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

22. Tempest

22

TEMPEST

I didn’t have much time, but Madrood had told me to speak with Prager, and I would do so. At the top of the stairs, I rushed into our room and lifted the window. I eased my leg out, perching the toe of my boot on the narrow ledge. A metal staircase spiraled down on my right. All I had to do was cross the sparse ledge a few feet to reach it.

Easy.

I reevaluated that assumption as I clung to the window frame with one hand while stretching out the other to grasp the metal staircase handrail.

Disgusted with my antics, Drask flapped his wings, smacking my face.

“Not helping, little guy,” I huffed, stretching my arm out. Stretching . . . “Yes.” I latched onto the metal and hurtled my body in that direction. The tips of my boots landed on the outside edge of the tread, and I hauled myself up over the railing. Panting, I knelt on a metal surface, giving my poor leg a chance to recover.

Drask settled his wings as I wound my way down to the ground. I hurried to the head of the alley and shoved hair out of my eyes while peering around.

There. Prager reeled down the road, heading in the opposite direction, and because his drunken lurch barely covered any ground, it wasn’t hard to catch up to him. I followed, grimacing at the stains coating the back of his pants and ragged tunic, pinching my nose against the odor drifting off his body.

At the intersection, he turned right and headed down a narrow path winding between two-story, stone buildings. When he reached the end, he dug through a trash bin, and with a gasp of joy, hefted a wine bottle. Surely there wasn’t much left.

He settled on the ground with his legs outstretched and his back braced against a wall.

As I approached him, he upended the bottle over his mouth. When only a small slosh came out, he snarled and chucked it toward his right. It shattered when it hit, spraying glass and the stink of sour wine through the air.

That gave me an idea.

Whirling around, I held onto Drask as I rushed to the end of the street, where I spied a shop across the way. It didn’t take long to buy a bottle of wine and return to the alley. Worry gnawed through my spine while I did it because I thought he’d be gone. Instead, he dozed with his head tipped back to rest against the wall, his mouth hanging open to release jagged snores .

I placed the bottle between his outstretched legs and nudged his thigh. “Wake up, Prager. I’ve got something for you.”

“What, what?” he muttered, staring up at me with a frown. “Who are you?”

“The person who brought you wine.”

His gaze lit on the bottle, and he lifted it, cackling. “A friend, that’s who you are.” After twisting off the cork and chucking it aside, he patted the ground beside him. “Sit. I’ll share.”

“No wine for me.”

His inexplicably sharp gaze met mine. “That’s right. You have questions, don’t you?”

“Why would you think that?”

His hand snapped out, his fingers coiling around my ankle. When his skin touched mine, a chill flashed through me. Releasing me, he flopped back against the wall of the building again. “The blade is that of Alessa,” he said in a sing-song voice. “Tear away the blight, and you might just set things right.”

I leaned closer. “Can you tell me what that means?”

“There’s silence among the trees, but not.” His head tilted, and he squinted up at me. “They whisper many things to those who will listen.”

He fumbled with the front of his tunic, shoving it this way and that.

Drask flapped his wings in a furious rhythm, and his urgency crept through me, making my skin quiver.

Shrugging the feeling off, I stooped down beside Prager. I wanted to shake him, make him give me answers, though I wasn’t sure I knew the right questions to ask. “Tell me where to find the blade. ”

“What blade?” he snarled.

“The Blade of Alessa.”

“Why would you want that, precious one?” With a guttural snarl, he leaped, his ruse of drunkenness gone.

Drask flew up as Prager flung me back onto the damp alley stones. My back smacked hard, driving the breath from my lungs.

Prager loomed over me with a long, thin, and very sharp appearing blade pressed against my throat. “What pattern shall I carve on your skin, precious one?” Tipping his head back, his shrill laugh rang out.

While I struggled to suck in a breath, his face changed, morphing into that of an elderly woman with scars on her cheeks. Her dingy gray eyes locked on mine.

She would swallow everything inside me and leave only an empty shell behind.

