Page 48

Clarissa

I followed Taryn into the mansion, barely noticing the pain in my leg with my mounting curiosity.

I took in the gray stone walls, brown baseboards, and dark floral paintings decorating the long corridors.

She stopped before a pair of large double doors.

I exchanged a wary look with Galen before he, Mother, and Thorne followed me inside the drawing room.

Where I let out an ear-piercing squeal. “Rose? Leo ? Emperor’s tits, what are you doing here?”

My brother beamed back at me, that loose curl of dark hair I knew so well hanging haphazardly across his forehead. When he held out his arms, I barreled into them. Mother let out a laugh of surprise before she wrapped her arms around Leo and me.

“Oh, Leo, we’ve missed you.” She rubbed both of our arms as she backed off to let us breathe, and my heart felt lighter than it had in weeks. Months, even.

“Come here, Rose,” I said with a sniff. I squeezed my friend tight.

Memories of last fall flooded me, when she’d fallen into the lap of the Sentinels and helped us with our mission to take down Emperor Gayl.

Late nights at the Drakin’s Lair, dress shopping for the capital’s masquerade ball, plotting and planning in between drinks as we slowly peeled back her tough layers .

I pulled away and gripped her forearms. “How have you been? How are you here ? When did you finish curing everyone in the provinces?” She and Leo had left Veridia City shortly after Gayl died to travel across the six provinces and wake those who had fallen to the sleeping curse.

We’d exchanged some letters and kept up-to-date on important matters, but I hadn’t seen them in almost eight months.

“One question at a time, sister. It’s been a long trip,” Leo said with a chuckle as he slipped an arm around Rose and kissed her forehead. She leaned into his touch, her bright green eyes sparkling when they met his.

A fist clenched around my heart. I loved seeing them like this, so at ease with one another. So safe and comfortable. Something my brother never really had before her.

Something I would never really have.

The drawing room doors shut with a loud click. I looked back to find Taryn leaning against the wall with Galen and Thorne standing next to her.

“Fates, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Rose, Leo, I’d like to introduce you to Lord Thorne Reaux and His Majesty, King Galen Grimaldi.” I motioned to the two men as they stepped forward. “Thorne, Galen, this is my brother, Leo, and our friend Rose Wolff.”

“Your Majesty,” Rose said, dipping her head in a bow.

Leo, on the other hand, sized Galen up with a hint of that scowl I missed so much. “You’re the one my sister has agreed to marry, I take it?”

I rolled my eyes, but Galen smiled. “I’m just as surprised as you are. Speaking of surprised…” He glanced at Taryn. “Bring back some strays, did you?”

“Not that I’m complaining, but what’s going on?” I asked as I looped my arm through Rose’s.

“Well…that’s a bit of a long story,” Rose said.

“And some not-so-good news,” Leo added.

“ But ,” Taryn jumped in, clapping her hands, “how great are family reunions, am I right? ”

I propped my free hand on my hip and leveled her with an expectant stare.

Taryn sighed and kicked off the wall. “Relax, it’s not that big of a deal. Has he always been so dramatic?” She nudged her head toward Leo, and I chuckled. She added, “Let’s sit down. And probably get a drink or two.”

“You had me at ‘or two,’” Galen said as he made his way over to the armchair by a fire in the center of the drawing room. Two large couches and one smaller armchair surrounded the ornate stone fireplace, with a glass liquor cart next to the wall.

Taryn claimed the other chair, while Leo, Rose, and my mother got comfortable on one of the couches. Heat radiated from Thorne’s body behind me before his fingers pressed into my lower back and he murmured, “How’s your leg?”

I twisted my neck to meet his gaze. “It’s healing.” Not as quickly as it would with my Shifter abilities, but still.

“What about the rest of you?” he asked, concern lingering in his gaze. “Are you doing alright?”

“I’ll be fine. Especially now,” I whispered, sweeping my eyes over the couch full of the people I loved most in this world. I caught Rose staring at Thorne’s hand on my back before she quickly looked away.

Thorne took a seat on one end of the free couch, and I sat opposite him, keeping distance between us. “So how do you two know each other?” I pointed between Taryn and Galen.

“Taryn is an old friend,” Galen started. “We’d spend time together whenever my parents would visit the South Territory. And when hers sent her off to a trade school in the north eight years ago, we reconnected.”

“I didn’t last six months in that place,” Taryn added. “But dearest Mother and Father would’ve had an aneurysm if they knew. What you saw tonight was them being nice . Try growing up with that. It’s a miracle I made it past childhood.”

“So, I convinced my parents to let her work for the palace. She’s done odd jobs here and there—mostly as a courier, delivering messages to and from the territories,” Galen said.

“But I’ve always had my sights set higher. I’m real ambitious, you know.” Taryn tapped her nose.

Galen snorted. “Ambitious, or bored?” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“She was on the correspondence team we sent back and forth to Veridia. Their last scheduled trip arrived at your capital city a couple of weeks before you left to come here, so they should’ve been back long ago.

What happened ?” he directed to Taryn. “We thought you were lost.”

