal balcony, with a space for Krae. They looked uncomfortable being in the limelight and had asked for their royal status to remain a secret.

Former Queen Meredine also joined us, freed from the tight leash Cyrus had placed upon her.

I placed a hand on the small of Kat’s back. It was such a tiny gesture, and yet it felt like the entire world turning right. She was back home in Dusk, standing at my side, safe, wearing the deep, emerald green that suited her.

Everything was as it should be.

Or almost everything.

Below, the crowd stood in silence. They stared up at us, no doubt wondering when their king was going to make his dashing entrance. Would they believe their hero wasn’t what he’d seemed?

I pressed my lips together to keep the wince off my face. I didn’t envy Sepher the task of taking Cyrus’s place when he was a shapechanger.

“People of Tenebris-Luminis, I have news. This afternoon, Elfhame shifted.” He didn’t smile, though I was sure he intended the pun—a reminder of what he was. “You know of my father’s murder, and you have heard the accusations the followed it. None of that is news. But what had been hidden until today was the truth. We have all been deceived. Dusk included.”

The silence slowly cracked as heads bowed together and glances were exchanged. No doubt, they wondered why Prince Sepher addressed them—he’d never done so before.

I joined Sepher at the front of the balcony, giving him a thin-lipped smile. I couldn’t decide if I was furious at him for using us or if I admired his manoeuvring. We’d agreed certain parts of this would be better coming from me and others from Dawn. “Krae was falsely accused, framed by the use of their dagger. They did not assassinate King Lucius.” Technically true, though they’d played a part in its plotting.

“And from Dusk,” Sepher continued, “Kaliban was also put forward as a scapegoat. But my brother took advantage of reputation and prejudice to present these two as guilty. A hero who ended a war by changing his allegiance to the right side, despite the damage it did to himself, and a shapechanger.”

Hero. Not traitor. Not turncoat. Not any of the words I’d heard my fathers described as throughout my entire life.

A hero.

I couldn’t speak. My throat was too thick, my chest at once too empty and too full. He was gone, but the new Day King stood here declaring him a hero.

“Get on with it, then,” Sepher whispered out the corner of his mouth.

I swallowed and pulled myself together. “The deception ran deep. The attackers dyed their hair so suspicion would fall upon Dusk.”

Sepher threw me a glance, brow furrowing. He hadn’t known that piece of the puzzle.

“However,” I went on, “the true killer stood in plain sight all the while, pointing fingers so he would avoid detection.”

The noise below rose, a wave rushing in.

Nodding, Sepher took up the explanation. “Your king was murdered by his own son—my brother, Cyrus.”

The wave broke. Hundreds of questions added up to a roar below.

If they didn’t believe us, I would take Katherine and flee. Albion would be safer for her than Elfhame. Though further would be better—I was sure her sister would grant us sanctuary.

Gradually the noise died down enough for Sepher to continue, but some still shouted out, demanding answers. “As Lucius’s son, it was within my rights to execute Cyrus. And the sword Justice confirmed the righteousness of his death—it allowed itself to be wielded to take his life.”

The shouts petered out. Perhaps even more so with the fresh reminder of the recent public executions, the people trusted in Justice. When our own judgement failed us, blinded by rumour and reputation or simply by a lack of evidence, the threads of magic and fate that moved Justice followed the truth.

Behind us, there were whispers. “I heard the only one seen with him on the balcony was the human.” That sounded like Mored.

“Even if it was her, she used the sword.” Lucan’s tones were unmistakable. “It was a just death.”

“I’m just glad that paranoid fool is out of the way,” Deema muttered. “He saw enemies everywhere—how long before he looked at you and saw one?”

With relief, I lifted my chin and my voice, “Therefore, I present to you King Sepher.”

Below, quiet reigned once more, shot through with questioning glances.

“Long live King Sepher,” someone shouted.

“King Sepher,” another voice rose. Bit by bit, the cry spread.

The cheers were perhaps less enthusiastic compared to the ones that had welcomed Cyrus as king, but I was willing to give them time. With a little luck, they would realise the same thing the Convocation members had. Cyrus had looked and acted the part of the heroic kings of old, but it was merely a gloss for aspirations to paranoid tyranny.

Sepher’s first order as king was to announce an end to several of his brother’s laws, particularly those against shapechangers, and his second was to formally return the guests to their respective courts. Once they’d crossed the balcony and left through the doors to their home courts, Sepher dismissed everyone.

There was a collective exhale on the balcony. I suspected the same thing happened in the crowd below.

Kat and I caught Sepher and Zita near the door to Dawn.

“Bastian.” Sepher nodded, stiff in a way that didn’t suit him. “That went better than I expected. I was waiting for someone to throw rotten cabbage at their shapechanger king.

Kat raised one shoulder. “They weren’t forewarned—throwing cabbages requires planning.”

His brow and shoulders sank as he made a low sound.

I cleared my throat, interrupting their snark before it could escalate. “There was mention of Kat being seen with him on the balcony,” I murmured.

She swallowed, paling.

“Someone could have spotted her.” Sepher waved a hand. “But they won’t question our version of events too closely—they’ll be too glad of the outcome.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” she hissed at him.

But I had to admit, the faces filing out of the doors to Dusk and Dawn seemed more relaxed than I’d seen them in weeks, and although the cheers hadn’t been as enthusiastic as when Cyrus had been announced king, the mood in the square seemed far less tense than it had after he’d presented his laws.

I stroked her back and nodded towards the guards chatting and laughing. “What do you see? Do any of them look like they’re angling to arrest you?”

Her scowl shifted from Sepher to them, then to Tor and Galiene as they filed past us with smiles, wishing us goodbye. Her ability to understand people had allowed her to see too much of me sometimes, before , but I hoped she’d use it for her own good now.

The tight muscles under my hand softened as she exhaled. “Not right this second, no.”

Zita returned from speaking with the king’s assistant, and pointed over her shoulder. “The sun’s about to set.”

Sepher stared at her for a long moment before he groaned. “And I care about this now because I’m the idiot who made himself king.” He looped an arm around her shoulder. “I’ll see you later. Try not to have too much fun while I’m forced into Sleep.” As he walked away, he grumbled to Zita, “I suppose this is my life now.”

Once they were gone, Kat elbowed me, eyes wide. “Did you hear that? He sounded… resigned to the Sleep.”

Steering her towards Dusk and beyond grateful for it, I shook my head. “Why do I feel like I’m missing something?”

We stepped through the lodestone, and I let out a little breath. I’d been using lodestones all my life, but part of me had feared she was going to disappear or that I’d wake up and find out getting her back had all been a pleasant dream.

But she was still here and looking up at me with a sly smile. “It means Sepher doesn’t realise he has a choice. He doesn’t know about the Crown.”