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Chapter three

HYACINTH

My eyes snapped open, my head whipping toward the crashing sound at the other end of our quarters. Landers jumped from the bed, pulling a dagger off the side table as I pulled the silken sheets up to my chest.

“I know, I just need to talk to her. I’ll be fast.” Ata’s voice sounded from the sitting room on the other side of the double doors that led to our bedchamber. I could hear Elric trying to stop her from crashing into our room as I sighed in relief.

It was too early for this.

If Ata walked into our rooms with any face other than her own, I was going to unleash hell.

“Good morning, your Majesty ,” Ata drawled as the door swung open on its hinges, clashing with the marble wall. She bowed in mock respect then, smirking at Landers, she sauntered over to the end of the bed and sat.

Her features were very much her own and much too animated for this early hour. I studied the fresh bruises scattered over her face—the eye that had been swollen shut.

I knew what that meant, knew where she had been tonight— what she had been doing tonight.

Landers dragged a hand over his face, setting his dagger back against the wooden table as he looked over at Elric.

“And you are the man I am entrusting the safety of my realm to? The man who cannot keep this feral woman out of our chambers at four thirty in the morning?” Landers asked.

I groaned at the time as Ata grinned up at Landers. Elric’s lips twitched upwards as he looked at the mischievous smile carved onto her face, then cleared his throat.

“In my defense, your Grace, she was wearing your face when she got past my men.”

Landers pushed a hand through his hair as he looked over at Ata for an explanation. She shrugged, picking at her nails as she sunk deeper into the bed.

Landers let out a long sigh, his shoulders relaxing as he pulled a tunic over his head and gestured for Elric to sit.

I motioned for Ata to come sit next to me, under the blankets like we used to do, as I flicked my fingers toward the balcony doors, shutting them to lock out the crisp wind that had begun flowing in.

She looked at me for one hesitant moment before turning her gaze back to Landers.

“What is it now, Changeling?” Landers asked as he settled into the chair across from Elric. A pillow flew toward him and Landers held two fingers up, stopping it inches from his face and letting it fall to the ground.

“Don’t call me that,” Ata snapped, chucking a second pillow across the room.

“Ata.” I tilted my head toward her, plastering a smile on my face, and in the sweetest voice I could conjure, asked, “What do you want?”

She rolled her eyes at my saccharine tone then looked down at her hands as she pulled a dagger from her belt and began picking under her nails. “I had the dream again,” she stated, the words sharp as they left her lips and my back straightened at the sound of them. “It was different.”

“How?” I forced my voice to stay steady as I glanced at Landers. He ran a hand over his face, his brows pulling together as his jaw tightened and met my eyes.

“It wasn’t me burning this time, it was you .” Ata said quietly.

My skin chilled, my blood turning to ice as Landers stood.

“When was the last time you had this dream?” Landers asked, his voice hard as rose from the chair and began pacing in front of the fire.

“The last time I told you—two weeks ago. It has never changed before,” Ata said, watching as Elric’s hand tightened around the hilt of his blade.

“When Hyacinth was burning, where was she?” Landers asked, stopping his pacing and clutching the back of the chair he’d been sitting in.

Ata’s voice hardened as she answered. “In the throne room; sitting on your throne.”

Elric’s eyes flashed to me as Landers went wholly still—the fae stillness I only ever saw in him when danger was closing in. Landers’s eyes darkened as he absorbed Ata’s words, his grip on the chair tightening until his knuckles turned white.

“Then, it seems, the dream has changed for a reason.” He turned to Elric, his voice low—grave. “Get Dukovich to the war room immediately. We cannot push this conversation off any longer.” Elric stood, nodding as he turned for the door.

“Don’t you dare ,” Ata hissed, sliding off the end of the bed, her tone menacing as she lifted her chin.

Elric stopped, his eyes darting between Ata and Landers, unsure of whose directions to follow.

“Did you forget which one of us is your King?” Landers snapped at Elric’s hesitation.

“No your Grace—” Elric’s back straightened at the bite in Landers’s words. “It’s just . . . she’s so . . .”

“ Please ,” Landers sighed as he rubbed his temples, his middle fingers pressing hard into his skin, “do not tell me you are afraid of her, Elric.”

“Are you not?” Elric shot back.