“Close. We got beached in Tenebra. Those cliffs are a nightmare,” Taryn answered.

“Thankfully, two incredibly gifted Alchemists with unresolved hero complexes just so happened to see the accident,” Rose said, raising her glass in the air toward Taryn. “We got some help to repair their ship and restock their supplies.”

“In exchange for about a dozen favors,” Leo grumbled as he settled further into the couch. His brown, furry tail slipped out from beneath his cloak and flicked against the floor.

Galen jumped to his feet. “What is that ?”

“Oh, right,” I said. “I forgot to mention he has a tail.”

“You get used to it,” Rose added.

Galen cleared his throat. “I thought your magic didn’t work here.”

“Did you think it would fall off?” Leo asked with a snort. “I can’t access my other Shifter or Alchemist abilities, but this one is permanent, unfortunately.”

“It’s not so unfortunate,” Rose said with a wink. “For me, anyway.”

“You two are worse than I remembered,” I said, but my shoulders relaxed as we fell into our familiar banter.

Fates, I missed this. I missed them . I hadn’t realized how much more difficult this last week and a half—truly, the last eight months—had been trying to keep up appearances with hardly any moments to relax .

“So what, you two just decided to hitch a ride back to Mysthelm?” I asked Rose and Leo.

Rose nodded. “Just got in a couple nights ago, actually. We heard this was your next stop.”

“I told my parents they’re friends from trade school,” Taryn said. “Figured that was better than two refugee Veridians.”

“Why did you come?” I asked them. “Besides the fact that you missed me so much.”

Leo’s lips melted into a thin line. “Well, that's the not-so-good news. We spent some time in Drakorum right before and heard rumors of Scarven sending a small group of Shifters to Mysthelm. Some sort of undercover operation.”

“We were worried they were going after you,” Rose added. “After your one letter mentioned you thought he was hiring assassins to take you out, the timing was just too suspicious.”

“Wait, who is this Scarven person?” Thorne leaned forward and gripped his knees. His forearms strained beneath his shirt as his neck snapped to me. “And why is he trying to kill you?”

I sighed. “He’s the governor of Drakorum, the Shifter province. He hasn’t exactly been receptive to me taking over the empire and all the changes I’ve been trying to make. I guess he liked the way things were run before. There have been a couple of…incidents.”

“Incidents?” Mother scoffed. “She’s been the target of two assassination attempts in the past two months. Both of which we believe were done on Scarven’s orders. Not to mention, the note.”

“What note ?” Thorne growled.

I closed my eyes and squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Thank you, Mother.”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t the fun kind of note,” Taryn said.

My fingers traced the middle of my palm. “One of the assassins shot an arrow into my hand. There was a note attached to it that said ‘you can’t run .’” I curled my hand into a ball. “Look, he was just trying to scare me from coming here. I don’t think he wants an alliance with Mysthelm. ”

“Well, now it sounds like he’s followed you,” Thorne said. Irritation lined his voice.

“Could this Scarven be behind everything that’s happened?” Galen asked.

Rose and Leo exchanged a confused look. “What do you mean? What’s been going on?”

My mother and Galen took turns telling them about the carriage driver and the fox in the fire. I stayed silent, running my fingers over my lips as I thought through what they’d said.

Had Scarven really sent Shifters here for me ? It was an extreme move, even for him. This whole time, I thought it must be someone in this kingdom out to get me. I hadn’t considered that he would go this far to carry out some vendetta against me.

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Rose asked. “If he has Shifters here trying to kill you, maybe you should come back to the empire.”

“What, just for him to keep targeting me at home?” I shook my head. “This doesn’t change anything. Besides, we don’t know if it’s even true. You said it yourself—it was a rumor. Whether it’s actually Veridians or someone from here coming after us, I’m not going to walk away.”

“We’ll increase the security detail,” Thorne said firmly. “Make sure all attendants at public events are inspected. Any suspicious activity, and we’ll have them apprehended.”

I rubbed my forehead with the heel of my hand. As if this trip didn’t have enough challenges, now this got added to the mix. It raised so many questions. How was Scarven sending men across the ocean without either one of us noticing? Was this a common occurrence?

I was now facing threats from every front, and it was only a matter of time until someone else was caught in the crossfire. Just like the woman at the Drakin’s Lair.

“All of this can wait till tomorrow,” Mother said. I glanced up to see her eyes trained on me. “It’s been a long few days, and even longer since I’ve had my children under one roof. ”

Gratitude washed over me. She always knew what I needed, even if I wouldn’t voice it myself.

I got up and walked with Thorne, Galen, and Taryn to the exit.

Taryn and Galen were already deep in conversation.

I put my hand on the door to shut it behind them as they exited with Thorne on their heels, but at the last moment, Thorne turned.

He looked like he wanted to say more. He planted a palm on the door to stop it from closing, his thumb barely grazing the edge of mine.

Those concerned eyes searched me like they were looking for answers to some unspoken question.

Neither of us said anything.

After another heartbeat, he finally moved his hand. “Good night, Empress.”

“Good night, Lord Reaux,” I breathed.

And then he was gone.