Page 36 of The Spark that Ignites (Shattered Soul #1)

“First you sleep in my bed, flash me, give me a nickname, and now you’re giving compliments.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were coming onto me, Emmery.

” She elbowed him again, harder this time.

Laughing softly, he rubbed his side and nodded at the portrait.

“You know, my hair was black like hers before I used my magic.” His expression hardened as a beat passed.

“Izzy’s been gone so long now, I can’t even remember her voice. Or her laugh.”

Her heart squeezed. “It was the same after my mother and sister died. I couldn’t even picture their faces. All I had left was a painting my mother had done of us.” Biting into her cheek, she added, “Loss is a strange thing.”

“Sometimes I forget she’s gone. I want to tell her something or something reminds me of her, and I look for her but—” His voice caught.

“But gods, we were so different. She was always so charming and calculated and with her magic she got away with everything. And I was so—” He shrank into a sitting chair as if he had lost the strength to stand, scrubbing his face with both hands.

“I was so ... angry at the world. After seeing all the injustices my father tried to stop. All the starving children and Scarlets forced to sell their bodies—it sort of ... broke me. But Izzy had a plan. She took everything in stride and wanted to make the world a better place and now she’s—” His throat worked as he looked up from his hands.

“She’s just gone , Emmery. And she left this festering pit inside me. ”

Emmery joined him in an adjacent chair, her stomach knotting.

Perhaps she wasn’t the only one with demons and that dark hollowness.

She sucked in a breath before saying, “Grief’s song doesn’t fade.

It doesn’t dwindle or lessen. It ... echoes.

Expands. Especially if you contain it. If you try to shrink it, it only grows.

And if it falls quiet, if you let the stillness and silence fool you, it will sneak up and deafen you later, Vesper.

You have to make room for it, or it’ll .

.. rip you in two.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat, feeling her words resounding inside her, clanging against every bone, every tendon, every fibre of her being.

“I don’t know how,” he said softly. Slowly. Sadly.

Honestly, Emmery didn’t know either. Maela’s death had eaten her alive. Feasted on what little remained of her after losing everything. And she let it. Even after all these years, it still consumed her.

A silence spread between them as Emmery mulled over the question she had been dying to know. “I know we made a deal about sharing stories but since we’re friends now—would you tell me what happened to her?”

Vesper tugged a hand through his hair, mussing his neat style, the princely demeanour unravelling by the second. “Izzy was ... murdered.”

Emmery studied the portrait again, her stomach twisting.

They had more in common than she thought.

Vesper wore his grief in his eyes and carried it on his shoulders.

And she recognized it. It was the same grief she had lugged like a ball and chain for as long as she could remember and her arms now ached from the labour of it all as his surely did too.

“By her betrothed of all people,” he continued.

“She left one night and ... never came back. I still don’t know why.

And this—” He pulled a bracelet shimmering with countless blood rubies.

“This is all I have left of her. I—never even saw her body. There was no funeral. No burial or burning. Apparently, there wasn’t enough .

.. left of her.” Vesper turned the bracelet over in his hand several times before tucking it back in his pocket.

Emmery’s gaze darted between the blood ruby on her own ring, the bracelet, and the portrait where it lay seemingly sewn into Izzy’s skin. “What is that?”

“She never took it off. It was given to her in place of a blood oath for the engagement. It was enchanted to not be released until death.” Vesper gripped the chair’s armrest. “We carve all the important things into our skin. Pactums, blood oaths including those for allegiance, love, fate, and marriage. My father was foolish not to guarantee their union with one.”

Her stomach churned. “So, the marriage was not for love?”

“Honestly, they rarely are.” Vesper gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher.

“It was a favour from a life debt. King Thellonius, former ruler of Asaella, owed my father. It was supposed to bring peace and union between our territories. What a joke that was. My father was more concerned with liberating the Hollow and Scarlets than my sister’s happiness.

So, he sold her hand like it was nothing.

Like it was merely a piece in his plan.”

Emmery folded her suddenly jittery legs beneath her as she settled into the chair. “Was she engaged to—”

“Thellonius’s son.” Vesper’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the armrests, but when she peaked at his hands, he yanked his sleeves down. “People call him the King of Thorns.”

Emmery raised a silver brow at the way he spat the name as if it were a forbidden swear. “Odd nickname.”

“Before he ... hurt Izzy—” Vesper swallowed as if bile crawled up his throat. “He started wearing this crown of thorns and it ... grew into his skin. Damaged his brain or, gods, I don’t know—but he’s not right.”

Vesper’s hands balled into fists as a flush crept up his neck.

“I didn’t know him well since he spent most of his time in the north, but he was .

.. different after. We met a handful of times, and he was civil, but he was also calculated and cold, I could decipher that much.

I figured Iz would have no problem with him since she was so cunning, though I never wanted her to marry for allegiance.

I always hoped she would find love. It was a bloody stupid, idiotic wish. ”

Emmery gnawed her lip. Having her spouse chosen, not for love but loyalty to her kingdom, was a fate worse than death. Her stomach lurched at the thought of being betrothed to someone so vile and cruel, he would take the life of his future wife. “What’s the King of Thorns real name?”

