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Chapter forty-three

HYACINTH

My fingers clasped around the chain in my hand, my heart twisting and writhing in my chest as the once-cold metal now warmed against my skin.

A link had broken, which meant Landers was hurt.

The necklace hadn’t shattered when it fell from my throat, so I knew he was still alive and that was the only thing keeping me from sinking into complete despair.

I clung on to the thought, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace of mine and Landers’s Yaldrin home—Andrues’s and Asrai’s eyes following every step.

“Malik betrayed us. He is the only one that knew our plans that could have warned Ammord,” I said, my voice brimming with quiet rage. I took deep breaths to quell the magic aching to burst from my body and burn everything it touched. “And I am going to kill him for it.”

Asrai pushed from where she leaned against the doorway to the bedroom, walking toward the chair Andrues sat in, and wrapped her fingers around the back of it. “A smart idea but until then, what is your plan?”

“There is no plan,” I hissed, stopping to face her. “I’m done making plans, I’m done scheming. I am going to walk into the House of High and take them back and anyone who gets in my way will die.”

Asrai raised a brow in my direction. “I see you have finally killed the girl to make room for the God.”

I opened my mouth to snap at her but Andrues cut me off before the words could leave my mouth. “It could have been Dukovich, this could have been his plan from the start.”

“Landers trusted him and he’s in love with Ata—I can see it in the way he looks at her,” I snapped as Andrues flinched at the statement, his features hardening at the sound of the words.

“Love does not stop betrayal, more often than not, it ignites it,” Asrai said as I watched Andrues swirl the ring around his pointer finger.

He looked up, his eyes connecting with mine.

“Think about it, Hyacinth. Suddenly he betrays his realm when he has been loyal to them for hundreds of centuries. Only to have someone put in his place that can feed us misinformation when he thinks he has gained enough of our trust so we will believe that we can rely on his source. He brought a daemon into Locdragoon. He then disappeared in Ammord while Pri and Nox were getting attacked, only to come back in time to tell Ata who Nox really was, which pushed them to bring Nox back to Locdragoon and be housed right next to that very same Daemon that can relay every bit of information Nox tells him to his master. He was with you in The Silliands when Cain stepped out of the tomb, told you to accept the bond, and instead of killing him when he had the chance, he let him go. Not only that but the morning we left for Ithia, Wren received the list from the guards of our prisons. Dukovich’s name was on the list of people that visited Taft.

He was never given permission to be there. ”

My body went wholly still.

“He has been everywhere, in the middle of everything, we just did not see it until now.” The words were a low growl as they left Andrues’s lips and I could feel the horror that was slipping onto my face as Asrai slowly straightened.

“Taft is a daemon?” she hissed, her eyes narrowing on me.

My jaw flexed at the bite in her words. “Yes. He’s dead now—I killed him when I found out.”

“And when did this happen?” she snapped.

I loosed a heavy breath, breathing back the panic that was quickly rising from the pit of my stomach, then told her exactly what had happened. How we found out, everything he’d said with his last breaths and what I’d done to him.

She stared at me as the room fell silent on the tail of my words, her features locked in an unreadable expression. I clasped my hands in front of me, waiting for her to speak, waiting for her to scold me or do anything other than stare into my eyes like she was peeling back my soul.

Finally, she took a deep breath. “When a daemon is created, their soul is no longer tied to the body that houses them. They can jump from skin to skin at the command of their master. The Hanth Queen created daemons at the start of the Great War as a way to infiltrate the other realms. She placed them inside the ranks of our armies, and when we went into battle, she gave the command to have them massacre our men. With her controlling thousands of daemons and necromancers commanding the living dead, their army was impossible to beat.” Asrai paused, her eyes fluttering to the fire, an emotionless veil slipping over them as she ran her fingers over the fabric of Andrues’s chair.

“ The Stories say we won the war against The Silliands and Ammord, and we did. We cut down every being in The Silliands’ armies and executed their King and Queen.

But what The Stories do not tell you, is that it was not us that overthrew Ammord.

It was their own people, their own people who wanted to be free of the evil their King and Queen brought to their realm—to Nimbria.

A young witch, an extremely powerful one, learned to make daemons and she planted them inside of Ammord’s House of High.

In the night, those Daemons slaughtered the King and Queen and the highest members of their war council.

When a master falls, every daemon they have ever created falls with them.

This is how the war was truly won, if she had not done what she did, Ammord would have overthrown the realms and we would be living under their rule.

After her daemons killed them, she fled Ammord into one of my war camps.

It was then she told me what she had done and my armies flooded Sethros, claiming the victory as our own.

The few lower members of the War Council that were left living knew what had happened.

A witch can sense the presence of a daemon, but they did not speak out in fear it would give powerful witches the courage to do the same. ”

I blinked at Asrai as her eyes locked back on mine, a million questions running through my mind. I glanced to Andrues to see his features also tangled with confusion.

He hadn’t known either.

“Who knows this?” I asked, looking back to Asrai.

