Page 50 of What Fury Brings (Wrath and Fury #1)

Something had changed over the last few days. Olerra’s soldiers had followed her without question, despite knowing she didn’t have the Goddess’s Gift. Olerra had defeated the most feared man in the world without it. She had prevented war and brought two countries together.

She knew she could do incredible things without magic.

She said, “I know my own worth, Auntie. I just don’t know if others will see it.”

“They do. You’re about to have everything. You rest now, and let me handle Glenaerys and Shaelwyn.”

Olerra shook her head. “I want to be at the trial.”

“Very well. We’ll have you brought in.”

“Thank you, Auntie. Now may I see him?”

“Of course. He’s outside. We fought over who would get to be here when you woke.”

“You mean you told him you would see me first and made him wait.”

“Yes, exactly.”

When Sanos was finally admitted into the healing quarters, he didn’t know what he would say to her. Gods, but he hated seeing her covered in gauze yet again.

He managed, “I really wish you would stop getting hurt for me.”

She shrugged, then grimaced at the pain. “With Brutus and Amarra joined, there should be few occasions for it. But if you’re asking me to stop fighting, the answer is no. I will always fight to protect those I care about.”

“And I’m part of that list?” he asked. There could be no doubt as to her feelings after what she’d done for him, but he wanted to hear her answer.

“You’re the first name on it.”

Sanos felt so out of his element. He didn’t know how to go about this. They were tiptoeing around the issue. Both of them speaking as though their marriage was a sure thing. Yet not asking the important questions.

He decided to be brave.

“You told me once that I should be honored to become your husband. You spoke with such confidence on the matter that I hated you instantly.”

She grinned.

“I hated you, and yet, I was enamored with you. You’re so fierce and protective.

And then I came to learn about your softer side.

The way you care for your people. Your fear at not being enough for Amarra.

I love all the parts of you. I love how you’ve taken care of me.

I want to take care of you, too. I want us to be equals. ”

She patted the bed beside her, and Sanos sat.

“Lie down,” she said. “Hold me because I can’t hold you yet.”

He didn’t hesitate, placing his hands carefully where there wasn’t gauze and stroking her skin.

“We will be equals,” she declared. “We’ll find a way, even if we have to work at it every day. The moment I am recovered, I will show you how much you mean to me.”

He shivered at the words. “I look forward to it.”

The trial was held in the same room where Glen once tried to behead Olerra’s chosen. It seemed a fitting turn of events that her cousin would be forced to stand where Sanos once stood, looking around for aid where there was none.

No, her only ally, her mother, was by her side, covered in chains just as she was.

Olerra was healing well. She could walk now but not run. She couldn’t lift most things. Not even a shirt to pull over her head, but she wasn’t going to miss this.

Numerous allies of Glen came forward to speak on her character and all the things she’d done for the country.

The spymaster spoke of instances where valuable information gathered by Glenaerys stopped assassination attempts on the queen.

The treasurer spoke of how she improved the kingdom’s finances.

But no matter how many people spoke well of her, the testimonies of those bringing the charges against her were damning.

They had found letters sent to the king of Brutus with Glen’s signature, stolen by Olerra’s spy. The king hadn’t bothered to burn them, likely because he lost nothing if his connection to Glen were found out.

The soldiers Glen had instructed to let Atalius’s troops into the city gave her up. It took hours of questioning, but it finally happened. And then came the testimonies of everyone on the battlements who had heard the king admit to Glen’s treason.

Sanos was by Olerra’s side as the nobility found Glenaerys guilty of all charges. However, because she was royalty, she could not be killed. Just like Olerra could not when she’d demanded substitution on behalf of Sanos.

“I sentence you to a life of house arrest,” Queen Lemya declared. “If exiled, Glenaerys would only find supporters to help her steal the throne. She is to remain on Amarran soil, where I can keep an eye on her.”

Glenaerys met Olerra’s eye, and Olerra wanted to say something. Anything to her cousin, whom she still loved despite everything. But there were no words.

“You, however,” the queen said, turning to Glen’s mother, “are not royalty. You have aided your daughter every step of the way in her attempts to align with Brutus to secure the throne, and you have funded her treachery. I sentence you to death, Shaelwyn, and I am redistributing your wealth to the throne and its people. I’ll not have Glenaerys bribing her way out of house arrest.”

Shaelwyn, usually so beautiful and so put together, turned toward Olerra, her face a cruel sneer. “You have no right to sit on the Amarran throne. You are Giftless! Ordinary! In bed with Brutus!”

“Would you like to lose your tongue before you lose your head?” the queen asked.

“I have kept this country running,” Shaelwyn said. “It is my wealth that has funded your reign as queen. You are nothing without me.”

“I have brought peace to our people for many years, and my legacy will live on through Olerra, the only rightful choice as queen.”

Now Shaelwyn turned her venomous gaze on Olerra. “I should have killed you when I had the chance! Back when I killed your parents.”

Olerra and the queen both stilled.

“That’s right,” Shaelwyn said, smug now. “I killed your mother and blamed it on your father! Then I killed him before he could give testimony. I cleared the path for Glenaerys to take the throne.”

Olerra couldn’t move. She wanted to stop the words but knew she needed to hear the rest of it.

“You were four years old. Easy pickings. I only spared you for the love my daughter had for you. But I never should have been swayed by such a trifling thing. You are nothing!”

The warrior queen of Amarra drew her sword for the first time in years. The soldiers cleared her path as she approached a chained Shaelwyn.

“She was my sister!” Queen Lemya shouted, and then she swung.

Shaelwyn’s head fell from her shoulders and landed at Glenaerys’s feet.

Olerra nearly sank to the floor at what had been revealed. Sanos was there to hold her up. He put an arm around her and supported her weight. His lips went to her temple. “I love you. You’re safe. I’m so sorry.”

All this time, Olerra had felt that she had something to prove because her mother had died at the hands of her father. But it wasn’t true. It was what Shaelwyn had wanted her to believe. For all Olerra knew, her sire was a kind man who’d loved her and her mother.

Vengeance was already had. The queen had exacted it, so now Olerra was left with only her complicated feelings to sort through.

Olerra pushed free of Sanos gently and approached Glenaerys, who hadn’t moved, staring at her mother’s head.

“Did you know?” Olerra demanded. “Did you know she’d killed them?”

For the first time in her life, Olerra witnessed her cousin cry. She stroked the hair trailing behind her mother’s head. “I didn’t know,” Glen said, “but if I had, I wouldn’t have told you.”

Olerra slapped her cousin across the face.

Glenaerys looked horrified, having never had Olerra raise a single hand to her.

“You may be trapped within these walls,” Olerra said, “but I will not be visiting. From this day forward, you are dead to me.”

Olerra turned from her cousin as the guards hauled her away.