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Chapter Forty-Four

Raul

T he stomp of my horse’s hoof yanks me out of sleep. I roll onto my feet in a crouch before I’ve registered more than the noise and the answering hitch of my pulse.

As my blanket tumbles off me, I peer through the darkness. The night is thickened further by the grove of trees I crashed in for shelter. Its chill prickles into my lungs.

How long have I been out? My thoughts slosh and collide in my head in woozy fashion, but it’s hard for me to tell how much that’s from exhaustion and how much the lingering aftereffects of my straining my gift.

An ache still throbs dully at the back of my skull, the pain winding through the mess of my consciousness. My shoulder pangs too, the result of a tumble I took down a shallow ravine while avoiding disloyal imperial soldiers two days ago .

Ignoring all those niggling discomforts, I swipe my hand over my face in an attempt to sharpen my focus. The horse I’ll have to swap sometime tomorrow to make sure it doesn’t die on its feet lets out a faint snort and paws the ground again, its head turned to the west.

I ease closer to the edge of the grove, staying low. As I rest my hand on one of the trunks near the open fields beyond, a flash of light catches my eyes.

What the fuck was that?

The stark brightness fades, but I catch the distant glimmer of campfires and torches. A trace of woodsmoke reaches my nose. The moonlight falls across the peaks of army tents and roaming figures in dark uniforms.

My gut clenches. I thought I’d gotten away from Lavira fast enough that I should stay well ahead of Valerisse’s forces. Apparently they started to head south around the same time I did.

This development doesn’t need to affect me. I can clamber back onto my horse, strain my gift for long enough to vanish into the distance cloaked in darkness, and get enough of a lead that these marching soldiers will never catch up with me again. That would be the smart thing to do.

But as Bastien wouldn’t hesitate to remark, my wits haven’t generally been my most lauded quality. And as I study the camp a little longer, another flash of light, this one tinged yellow, catches my attention.

It darted by so quickly I couldn’t make out any shape of it, just a streak against the darkness. Are Valerisse’s soldiers practicing some odd magic they’re planning to use against Aurelia and her allies?

Resolve wraps around my innards, drowning out wits and pains alike. If the traitorous pricks are up to something unexpected, I need to find out what it is .

At least then I won’t go back to my woman—my wife —totally empty-handed.

I waver between riding over for the ease of a quick getaway and going on foot for better stealth. It’s easier to conceal just my form than a horse’s as well, and I can’t count on the animal recognizing the need for silence.

After a matter of seconds, urgency propels me onward on my own.

I creep across the lumpy terrain, the small swells making me feel as if I’m a giant tramping over hills that only come up to my knees. The grass whispers against my trousers, but otherwise I make no sound. I pull a layer of shadows around me to help my dark clothing blend into the night.

A sharper ache wakes up inside my skull. I grit my teeth and keep going.

I’m maybe halfway across the distance to the camp when another glowing shape flickers into being over the tents. This one has a greenish tint. I think I make out wings and a rounded head before it fades back into the moonlight.

What in the realms are these assholes conjuring?

As the voices of the soldiers on watch become audible, I spot a patch of wiry bushes up ahead. Swallowing a relieved sigh, I duck down behind them and release most of the shadows I’ve been dragging with me.

My headache isn’t impressed, but at least it isn’t going to get much worse for the time being.

I’ve only been poised there for a minute or two before an immense swatch of bluish light soars overhead. Its vast shape looks almost like… a whale?

My confusion lasts only as long as it takes for the enemy soldiers to react.

“Fuck,” one of them mutters. I strain my ears to pick up the rest of his words. “Jurnus too? I don’t like this.”

His companion speaks in a derisive tone. “So the gods are putting on a light show. Do they really think they can intimidate those who walk with Sabrelle’s favor? They can’t touch us.”

“Why are they sending omens?” one of the others grumbles. “Don’t they want what’s best for the empire?”

“Maybe they’re testing our mettle, making sure we’re totally committed before we face the false empress and her army.”

The last voice doesn’t sound fully convinced. A smile tugs at my lips.

Look at my beloved, shepherding even the gods to her cause. If she could have seen this…

She needs to know the other gods are already campaigning for her cause just as Sabrelle is trying to impose her will on Vivencia.

A flood of orange butterflies streaks through the camp, waking up a few of the soldiers with started yelps.