She didn’t say anything for a long moment as she slipped into the chair next to Andrues.

“Myself, the witch, and the three living members of Ammord’s original War Council.

Those three members are now the High Priest and Priestesses of Ammord.

I can not say for certain if they have told anyone else. ”

“What happened to this witch?” The question slipped from Andrues’s lips as he dragged a hand down his face.

“She was only a child, no more than fifteen when it happened, and I promised to keep her secret so she would not be hunted by Ammord. Locdragoon was taking in everyone from any realm displaced by the war and she made a home there.”

A weight fell on my chest as I locked eyes with Asrai. I knew the answer but I needed her to say it—needed her to confirm it. “Who is she, Asrai?”

Asrai stared back at me, her jaw flexing as she hesitated, then spoke. “Yenne.”

I watched Andrues’s eyes darken as he turned to Asrai, anger simmering in his irises as his fingers clamped around the arms of his chair.

“Is your pride so great, your ego so engorged, that you could not stand us knowing you are not the great war general The Stories claim you to be? Your legacy was built on a lie, and the truth would have changed the entire way we prepared for this war, would have given us the knowledge of what we are actually up against. And now, they have our King.”

“I do not give a damn about my legacy,” Asrai hissed, her words bitter. “My loyalty, my word, is all that I have, and I gave it to that child. We all have secrets, and if I would have spoken her name a second sooner, it could have fallen into the hands of a traitor.”

Andrues’s mouth shot open, but I cut him off. “Why tell us this now and betray her trust after so many centuries?”

“Because Ammord would not create them again unless they were desperate. The prophecy of your birth says that you will unite the realms, that you will rule over Nimbria and usher in the age of Ataraxia. They do not want peace, they want power and control and they cannot get that without killing you. This war started the day your mother brought you to me. They have been a step ahead of us for twenty-one years, have known every move we were going to make, and now we have a chance to get ahead of them,” Asrai answered, leaning back in her chair and resting her chin in her palm.

My eyebrows pulled together. “How?”

Andrues stood, his muscles tensing as he walked toward the bar cart and poured himself a drink, downing it in one gulp before pouring a second and turning back to face us and leaning against the doorway into Landers’s office.

Five hours.

It had been five hours since they were taken from me and I could feel it in my bones, my soul—they were torturing him.

“When you leave for Ammord, take Yenne with you. Find a few Hanth guards and let her turn them into daemons and send them back on their way. Get any information you can on where Landers and Ata are being held, how to get them out safely, and any intel on their plans for war. Then slaughter their leadership,” Asrai said, her eyes sliding from mine to Andrues.

Andrues lowered his glass, his eyes narrowing. “It is a risk, bringing Yenne into this, taking her back to Ammord if what you say she has done is true.”

“It is,” was all Asrai responded, her voice firm.

I stared back at Asrai, her words—everything I had just learned—sinking into my mind like a stone being dropped into a still pond, the ripples of their impact spreading outward into every one of my thoughts.

My feet began pacing again before I had even realized I was moving.

The creaking wood panels under my boots echoed through the room as my mind raced.

Using daemons—using Ammord’s own evil magic to defeat them—it felt wrong . It felt like a betrayal of everything we stood for. Asrai had warned me about this, about the things that I would do and who I would become when it came to war, when it came to keeping my family whole.

My feet slowed as I turned back to Asrai and Andrues, my decision made.

“We do it and we do it now. I need to speak with The Fallen Ones and check on Nithra, Mara, and Wren at the infirmary. If she is not here and you are not back by the time I am done, I am leaving without you.” I turned to Andrues, my eyes locking on his.

“If Dukovich is being held prisoner with Landers and Ata, we get him out too.”

Andrues straightened. “Hyacinth, he cannot be trusted.”

“Maybe not, but I intend to find that out for myself. If he is, we kill him. If he isn’t, then there is one less drop of innocent blood on my hands.” My voice was cold as steel as the words slipped from my lips, leaving no room for argument.

Andrues’s jaw clenched, but he inclined his head. “Understood.”

“Bring her to me,” I said, turning to Asrai as resolve settled into the pit of my stomach. “And tell Elric and Pri the plan when you see them. Tell them to prepare. When I have Landers and Ata back, I’m going to wipe Ammord and The Silliands from the face of Nimbria for good.”

Asrai rose from her chair, her movements fluid and precise as she strode toward the door. Her fingers curled around the handle as she paused and looked back at me, almost as if she were going to speak, then turned back to the door and slipped from the house.

I turned to the fireplace, the flames dancing and cracking, casting shadows across the walls as the sun rose between the Elmmere peaks, taking its place in the morning sky. A bird sang somewhere in the distance, the sound so beautiful against the dread that had settled into the air.

Andrues’s footsteps approached from behind, stopping at my side. “Are you certain about this?” His voice was low, laced with concern.

My lips parted as I dragged in a deep breath, turning to look at him. “No. But I’m certain I’ll cross every line to bring them home.”