Page 18 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 18

Matthias

S torm nuzzled my hand as I ran the brush over her shoulder and back.

“I’m sorry I can’t take you with me,” I said. The mare nipped at my fingers in response, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “I know, I know. You don’t need to make this harder than it already is. But it’s safer for you here.”

She huffed out a breath and shook her head as if to express her disagreement. Gliding the brush down her legs, I stroked her neck and sighed. Storm had been with me since she was a young mare. Her mother, who had been my mount during the war, had grown too old to continue joining me on adventures.

“I don’t know what I’ll face?—”

Swinging her head toward me, her big brown eyes locked on mine in a derisive stare.

“Fine, you’re right,” I said. “I do know what awaits me. At least partly. Can you blame me for not wanting you to face a Shadow Keeper though? Not that I like putting Sorel in that position either, but I can’t risk the queen recognizing you and ruining my cover.”

“Do all soldiers talk to their horses?” Lieke’s voice pulled my head around to find her leaning against the doorway of the stable.

I shrugged. “The good ones do.”

Lieke pushed away from the wall and approached Storm, holding her palm out for the mare to sniff in search of treats. Finding none, Storm blew out a snotty exhale into Lieke’s hand, and Lieke laughed as she reached into her pocket and produced a carrot.

“You don’t think I’d come empty-handed, do you girl?” she asked. Storm answered her by snatching up the food without hesitation. Lieke reached up to scratch behind her ears while Storm chomped away happily. “I’ll look after her while you’re gone, Matthias.”

“You’d better,” I said. “She’s irreplaceable.”

“So are you,” Lieke said firmly, and I lifted my eyes to hers, surprised to find such sternness there. “You’d better come back.”

“Yes, Mother.” I tried to make it a joke, but the serious expression on Lieke’s face had me on edge.

“I mean it.” She folded her arms in front of her and looked more like Mrs. Bishop giving me a lecture than my friend’s wife bidding me farewell. Storm, now finished with her snack, began to sniff around Lieke’s pockets for more food. Lieke ignored her, though, holding my gaze.

Turning to face her, I mirrored her stance with my arms crossed. “I am slightly offended by your apparent lack of confidence in me.”

Lieke was shaking her head before I was done speaking. “You don’t know who—or what—you’ll face in these games, and I can’t watch Connor lose someone else.”

“You may not have a choice, Your Highness,” I said, and Lieke flinched. “The king’s health will only continue to decline, and someday, Connor will have to let him go. We have little control over when death takes us or those we love.”

“But you do have some control over whether you do stupid shit to get yourself killed,” she chided, and I pressed my lips together to stifle my laughter, but I couldn’t hide my amusement completely. She squared her jaw. “I mean it, Matthias. Don’t do anything stupid in these games.”

“I’ll try, but I can’t vouch for any of the other competitors. They might be complete imbeciles.”

“And what if you win?”

This time I did laugh but cut it short when she pinned me with another glare. “I won’t let it get that far.”

“I’m not joking.”

“I thought you wanted me to find love,” I said.

“Not like this.” She breathed deeply and released a long sigh, shaking her head once more. “Just do your best.”

I cocked my head at her. “I always do.”

Lieke opened her mouth, but Connor entered the stable then, drawing her attention away from me. He quickly placed a kiss to his wife’s temple before lifting his chin to me.

“You ready?”

Lifting my arms, I glanced down at the wrinkled shirt and mud-strewn pants I wore and peered up at my friend from beneath my brow. “Yes, this is how I plan to look when I arrive at the royal tournament.”

He looked me up and down and frowned. “You’re already running late. I told you I could manage handing off your duties to Tanner for you. Won’t do us any good if you don’t arrive in time,” he said, tossing a tightly bound bundle of cloth to me.

“And a lecture is sure to improve my timeliness,” I joked. Unwrapping the bundle, I stared down at the wooden-handled dagger. “Good thing your healers thought to keep this. And it’s still as potent as before?”

Connor nodded. “So they claim, though no one has risked touching it.”

Holding the blade, it was hard not to ponder for the millionth time all that had happened since Lieke had returned to the palace with two poisoned blades from her rebel family. How different things would be had she not been sent away, had she not slain that fae piece of shit, and had she not subsequently ended up engaged to my best friend. Even with all the trouble the rebels had caused—and the months I’d spent searching for them since—and with the difficult task set before me now, I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I wrapped the dagger back up, careful not to touch its still-poisoned blade. Moving across the stable, I tucked it into my saddlebag lying on the straw-covered floor.

“I don’t like it,” Lieke murmured.

“None of us do, Sapphire,” Connor reassured her as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “But Matthias is our best shot at learning the truth?—”

“So he can kill our friend,” she said icily.

“If she killed my brother, she was never a friend,” he explained as warmly as he could.

“Don’t worry, Lieke,” I said, shrugging. “If she’s guilty, I promise to kill her quickly.”

Connor groaned. Lieke scowled.

“Would you rather I make it hurt?” I asked with wide eyes. “It doesn’t seem necessary to me, but if it’s your?—”

“Stop.” Lieke ground out the word, and I sobered my expression but didn’t retreat from Lieke’s storming eyes.

“Trust me to handle this, Lieke,” I said. “I will go, compete, determine who killed him, and ensure whoever is responsible suffers for it.”

Lieke’s features tightened. “You just said you’d make it quick.”

I shrugged casually, frowning. “So I did. You know what I mean, though.”

“And you don’t plan to see Minerva on the way?” Connor asked.

Regarding him curiously, I asked, “Weren’t you just rebuking me for being late as it is? There’s no time to stop to see the mage, even if I wanted to.”

“You should still consider it,” Lieke argued.

I pivoted away from them and returned to brushing Storm. “One of her glamors would help me avoid Calla’s objections?—”

“She’ll protest as soon as she sees you,” Lieke interjected. Storm whinnied as if agreeing with her.

“Probably, but I have a better chance of being accepted into the games if I attend as myself. Her general can sense magic—both the innate and the acquired. She’ll recognize the glamor the moment I arrive, which could get me banned from the tournament—or worse. And if I go see Minerva and she delays me even more, I could be disqualified before I ever arrive.”

Lieke was silent for a moment before finally asking, “What about a more conventional disguise?”

“Perhaps, but that could be difficult to maintain depending on the type of trials they have planned. I’d hate to be skipping through a maze and have my fake mustache fall off.”

Lieke wrinkled her nose.

“What?” I asked and ran my thumb and finger over my upper lip. “A mustache wouldn’t look that bad.”

“No,” she said, biting her lip, but her giggle refused to be suppressed so easily. “I’m trying to imagine you skipping.”

I nodded. I certainly couldn’t imagine that either. Tossing the horse brush into the bin against the wall, I gave Storm a final stroke and leaned close to her ear.

“Watch after them for me while I’m gone,” I whispered.

“What was that?” Lieke said.

I straightened and snatched my saddlebags from the ground, slinging them over my shoulder. “I told her to bite you if you try to feed her too many apples.”

That earned me an exaggerated eye roll as Lieke turned on her heel and began to drag Connor back to the palace. But the prince stood fast, motioning for Lieke to wait a moment. He lowered his head and his voice as he leaned toward me slightly.

“Be careful, and try to stay alive. I can’t watch her lose another friend,” he said.

I studied both of them, marveling at how well they fit together.

“I had no idea I was so loved,” I said, but Connor only walked away wordlessly with his wife, leaving me to my final preparations.