Page 39 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Resistance Leader

Clover

Fallon held his hand out to Clover. “We’ll leave in the morning for Galanthea. Thank you for the intel.”

Clover put her hand in his uncertainly. “I still can’t believe that Kerrigan managed it, but I should cease thinking that she won’t do the impossible.”

“More dragons,” Fallon said with a shake of his head. “I thought that my time in the tournament was over. To think that I could still get on one… Well, it’s unexpected.”

“You think you’ll bond?” Hadrian asked.

Fallon shrugged. “Kerrigan says it’s the dragon’s choice, but I’ll certainly try. What about you?”

Hadrian laughed. “Uh, I don’t hate flying, but I’m not sure I’m strong enough.”

“Well, we’ll see.” Fallon patted Hadrian on the back. “We’ll see.” He tipped his head at Clover. “I’ll leave you to the rest of your meetings. Don’t be long though. It’s your last night together for a while.”

“Don’t remind me,” Hadrian said on a sigh as Fallon disappeared.

Hadrian and Fallon had been trying to raise House Galanthea to their cause since they arrived. While some of the Fae in the war houses agreed with Kerrigan, more didn’t see the point in arguing with the Society. Status quo was preferable.

They hoped now that Kerrigan was offering up dragons to the houses who joined her cause that it would turn the tide. They were bringing the news to the head of the house in the south in person.

“You’re magnificent,” Hadrian said as he drew Clover into him.

“And you’re leaving me.”

“It’s just a few weeks.” He pressed a kiss to her brow. “Not that long.”

“Without Darby.”

Hadrian sighed. “I know. Did Kerrigan say anything about her?”

Clover shrugged. “She’s been training with Amond, which is keeping her busy. We’re no closer to getting us all back together. I don’t want to bring her to Kinkadia where it isn’t safe, but I hate that we’re apart.”

“We’ll get her back,” he said with confidence. “We will.”

She believed him. There was no other option. “Come on. Let’s get the rest of this over with so that we can enjoy our last night together.”

Hadrian laughed. “Meetings wasn’t how I planned to spend our last night together.”

“Oh?”

He grinned as his hands slid down her sides. “I had other ideas.”

“I’m all ears,” she teased as she pressed her lips to his.

“They might involve a bedroom.”

She grabbed his hand and drew him down the hall. “I think we’ll have to wait,” she said with a wink. “Work first.”

He sighed. “You’re so cool now that you have magic, barely have time for your boyfriend.”

Clover scoffed. “Are you saying you’re not cool enough for me?”

“Obviously.”

She laughed. “Oh, sweetheart.”

Then they were out on the darkened streets, heading away from Fallon’s family home. Their first stop was a town house off the Row. Clover had been here several times since returning to the city. She still worried about being recognized by the Red Masks, but she’d gotten better at dodging patrols.

She knocked twice and then a third time on the back door of the town house, and a harried half-Fae woman opened the door, ushering them inside with a wary backward glance. “Come quickly. Master Gerrond will see you now.”

Clover and Hadrian followed the stout woman to a small study. The curtains were drawn shut, and they could only make out the Sayair Fae male from the candles burning around the room.

“Clover, I got your note,” Gerrond said, coming to his feet with a jovial smile.

“I got word from Kerrigan. She did it.”

“Dragons?” he asked, amazed.

She nodded. “She said she has a contingent for Sayair as well.”

“My cousin lives on the outside of Devinwell,” Gerrond said, scribbling into a notebook. He tore the paper out and offered it to Clover. “He’d be the best first contact. Is she planning to give some to the drifters as well?”

“I’m meeting Islay and Ruen after this to see if they’re interested.”

A light shone in Gerrond’s eyes. “This is beyond my wildest dreams. When I thought the drifters would be a part of the Society, I didn’t ever think they’d have dragons. Thank you, Clover.”

“Well, thank Kerrigan,” Clover said with a shrug. “She’s the one who works miracles.”

“When I next see her, I’ll tell her exactly what I think of her.”

Hadrian cleared his throat. “Did you have any news for us?”

“Oh, yes. Bastian is throwing the Society Ball. I have an invitation.”

“A ball?” Hadrian asked in confusion. “Why is that of consequence?”

“The last time he got everyone together, he killed half of the arena,” Gerrond deadpanned. “Seems important.”

Clover took the invite. “I’ll let her know. Thanks.”

“Stay safe out there, and give Islay and Ruen my love.”

“We will,” Clover said.

Hadrian put an arm around her shoulders as they went back out the way they had come. Clover fiddled with the invitation.

“This is not good news,” she muttered.

“No,” Hadrian agreed, glancing at the town house over his shoulder. “It feels like a trap from Bastian.”

“We’ll see what Kerrigan says.”