Her face snapped forward to hover over mine, and her sly grin revealed jagged fangs. “She was dethroned, but her strength still towers within her. Did you know that you, precious one, can bend nature?”

While I remained frozen, splayed out beneath her on the cold stone slabs, Drask fluttered down and attacked, raking his claws across the back of her head. He landed on her skull and beat a furious dance on her skull with his claws and his wings.

“Wretched thing,” she cried, tumbling sideways.

Sucking in a breath, I shrugged off the magic she’d used to freeze me. I leaped to my feet, my dagger finding its home in my hand.

She tumbled across the ground, rolling to dislodge Drask, who reeled away and came back to land on my shoulder.

With a feral snarl, Prager plunged toward me.

A knife flew past me, impaling her in the chest. Her widening eyes met mine. Gurgling, she collapsed on the ground.

Drask hugged his body against my neck while squawking out his fury in my ear. Soothing him with a pat, I rushed over to look down at her.

A pop, and she disappeared.

I spun to see who’d saved me but caught only the wispy trails of a ragged cape as the person rushed around the corner and out onto the main street. Racing to the end of the pass, I peered out but found only a few vendors pushing their carts through the street and a whiff of brimstone in the air.

With a sigh, I collapsed against the side of a building to catch my breath.

“Thanks, Drask,” I whispered, patting him and giving the side of his face a kiss. “You didn’t happen to see who helped me, did you?”

He cawed and ruffled his feathers before pecking my cheek.

“Yeah. I get it. Time to find the others.”

I met up with them as they were leaving the inn, and while Vexxion gave me an odd look, the rest barely glanced my way. After all, I’d merely taken care of a sudden errand upstairs. I took my bag from him, and we hurried through the village and back to the meadow to meet up with the dragons who already circled overhead, preparing to land.

Madrood hadn’t even reached the ground before I held onto Drask and flitted to the dragon’s back. I patted his neck and hung my bag from the spike jutting up from between his shoulders, staring forward as he settled on the grass for Vexxion to mount.

“Look at me.” Layla’s shrill laugh rang out as she scrambled up Glim’s leg and settled on his spine. “Only days ago, I was saying that I should visit the dragons, see if I could find a way to interact with them without fear. Was that only a few days ago? It feels like a lifetime. Now I can mount easily and ride on a dragon’s back all day without feeling like I’m going to throw up. My ass hurts, but I’m too ladylike to mention something like that.” As Zayde flitted to the spot behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she winked my way.

I grinned, though I doubted it held much humor. I kept thinking about what happened, the fresh memory only barely shoving aside Vexxion’s latest rejection.

Reyla, Brodine, and Airia climbed onto the blue dragon’s back and arranged their bags on her spike.

Who saved me from Prager?

We took flight, soaring south over a vast forest and above wide, lush valleys. When we passed villages, few fae looked up, either occupied with tilling crops or used to seeing dragons overhead.

“Where did you go?” Vexxion asked by my ear. “I went upstairs, and you weren’t there. The window was open.”

“I ran an errand.”

“I searched the streets but didn’t find you.”

“I ran an errand.”

“ Tempest ,” he growled.

“Did you find me?” Had he saved my life ?

“You bolted upstairs after the innkeeper pushed Prager out the door. I recognized the name. Don’t go near Prager.”

“Tell me about Prager.”

His arm tightened around my waist. “What did you do?” he bit out, his voice churning with anger.

“Nothing.” It was all I could do not to lean back in his embrace. “Pay attention to your own business.”

His snarl ripped out. “I’m making this my business.”

“You don’t have that right.”

“Did you endanger yourself?”

If only I heard concern instead of irritation in his voice. But whatever progress we might’ve made last night had flown out the window before the moon finished rising.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Nothing happened.”

“The only Prager I know is a wizard.”

“No,” I breathed, unable to hold back my sarcasm. “Changing before my eyes kind of proves they aren’t Nullen.”

“I can’t believe you went after her.”

“Not your business,” I snapped.

