Page 47 of The Crimson Princess (The Ravengale Chronicles #1)

Chapter thirty-two

I manage to avoid my father the bulk of the remainder of the evening, and thankfully Bellar is attached to his druid king father’s hip like a scolded child.

Whatever that is about, it suits me just fine, and I hope it lasts.

With a little freedom from the ball and chain of the prince, I take the time to see and speak to as many contestants as possible, offering advice and answering questions; gobbling up their heartfelt praise for my mother while I try to be the leader that would make her proud.

The evening is winding down when Ambrose and Idris corner me next to a random ice display of gale green. It’s the only one at the event and looks like a blob of nothingness. Clearly my mother was in charge of décor in the past.

“Princess,” Ambrose greets, and for the first time in my young life, despite a huge crush on Ambrose, I find his blond good looks muted in comparison to all things Toren. But he’s a good gale. A good man filled with honor and I’m thankful to call him a friend.

“It’s good to see you, Ambrose,” I greet. “I’m sorry about the other night.”

Both gale warriors just stare at me with expectation. “Okay,” I say. “What is this? What is going on?”

“What are you doing with the druid prince?” Idris demands. “I thought you’d handled that.”

“Are you really going to marry him?” Ambrose asks, his tone earnest. “The druids want nothing more or less than us under their boots.”

I bristle a bit defensively. “You think I don’t know that? ”

“Why doesn’t your father?” Ambrose counters. “What don’t we know?”

“He tells me if I don’t marry Bellar, we’ll go to war.”

Ambrose holds out his hands. “And? Then let’s go to war. We will not bow to the druid king.”

This is the moment of truth or lies, and if I lie and they find out, they will never trust me again. “King Toren’s twin brother was rallying the druids to join with him, steal the Book of Life, and take over Ravengale and Bloodstone.”

“And this scares our king?” Ambrose asks incredulously. “I thought the book made him almighty?” There’s a hint of resentment I do not expect from Ambrose and that one of our most loyal gales could feel such a thing, suggests it’s a more widespread sentiment.

“It’s bigger than that,” I explain, deciding right then they need in on this. Toren would tell his team. We need those gales who fight for us to have a reason to stand with us. “Ruhn plans to open Third World and rule it as well.”

“Ruhn has no power over the portals,” Ambrose says. “There’s still more to this.”

“Yes,” I confirm. “There is. Apparently, there’s a powerful sorceress, perhaps the oldest living being, he’s been trying to summon from wherever she hides. Third World, I think.”

“Then why the hell are we opening the portal tomorrow?” Idris demands. “And how do you know all this? When I was with you and him by the forest, he wasn’t forthcoming with you.”

“I know,” I say. “That’s all I’m going to say on this.

What you need to know is that there seems to be something the book has told my father that is driving his actions.

And that I’m not going to marry Bellar, but I think this show he’s putting on with the druids is all about changing the trajectory of things.

We get through tomorrow and I think he’ll pull back from them.

I hope. If not, we’ll deal with it then. ”

“It would be nice if he had told us this,” Idris complains. “What if the book told him to submit to the druids? ”

This is a time when I hold back. The last thing they need to know right now is that the book is the sorceress and we’ve all been jerked around by her for centuries.

I’ll deal with that later with Toren and my father.

For now, I say what I sense they need to hear.

“I will never submit to the druids. We will never submit to the druids. I will never allow Ravengale to submit to the druids. Please trust me .”

“We’ll follow you,” Ambrose states, “but your father is testing our willingness to call him king.”

“He still has the book,” I remind them. “There is a reason for everything he does. And he can destroy us all. Do not let him know your loyalty has faltered.”

“Our loyalty to the crown has not faltered,” Idris assures me.

“It’s his place wearing that crown that concerns us.

I get that he has the book. I get that he knows things we do not, and we follow him with our sword ready to fight for him.

But a merger with the druids will not happen, and if he tries to make it happen, it ends his reign. ”

“To be clear,” Ambrose adds, “not yours. Stand for us, and we stand for you.”

“I won’t let you down,” I say, tormented by the way I’m now pitted against my own father, wishing desperately my mother was here to talk sense into him.

My gaze lifts over Ambrose’s shoulder to find my father watching us. “He’s watching us,” I warn. “We need to disperse.”

Idris offers me an incline of his chin. “Princess,” he murmurs and steps away from our circle.

Ambrose lingers with a message. “For some reason Raven is worried about you, but she’s been avoiding you tonight for fear your father will get upset at you and her. She asked if you can meet her by the pond tonight.”

Raven . How have I forgotten Raven? She’s the keeper of my secret and while I trust her, she must feel isolated and fearful with the knowledge she holds. “I’ll be there. ”

He hesitates and adds, “I’m sorry we have to put this on you right after you lost your mother, but I know she’d be proud of how you’ve risen to the challenge.

