Page 89 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

His knuckles split, but he used aether to immediately heal the wound, pushing calcium into the skin as it regrew and hardening the surface of his knuckles to the consistency of bone in an instant.

Shards, why was it all so easy now?

THUD.

It felt good to hit something.

THUD, THUD.

He’d had far too much time to think over the past day. Too much time to imagine Vaughn’s face. To remember that sneer, that knowing smirk.

The things he had said. About using Taly.

THUD, THUD, THUD.

The dummy went flying, shattering as it skidded across the red dirt.

Skye stood there for a moment, panting. Sweating beneath the midday sun.

He kept replaying that fight in his head. Kept trying to figure out what he could’ve done differently.

Should he have rushed Vaughn? Gone for Carin first?

The water mage had seemed like the natural target, but he’d still been beaten. He’d played right into the Queen’s hand, and Taly had been forced to take a life.

A life that had needed to be extinguished, but…

Skye moved to the next dummy in the row.

THUD.

He could see it eating away at her. Even if she wouldn’t say as much.

And he should’ve been able to protect her from that.

The girl who couldn’t kill a rabbit.

If he’d just been stronger … Maybe that was why he hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell her about the bond. Why would she want to permanently bind herself to a man so easily beaten, who had almost given up on her?

A man who couldn’t even defend a bridge over a fucking canyon?

“Well now, isn’t this a surprise.”

Snarling, Skye sent a second dummy hurtling through the air. It smashed against the large silverleaf oak in the center of the arena, bursting into a shower of wooden fragments.

Barely a foot away from where the Queen now leaned. Smiling.

He felt a muscle in his jaw begin to twitch. This woman—Taly had told him about what this woman had made her do. The training, the sadistic games of so-called fairy tag, all of it leading up to that final test.

It had been effective. That he couldn’t deny. Taly had accomplished remarkable things in an absurdly short period of time. But why keep her separated from her family? Why use him to try to break her ?

This woman had manipulated them both. She sent her fairies to taunt him—to exploit his weaknesses, his pain, just to see if that wound would fester.

He would have killed her if he was able. If Taly would have allowed it. For reasons he couldn’t begin to fathom, she had developed some sort of affection for this woman. Perhaps even trust.

Which made the rage he felt at seeing that trust broken cut even deeper.

A few splinters flecked the gray silk of her dress, and the Queen brushed them away, still smiling as she said, “You look like you’re feeling better.”

“Oh yes,” he drawled, moving to another dummy.

“After being manipulated and led here.” He threw a punch.

“After being poisoned.” Twisting, he kicked.

“After having some genocidal tyrant attempt to orchestrate my death and use it to terrorize my mate.” Getting close, he grabbed the dummy’s head in his hands, wrenching it off the joint before turning to face Azura.

“I’m doing quite well. Thank you for asking.” And with that, he crushed the wood between his bare hands, never letting his eyes break away from hers.

The Queen’s smile vanished. The fairies that had followed her, chirping overhead where they hid in the branches of the aged silverleaf oak, hushed.

“I’d watch how you speak to me, boy.” The words were clipped.

Cold. A response to his implicit threat.

“I have been generous up until now, but I am still your superior in both power and years. Do not test me. ”

A dangerous line—he could feel the power roiling inside this woman. The majesty of a god checked only by the limitations of flesh and bone.

But anger made him bold. It gave him clarity.

The Queen was unmoving as he simply dropped the wooden fragments to the ground.

“It’s Azura, right?” She arched a brow at the familiarity, the audacity of using her given name without her expressed permission.

There were rules to be observed with such very important persons, but he just smirked.

“That’s what Taly says she calls you. You see, we’ve been doing a lot of talking, and she’s told me a lot about you.

And while I can’t quite figure out what your intentions are, one thing is clear.

“Taly is important to you,” he went on, dusting off his hands.

“And I’m important to her. So, if I were a betting man, I’d say that you’re bluffing.

That if you were going to do something, you’d have already done it.

Given those odds, I’ll speak to you however I damn well please.

” He dropped into a mocking bow. “Your Majesty .”

