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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

D YNARA’S EYES WENT WIDE as Kairn crashed through the doors to the great hall and stumbled down the stairs. Kilmor trailed after him like a lost puppy with two glasses of wine.

“Why isn’t he unconscious?” Dynara asked as a troupe of dancers took the stage at the far end of the room. The lords hollered and clapped, throwing loose coin onto the stage.

“The sleeping draught didn’t work.” I grabbed a glass of water from a server walking by. “Two oversized doses. I can get him out.” I took a sip of my drink. “But it won’t be discreet.”

Dynara looked up the stairs where Riven was watching Kairn, who still hadn’t fallen. “If it hasn’t worked now, it isn’t working at all.” She fanned her neck. “Can you get him out before …” She glanced up at the giant amber stone set into the roof of the ballroom.

Dynara checked the bead on the back of her bracelet. It was glass but contained a liquid that would turn bright red when it was time to leave. All the courtesans wore one. “Keera, you don’t have much time,” she urged.

I swallowed. “I know.”

Kairn stood to his full height, seemingly recovered from his momentary dizzy spell. Lord Kilmor threw up his hands and handed the man a drink. They both downed their glasses in a single swallow. Kilmor’s cheeks reddened, and he grabbed the server’s thigh as he set the empty glass on her tray.

“How you’ve lasted this long without slapping him is a miracle,” I muttered under my breath. Dynara had wormed herself into the House of Harvest with ease. She had been the special guest of the new High Lord of the Harvest for weeks. She had more patience than I ever would.

Dynara set down her own drink. “Kilmor is nothing compared to the lords I had to entertain before I freed myself.” A sigh slid between her clenched teeth as she smiled across the room. “And none of them were as bad as the mistresses,” she said without moving her lips.

Kairn took another drink from a nearby tray, turning toward us. “The pendant he wears on his chest. I’ve never seen one like it before.”

“You think it has some kind of special meaning?” Dynara’s eyes tightened over her fan.

I tapped the edge of my glass. “Does Kairn present himself as the type of man interested in flaunting his jewels?”

Dynara’s scoff caught in her throat. She raised a dainty wrist to hide her lips. “He barely presents himself as a man who bathes.” Her mouth tightened as she came to the same thought I had. “The pendant is from Damien.”

“Yes.” I chewed my lip. “But gift or tool?” Something flared underneath my skin; it wasn’t warm like magic, but cool. The same eerie breeze that blows on one’s neck when someone is watching.

I didn’t have time to ponder that question. That would have to wait until after—if I managed to get Kairn out without causing a scene.

I grabbed Dynara’s wrist, letting our pretense drop with my fan. “This dance needs to happen now.” I nodded in the direction of Kairn and Kilmor.

Dynara looked up at the giant bronzed gemstone in the middle of the roof over the dance floor. The last rays of sun were casting beautiful rings of amber and gold onto the patrons below, but soon it would be completely dark.

Then the hall would be alight with something else.

“We can’t delay, Keera. And we can’t do anything to draw the lords’ attention now.” Dynara’s neck flexed. “I want Kairn as much as you do, but too many lives are depending on us to stick to the plan .”

I cocked my jaw to the side. The plan had gone up in flames the moment Kairn had stayed conscious from Riven’s dart. “I need him alive, D.”

She lifted her wrist. The bead was almost red. “You’re out of time.” She turned to Riven at the landing of the entrance. “He was supposed to be gone five minutes ago,” she whispered.

I glanced up at Riven. His face was hard as he paced the landing. There was nothing he could do; he didn’t have any magic to subdue Kairn and there was no time left to test who would win on brawn alone. My stomach twisted into knots. I wanted to shout at him. Tell him to leave—to take the carriage without Kairn and make sure the rest of the Halflings got out safe—but that would send a panic through the room.

Instead, I lifted my hand and made three quick, precise movements.

Go. Now. Alone.

My signed Elvish was terrible on the best of days, but from the way Riven froze against the banister I knew he understood.

I wouldn’t be going with him to ferry the Halflings to safety. The plan had failed. I was our only chance left.

The old Blade had to dance with the new.

