Page 62 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Fifty-Three

The Crux

Kerrigan woke the next day to the frenzied chaos of their friends and allies. It took her a half dozen false starts before she could get dressed and ready to go. One long war council meeting later and Fordham jumped them to the valley, where both dragons and riders were assembled.

“What did you tell them?” she asked.

“What they needed to know,” Fordham said.

Fairgate had claimed that this was a loophole.

That it wouldn’t take anything else from her.

But it had still used her magic to power the crown.

It had still drained her to do it. She could still feel the crown on her head like it had hooks in her scalp.

Even though the crown was gone, back in its little hidey-hole that only an Ollivier could access.

She shot him a look. “That we weren’t under attack?”

“Yes. And you would have a solution today.”

“No pressure,” she muttered.

But she could hardly blame them for their anxiety. She knew exactly what it was like to split a bond. Her and Fordham’s had broken when her magic had been severed by Bastian’s circle of thirteen. It had felt like dying.

Kerrigan raised her hands, and the crowd slowly quieted.

Fordham had a steadying hand on her waist. She used air magic to amplify her voice to speak to the crowd.

“Right now, I speak not as your commander but as your friend. Your dragon bonds are no more. The Irena Bargain has been severed. No longer are your lifelines tied to each other. No longer will dragons perish by refusing. No longer will Fae houses suffer for the same thing.”

A chorus of opposition went up, and Fordham stepped forward as if to silence them, but she shook her head.

“Let them,” she whispered.

Kerrigan took the brunt of it. Their anger. Their grief. Their anguish. She understood. It was hers to bear.

Tieran dropped at her side and roared with all his might. “I have spoken for the dragons. I am not your friend. I am your commander, and you will listen when she speaks.”

Kerrigan straightened her spine and patted Tieran on his flank. “Thank you.”

At Tieran’s fury, the rest of the dragons and riders calmed down. He outranked them, and they all put more stock in that.

“I don’t need to justify my actions to you, but I will explain them.

I believed there was a way to change the bargain and allow you to keep your bonds.

There was not. Not without more unpredictable consequences.

So I took the other choice, and that was to end the bonds,” Kerrigan explained.

“If I could have warned you, I would have, but that was not a possibility. I did what had to be done.”

“Why?” a rider asked, her chin jutted upward in defiance.

“Because it was wrong,” Kerrigan said simply. “The bonding was wrong. Tying our lives and livelihoods to the dragons was wrong. It was done to them against their will, and I would undo the injustice if I could. So I did.”

“But now what?” another person yelled out. “How will we win without dragons?”

“The dragons remained,” Kerrigan said with a slow smile. “And now we have an advantage over our enemies.”

“An advantage?” a few people muttered derisively.

Tieran bowed his head. “Tell them.”

“Tieran and I are not bonded. We have, in fact, never been bonded.”

Gasps rang out through the crowd.

“The bonding didn’t take because I am not half-Fae, half-human. I am a demi-Doma.”

The silence was deafening. She had an idea of what they must all be thinking.

To claim she was of the gods was absurd.

Cyrene had done it when she entered the tournament, but it had been more of a lark, because she was a rare human with magic.

Now Kerrigan knew differently. She knew differently about all of it.

“And because of that magic, the bonding wouldn’t take.

I learned how to use something called a crux bond,” Kerrigan said, drawing the magic gently between her hands.

It was a fickle golden line that connected her two hands.

“If you focus your intent into it, the bond becomes a two-way bridge between you and your dragon. Once set into place, only you, your dragon, or the loss of your magic can take it away. This is how Tieran and I were able to appear as if we were bonded through training and beyond. And I can teach you how,” Kerrigan said.

The buzzing of annoyance turned to interest.

“Hook, line, and sinker,” Fordham said.

“How do we know it’ll work if you’re not a Doma?”

Kerrigan had been prepared for that question. Not only because Cleora, who was not a Doma, had taught it to her, but she figured they would need to see it in practice.

Fordham held his hand up, and Netta flew to their position. “Because Netta and I have already bonded successfully again.”

“When do we start?” another voice cried out.

A few of her generals had already gone through similar training, so they all spaced out and trained them on crux magic. Those that got the hang of it quickly turned to others in the army and began to pass it on.

Kerrigan watched it play out. She reserved her magic to reach their allies in Bryonica and Galanthea, who were bracing the eastern and western fronts of the assault. She’d have to open two portals today. And then one tomorrow. The final one.

