Blood of Two Crowns (Hallowed Fates #2)

Chapter 31

Chapter

Thirty-One

NAKOA

I couldn’t help but be impressed when Keres successfully folded my entire olana kah’hei, Rumiel, Zurie, Malekai, and a whole boat to the Kahlohani Islands. Zurie wore a tight expression as she stepped up beside me. “Your court will want you killed for this. The Lords and Ladies…”

“ My court,” I remind her, gesturing to my olana kah’hei, “ would do no such thing. Your court is welcome to try, but I doubt they’ve already forgotten that I was the one killing them .”

Zurie nodded, some of the tension draining from her body, and stepped back into Keres’ arms. My gaze drifted to my olana kah’hei, and all of their eyes were already fixed on me and shining with unmistakable pride.

Pomona stepped forward, placing her small yet calloused hand on my chest. “You did it.”

I curled my fingers around her palm, my chest filling with overwhelming gratitude and love. It eased some of the crushing pain in my chest that Mareina wasn’t here with me to witness this. The culmination of all the sacrifice and suffering swelled in Pomona’s eyes as she looked up at me, and I felt mine burn in response.

“We did it,” I whispered between us.

She gave me a watery smile, causing a tear to descend the apple of her rosy, freckled cheek. I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of her head before giving the rest of my olana kah’hei a nod of gratitude. Sending a prayer up to Akash in gratitude for them, I also asked that I would one day be able to do for them everything they’d done for me. For our cause.

I turned to find Malekai waiting by the rail of the quarterdeck, staring out at the wasteland that had become the Kahlohani Islands with a dour expression.

Earlier, I’d accompanied him, Rumiel, Keres, and Zurie to lead a group of our soldiers to each of the islands to evacuate and free the remaining slaves. I’d wanted Zurie to see firsthand what she’d done. The poverty, the hunger, the mostly barren and rotting land, the gaunt look in everyone’s eyes- including the fae she had running the islands and enforcing her slavery.

Some of them had been happy to pledge their allegiance to me, even if it meant serving out sentences of indentured servitude in mines for as long as three decades, depending on how long and how much they’d aided in enforcing the slavery on my islands. A few of them, however, had taken one look at me and my demon-esque features and vehemently refused.

Mareina’s words, spoken not so long ago, echoed in my mind.

“… If you want true loyalty, you will help them.”

But as I’d looked them in their hate-filled eyes, I also realized that there were some who didn’t want to be helped. I dealt them mercifully swift deaths and fed the beasts of the Kahlohani seas with their corpses.

Throughout all of this, I’d anticipated a cool indifference from her. Instead, Rumiel and I had felt remorse and anguish pouring off her in waves.

My pity for her, however, remained rather nonexistent. What else did she expect? What had she thought slavery would look like? Did she think exploiting the land, overharvesting, and leaching the soil of all of its nutrients wouldn’t kill the island itself?

Even Keres had worn a torn, but no doubt admonishing look on her face.

This was my first time returning to the islands since the war. I knew things were horrific, but seeing it all first-hand after so many years… Words could not describe the simmering rage burning in my chest. It made me want to kill Zurie all over again.

She’s the only one who can open the portal.

I hadn’t even asked her yet how. And I didn’t care so long as she did it.

“Are you ready?” I asked, approaching Malekai from behind. He turned to face me, unmistakable guilt weighing his expression.

“I’m sorry, Nakoa.”

I nodded, taking in his pained expression. “I know.”

While he hadn’t outrightly enforced the slavery here, he’d still served Zurie in nearly all the ways she’d asked. As had Mareina. Apparently, it was easy for most people to ignore what remained unseen. It had worked in Zurie’s favor that the islands were far enough away to remain out of sight and out of mind from anyone who might otherwise care where aetra came from.

Malekai stepped towards me. “I have no excuse, and I know there’s nothing I can do to make it right, but for what it’s worth, for the first time in my life, I have conviction and faith in the King I am serving, and I will do everything within my power to do you and our people justice.”

The tension and anger that had taken hold of every taught muscle in my body, lessened, even if only a little. Appreciation for this male blossomed further in my chest and I gave him a nod in acceptance.

Malekai turned and stepped onto the railing of the quarterdeck, willed away his clothes to give us all an unabashed view of his golden backside before stepping off the railing.

I found myself holding my breath in that slip of a moment when he plummeted through the air and disappeared from view, returning a moment later as a gargantuan beast. The beat of his wings blew my hair back, tangling it in the crown he’d so easily convinced me to wear. Thick, lethal-looking horns and ridges ran in two rows across the top of his head and down his neck. His turquoise and gold scales glittered so fiercely beneath the sun I was forced to squint. My hand absently rubbed at the golden scale he’d set into a bracelet that he’d gifted me for protection.

The sight of his drakonati soaring through the air was nothing short of breathtaking, and for a moment, the world fell away as I stared in awe. Rumiel stepped up beside me, giving me a nod of affirmation and radiating pride. “You make me proud beyond words.”

My breath caught at his words, lancing a sweet, sharp pain straight through my heart. At that, his wings unfurled, and he took to the air.

A moment later, my wings stretched wide and beat powerfully to lift me into the air. I hovered there for several moments, overcome with overwhelming emotions, as I took in the sight of so many of my hopes and dreams culminating before my very eyes.

My affection for the male I’d once hated soared to new heights as I watched Malekai set the world on fire.