The Queen stared at him for a long moment. So still. So cold. There was a heaviness in the air. A weight of power that made even the birds stop singing.

But Skye didn’t cower. Didn’t break away from that regal golden stare. He’d met Genesis Lords before. He knew how to play their games.

And just like he’d expected, once she realized that there was no fun to be had at his expense, the coldness cracked, vanishing in an instant. The birds resumed their singing.

“Oh, I knew there was a reason I liked you,” she crooned, that half-mad smile returning. “Of all the men Taly has brought to me over the years, you’ve always been my favorite.”

Obvious bait—and a piss-poor attempt at stoking his jealousy. Skye made a small disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “You don’t know a thing about me,” he said as he moved to the next dummy. A clear dismissal.

But the Queen just laughed and pushed herself off the tree.

“On the contrary,” she said, “I know everything about you. I’ve been watching you through the Weave since before you were born.

I’ve seen every iteration your life could’ve taken.

You’re Skylen Emrys, the golden child of Ghislain, the pureblooded heir your mother always wanted.

A boy born to power and wealth, who’s been afforded every luxury, every comfort.

Whose very blood grants him privileges, ones that have cost your brother more than you’ve ever been asked to give up. ”

That made him turn.

From the way the Queen’s smile widened, she knew she finally had his attention.

“Everything has always come so easy to you, hasn’t it, Skylen?

Language, mathematics, magic, statecraft, women .

” He didn’t miss the suggestive lilt to her voice, as if to say she knew about that reputation Taly had once accused him of having. Perhaps rightly so.

“You have everything you’ve ever wanted,” she went on, “and everything you’ve ever needed.

The world is yours. It has been promised to you on a jewel-encrusted platter, and yet you’re unhappy.

Because you don’t want the world. You want everything that you have right now.

You want your life on Tempris, but you realized a long time ago that it has an expiration date.

One that, despite current events, you can still feel approaching.

You dread the day when your mother will finally call you home, yet you’ve resigned yourself to it.

You’ve never had to struggle, so in the face of hardship, all you see is looming inevitability. ”

Skye remained silent, clenching and unclenching his fists. Anything he might’ve said to the contrary would’ve been a lie.

With a snap of her fingers, wood flew, groaning as the dummies reassembled. Unmarked. Whole.

Except for a single head that landed in her waiting hands. Coming closer, she placed it gently back upon the dummy’s shoulders.

“That is until recently,” she went on. Her fingertips glowed gold as she secured the head in place.

“When the world went to hell, you finally gained some clarity. The same clarity that all men gain when faced with an end. You realized that there was something you wanted. Enough to buck your family’s reins.

Enough to kill for, to die for. And the longer you lived with that truth, the more you wanted it.

Wanted her —a human, then a time mage. The want consumed you, so much that you stopped seeing the struggle it would take to stay with her and forged a new path. ”

The Queen stepped back to inspect her work, the pale jewels in her black hair glimmering in the summer sun.

Skye felt as though he’d just been opened up, the pieces of him laid bare.

“What do you want with us?” he rasped. The weight of that power was suffocating as she came to stand even closer to him, barely a handful of feet away.

“With me, with Taly? Why that test? Why did you bring me here the way you did? Why did you send your fairies to torture me?”

The Queen gave a delicate shrug. “You needed a push,” she said simply.

“Without encouragement, there was a chance that you would’ve done nothing.

That you would’ve stayed in that city and followed Ivain’s command, obeying his every order and never thinking for yourself.

It would’ve been easier. It’s always easier to let other people make your decisions.

And then when I sent Taly back, you would’ve been the same man that you were when she left.

A man that saw hardship as inevitability.

Who faced defeat on a bridge and nearly let it cripple him.

That man would not have been strong enough to protect her.

He would not have been able to face those that would see her dead, but you —”

Her eyes flicked up and down, looking him over. As if she could see through him, to what lay beneath his skin. “You might have a chance. If you keep going down the path that’s now opened before you, you might just be strong enough to stand at her side.”

If he kept learning bloodcraft. If he kept experimenting, kept getting stronger. Kept sacrificing for that forbidden power.