“I wish you were here to see this, Mom,” Kerrigan whispered as she fiddled with her mother’s bracelet. “You would have been proud.”

Dozan nudged her. “Hello, princess.”

Kerrigan shot him a look. “That nickname never gets old, does it?”

He smirked. “It fits you now as well as it did when we first met.”

“So not at all?”

“Like a glove.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “What do you think of the new bonds?”

“Kids at a candy store.”

“Fair assessment.”

“Any chance I can make one of those new fancy bonds with this?” Dozan asked, handing over his amulet.

Kerrigan weighed the thing in her hand. It was surprisingly heavy with the Rook R etched into the center. She couldn’t feel magic in it, but somehow the tendrille and the ancient Fae written into it gave it the power to do what she did herself innately.

“Truly, I have no idea,” she said, handing it back. “The bond connects to my magic in my core. I don’t know if the bond would connect to the amulet. If you’d be able to touch the bond but only when you’re wearing it. There are a lot of unknowns.”

“Would you be opposed to me trying?”

“You’d have to get a dragon to choose you.”

He nodded. “Always a dragon’s choice.” Then he winked at her and went off after Wynter.

Fordham returned to her side with one eye on Dozan. “What was that about?”

“Still don’t trust him?” she asked.

“He’s sharing my sister’s bed. As her brother, I have a right to be disapproving of her choices.”

“Right,” she said with a laugh. “He wanted to see if he could bond with an amulet. I don’t know the answer to that, but I told him he could try if he could get a dragon to accept him.”

“Well, we’re free of that then. What dragon would accept him?”

Kerrigan laughed as she swatted at him. “Stop!”

“Just trying to keep you laughing,” he said with a smirk. “Here to boost morale.”

“Do you think this is going to work?” she asked as she stared off at all the riders who were now bonding with their dragons again.

“Yes,” Fordham said with all the confidence of a king and a general.

She nodded. “All right. I have portals to open.”

Just as she turned, Darby rushed up to them.

“I did it!” she cried.

Kerrigan frowned. “Did what?”

“I bonded my dragon.”

“What?” Kerrigan asked as if she didn’t understand the words coming out of her friend’s mouth.

“The crux bond. It worked.”

“I worked that out,” Kerrigan said. “But what dragon?”

“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Darby said sheepishly. “Amita chose me while you were gone. But we hadn’t bonded yet because we weren’t sure how to tell you or how Tieran would take it.”

A second later, Tieran was cutting across the valley for his sister. The small white dragon pulled up her to full height and snarled at him. Whatever was being said between them was not kind.

“Amita is still a hatchling,” Kerrigan said.

“Not anymore. She aged into maturity.” Darby shrugged. “I was waiting up for you all to return from the battlefield on her name day, and she chose me.”

“Wow,” Kerrigan said, glancing from the Tieran and Amita fight to Darby’s excited face. Her fear was that Darby would get hurt in this war, but was it even right to prevent her from going when everyone else was risking themselves? “Congratulations!”

Darby’s face lit up. “You’re okay with it?”

“The dragons choose,” Kerrigan said. “I’m not going to take it up with Amita.”

Darby laughed. “Yeah. Okay, well, I wanted to talk about what’s coming next. I know I’m supposed to be held back for healing, but I was hoping you’d send me through to Hadrian when you open that portal. So that he and I can help the humans and half-Fae.”

“And to see Clover?”

“Well, yeah.”

Obviously, Darby was partly motivated by being close to the people she loved, but she wasn’t wrong either.

“Yes, of course. As long as you trust Amond to handle the healing without you.”

“He’s sober,” Darby said with a grin. “I mean really sober. He’s going to do magnificent things, and he trained me the best he could. I wish Audria had more time with him. She’d be an even better healer too.”

“Audria wants the skies though,” Kerrigan said. “You two are different.”

“True,” Darby agreed. “So when do we leave?”

“Now,” Kerrigan admitted. “Call Amita, and we’ll go.”

“You are not letting her on the battlefield,” Tieran said into Kerrigan’s head.

“I don’t control the dragons, Tieran. She is of age. She can fight just like the rest of us. It’s her choice.”

“I only accepted her because otherwise she would have stayed behind with our mother.”

“I understand and would prefer to keep Darby out of harm’s way as well, but she made her choice. They both did.”

Tieran snarled and then flew away. He could be mad, but she couldn’t control everything. Amita and Darby would be as safe as she could keep them without preventing them from going to battle. And Darby might never forgive her if she did that.