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

26. Vexxion

26

VEXXION

W e slept, and I woke before Tempest with the sun barely poking its head above the horizon.

A warmth I didn’t recognize filled me. Was this the beginning of the love I’d felt for this glorious woman?

After she’d come so beautifully for me, I’d laid down beside her and held her because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else but being with her. I didn’t make full love with her, though I wasn’t sure why. I craved it. My damn cock sure wanted it. But it didn’t feel right.

Not yet.

When she woke, I kissed her, and I could swear I knew this woman even better than I did myself, that I could feel the strong band connecting us, one that would never be severed.

“Would you like to bathe?” I asked, ready to get into the tub with her. The thought of not being with her even there jerked through me like sharp wire. Had it always been this way between us? I suspected it had, and I welcomed the feeling with wide open arms. She was my fated mate, but it was so much more than that.

I needed her more than the air churning through my lungs.

“I’d like to,” she said. “But I need to go to the aerie first.” She slid from the bed and stood beside it, her gaze gliding down my body in a caress. “I promised Madrood I’d visit. I owe him a good rubdown and a solid oiling of his scales. He flew hard to get here. Other than me, no one’s taken good care of him for a very long time.” Her smile rose. “Would you like to come with me?”

It had been days since I spoke with the dragon.

This morning, I suspected he’d tell her. He’d rather I wasn’t there when he did.

“I’ll stay here if you don’t mind,” I said.

She nodded before leaning over to give me a kiss. “I won’t be long.”

“I’ll see you at breakfast, then.” A promise clung to my words.

Her sweet smile rose, binding her promise to mine. “See you at breakfast.”

She dressed in leathers and left the room, and since she didn’t flit, she must plan to travel to the aerie on foot.

What would she think of the city? She’d have to cross part of it to reach the dragons.

I got out of bed and bathed quickly, dressing in pants and a soft tunic. After, I flitted to the garden outside the living area and began to prune the roses.

It was early, and dew clung to the grass, soaking my bare feet as I walked beside the overgrown bushes. Morning light stretched across the lawn, making the water droplets clinging to the flowers and leaves glow like jewels. The tranquility I’d found here the first time I visited ten years ago sunk into my bones the closer I got to Mayline’s favorite section of the garden. Her roses, with their haunting beauty, stood proudly, their soft, black-with-silver-tipped petals fluttering in the warm morning air.

The shears fit comfortably in my hand, a familiar weight now part of my routine. I hadn’t been able to come here as often as I’d liked, but each time gave me an escape that allowed me to hold onto the core of what Ivenrail was determined to rip away.

I inspected each bush for pests, though I didn’t find any. There was something methodical about pruning that calmed me. Scanning for wayward stems or spent blossoms, I found what needed trimming, cutting away the stray branches disrupting the garden’s perfect shape.

With each decisive cut, more than shaping took place, and I felt like the garden and I communicated on a visceral level. Only the soft calls from birds soaring through the courtyard tugged me away from the whispering flowers. Careful not to harm any buds poised to bloom but eager to get rid of anything that didn’t fit with the beauty of this place, I made one clean cut after another. I tossed the refuse aside to be disposed of after I was done.

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves as I moved down the row.

“Ah, so it was you.” Vera came up behind me, stopping not far away, keeping a stone bench between us. “I’ve wondered who was working with Mayline’s roses. ”

My soft laugh rang out. “You noticed.”

“It was hard to miss. They should’ve been woefully overgrown or dead after all this time.”

“I couldn’t allow them to die.”

“And now you’ve returned to prune them once more, though not by flitting past the curse of her thorns. This time, you boldly flew in on that wretched dragon, bringing my nieces back to me as if you’re a benevolent friend and not the son of the fiend entrenched on the Bledmire throne.”

“You knew I wouldn’t allow myself to be anything like him.”

“I hoped you’d never be like him.”

When my hand jerked, I pricked my finger on a thorn. I sucked away the blood before returning to my work. “I did look for you, you know.”

“Not hard enough or you would’ve found me.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to help you even if I did.” I shrugged. “Did you want me to find you?”

“Not really. My niece did.”

“She’s amazing.”

“And that’s why he’ll kill her,” she said sharply.

“I won’t allow that to happen.”

“I don’t believe you or any of your tattered group of friends will be able to do much to stop him.”

I’d watched as Ivenrail pinned Vera inside the frame after she refused to tell him where she’d hidden her. “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. When he realized he couldn’t make you tell him, he had no reason to keep you alive.”