Riven walked backward, never taking his eyes off me until the doors of the landing had shut. No one but Dynara and I heard the soft thud of the locking post being pushed into place behind the wooden doors.

Everyone in the hall was sealed in.

Except for those of us who knew where the servants’ entrance was hidden.

Dynara put down her fan. “It’s done. We can’t change the plan now, Keera.”

“This is our only chance to find Nikolai,” I pleaded. “I will wait as long as I can, but we need to start now. ”

Dynara didn’t need to hear another word. She marched over to Crison and whispered something in her ear.

Crison clanked her ornate silver cane against a glass. “Before the real show begins, I think it best for the lords to get to know my girls with a dance or two.” She turned to Kilmor. “Lord Kilmor, if you would be so obliged.” She lifted Dynara’s hand for him to take.

“It would be my pleasure,” he said, stepping forward.

The only hint that he had stepped on her toes was the brief flinch in Dynara’s smile.

Crison then nodded her head at the Blade. “My newest attraction is free, sire. Do her the honor of being her first?” Crison’s tone made it obvious that she was implying much more than my first dance was up for grabs.

I swallowed down the bile coating my tongue and curtsied.

Kairn licked his lips hungrily and nodded. He crossed the dance floor in three strides and grabbed me by the waist like he was picking up a bale of hay. He did not bow before the music began nor did he keep a respectable distance between our bodies as we twirled around the dance floor. I glanced around the room and saw that all the men were acting the same, draping their partners over themselves in a fashion that would never have been allowed with noble ladies. Not even in Damien’s dingiest of after parties.

The courtesans laughed and giggled, well-practiced in the art of making men believe they were enjoying their company. I was glad that this would be their last night of play-acting they would have to suffer through.

“Are you feeling better, sire?” Kairn’s steps were sluggish, but I didn’t know if that was the sleeping draught making its way through his body or just a lack of grace.

He grunted but said nothing.

“Such a shame that the king could not join us,” I pushed. I couldn’t pull words out of men easily like Dynara. At least not without my knives. But I had to try. If the pendant on his chest was concealing some kind of weapon, I needed to know. Preferably before the room went up in flames.

Kairn sniffed loudly. “The king has more important matters than attending parties.”

“You’re the second most important man in the kingdom and yet you’re here.” I batted my lashes and my pulse raced, fearing I had laid the flattery on too thick. “Who will protect him from an attack if you are not by his side?”

Kairn’s scarred lip pursed. “The Arsenal is not his personal guard. We do not travel with the king.”

“We?” I raised a brow. “Are your brethren here? I’m sure we could find them escorts that would please them.”

Kairn shook his head. “The Arsenal does not travel together. The kingdom is best protected if our strength is spread across the entire continent.” He grinned, evidently believing his rehearsed speech made him sound more important than he was. But there was something interesting in those words. That hadn’t been how the Arsenal operated when I was Blade. Damien must have made changes for a reason.

“I’m sure my sisters would feel safer with as many of you in the city as possible.” I feigned a look of panic and leaned closer to him to whisper. “We are all terrified those monsters will come from the clouds and roast everyone in the city alive.”

Kairn pulled me against him. “No need to worry about that.” He stuck out his chest like a mating bird. I would have written it off as a poor attempt of wooing, but Kairn’s black eye flashed and the amber pupil was no longer a perfect circle.

There were three of us in this dance now.

It could have been a coincidence, but I think something in Kairn’s words triggered Damien’s worry. Perhaps my gut feeling about the pendant had not been as outlandish as I’d thought.

I waited three seconds. If Damien had recognized me through the glamour, Kairn would have already shoved his sword through my throat, but his eyes were anchored to my breasts. It would be a shame to burn such a lovely bodice, but I already knew I could never stomach wearing it again now that his hands had touched it.

I forced down the urge to vomit as I stroked Kairn’s cheek. “What takes more bravery? Fighting off one of the waateyshirak or defending us from the Elves in the west?”

Kairn’s eyes narrowed. I watched the amber pupil shift from the sideline of my vision as I trailed my hand down Kairn’s chest and toyed with his belt.

He grinned. “Those Elves are nothing compared to the shadowy beasts. Our armies will take care of them soon enough.”

