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

35. Vexxion

35

VEXXION

A s long as Tempest didn’t share my bed at Weldsbane, I could feel coldness encasing me in its icy arms. Each moment without her tore me apart. My elusive feelings for her were a constant, gnawing agony that mingled with the fear I’d never know what it was like to love her fully again.

Only a whisper of my feelings for her skirted around my soul.

Since it was late when I arrived at Weldsbane, and my first thought was to reinforce my wards and make sure everything remained as it needed to be, I decided to wait until the morning to go after my court’s core.

Darkness could hide almost anything.

After eating, I used traveling magic to go to Bledmire. I’d been away too long already, though with the Lieges dead, the king might’ve discovered his Nullen treats were in short supply.

I found the despondent king sitting on his throne in his high court, surrounded by his sycophants bowing and polishing the floor with their knees. High Advisor Adwarin and Kerune stood to his right, stoic sneers lurking in their eyes.

Ivenrail hadn’t replaced Madrood, and the gaping hole on his left exposed how Tempest had gutted his power. From the twist of his mouth and the spikes created on his brow from scowling, the rage generated by her insult churned through him.

A mass of Nullens stood below the dais, milling about with stark terror cratering their faces. They were a mix of women, children, and men, their torn, soiled clothing telling me they’d been taken from their villages by his fleet of flying dregs.

Traveling was not the same as being here masked by my threads, but I didn’t dare come any other way.

“Have you found him yet?” the king snarled.

High Advisor Adwarin dipped forward in a smooth bow. “No, Your Highness, though we believe he found a way through the curse and is hiding in Lydel Manor.”

“The curse doesn’t allow anyone inside,” Ivenrail snapped. “Even him.”

Kerune snorted. “Yet he’s there.”

Ivenrail’s gaze narrowed on the younger man. “I collared that boy. I should be able to see him no matter where he hopes to hide. My command should bring him to me immediately.”

“His mate is quite determined,” the high advisor said stiffly.

The king raked his nails across the arms of his throne. “I should’ve killed her the moment I saw her.”

“Without draining her first?” Kerune shook his head, though he kept the movement subtle .

“She was tasty.” Ivenrail growled. “Bring her back too. When you find that dragon, kill him.”

“You won’t try to reclaim him once you break their bond?” The high advisor’s eyes widened.

“He betrayed me.”

“Perhaps.”

The king cocked his head to look up at his advisor. “I raised him from the moment he slipped from his egg. Vexxion too for that matter. They owe me.”

“Loyalty has become a relic of the past.” Disgust churned through High Advisor Adwarin’s voice. His breath jerked in, and his robe swayed across his shoes with his agitation. “Except for me and Kerune, of course. We remain yours.”

Liar. He was only loyal as long as he could benefit from his association with the king. If he could replace him without dying from his effort, he’d do so in an instant.

“Don’t toy with me.” Ivenrail’s snarl rang out, and his gaze landed on the Nullens. “Bring them to me one at a time.” His finger flicked their way, only a subtle shake of the limb telling me he hadn’t recently consumed power. “I’m famished.”

Kerune stepped off the dais and grabbed a woman’s arm, dragging her up the steps and over to the king. “Hold still,” he grumbled. He must’ve used magic because she stilled, staring forward blankly.

Ivenrail gouged his thumb against her forehead but other than a jerk of her body, she remained unmoving. His gaze blurred as he drank my power, his throat working as if he truly guzzled it down. Lifting his thumb away from her, he stroked it down her cheek, his voice slurring. “Bring me another. ”

He worked his way through them, taking from me each time, and I wondered how often I’d have to keep coming here before we could finally end this. Now that I wasn’t bound to his whims, nothing could stop me from killing him.

Except the foretelling of the witch who said she would bring about the balance, not me.

Only one woman could right the wrongs brought about by this monster.

Before she died, my mother whispered a few lines that only confirmed that the witch meant Tempest.

When nature bends and true love speaks with all its might,

Only then will justice end this bitter blight.

If only I could grab onto our love once more and help bring about the predicted end.

Finally, Ivenrail slumped in his chair, his legs splayed out and his hands hanging limply by his sides. His head lolling, he dismissed his court and sent the remaining Nullens from the room. Those partly drained stumbled beside the others, though their dizziness was a result of the lull I’d placed on them with my own magic.

“Shall I bring the rest to you in the morning?” Kerune asked pleasantly as the guards led the Nullens from view.

“Tomorrow afternoon will be soon enough.” The king groaned with the pleasure only found in a sated despot. “So tasty. This batch was better than the last. See that you bring more like these, rather than the ones I consumed over the past few days.”

Power was slowly consuming this monster’s mind, but it appeared he hadn’t discovered that it was my power he craved above all others.

I should’ve come here the moment I woke from the ether. Sadness dragged its tines through me at the thought of those who may have been drained to the point they now wandered the ether. One day soon, I’d find them and bring them back.

The staff I’d carefully selected would find this group the instant the guards left them. They’d disappear like all the others, spirited back to wherever they’d come from.

Perhaps it was time to stop wiping their memories. If they talked, others would listen. I had no reason to maintain the ruse that they were protected by a treaty any longer.

Since Ivenrail would follow his usual pattern and go to his bed to sleep it off, I flitted back to my sitting area in Weldsbane, where I slumped on the sofa and tipped my head back to stare at the ceiling.