Clover didn’t relax again until they were in the Dregs, at the edges of the city. While the whole city had a stronger guard presence, the Dregs were the hotbed of human and half-Fae living quarters. The guards here were particularly violent, and it was best to avoid them at all costs.

It was a few blocks before Clover had the distinct feeling that someone was watching them. Each turn felt like a pair of eyes. She couldn’t hear the sound of pursuit or the clomp of feet, but the feeling remained.

Hadrian met her gaze as they took another turn closer to headquarters.

“Do you think we’re being followed?” she whispered.

He looked behind him. “I don’t know.”

She bit her lip. Life had gotten harder in Kinkadia, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.

She clutched the amulet at her chest. Her father’s amulet now gave her magic just like the Fae had.

It wasn’t internal and took a lot of work to make it function, but it was all hers.

If someone was stupid enough to follow her, she’d be ready.

When they reached headquarters, Clover looked over her shoulder one more time, but there was nothing there.

“Thea?” Clover called, removing her cloak and hanging it on a peg.

Headquarters was dark. The meeting for Rights For All should have already ended, but a host of new humans and half-Fae who were interested in joining their amulet army should have been lingering.

Hadrian used a tiny bit of fire magic to light a lantern, illuminating the narrow room that had a long table down the middle. Papers littered the space but no people.

Clover had a bad feeling about this—the same bad feeling that had been hounding her since she left Fallon’s house. Had the person tailing her beaten her here? Was that possible?

She opened the amulet and reached for the thread of magic at the center. “Thea?” she repeated.

A sound came from the back room. Clover dashed forward, pushing open the door that led to their workroom. During the day, a dozen tinkerers worked on the amulet design and trained those who were learning to the use the magic. Tonight, it was almost empty.

“Isa,” Clover said, holding a hand out like to an abused dog.

Isa had Thea around the middle and pulled her back to Isa’s chest, a knife at Thea’s throat, with Islay and Ruen holding their amulets out facing them.

Yet there was no fear on Thea’s face. She had been the leader of the RFA for so long—she had known Clover’s now-deceased parents when they had worked in the Laments church.

She was the heart of all this, even though Thea said that was now Clover’s role.

Clover was the one who had figured out the amulet, the one who trained recruits, the one who now gave the humans hope.

Even Kerrigan was no longer the face of the humans’ resistance movement.

“Islay, Ruen, stop,” Clover said before the two could pounce.

“You should listen to her,” Isa said.

Hadrian’s hand on her back was the warmth Clover needed to turn away from the drifters and the meeting she should have been in to the assassin holding Thea at knifepoint.

“It could have been you,” Isa said, her face unnaturally calm.

“It was you I noticed on the walk over,” Clover said.

“Yes.”

“You wanted me to know you were there.”

Isa said nothing, but that had to be the case. Isa could have killed her at any point. She was too well trained, and with the collar…

Clover had heard what the city called Bastian’s collared dog: The Phantom. The Bloody Knife. The Silent Death.

They didn’t know who she was. Not like Clover did. She had thought they’d had an alliance. Isa had saved Kivrin. And then she’d been caught by Bastian and collared. Assassinations had risen exponentially since that moment, and Clover understood why.

“You can break this,” Clover said. “That collar doesn’t control you.”

Isa cracked an almost smile. “Cute.” Her hands trembled as if the compulsion to slice Thea’s throat was too strong.

“You’re stronger than him,” Clover said. “You fought him once.”

“I have my orders,” Isa said flatly.

“To kill me?”

“To kill the leader of the resistance.”

“That’s me,” Thea said fiercely.

“No, it’s me,” Clover said. “You’ll have to kill me, Isa.”

Isa’s eyes met hers, and Clover saw that Isa already knew that.

“You could have killed me in the street.”

“I know.”

Clover took another step closer, her hand out. “You’re making a choice here. It means you can fight him.”

Isa tilted her head. “Death is all I am.”

Then she slid the blade against Thea’s neck and dropped the woman to the ground.

Clover yelled, blasting Isa backward with a thread of air like she’d seen Kerrigan do time and time again. Isa executed a backward roll. For a moment, Clover thought that Isa would come for her. After all, Thea was right—Clover was the target. That was why Isa had been stalking her.

And yet Isa blinked at the blood flowing out of Thea’s neck, took another look at Clover, and backed away. A flicker of hope seemed to cross her face. As if she had made her first choice in weeks. Then she disappeared into the night.

Clover collapsed at Thea’s side. There was no hope that a healer could fix this. “I’m so sorry, Thea.”

“Love you,” Thea gurgled. “Do…great…work.”

Then Thea died in her arms.

Hadrian’s arms came around Clover next and held her as she cried until she had no more tears.