A Crown of Cursed Hearts (Kingdom of Blighted Thorns #3)

4. Tempest

4

TEMPEST

“ I ’m going to remove his collar too,” I barked at Reyla. “Long before Ivenrail can track him down.”

Reyla’s head tilted, and her frown deepened. “How will you do that? Do you have more of those vines?”

“No, but there has to be a way.”

“Tempest.” Warning thrived in her voice. “We’re not safe anywhere as long as he’s wearing that collar. And what’s up with that? I thought the fae weren’t allowed to put one of those nasty things on more than one person at a time.”

“Ivenrail found a way around the rules.” All of them.

“He needs to die, the quicker the better.”

I couldn’t tell her this would all work out. We could be dead by tomorrow. But as long as I could draw in air, and as long as I could send power into Vexxion with the hope it could free him, I wasn’t giving up.

“I’m doing the best I can.” I made no effort to hide the croak in my voice. “Please support me. I need you.” Sadness and dismay clung to me, its taste bitter on my tongue. I hated fighting with my friend.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her gaze darting away from mine. “I’m worried about Brodine. About what Ivenrail will do. Back at the castle, my wind was high and all I could think about was escaping. I figured once we were free, it would all fall into place. Now I feel like we’ve begun a long, arduous journey, and we not only have no supplies or a map to give us direction, but that we’re going to be hunted until there’s nowhere left to hide.”

“I feel the same.”

“You must’ve had a plan for what you’d do if you couldn’t kill him at Bledmire.”

“Vexxion expected me to kill the king, knowing he’d die along with him. He must’ve assumed everything would fall apart long enough for us to escape after that. With Ivenrail dead, few would bother to hunt us. Those with any power would be too busy scrambling to claim the throne themselves to worry about coming after the one who’d made it possible for them to ornate themselves king or queen. We would’ve stolen dragons and fled faerie, not stopping until we found a place where we could live in anonymity.”

“Does a place like that exist?” She scoffed. “Instead of leaving a gap for someone like the high advisor or Kerune to fill, we’d be wiser to place our own puppet on the throne.”

My friend always had been a savvy strategist. “You’re right.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?” Her eyes flew to Vexxion. “He’s the heir if Ivenrail dies. ”

“He doesn’t want it.” At least, I didn’t think he did. “He only wants his own court here at Weldsbane.”

“And to merge it with Lydel.”

“That would be the natural occurrence.” She knew nothing about what I’d seen, what I knew, and while now wasn’t the time to tell her, she was right. Holding things back from her put her in more danger. “I was born the Lydel heir.”

“I heard that.” She bit down on her lips.

I was grateful she wanted to listen. “My mother hid me. I don’t remember anything before I arrived at the fortress. My aunt took care of that.” Even now, a touch of bitterness tainted my voice. What kind of life could I have had if they hadn’t intervened?

I’d probably be dead.

“How does the king come into all this? He seems desperate to control the Lydel heir—you.”

“He’s trying to steal the core power of all the courts to amass enough energy to rule the world. He stole most of Weldsbane’s core power from Vexxion when he was a child, and he’s close to annexing Riftflame. Lydel was basically the only holdout, and my mother must’ve suspected he’d try to steal the core from her or me.”

“ Ivenrail cursed Lydel.”

“That’s what many believe, but I’ve learned my mother laid the curse on her own land to protect me and my sister, Brenna.”

“Who is not actually Brenna.”

“That’s me, I suppose. Her name’s Layla. She was hidden as well. My mother cursed Lydel, and it’s remained enshrouded in thorns ever since. ”

“Thorns protecting people turned to stone, from what I heard.”

“If they’ve been turned to stone, I’ll find a way to free them. I’m going to right this. How much of Ember’s Shadow did you read?”

“What I could.” A frown tightened her brow. “It’s funny. Each time I opened it, I read something different, as if the book held things back from the reader. Other times, I only found blank pages.”

I’d seen the same thing. “Did you read about the powerless?”

“They’re the dregs. Probably the Lieges too.”

As I suspected. “We need to break the spell binding them to those forms.”

“And then what?”

“I still have to kill Ivenrail.”

“Don’t leave a gap in Bledmire or it’ll haunt you.”

“I have someone in mind to take the throne.”

I just had to track down Zayde.