“They’ve lived so long. Has that not made them good fighters?” I pressed my chest into his, and it had the exact effect I’d intended.

Kairn’s jaw went slack as he stared. Then he straightened as the crescendo hit its peak. “It’s the Fae you have to worry about. Elves are just as easy to kill as they are to capture.”

I blinked in disbelief. I hadn’t even needed to weave Nikolai’s capture into the conversation—Kairn was already alluding to it. A sly smile curved up my mouth as I started to ask him about where they could keep such prisoners, but Kairn went rigid. The amber pupil flared across his black eye, and I knew that the Blade was no longer the one in control of his body.

Damien’s scowl tugged along Kairn’s scar. I thought he had somehow guessed who I was, but he never got the chance to ask.

A loud boom shook the walls.

Everyone turned their attention to the band as if any of their instruments could make such a sound.

Only Damien in Kairn’s body looked up and saw the large amber gem come loose and plummet to the floor.

We both backed away with enough time to spare ourselves, but Lord Kilmor was caught in the fall. His body was pinned underneath the giant stone, blood oozing from his mouth. He tried to speak, reaching out with his hand, which still held a wineglass. He groaned and his arm went limp.

Dynara’s chest heaved as she screamed. I knew that her terror was not real, but it didn’t keep the men from surrounding the fallen gem and their lost lord. Dynara stepped back through the crowd in four deft steps and started up the staircase.

Crison was already standing at the top of the landing, her glamoured pendant around her neck. “I will fetch some servants from their quarters to help clean up this mess at once,” she called out to the lords, who were already chattering about who the king would name as the next Lord of the Harvest.

She slipped through the door and waited for Dynara. They needed to secure the entryway again before the lords tried getting out. Crison tugged at Dynara’s arm, but Dynara waited, silently pleading with me to follow them and leave Kairn behind.

But I couldn’t. He knew where Nikolai was, and I already owed Nik so much. I wouldn’t turn my back on him now.

I shook my head and watched Dynara slip through the doors without me. There was a loud bang as the wooden beam dropped into place. None of the lords noticed; they still stood around the gem and Kilmor’s broken body.

Only Kairn was looking about the room. “Where are the servants?” he said, more to himself than the lords. “Where are the girls?”

He had noticed what the lords had not. Every courtesan and servant had disappeared. He drew his sword, still glancing about the room, and then his gaze fell on me, amber pupil pulsing and bright.

It was Damien’s scowl on his face.

I started to run, and Kairn charged after me. I dashed up the stairs, trying to claim higher ground, but his strides were long enough to catch me. His boots trampled my skirts, pulling the release ribbon free. Kairn reeled back in shock as my outfit transformed in front of his eyes.

Without the burden of cloth swirling around my legs, I jumped up onto the banister and slid behind Kairn, using the momentum to push his shoulder and send him tumbling down the stairs. I tried to reach for the pendant along his chest, but his sword sliced my arm. I cursed and landed in a roll on the floor.

The lords turned around from the commotion, but I didn’t care if they saw me now. They were already dead.

Kairn hurled a dagger at my head, and I ducked under it, drawing a dagger of my own.

Something sharp stung my nose.

Smoke trickled underneath the doors. The lords’ murmurs turned into surprised shouts as they ran for the stairs.

“It’s locked!” someone shouted.

Three men pulled a velvet curtain to the floor. “The windows!” they cried, scratching at the thick sheets of wood that the servants had nailed into the stone exterior.

Kairn cursed from the landing, trying to break through the door with his giant size. He sneered down at me as the first licks of flame crawled up the drapes. “You plan to die with us?”

“Not at all,” I said, disappearing into a flash of light.

“She’s a bird” was the last thing I heard before the screaming started.

I flapped my wings, soaring high above the growing cloud of smoke. Subduing Kairn without killing him would already be hard enough. I didn’t need to fight every lord desperately clinging to life; I would let the smoke make quick work of them.

I circled the manor five times, flying higher with each pass. The screaming stopped. I tucked my wings against my feathered body and plummeted toward the hole in the roof. I closed my eyes as I passed through the smoke, only opening them when I heard faint coughs through the crackling.