If I wasn’t careful, one day soon, he’d take everything I had left to give, leaving a shell even Tempest couldn’t awaken.

I woke sometime during the night, mostly recovered and knowing that it was time.

I ate something quickly and went to the library, where I strolled around the room, running my fingertip along the book spines. I paused beneath my grandfather’s sword mounted on the wall.

Ghostly memories drifted around me, but whenever I snapped my head in their direction, they teased away, offering me nothing.

Everything I wanted and craved remained just beyond my reach.

Tempest. She was wrapped up in everything that made me who I was. The boy I’d been back then had somehow bridged to the man I was today, one who must desperately love her. If I could only touch what was beyond my reach. Then I could step into the man I could be if we survived whatever was coming.

I needed her. My heart called out to her alone. Loving her was like grappling with lightning, thrilling yet excruciating. My stomach twisted with yearning each time I saw her. It hurt to breathe when she wasn't around, as if the air was lighter and sweeter because she breathed it too.

I was drowning in emotions I couldn’t hold onto long enough to confess them. They ghosted away like the memories of the warmth I’d found here at Weldsbane.

My inability to be the man she needed kept gouging at my throat. If I couldn’t find a way past whatever bound me away from her, I’d lose her.

And that thought gutted me more than anything else.

I was determined to grab onto the memories that my father had stolen along with my power.

Tempest was a woman who would do anything to help those she loved.

She loved me .

I could see it in the sadness shadowing her pretty green eyes and in the way she’d reach for me, only to snap her hand back before touching. Her face would crater with pain that was also just beyond my reach, as if a film or a mist stretched between us, keeping us from experiencing the fullness of our feelings once more.

I tugged the pabrilleen pendant from my pocket, remembering my mother fingering it in her jewelry box before choosing something with more sparkle. That memory remained solid, as did the torturous ones from the king’s dungeon. If only those had been stolen instead of my time with Tempest.

“Why can’t I remember us?” I shouted to the room.

I flitted to the training area, sensing I needed to be there, though I didn’t know why.

And I saw her , though she wasn’t physically here. Bits of wonderful images flashed through my mind. The sound of us training here echoed around me, and with each pulse of our words and our movements, feelings I craved more than anything roared through me.

My love for her was a constant ache, a raw wound that throbbed with each heartbeat. She filled my mind to the brink, leaving no space for anything else. The sheer weight of missing her crushed me, a relentless pressure that would never go away. She was an obsession that gnawed at my soul. Loving her felt like I was being pulled apart from the inside, only to have her put me back together with one touch of her hand or a smile.

I dove to the side and came up in a crouch, straightening while sending her a smile. Damn, I was proud of her. She blazed through my veins with such purity, such emotion. If only I could wrap her in my arms and hold her forever. “You’re getting good.”

“Only good?” She flitted, landing against my chest with her legs around my waist and my grandfather’s blade at my throat, sending me toppling backward. I let her, because I loved when she did this. She was power and raw hunger, and I’d never get my fill.

I slowed our fall, landing neatly, my arms wrapping around her waist. Could I steal a kiss before she tried to gut me? “Such skill with a blade, my storm.” I pinched the tip and dragged it to the side.

“Will I kill him with magic?”

“When it’s time, you’ll know.”

“That’s vague.”

“It’s all I can tell you.”

“Alright. I trust you.”

“Good girl.”

Her lips curled up slyly. “Only a good girl?”

“You’re perfect.” And she was. She was sublime. Utter joy. And the warmth my soul had craved forever.

“Maybe I want to be a bad girl.”

My laugh burst out, stunning us both. “You can be as bad as you want.”

“Later.”

“Definitely.”

In that instant, I felt so much I couldn’t bear it.

When I watched my mother die, the last bit of her leaving while she kept her eyes locked on mine, I swore I’d never let another person touch my soul. If you loved someone, he’d use them. And with each death, more of me would leach away until there was nothing left but a shell he could fill with his malice .

But I loved the woman in my dream above all others. More than my own life. I’d give anything— anything —to protect her.

Mist blasted across the dream, covering it and the feelings, and I jolted back into the person I’d been since she brought me back from the ether.

Cold and unfeeling.

But the longing still crept along the edges of my mind, a pulsating thing that ached for me to consume it.

Frustration roared through me. The feelings were gone as if they’d slipped through my scrambling fingers. Why couldn’t I hold onto them?

I could not— would not —go to her until I could pour out my love for her, until I could feel it blazing across my soul for eternity. It wouldn’t be fair, and if nothing else, I knew it would kill me to hurt her.

Perhaps my memory was coming back. I needed to relax and allow it to happen.

For now, it was time to swallow my court’s core—wrest it away from the monster who’d stolen part of it to claim as his own. This was the inheritance from my mother and every Weldsbane high lord and lady who’d come before me. They watched with ghostly eyes, and I hoped they felt even a tiny spark of approval for what I would soon do.

I dressed in a simple tunic and pants and left all my weapons inside the manor. They wouldn’t be welcome or needed where I was going.

With Tempest’s pabrilleen pendant clutched in my hand, I flitted to the entrance of the vast cavern system networking deep within the Barrenfall Mountain range on one edge of Weldsbane.

Darkness still bathed the world, but where I was going, daylight would not matter.

It was time to enter the home of the trolls.