Page 31 of The Storm of the Empire (Flyers Of The First Kingdom #3)

THIRTY

LUKA

“ Y ou can’t possibly want to leave again!” I could not believe what I was hearing. She said she trusted me now.

“Of course I do. Octavian is alive. We all watched him burn to ash, but now he’s right there like some perverted cheat of death.”

“Yes, we agree. Something is not right, which means we need to see this through.”

“No, we need to warn Nyx. After seeing Damona Island and the undead so close to the capital, this could mean they have so much more planned.”

“No, we need to stay and figure out what they have planned. If we bail again, this could all disappear too, and we’ll never know what they are doing.” I didn’t know how she couldn’t see my side of this.

“We can’t wait, Luka. We have to warn Nyx.”

“To what end? For them to vanish again? We can’t keep chasing our tail without getting any real information. You heard the King. If we come back empty handed and they manage to clear out this place too, we’ll be right back where we started.” I wanted to shake some sense into her. This was bigger than us.

“I see your point, I promise I do, but I have a duty to report this.” She looked heart broken but determined.

I wracked my brain, trying to come up with a way to explain my side. “We can’t let them slip through our fingers again. I won’t let it happen. I have to figure this out.” It had been gnawing at my brain since the festival where Kiera was exposed to bane.

“We won’t this time. We will both leave before anyone else even notices us. There will be no chance to tip them off.” She reached for me.

I stepped back, eyes narrowing. “Do you think I tipped them off?”

“No!” she said, but her eyes told me otherwise.

“You’re not being honest.” I wanted to harden against her, but I couldn’t. I’d opened my soul to her, and now she was rejecting it. How could I move on from this?

“You were assisting them. Furthering their cause.” Every hesitation was like her knife in my chest. Right between the ribs and into my heart.

“I was keeping my cover while you were off Goddess knows where. What would you have me do?”

“Decide, Luka. What side are you on? How can you help them if you claim to be with us?”

“I wasn’t helping, I was keeping our cover.”

“How far would you go to keep your cover?” Her words were cold.

“What does that mean?”

“You were helping move bane. Would you help them with prisoners? Paint eggs?” How could she be saying all this? I did this for them.

“If it lead me to Alora’s egg or to rescue Kol, I would do those things,” I admitted, and I had no shame in it either. I would do whatever it took to see those wrongs righted.

“Did you tip them off at the base?” she asked, finally voicing what she had clearly been thinking all along.

“No! How could you even think that?” I stepped forward this time only for her to step back.

She held up her hands. “You act like you’re with us, but your actions tell me you’re playing both sides.”

“Nyx chose me because I’m good at this. Because I can fit in with them. An army needs both types of fae.” I wouldn’t apologize for being who I was. “You should know me. Especially after all we’ve been through.”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore. My mind is playing tricks on me, and you feel so close yet so distant. It’s impossible to tell.”

I grabbed her hand and put it to my heart. “I’m on your side. I’ve always been on your side.”

“Then come with me.”

“I can’t. I know I need to stay here.” I begged her with my eyes not to give up on me.

“Neither of you is going anywhere.” Octavian’s icy voice startled us.

Hazel’s hand went to her sword, but I moved in front of her, guarding her with my body. How much did he hear? I wasn’t sure he would recognize me, but I was certain he would know Hazel. I had to get her out of here.

“Of course not. Not until the ship arrives.” I slipped back into my persona, fear half closing off my throat.

Octavian laughed, his face contouring weirdly, and it made my stomach turn. “Is that what you’re here for? Nothing else?”

“What else would we be doing?” I said, somehow keeping my cool.

“Snooping around where you shouldn’t be. Do you think I don’t remember you two? I know both your faces. She may not be half the dragon her mother is, but I knew all the cogs in my machine. And you—you’ve been causing problems all over my supply lines. Believe me, I’m intimately aware of both of you, and now I know you’re working together.”

