Page 23 of The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk (Crowns of Nyaxia #4)
ASAR
A s a child, I’d been kept separate from my siblings.
Egrette was close to me in age, and both of us were far younger than Malach, but we grew up worlds apart.
When I first met her, she hadn’t hidden how displeased she was to be presented with another sibling, especially given that she so clearly hated the first. Her resentment only grew as the years went on and I proved my usefulness to our father.
This had never bothered me. Sharing Raoul’s blood set up me and my siblings to be natural enemies, like vampires and humans.
It was just a matter of figuring out who would end with the empty throat and who would end with the full stomach.
I’d had no doubts about what kind of king Malach would have been.
Merely Raoul’s inferior successor. Lazy and simplistic, interested only in the basest trappings of power.
But now, sitting in Egrette’s office, I found myself surprised by what I was seeing. The room was a mess, every surface covered in letters and papers and maps marked with several different shades of ink. The windows were wide open, letting in a cold sea breeze.
She had actually worked in here. Worked like someone who really wanted to build something. And as she stood before those open windows, looking out over her kingdom, it occurred to me that she did, indeed, resemble a queen.
“What an incredible gift,” she murmured. “Imagine what we could shape this kingdom into, Asar. I never imagined that we would do it together. But I will not turn down the help.”
She returned to her desk and sat, looking me up and down.
“So, dear brother, tell me the truth now. How did you manage to escape the Descent?”
“You mean after you had Elias stab me in the back?”
She laughed softly. “I hear he stabbed you in the front. Your fault for not seeing it coming. Anyway, you can’t hold it against me. What else could I do?”
She was right. I couldn’t hold it against her.
The rules of vampire nobility were simple.
If she didn’t secure the crown to her head, she knew she would be executed by the one who did.
It was what Malach would have done, eventually, if he had survived.
It was, perhaps, what she would still do to me.
She looked like she hadn’t made up her mind yet.
But for now, she needed me. My highly visible loyalty, and my skills, were more useful to her than my public death.
I looked out to the ships in the bay.
“Did Nyaxia appear to you herself?” I asked.
“She did. As, I hear, she appeared to the king and queen of the House of Blood. A great honor, to help the Dark Mother seize the world.” Her eyes glittered with vicious delight.
“Apparently the humans are quite riled. Even Shiket has been appearing to Atroxus’s followers, the whispers say.
Preparing them for war. It’ll be fun to have a little fight. ”
Fun wasn’t the word I would use.
I glanced at the papers on her desk, lingering on a pile of envelopes stamped with the crest of the House of Night. Curious.
“And the House of Night?”
Egrette looked smug. “It seems they did something to displease the Dark Mother. But we’ll get our chance to flaunt in front of them soon enough, with the Melume so close.
Perfect timing, isn’t it? I didn’t think it was due for another fifty years.
Perhaps the recent shifts of fate have brought it closer. ”
She said it like this was a good thing. I was less convinced. But the mention of the Melume brought my attention back to the matter at hand—and its urgency.
“Indeed,” I said. “Perfect timing. I want to go to Ryvenhaal immediately. There are spells documented in the archives that I can perform during the Melume. Uniquely suited to the wells open that night.”
Her brow twitched. “And what would these spells do?”
“Give our soldiers access to more powerful magic. Help us forge stronger weapons. Protect our ships. The possibilities go on. You said it yourself. The timing of the Melume is a great opportunity. We need to capitalize on it.”
She considered this. She had been raised to be everything a Shadowborn princess should, but she was never a particularly talented magic wielder, and she had little knowledge of the dark fringes of magical possibilities that I’d been raised in.
I knew she had always romanticized such things, and she didn’t know enough about it herself to know what was or wasn’t possible.
At last, she said, “I suppose Gideon will be pleased to see you.”
It was shameful that after all this time, his name still elicited a physical reaction—as if cringing against an incoming blow.
“I can’t seem to get him out of Ryvenhaal much these days,” she went on. “Perhaps it will be good to have someone else in court who can navigate the archives.”
Sounded like Gideon. He had been intensely loyal to my father, but he’d never thought much of my siblings.
“I’m not surprised,” I said flatly.
“Have you seen him since your exile?”
“No. I have not.”
She held that look, one that made me think, just for a moment, that maybe she saw more than I’d given her credit for—that maybe she and I had more in common than I’d known, growing up.
“Gideon’s skills are very important to this kingdom,” she said. “And if Gideon himself is unwilling to provide them, then someone else should.”
Now I understood.
Gideon wasn’t willing to hand Egrette the loyalty that he’d given Raoul for centuries. So now, Egrette hoped that I could be her new Gideon.
Right here, sitting in a chair across from the desk that had once been my father’s, as I had thousands of times before, I felt like I was peering into an alternate, horrible reality. It was so intrinsically repulsive that I had to force myself to stay in my seat.
If Egrette noticed my reaction, she didn’t show it. “Fine,” she said. “Go, and quickly. Let’s seize every opportunity.”
Then she rose and returned to the window, folding her hands behind her back.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, Asar, but I’m glad you returned. Goddess bless the daughters and the second sons. Imagine a kingdom built in our image. They always underestimate us, but they never understood. We are the ones who actually had to use our teeth.”
Over her shoulder, she gave me a smile full of daggers.