Page 54

Weary to the bone and his heart carved from his chest, James entered the Sky Palace and walked through the corridors to where Will and Lestara waited under heavy guard.

My father is dead.

The soldiers parted to allow him into the sitting room, where his brother wept, his face buried in Lestara’s lap, her hand stroking his hair. “James has returned,” she said softly. “My love, we will have answers.”

Will slowly lifted his head, eyes swollen and face wet with tears. “Is she dead?”

“No.” James swallowed hard, his mouth parched. “She swam her horse across the river. We found the trail where she climbed the far bank, but her horse is fast. I have men with dogs in pursuit, and eventually we’ll catch her.”

“And then she’ll hang!” William screamed the words, then pressed his hands to his face. “No, it needs to be worse. Hung, then drawn and quartered. I’ll send her head to her brother on a spike so that he knows his is next. Ithicana will bleed. They’ll burn for what that bitch did to Father. And to Mo—” William broke into sobs. “Oh God, Mother’s face!”

“The physician is still with the queen,” Lestara said. “As are Virginia and George. It’s difficult for the queen to speak because”—she swallowed hard—“because of the injuries to her face, but she was able to implicate Ahnna.”

James said nothing, guilt drowning him because he should have seen the threat that Ahnna had posed. He knew better than anyone how deadly she was, but more than that, he knew how much this alliance had meant to her. What losing it had meant, and instead of being on his guard, he’d been drowning his sorrows with his father’s liquor.

My father is dead.

“I saw him, Jamie. I saw Father.” Will could barely get the words out. “So many stab wounds they were beyond counting.”

“A crime of passion,” Lestara whispered. “The tea leaves spoke true.”

My father is dead.

James wanted to fall to his knees. Wanted to press his forehead to the carpet and weep, because it should be him who was dead. Him who Ahnna had stabbed so many times, the wounds merged into one.

But he couldn’t weep.

Not with Will bereft and the palace in chaos. And the king dead.

His father, who had always seemed so indomitable and immortal, now still and cold.

He’s with her now, James quietly told himself. He’s with your mother, which is all he wanted in life. Now he’ll have it in death.

It was a hollow comfort. “Will,” he said quietly, knowing that many of his father’s plans had died with him. “You are king now, and though it is painful, you must turn your mind to Harendell. Amarid has crossed the border. We must join with Cardiff’s army and deal with that threat before anything else.”

“He’s right, my love,” Lestara said, pulling Will upright again, her skirts soaked with his tears. “You must be strong.”

Will wiped at his face, finding some composure as he nodded. “Yes. I…I am king of Harendell. I cannot weep. Amarid—”

“Can wait,” a garbled voice said.

James turned, shock filling him as Alexandra entered the room, supported on either side by Georgie and Ginny, his sister’s eyes swollen from crying. George had dried blood in his hair and a faint crimson spray across his throat that was partially smeared, as though he’d tried to wash in a hurry. James felt sick thinking of what his friend had witnessed as the physicians had stitched Alexandra back together.

“Ahnna Kertell murdered your father,” Alexandra said, her mouth struggling to form the words beneath the thick bandages. “But that is not the extent of Ithicana’s crimes. George, tell Jamie what you told Ginny and me.”

Georgie exhaled a steadying breath. “King Aren formed an alliance with Queen Katarina. From his own lips, my spies heard him the night he was here in Verwyrd.” He sighed. “I should have told you immediately after I discovered the information, but Ahnna told me to hold my tongue. Yet given the Amaridians had made another attempt on your life, I felt I could keep the secret no longer. I informed the king of what I’d learned, but he said that he already knew of Aren’s duplicity and that Ahnna was as much a victim of her brother as Harendell. He also told me to hold my tongue, but God, I wish I had not listened.”

“The spies in Katarina’s court informed him,” James said softly. “Tonight, he told me everything, including his intention to fund a coup in Ithicana to overthrow Aren and put Ahnna on the throne in his place. He believed her wholly innocent of Aren’s conspiracies with Katarina.”

“Do you still think her innocent?” Alexandra asked, tears of pain leaking from her eyes. “Because I think Aren knew of Edward’s plans for an alliance with Cardiff and sent Ahnna here with the goal of undoing those plans. When she realized she’d failed, she became the beast we know all Ithicanians to be.” Gesturing to her face, Alexandra whispered, “I had gone to her to apologize for the embarrassment she’d suffered, and this is what Ahnna did, Jamie. That I still live is only because you arrived in time to stop her, else you’d be burying me alongside your father. She’s a vicious, murderous creature, and I have no doubt she scurries back to hide beneath her brother’s wing.”

Alexandra drew in a ragged breath, a soft sob of pain escaping her lips. “But there can be no hiding. Not for her. Ithicana must hand her over to be executed, or pay the price.”

“They are all masked monsters,” William hissed, eyes fixed on James, green orbs seeming to glow with the ferocity of his anger. “I must lead Harendell, brother. But you I set to another task. A task that is just as important, if not more so.”

James squared his shoulders, shoving down grief and guilt until all that was left was the cold need for vengeance.

“I command you to hunt down Ahnna Kertell,” his brother ordered. “And when you find her, which I know you will, I want you to drag her back to Verwyrd in chains.”