We’re fortunate you’re back before it’s too late.

” And with that, he walks away, leaving me to repeat those words in my mind. Before it’s too late .

My father steps in front of me. “What was that about?”

“Mom. They were checking on me.”

“Since when do you and Idris get along that well?”

“We bonded over the werewolves. I guess when he saw how I fight, I earned a little respect, enough that they both asked my thoughts on how to clear the other villages without disrupting the gales who live within the communities. I’m nervous about how uncertain they are about the effort.

I think I’m going to sneak out and just walk them through my process last night. ”

He stares at me. Just stares at me and I wonder again if he smells Toren on me, or senses the vampire in me, but finally he says. “You don’t want to ride back with Bellar.” It’s not a question.

“I don’t want Bellar to believe we have a weakness he can exploit and werewolves in our villages is a weakness.

” I grit my teeth and dare to add, “It tells him we couldn’t control what came through that portal.

” And while this topic came to me as a way to cover my true conversation with Idris and Ambrose, I believe what I’m saying.

Even Idris and Ambrose have to be questioning exactly what is going on.

Again, he just stares at me, seconds ticking by before he says. “You’re so like your mother. Stubborn, always involved in things that no queen should ever touch, and yet, somehow it became a part of her charm. And now yours. Fine. Go hunt werewolves.”

I’d take this as a win, and compliment even, but I sense his true motivation. I’m right. We don’t want this getting out to the druids.

“Thank you,” I say. “It’s…part of how I’m coping. We hunted together. That’s what we did.” It’s not an admission I mean to share with him, but I think some part of me needs him to be my father, not a king with a volatile decision-making process .

“And now she’s gone,” he says. “I will never be the same.” He says nothing more. He just walks away.

In that moment, I feel his pain knife through me, and I know that he’s grieving.

I wonder if the book, the sorceress, senses this, too, and is using his vulnerability against us all to get her war.

I can only hope that his truce with the druids is enough to buy us at least a little time to deal with Ruhn and Crya.

Protective of my new abilities, I walk to the corridor, outside the arena, and once I’m out of sight, I blink to the forest. By the time I appear beside the pond, I’m in battle gear and Raven is waiting on me.

The moment she sees me, she rushes at me and hugs me. “You’re okay. I’ve been so worried.”

I fold my arms around her and watch the frostburns form a circle around us. Somehow, they already know I’m here.

“I’m good,” I assure her. “I’m better than good.”

She eases back as if to assure herself those words are true. “King Toren. He saved you.” She glances around. “They clearly really see you as their leader.”

“Seems that way,” I agree, “and yes. Toren saved me.”

She hugs herself, a defensive move that tells me what is coming even before she says, “He— you—you drank from him.”

My heart does a wicked uneasy dance. “That’s better left unsaid. And you can’t tell anyone.”

“Never. Ever,” she promises. “You know I won’t do that.” She hesitates. “Are you…like him?”

I sink down on top of a huge rock and she sits next to me, angling to watch my reaction to her question. At this point, she knows. I see no reason not to explain. “My mother was half vampire, but it’s all complicated. She didn’t know until late in life.”

“Right,” she says. “She was found by the magic river. That makes sense, though I don’t think anyone considered she wasn’t gale.”

“I didn’t,” I say. “But we don’t know her parents’ identities.”

“Did the king know she was part vampire?”

“No,” I say firmly. “He doesn’t know about me either and I don’t want to know how he’d react. ”

“How did King Toren find out?”

“Toren knew the minute he met me.”

“I saw you with him tonight. The way he looks at you. You two are—”

“From different worlds,” I supply. “But he seems to feel protective of me. My mother asked him to keep an eye on me.”

Her lips quirk, eyes lighting. “There’s far more to the way he looks at you than a protector.”

“How does he look at me?”

“Like he owns you.”

Owns me . The words do funny things to my belly, but I lift a hand and wave off a concept that is oddly dangerous. “Must be a vampire king thing.”

“Maybe,” she concedes, “but every female wants a man to look at them like that.”

“I hope no one else observes the same.”

“Considering he refuses your father’s rule, we were all too shocked to see him present tonight for most to notice such things.”

“There’s a deep divide between them.”

“You clearly have both of their ears. Maybe there’s a way that you can change that.”

“I wish I thought that was true.”

“What of the rumors about the druids? And you and the prince?”

“I am not marrying Bellar, so don’t worry about that. Nor are we submitting to the druids. It’s a chess match my father is playing and I’m forced to go along with it.”

“Well just so you know, I saw how King Toren looked at Bellar when he stood next to you. Anyone who saw what I saw wouldn’t worry about you marrying Bellar.”

“What exactly did you see?”

“I saw the promise of death in Toren’s eyes.”

The promise of death . The words send a shiver down my spine.

Death is in the air and every breath we take brings us closer to that truth.

Closer to war.