“Destonne O’Daire.” Vesper grimaced as if the name were a rotted fruit on his tongue, though Emmery’s stomach wriggled in a way she couldn’t explain. “He’s the King of Asaella. Well, he is since he took Thellonius’s life.”

“He ... took his own father’s life?” Emmery rubbed her temples trying to straighten the information in her head. Gather the threads and weave them into a complete picture. “So, this Destonne—” She swallowed around his name on her tongue. “He killed both Izora and his father. Why?”

“I assume it was for power. He wanted the throne and once my father died, the pactum nulled between my father and Thellonius, yet Izzy wouldn’t stand for their agenda crumbling to pieces after they worked so hard.

She wanted to make a difference so badly.

” Rage simmering in his eyes, Vesper unbuttoned his collar, yanking it as if it strangled him. “I told you, he’s not right. Not sane.”

Emmery stared at Vesper, unable to form words. All of this was worse than she imagined.

Finally, Vesper broke the silence. “He took my home, Emmery. Killed my sister. And I was forced to serve under him for nearly a century after Ellynne fell. But I also think he had a hand in what happened in the Skyborne Temple. The waters and snuffing of the khaos flame. That entire time I served, I rarely saw him. He was always indisposed —whatever that means. Probably busy fucking the Scarlets dancing all over his bloody castle. The blatant disrespect for my family’s values is disgusting. ”

She didn’t know what to say but her heart ached as she searched Vesper’s face.

His humour ... it was all a cover for the unending pain hidden underneath.

He had lost his twin sister. What could that be like?

To have someone by your side your entire life and then gone the next. And stolen in such a horrific way.

Emmery’s chest tightened. “So, he did that? Killed all those people?”

A medley of emotions flickered over his face before a brokenness replaced the rage.

Voice hoarse, Vesper said, “He’s taken too much from me.

I’m sure he learned it from his father, or it runs in the genes.

But Thellonius was a different kind of evil.

Not only for the injustice to my family but for others who suffered worse fates. ”

She couldn't imagine anything worse than what she had seen. All those lives lost, the skeletal remains— “What did Thellonius do?”

“He invaded Asaella. Committed genocide. Iz and I weren't very old at the time. Just children.” Vesper stared at the wall as if watching the scene play out before him. “He took it upon himself to ‘cleanse’ the land of them, and what he thought were barbaric practices. He slaughtered those with the burden of beast and burned their village to the ground then built that monstrous castle. Many of them fled for safety but they ... didn’t make it.” Vesper continued, a sad glint in his eyes, “He was raised there, Emmery. The bastard bore the blessing of flame. He killed his own people and sat on that throne like some sort of ... god .”

Her skin prickled in disgust. Someone would have to house unending evil within themselves to do something so heinous. So despicable. And to be raised by such a monster—it was no wonder his son followed in his footsteps. Not that it excused the King of Thorns actions.

“Vesper, I—” Her words failed, but she managed, “I’m so sorry. I ... don’t know how to express how truly sorry I am.”

Emmery meant it. If anyone knew how it felt to surrender the most integral parts of herself with no hope of retrieving them, it was her.

But while it had broken her beyond repair and she still couldn’t speak of it, Vesper had opened his chest and bled out his past, baring the shredded, messy remains.

He had let her see and feel all the hurt he carried, and trusted her to hold it, even if it was only for a moment.

He had ... trusted her with this. With his story.

“So, this plan for Iz—it’s not only for the prophecy.” She strained the judgement from her voice. “It’s for your kingdom too, right? Continuing with your father’s agenda?”

“I thought if I could, maybe she could fix all of ... this .” He gestured to the window and the decimated kingdom beyond.

“I don’t want her coming back to see our home in such a state, but she was always leagues smarter than me.

Brilliant really. And if anyone could figure out how to fix this, it’s her.

She was supposed to run this kingdom. Not me.

Iz was the one with the ruthless heart and strong morals.

The one tough enough to handle it all. My father always said I’m too soft.

Too impulsive. You can’t rule with your heart. ”

As she studied Vesper, all the hurt he held and hope for a bright future, she couldn’t think of a person better to rule a kingdom than someone who cared so deeply.

He sighed and gazed out the window. “But I can’t fix all this. It’ll take months ... maybe years to rebuild. And we only have until the Fallen Equinox for her spell. Time is running out.”

Emmery scrunched her brows. “I never did ask what that is.”

“It’s a seasonal change we associate with Kahlia. Think of it like a celebration of Fallen magic and weather. It’s in less than thirty days.”

Her heart slogged. Thirty days . That was barely any time.

Emmery chewed her lip, trying to piece it all together.

The image of a withered king donning a crown of thorns, sitting atop his throne of lies and deceit, plagued her mind.

Did he truly steal magic? Was he the reason she was thrust into this prophecy in the first place?

She gritted her teeth. If that was the case, she would ensure he paid for it.

Vesper studied her. “What are you thinking?”

“Nothing just—” She picked at her fingernail. “I’m processing.”

Vesper stood abruptly from the chair. “I need to tend to Marlys.”

Emmery gave him a brief nod, sitting with his grief for a long moment.

After he exited the room, she studied the painting of the Merikh’s.

There was one key thing missing from the portrait: Vesper’s mother.

Emmery worried her lip, examining all the fragments of his shattered life and wondered, even with Izzy back, would his family truly ever be whole again?