One of the sentries tsks his tongue. “Not everyone’s passing the test.”

“They’d better get their act together once the tribune joins us.”

“Yeah, she isn’t going to have any patience for fools.”

A chuckle rings out. “I doubt even the gods would dare to challenge her when she has Sabrelle’s blessing.

Don’t worry about them. We’re going to crush anyone who tries to get between us and that throne, so we can see a proper ruler put on it.

Hit them with all our might, fast and hard, and we’ll plow straight through those deluded idiots. ”

That’s their intended strategy, is it? I guess it fits Sabrelle’s reputation for brutal strength, but I’d gotten the impression she didn’t object to a more refined strategy once in a while.

The trouble is, from what I know about Aurelia’s situation and the size of Valerisse’s forces, plowing straight through the soldiers Axius managed to assemble might work just fine.

I scan the camp for several minutes longer, until my weary eyeballs feel like they might fall out of my head. As I pull back from the bushes, my foot comes down on a brittle twig.

Crack.

A few heads swivel my way. “Who’s there?” one of the sentries hollers.

Shit. I yank a thicker swath of darkness around me and wince as pain lances through my temples.

A couple of the soldiers step cautiously toward me. I can’t stay hidden if they walk straight into me.

Breathing as shallowly as I can, I set one foot back, and then another, glancing down to make sure I’m not about to set off any more natural tripwires. Even the mild impacts of my feet rattle through my skull.

Just hold on—another few steps, another few minutes…

The nearest sentry reaches the bushes, shakes his head, and returns to the camp. I continue easing backward, a little faster as I leave the tents farther behind.

I don’t completely release the shadows until I’m back in the shelter of the grove of trees.

I stagger and catch myself on a trunk. The bark scrapes my palm.

The ache in my head swells, my stomach lurches, and I vomit the meager dinner I gulped down hours ago into the brush.

Not quite done, I tell myself through the haze in my head. Have to move. Have to get home.

Have to make it to her .

I untie the horse and haul myself onto its back. Leaning my head against its mane, I clench my hands and drag a thin cloak of shadow around us .

Just a little farther. Just out of their view.

Great God help me, keep me conscious.

The paling of the imperial guard’s face at the palace gate reveals just how awful I must look.

“P-prince Raul?” she stammers. “I mean, Your Highness. Are you all right? Do I need to call a medic?”

I don’t think there’s any cure for the aches and pains of overusing one’s magic—and besides, those hurts have faded over the past day once I reached safer territory.

The only salve I need is the woman within these walls.

I shake my head. “Someone should see to the horse. It’s exhausted. I just need to rest.”

I don’t, of course. I walk straight to the shuttered bedroom near my own, open up the wall, and weave through the hidden passages to Aurelia’s apartment.

I rode through the night again. Dawn light is only just streaking across the gardens outside.

When I emerge into the empress’s chambers with a faint hiss of the secret panel, Aurelia is sleeping, her face pressed against the pillow and far too tensed for someone supposedly in the deepest form of relaxation.

As always, there’s the stubborn ex-emperor standing guard by the door. I catch Marc’s gaze, bracing for some caustic comment, but after his initial stare, his mottled face actually… brightens.

“I told her you’d make it,” he says, sounding almost as dazed as I feel. “She’ll want to be woken up for this.”

It isn’t as if I need to ask his permission. All the same, a companionable warmth lights in my chest with the knowledge that I had it anyway .

We don’t need to fight anymore. Not when we’re both so dedicated to the woman sleeping here.

Not when we have so many greater enemies to conquer.

I step to the bed, every particle in me clamoring to gather my wife in my arms, but looking down at my scabbed and dirt-streaked hands hovering over the pristine covers makes me balk.

Scars still mark my knuckles from where I bashed my fists against my bedroom wall so many times—but they’ve become faint with time. I’ve no longer needed to flail out ineffectually against the empire’s horrors.

The woman lying before me showed me a better way.

Before I can push myself onward, Aurelia stirs. Her eyelids flutter open. She gazes at me for one dreamy second as if she isn’t sure she’s woken up yet.

Then she flings back the bedspread and throws herself at me.

I catch her in my arms and hug her close. Her wild but sweet scent fills my nose, flooding away all the stenches of the road. Her body with its mix of softness and strength melds perfectly against my taller frame.