“You should’ve taken me with you.”

“You would’ve held me back.”

A tick of a pause followed. “I might have.”

He definitely would’ve held me back.

“What did Prager tell you before she tried to kill you?” The surprised curiosity in his voice almost made me smile, but I was too upset about last night and how he behaved this morning to let down my emotional guard.

“What makes you think she tried to kill me?”

“You spoke with her. ”

I dipped my head forward.

“What did you learn?” he asked.

“Everything and nothing.”

“Not an answer, Tempest,” he growled.

“It’s the only one you’ll get.”

“I’m glad you made it through unscathed.” The rasp in his voice curled down my spine like the trace of a feather.

“Don’t act like this,” I snapped.

“Like what?”

“As if you care. A short time ago, you could’ve frozen me with your glacial eyes.” Do not mention how you behaved when you came to bed last night after working me up in the dining area, I huffed to myself.

“Perhaps my feelings have changed.”

Hearing wonder in his voice was the only reason I didn’t rip into him with my words. Instead, his tone made me deflate. I was a wreck. This man could tug me in all sorts of directions, and I’d willingly let him do it. No, I welcomed it. Didn’t I have any pride?

Not when it came to Vexxion.

“Why do you keep doing this?” I groaned, scrubbing my palm across my face.

Again, he waited so long to reply, I almost turned to look back at him. “I don’t know.”

I pinched my eyes closed, and it was all I could do not to wail. When we talked in our minds, I could feel his love, his humor. Even his sweet irritation. I knew that man.

This one? I couldn’t read him at all.

“When you figure it out,” I said lightly. “Let me know. ”

After that, we didn’t say much and that hurt as much as him being short with me.

Someone threw a knife into your friend Prager’s chest, I told Madrood.

What makes you think Prager is my friend?

I think she might be dead.

Did she turn to ash? he carefully asked.

No.

Disappeared, then. It’ll take more than a blade to kill Prager.

I’m not sure I learned much from her. A few curious things I needed to think about. They related to the riddle, of course. Thanks for sending me her way. Next time, a little warning would be nice.

I would never send you Prager’s way.

Wait. Horror filled my voice. You told me yesterday to find her, so I did. She muttered some odd phrases before trying to kill me.

Everything Prager shares has meaning, and Prager never shares anything without claiming a stiff price.

Then why . . . It suddenly hit me, and gooseflesh peppered my skin. Yesterday, in the meadow, you didn’t suggest I look for her.

I told you I didn’t.

Then who did? I barked in his mind.

A question that needs a prompt answer. And that was all he’d say.

We flew all day, only stopping briefly to eat the provisions we’d purchased at the inn, share the flasks of water, and visit the woods to take care of our needs. Because questions kept bubbling up in my mind, I placed the issue of Prager aside and quizzed Madrood about other topics .

Tell me why Iasar and Amronth want to kill Vexxion , I said.

Ask your mate.

He doesn’t seem to want to be my mate. And it hurt.

You need him, Madrood said. Find a way through this.

He rejected me , I whined.

You’re acting like a child.

The pain in my chest felt anything but childish.

The first time you two face a challenge and this is how you behave? he grumbled, his wings flapping faster. If you can’t face this , how will you face what’s coming?

I’ll try.

Good.

I shifted on his back. My butt ached. My spine ached. Only my skin hummed with delight from pressing against Vexxion’s chest. When we first started out, I’d sat stiffly, doing all I could not to touch him. But as the day wore on, I couldn’t hold the pose without my body spasming, and I’d relaxed into his embrace. He’d rewarded me by tightening his arm around my waist and pressing his chin against the top of my head. The position reminded me of all the times I’d sought his comfort. At first, I thought he did it to make me remain with him even if my will told me to step away.

Later, I could see this was his way of cherishing me.

And it ripped me apart that even when he didn’t remember what we’d had, he still did it, as if some lost part of him was trying to reach out to enfold me.

If I didn’t find a way to bring him back. . .

I refused to believe he’d been stolen from me forever.