“If you’ve been listening, you’ll know she doesn’t trust me because I’ve been working for you all along.” I hated to think what this would do to my relationship with Hazel, but if it kept her alive…

Maybe it wasn’t worth surviving this. Could my purpose be to give my life for this? To die for a cause that would outlive me?I didn’t want to think these thoughts, but I knew I would give my life for Hazel. She had to make it out of here. The Storm Kingdom needed more dragons on the hunt with Alora’s egg missing.

“No one should trust a rat. Because if they’ll talk about you, they’ll talk about everyone else.” Octavian took pride in saying it. He enjoyed the crushing blow.

He gestured, and guards stepped around him to grab us both. I was relieved Hazel didn’t try to fight back as they disarmed us. I knew she had the skill, but Octavian was an unknown, and I wasn’t willing to risk fighting our way out until we knew more.

We were taken to a cell and thrown in, sending us sprawling onto the stone floor. I caught myself on my hands and my knees, skin scraping open, knees bruised. But I pushed the pain aside, willing myself to keep going for Hazel.

“How are you even alive? We all thought you dead?” I asked pushing myself off the damp floor and taking in our surroundings hoping to find anything I could exploit or turn back on Octavian.

“It is a gift from the Goddess.”

“Still looking for a way to squirm your way out? You’re done. Nothing you do can stop me now. You haven’t even seen a sliver of what I have coming,” he spat.

“I don’t care what you do to the kingdoms. I only wanted Alora’s egg back.”

“What are you talking about?” Octavian studied me. “You’re chasing ghosts, kid.”

“I was never spying on you, nor was I chasing you. I was tracking dragon eggs.” I figured if we were going to die anyway, I might as well try to convince him to believe me. I felt Hazel’s eyes burning into the side of my face. “Please just trust me,” I said to myself, more like a prayer than anything else.

“Rest assured I wouldn’t harm dragon eggs. We need more dragons, not less.”

“I know.” I searched my memory for something that would piss him off or at least get him to do something with us instead of leaving us in this cell. “So you’re one of the undead then? There’s someone controlling you?”

Octavian scowled. “No one could control me.”

“But you are dead, right, or I guess…undead?” I wrinkled my nose, acting disgusted. It wasn’t a stretch those things were creepy.

“I’m a necromancer. I’ve harnessed death to my benefit. They’ll have to try a lot harder to kill me and they still won’t succeed.”He sneered, then turned to his guards. “We’ll keep them with us. Give them the same treatment you gave Kol. I don’t want anyone to be able to find them.”

“What do we do if someone comes looking for them?” Kalon asked, avoiding my eyes.

“We’ll be long gone by the time they do. Give the temple the same treatment as you gave the island.”

Kalon bowed his head. “It will be done.” He moved to close the cell door but hesitated. “Are you sure we should leave them in here together?”

“He has no magic. What’s the worst they can get up to?” Octavian laughed again.

Then the door slammed, and they were gone.

I waited for them to walk away, feeling the weight of Hazel’s glare and the moments passed, once it was safe, I turned on her with pleading eyes. “I was lying,” I blurted. “I was saying anything I could to try and get out of this. Please believe me.”

“I know.” She put her hand over my mouth.

I studied her eyes in the sliver of light from the corridor, and I saw the truth in them. She was chasing to believe me when I knew she had her doubts. My chest swelled, and I smiled behind her hand. Even locked up and in some serious danger, I had her, and that was enough.

She removed her hand and wound her arms around my neck.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course I do.” I didn’t hesitate.

Her eyes glittered. “That pendant is coming off now.”

‘What? Why?” I baulked.

“Because if you have even a drop of magic, we need it to get out of here!”

“I don’t have any magic, Hazel. We need to think our way out of here, not pretend a ‘what if’ will solve it.”

“I know you have your reasons, but you want me to trust you, so you have to trust me. Okay?”

I opened my mouth to object, but she was right. I couldn’t ask for trust repeatedly without giving some in return.