Page 133 of Reign of Stars and Fire

To hide the rush of nerves, I reclined in the chair and forced my best unamused sneer. “I love how you pretend to still know me.”

“You’re playing a game.”

“Aren’t you? I thought that was the skill of a barter,my love.” Gods, I hated him.

“Now, that is a point of discussion.” Davorin chuckled, satisfied. “Rule here with me, Saga. You have the blood of this land, I have the power. Restore the feather to me, and we will be unstoppable.”

He was insufferable. I met his stance and leaned forward. “So you can chain me to a bed? So you can whip me until I lose consciousness? Hells, where do I sign our agreement?”

“You forget, little raven, I had to break you into submission to me. The moves we were going to make were too precarious to have your loyalty divided between me and your brother. If Anneli had never found you, we would be seated on thrones right now. Happy. Powerful.”

“I would be dead.” Never would I forget the dark places my mind had gone during those nights, bleeding and broken. “I would’ve fallen on a blade myself all to be rid of you.”

Davorin frowned. His eyes darkened when he leaned back, fingers drumming the arms of the chair. “Then as we move forward that is where I will start with the seidr girl before I kill her. She will rewrite our love to forget the past. We will be more than consorts; you’ll be my queen.”

“Forward?” Sofia said. “You promised me you would bring him back.”

Davorin chuckled. “Why would I start again when I have already won so much?”

Sofia blinked. Her smooth face awash in flustered heat. I hated what Davorin had done to her, and hated that I understood her desperation. I wasn’t certain I hated her, but I knew trust was forever broken.

The fire Sofia always had burned in her eyes when she faced me. “He has no plans to free any of you!” She shouted. “He’s keeping Eryka in the botanical—”

She grunted. I screamed her name.

Slowly, Sofia looked down. A knife was buried deep into the center of her chest. A strange, almost frantic smile spread over her lovely face. She gripped the hilt of the knife. “When I see him this . . . this time, I’ll tell him I love him.”

I rushed off the platform as she fell and cradled her head. Sofia jolted in my arms. She smiled at me. “Keep . . . fighting, Saga.”

Sofia drew in a breath, then went still in my arms. I trembled with unbridled misery and anger and vengeance.

I faced Davorin. He’d kicked out his feet, as though bored, and winked. “Admit it, she got what she truly wanted.”

“Is that how you justify everything you do? All the people you’ve ruined? They’redying, Davorin! What will you do when your glamour kills off your army? What then?”

My outrage drew more coughing, more of his fae to shift rock on their feet, unsteady. Some already had a look of befuddlement on their faces. My palm opened over the stones on the floor.Keep the air potent.A little more time.

“Every war has collateral damage, my love.” Davorin rose from the chair. “I’ll make this choice simpler. Keep the feather, but stand with me while I strip the Night Folk and Alver kingdoms of their royal magicks. You have this land, I’ll have the rest, and with no one left to defy us, the people will bow to us without my glamour’s—” He tilted his head, considering the word. “Encouragement.”

A flash of red burst outside one of the high windows. My pulse quickened. The signal to the other kings and queens.

My meet with the battle lord was at an end.

Davorin prowled forward. I abandoned Sofia’s body and scrambled back from him. From the corner of my eye, Gorm and Cuyler reached for their blades. Calista was off her knees.

Eyes still on me, Davorin reached down and ripped the knife from Sofia’s chest. He wiped the blade on her tunic, then flipped the point down. “Do we have a deal, little raven?”

“You’re more of a lunatic than I thought if you think I’d ever give myself to you again.”

With a sigh, Davorin shook his head. “It will happen either way since I have her.” He used his knife to point toward Calista.

“She’s worthless.”

“You keep saying that.” Davorin threw the knife. I screamed when the point pierced the wall directly beside my head. He gripped my jaw in the next breath. “You think I don’t know what powerful seidr feels like? I spent the whole of my life at your brother’s side.”

Gorm shouted a command, one to ensure we’d be at the ready. Gunnar commanded wild fae to stand down with his mesmer. My hand was already stretching for the glassy sheen across the wall. The shimmer of illusion rippled across my fingers. My stomach clenched in anticipation for the reveal Davorin had never been on the upper hand.

Nothing happened.