Blood of Two Crowns (Hallowed Fates #2)

Chapter 35

Chapter

Thirty-Five

NAKOA

M y heart pounded an erratic beat as my gut twisted with anxiety and guilt. I was asking too much. I knew I was. And it will undoubtedly lead to the death of hundreds if not thousands, according to the sole vision I’d had since I’d awoken from my coma. Yet another reason I’d been so eager to leap through that portal without following through with our plan.

It had been merely days since my coronation, and I was already trying to send my army into what would likely turn into a war.

That you may not survive, my logical mind helpfully reminded me as a memory of the vision depicting a sea of rotting corpses returned to my mind.

Hours had passed since we’d opened the portal, and still nothing had come through it, as far as we knew. It was just… there. Maybe on Vassileo’s side of it, it also appeared to just be a strange, black, vaporous hole in the fabric of reality, and nothing dared to enter it. It didn’t exactly look welcoming. Maybe the portal had opened up in some remote cave in the mountains where no one would find it.

And we couldn’t ask Zurie about it because she was, as far as we knew, still unconscious. Rumiel, who I hadn’t even known possessed healing magic, had been able to close the wounds on her throat and arm, but she’d looked pretty dead when Keres had folded away with her, cursing the day I was born. Our only hint that Zurie was still alive was the fact that Keres hadn’t shown up to try and kill us all.

And despite all of that, my olana kah’hei had imparted all manner of encouraging words to me, but somehow, only what Malekai had to say managed to set me at ease.

The male had watched me pace a crater into the dirt outside the doors to the coliseum that housed the training arena, where our soldiers spent much of their time training, before finally venturing inside. When he noted the rigidity of my body and the tremor in my hands as the weight of a thousand gazes beat upon our faces, he approached my side and bowed before requesting a private audience with me.

Amusement flickered on his features as he straightened and met my gaze. That was all it took for my tension to begin bleeding away. His voice took on a dramatic and reverent tone, gesturing me towards an empty hallway.

“Your Majesty.”

My olana kah’hai did an impressive job of holding back their snickers. I had to bite my cheek until it bled to stifle my chuckle.

“I’m gonna punch you in the dick as soon as we leave here,” I murmured in a voice only he could hear. Malekai chuckled as our backs finally turned to the arena. “No need to threaten me with a good time.”

We rounded the corner and stepped into an empty locker room nearby. Malekai looked me up and down, taking in my crown and the new clothing that Bernard had made for me—w ithout frills.

“It suits you, ya know…”

At his words, I finally exhaled the breath I’d been holding. His eyes dipped again to my unsteady hands as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“I’m asking too much of them. I know it. Why did I ever think I could do this? I’m a fool. I haven’t earned their loyalty. Their trust. I can’t even?—

“—Hey Nakoa…”

I heaved a heavy sigh, eventually looking up from where I’d buried my face in my hand. “Yes?”

“Can I borrow your crown for a minute?”

“ Huh? ”

He nodded at the crown on my head. “Your crown. Pass it to me. There’s some fluff in it.”

Fluff?

“Oh… Thanks.” I removed it from my head, feeling like I’d simultaneously liberated the weight of the world from my shoulders as I handed it to him.

Malekai gifted me another one of his disarmingly charming smiles, as he took the crown and set it down on a nearby bench before he turned to face me again.

“And your… cape-thingy, please.”

What the hell is going on?

“My cape-thingy?”

“Yeah, turn around. I think there’s a shit stain on it.”

I reared back, twisting to try and look down at the offending garment in horror. “A shit stain?”

Malekai’s mouth trembled with restrained laughter. “Yep, just there.”

He unfastened the cape from my shoulders and turned to set the cape down beside my crown.

“What the fuck is going?”

When Malekai turned back towards me, his fist made a beeline for my face, and I was too shocked and stunned to do a damn thing about it. I stumbled backwards, crashing into a set of lockers behind me. I gaped at him in shock, chest heaving. Was this revenge for yesterday?

Malekai grinned, widening his stance and beckoned me forward. “One for one. Come on. Don’t hold back on me now, fancy pants.”

My heart squeezed so fucking tight with love for this male.

He was distracting me.

When I rose from the dented mess of lockers, Malekai’s feral grin was a mirror to my own. “How did you know violence was my language?”

Malekai’s smiling face scrunched up in a wince of anticipation as he watched my fist come sailing towards him. Another loud crash rang through the locker room as Malekai’s body collided with the lockers beside him. Blood trickled into his left eye as a bought of hearty laughter rumbled out of him.

“Awe fuck, mate. Again? Already?”

I glanced over my shoulder to find Val, along with the rest of my olana kah’hei, pouring into the locker room. I waved them off as Malekai accepted my offered hand and I pulled him to standing. “We’re fine.”

I felt more than heard Pomona’s admonishing scowl. “You’re both bleeding.”

Malekai’s laughter slowed enough for him to speak as he gave Pomona a bloody but no less dazzling grin. “Be a lamb and close the door, would you?”

Excitement flooded my veins as I braced myself for Malekai’s next punch, sucking on the blood from my split lip just before Malekai’s fist connected with my jaw. I stumbled backwards again, falling against the lockers as my head spun and raucous laughter consumed me.

Roderick giggled, and even Rumiel’s and Rayne’s lips twitched in amusement.

Pomona shook her head, giving us her most maternally admonishing look. “You’re both insane.”

Lokus’ eye’s bounced between us, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “This locker room smells worse than an unwashed asshole. If you’re gonna trap us in here, the least you could do is make it worth it. None of this tit-for-tat nonsense. I want a real fight. Between real males…”

Something silent passed between us when Malekai’s eyes met mine as I peeled myself from the lockers.

Our wild grins widened.

“And those can only ever end one way, boys…,” Lokus continued.

Malekai and I turned to look at him as he nodded and gave us a stern look. “With someone’s dick in your mouth.”

Silence fell between us for a brief moment before the group of us erupted in laughter. Val smacked Lokus on the back of his head, who had the audacity to look affronted. “What? Don’t you, of all people, try to tell me you wouldn’t buy tickets to that show.”