Her intent gaze scanned my face before she finally nodded. “I assume he wasn’t ready to end the torture, or perhaps he thought he could release me every now and then and poke me hard enough I’d tell him where to find her.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For standing there and doing nothing while he locked me and all the others away?” she snarled.

“For that and many other things.” When I glanced at her, she flinched. “I won’t hurt you.”

“It’s true. If you’d wanted to, you would’ve done it back then.”

“Yet you look ready to bolt,” I said, forcing a chuckle.

With a grumble, she rounded the bench and sat. But though she leaned back against the stone, she kept her hands fisted on her lap. She’d freeze me—or try to freeze me—if I made one wrong move against her.

“Our alliance has always been the same,” I said. “I’m still the boy you betrothed to your niece.”

“Are you?”

“Please don’t suggest you did anything to help me remain the sweet little boy I once was.” Sarcasm clung to my words. “You showed me her picture, teasing me with a life I had almost no chance of building.”

“I always held hope. I saw that you’d find her, that you’d love her. I was fortunate he didn’t catch me that night. I was able to evade him for three more years, and during that time, I put everything into place.”

“And now your plan will come to fruition?”

“Like you with Tempest, all I can do is pray to the fates that it does.” She sucked in a breath and released it. “How far has he thinned your guards? ”

“You ask if I’m still loyal? I have been since before my mother died.” I traced a fingertip across my neck, mimicking the slice of a blade. “Even his wretched collar didn’t break me. My guards remain true.” I shot her a sneer. “Are yours?”

She drew herself up stiffly. “Of course they are.”

“I’ll take your word for now.”

“We’re lucky to have her with us. Finally, the way is clear. She’ll fix this.”

“At what cost to her?”

“Whatever it takes.”

I released a low growl that made her suck in a breath. “I won’t allow you or anyone else to harm her.”

“I love my niece. Both of them. I gave up everything, even Mayline, to protect them.”

“Yet you’re alive and she isn’t.”

“You know what he did to her.”

It was hard to miss when I stood there beside him. “You spent your life manipulating your nieces to force them onto the path you chose for them.”

“ Saw for them!”

“You forced them. Have you seen Tempest’s scars?”

“I muted her pain while it was done.”

As if that was enough? My growl rumbled low, deadly. “I should kill you for not protecting her.”

“She couldn’t wear the mark any longer or he would’ve found her long before she’d grown up enough to protect herself. It had to be done.”

“You’re as bad as he is. Twisting everyone for some plan you’ve dreamed up that may or may not save the world. ”

“Not dreamed of. Seen, Vexxion. Seen .” Her chin lifted. “Do you think I’ve found this any easier than you?”

“You’ve spent years sitting inside a portrait, contemplating all the lovely things you’d do with your nieces once you were free. I don’t see your scars. Your screams don’t echo in the air around us.” If I listened closely, I could still hear my own, still hear my mother’s.

“Some scars don’t show on the surface.”

“You’re correct about that.” I turned back to the flowers and continued working, a snip here, a snip there, slowly taking their beauty to another level and restoring the thread of calm I only found here.

“I was shocked to arrive here a short time ago to find someone had dared to touch Mayline’s favorite roses,” she finally said. “You left no clue about your identity behind.”

“They called to me when I was fifteen, and I knew I had to find them. It took me three years of flitting to get past the thorns.”

She sighed. “Mayline’s power was amazing. Her sacrifice has protected this island and the court’s core for a very long time.”

“Tempest will awaken them and then what will you do?”

“Help her mold them into an army.”

“Do you truly think they’re capable of defeating what’s coming?”

“They have to be, don’t you think? If they aren’t, every horrifying sacrifice will have been for nothing.”

Leaning forward, I closed my eyes and drew in the light floral scent of a nearly perfect blossom. Then I continued clipping.

“I’m surprised you remember the roses,” she said.

“The only memories I’ve lost relate to my time with Tempest.” Another snip was followed by a toss of the thick, brittle cane onto the pile.

“Why do you think that is?”

I stilled and squeezed a cane so hard I pricked my finger again. “Why do you think that is?”

“Her friends were drained by the very same fiend, yet they appear to remember everything except for some of the time they wandered the ether.”

Memories of the wasteland flashed through me. The oppressive heat. My determination to get past a very high wall.

Vera rose. “I should go prepare breakfast. I thought I’d make muffins. Maybe cook ham to go with them. Eggs. It’s nice having so many here to take care of. It’s been a long time since the manor—or the city, for that matter—rang with laughter.”

“Why don’t I remember?” I bit out, not turning to look her way.

“That is a very good question.”