Landers’s eyes darted to him, narrowing with annoyance. I tried to hide the smile that slid over my lips at the exchange. It was so very Ata, to have a war general frightened of her.

“You should be scared, my King , of what I will do to you if you bring that man anywhere near me,” Ata said, her voice a low growl as she took a step closer to the two of them. “You made a promise you would not involve him, and you will keep it.”

“That was when these dreams only involved you. The terms in which I made that promise have now changed. I will not take the risk of endangering Hyacinth’s life because you are scared,” Landers snarled back at her.

Only Ata seemed to be able to rile him like this.

“Is that so? You are starting to sound more and more like the man you have chained in your dungeons,” Ata spat in response, her tone venomous.

“Ata!” I hissed, my head snapping to her as Landers took a step forward. I shot my hand into the air and he halted. “Both of you, stop it right now.”

Ata smirked, throwing up her middle finger at Landers as he sucked on his teeth, trying to calm the anger those words boiled in him.

She had meant for those words to hurt and she had hit her mark, like an arrow in a bullseye.

“That was completely uncalled for, Ata. Never compare him to Taft again, do you hear me?” I said, locking my gaze onto hers.

She let out a deep sigh before nodding. I turned my eyes to Landers.

“And you—you are a four-hundred-year-old fae King. Stop letting her get you so worked up.” Landers lifted a corner of his mouth at my words as he sat down on the arm of his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

I slumped back against the headboard and groaned. It was too early for this. I needed at least two cups of coffee before the theatrics of the day started.

“Is there any possibility of revisiting this conversation over breakfast, without you two murdering each other in the meantime?” I asked, glimpsing the small smile that flashed across Elric’s face at my tone before I looked back to Ata.

She let out a deep, dramatic sigh. “I suppose I can wait until lunch to kill him,” she drawled, turning to the doorway.

She slapped Elric’s chest with the back of her hand as she passed him, and I gave him a grateful nod.

“Goodbye, Changeling,” Landers sang over his shoulder, a smirk plastered onto his face.

“Goodbye, Lord of Death,” Ata shot back as she closed the doors behind her. I rolled my eyes, trying to mask the surge that ran through my veins at the sound of that name.

I hadn’t been able to bring myself to ask Landers what those names meant—if there was truth to the story Dukovich had told me about him in The Silliands.

I wasn’t scared of the truth, I was not na?ve to the fact that Landers had killed, had done things that he was ashamed of during the war.

I could see it in him, in the darkness that he kept beneath the surface, in all the times he had called himself a monster.

I hadn’t asked because I didn’t want him to push me away, so I stayed quiet.

“The two of you will kill me,” I said, shaking my head. “It won’t be magic, it won’t be war, it’ll be the two of you that drive me to utter madness.”

A soft chuckle caressed Landers’s throat, rolling off his lips as he pushed from the chair and walked toward me. I wrapped my arms around his waist as he stopped at the edge of the bed, pulling him closer to my chest and let out a long breath.

“I’m sorry she said that to you, she shouldn’t have. I will talk to her,” I said softly into his tunic.

Landers’s fingers dipped under my chin, pulling it up until our eyes met.

“There is truth in her words. I should not have made a decision in the moment like that. We will talk, and the three of us will decide how to handle this together,” he said, taking a step back from me as my arms fell to my side. He slid a hand down his face.

“Landers, you are nothing like Taft.” I stood and stepped toward him. “Wanting me to be safe doesn’t make you like him. You don’t control me.” I reached up, my palm connecting with his cheek as he leaned into my touch. “You don’t hurt me,” I whispered.

Landers looked at me for a long moment before letting out a sharp breath and pulling me into his chest.

These last few months had been hard on all of us. It’s felt like we are scrambling, frantically trying to catch a crystal vase before it falls to the floor and shatters.

Wren had taken over intelligence for Locdragoon so Landers and Andrues had more time to focus on securing the wards around Ithia, and help manage the damage our party had brought to their doorstep.

Wren had buried himself in the work.

He blamed himself for not seeing Taft’s betrayal—that he didn’t stop it before Ardan paid the price.

Pri and Asrai had set up a makeshift camp near Nithra’s stables, teaching the students who had come from the academy how to wield their magic. So far, they were all doing better than any of us expected.

Asrai had been teaching so many of us for years, right under the nose of the House of High and they had never known. She had been risking her life, all so that her students could learn to protect themselves.