Page 6 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)
“Trying to lie, are you?” The disappointment in Enhela’s tone makes me remember what shame is.
“Yes.” It hurts to admit it, but denying it would be another lie. The tang of iron fades from my mouth, and I can breathe again .
So that’s how the Crows felt during the curse when they couldn’t speak about it. That’s how Herinor felt when he tried to help me after Erina’s attempt to un-mate Myron and me.
“Then you better stop, or you’ll kill yourself.” Kaen’s tone is less one of disappointment than one of challenge, as if he’s ready to watch me die from my own stupidity, thinking I can trick a Crow bargain.
“Definitely not a nobody ,” Enhela says with that same disappointment, but curiosity is sparking in her eyes as she turns toward me, her back to the fire.
“I’m…” I try again. “The first Crow female in millennia.” The truth—I know it when the absence of blood graces my tongue.
“The first Crow female in millennia,” Kaen repeats. “And do you have a name?”
“Yes.” I almost grin as I answer his question without needing to resort to a lie.
“And what is that name?” he prompts, cocking his head.
“I don’t need to answer that. We agreed to three questions,” I remind him. The bargain is satisfied from my side, and nothing compels me to answer.
I can almost watch the wheels turn in his head as he counts. “Two,” he comes to a conclusion. “I asked you only two questions.”
Pulling up my least threatening smile, I look to Enhela, then to him.
“She asked me if I attempted a lie,” I remind them.
“That counts as a question because the bargain said I would answer three questions of yours —not who of you was going to ask them or which questions they might be. Just three questions of yours. ”
Anger flares in his eyes as he takes a step closer, raising the spear a few inches from the ground as if ready to attack.
“I fulfilled my end of the bargain, Kaen.” My placating tone doesn’t help much with his anger; if anything it makes it worse, so I take a slow breath, holding up my hands in surrender. “I will tell you who I am if you make a promise of your own, Kaen and Enhela.”
Both humans tense as if expecting me to pounce.
“What promise?” Enhela prompts.
If I want to win this war, I’ll need the rebels and the fairies and even Cezux. But least of all can I risk losing the support of the rebels who have signed over their lives to ridding Tavras of the Jelnedyn king.
So I send a quick prayer to Eroth, the only god who has yet to disappoint me, and stand up.
“You need to promise you’ll not stop fighting for a free Tavras.”
It’s a bold request because, deep down, I know that there might be a day where fighting Erina’s troops and Ephegos’s Crows and Flames might prove their death. But if Tavras’s own men and women abandon it, then all hope will be lost.
“I promise,” Enhela says, a solemn tone entering her voice as she looks me over head to toe as if searching for some proof I’m something more than the pointed-eared Crow Fae she’s staring at.
Trying not to wither under her scrutiny, I turn to Kaen, who is frowning at Enhela’s quick submission .
“Kaen,” Enhela speaks his name softly, carefully, as if knowing exactly what it takes to sway the man, and he falters.
“I promise.” He grinds them through his teeth, but the words are out, and I’m tempted to bolt now that I’m compelled to tell them the truth.
“Your name,” Enhela prompts, but it’s not really a question. “You are the Queen of Crows, aren’t you?”
I hold my breath.
“The last woman who was sacrificed to the Crow King. The one who survived.” Ignoring Kaen’s hisses of warning, she rolls on, both caution and suspicion coating each word. “The woman who Erina held prisoner for her bloodline.”
“How do you know?” My voice is barely a whisper, but Enhela has taken a few more steps toward me, standing within touching distance.
She smiles. “From my brother. He was a palace guard in Meer, spying on the king’s movements for the rebels.”
“Pouly.”
Her eyes light up at the mention of the man who saved me from the palace.
“Pouly is your brother?”
Even Kaen’s anger subsides as he puts two and two together at my knowledge of the man’s name.
Enhela nods. “The guard who rescued our true queen from the clutches of the Jelnedyn king.”
A tear rolls down her cheek as she takes in my face, gaze snapping to the tips of my ears peeking from my hair.
My chest tightens at both the reverence and the sadness in the woman’s face, and I crumble. “Have you seen your brother recently? ”
Enhela shakes her head. “Not since he came to us with a fairy a few weeks ago, asking us to move north into the borderlands. But word about his heroic deeds has spread like a wildfire among us rebels.”
A fairy. Tori or Clio or even Recienne himself… The thought of my friends alone is enough to make me homesick.
Kaen has put down his spear again, appearing to be leaning on it for support rather than holding a weapon.
“You are her.” It’s almost comical how it dawns on him that the woman in whose name he’s been fighting is standing before him, less human than he could have ever imagined.
His gaze lands on my ears just like Enhela’s did, and the frown turns into a blend of awe and fear. “But … you are a Crow.”
Both of the rebels still don’t seem to believe what they are seeing.
“I am.” There is no easy way of speaking the truth when they have already pieced most of it together. “And I am the Queen of Crows, as you said.” A small nod of acknowledgement at Enhela. “My name is Wolayna Milevishja, and I’m the rightful Queen of Tavras.”