Hot flames devoured the walls. The lords who had tried to climb the drapes had fallen to the ground, flesh melting from their bones. The fire licked my feathers, and I transformed back into my Fae form, using my fire wielding to push the flames away.

The men who were still alive were on their knees, coughing too hard to notice me weaving through the floor. A wave of my hand pushed the smoke upward, giving the men momentary relief. I scanned the room searching for Kairn, but he wasn’t among the languishing lords.

An arm reached for my ankle from behind an overturned chaise and pulled me to the ground. My chin smacked against the tile, splitting the skin as Kairn dragged me along the floor.

I twisted, aiming a kick at his face, but he blocked it with his upper arm. I conjured my gusts, trying to pull the air from Kairn’s lungs but he stomped on my thigh. I heard the snap of my femur as he broke it. Then I screamed.

Kairn snorted as I writhed in pain, trying to free myself. It was overwhelming—the flames flared higher, stoked by my magic, but I couldn’t focus enough to direct them. Kairn straddled my waist. I swiped for his pendant, but he evaded my grasp by leaning back, pressing onto the splintered bone that was sticking out of my skin.

“I thought that’s what you were after.” Kairn’s pupil flared, and I knew Damien was watching as he wrapped his hands around my neck. It flared again, settling on my eyes.

Shock registered on Kairn’s face as Damien took control of his body, but then it faded into pure vindication. “Such a disappointing way for this to end, Keera,” he rasped as his hands tightened around my throat.

I held the last bit of air in my lungs as I spread my arms, trying to find some kind of weapon. Flames scorched my skin, but I didn’t let that stop me.

Metal. Something hard and round. A goblet. I pulled it toward me with just my fingertips. The blood vessels in Kairn’s natural eye exploded, and a bead of sweat fell off his brow onto my throbbing face. I inched the goblet closer until finally it rolled toward me. I grabbed the rim and jabbed my leg upward.

I howled as the jagged end of my bone pierced Kairn’s back. My vision blurred from the pain, but I held on. I refused to die in this place, fighting Damien in a stolen body. I jammed my leg once more, and Kairn’s pupil went still as Damien lost control.

Kairn’s grip on my throat loosened just enough for me to twist out of his reach. I smacked his temple with the goblet. His head lolled back behind him as he rolled off me, not quite unconscious but dazed.

I snapped my leg into place and let my healing gift fuse the bone as I pushed the flames against the wall. The other lords had fallen to their sides, wheezing loudly as smoke filled their lungs.

The pain in my leg faded to something manageable, and I pounced on Kairn. With a handful of his cloak, I spun around his shoulders, pulling the fabric taut and pinning his arms with my legs. I yanked as tightly as I could, using my control over the air to pull the last of his breath from his lungs.

It only took a moment for him to fall limp.

I wiped my nose and looked around the room. Most of the lords were dead, but not all. Dynara had wanted them to burn in here, and I was not going to risk her desires for mine. Tiny little currents of air formed along each of their lips, pulling the last of their lives from them until all but Kairn lay dead along the manor floor.

I sent the largest gust I was capable directly at the eastern wall. The stone toppled into the garden, and the flames raged with new air to stoke them. I dragged Kairn by his shoulders, and we tumbled onto the grass.

He was too big to carry in my eagle form, so I summoned a root to circle around Kairn’s body. It lifted him from the ground, growing out of the soil like a seedling. I walked around the manor toward the city center, ready to fight the soldiers I had seen that afternoon, but there were none. Dynara must have done something to slow them down.

There was a cart by the stables. Kairn groaned as I dropped him into it and pulled out a length of Elvish rope from the pocket of my trousers. His wrists were thick. I tied the rope around three times to secure the binding and cut above the knot with one of my Elvish blades, the only edge sharp enough to slice through the silver rope. I used the rest to bind his legs.

I pulled my hair back into a loose braid and secured it with the rest of the rope. Kairn’s pendant still lay across his chest, rising with his shallow breaths.

The top of it was perfectly clear like glass, but the inside was rimmed with a thin concave pearlescent gem. I brushed it with my fingers just as horns called out into the night. Kairn coughed, partially roused by the sound of the battle. His eyelids fluttered and the pendant began to glow.

Then I heard the piercing screech of a waateyshir .