In the Wake of the Wicked (Veridian Empire #1)

11. Leo

11

Leo

T he bartender slammed three glasses of ale on the table, sending the warm, golden liquid sloshing over the sides and pooling onto the wood. Horace, Chaz, and Lark all grabbed one.

“Drinking on the job?” I asked the latter as I leaned back in my chair, hood lowered over my head.

“It’s my last night of freedom,” Lark reminded me. Spirals of dark curls came loose from her tight bun. “You know how it will get when the Decemvirate starts tomorrow.”

“Yeah, Leo, let her have her fun,” Horace said, stroking his beard with interest, his beady eyes roaming over her rounded curves as she took a large drink of ale.

Setting the glass down, she pursed her lips at him. “My eyes are up here, Blondie.”

I hid a smirk. “Horace, I thought you said the guards had extra rounds now because of the tournament. Shouldn’t you be at the palace?”

“Not till tomorrow, technically.” He chuckled and took a sip, then held his glass out to Lark. “And the one you told me to keep an eye on? She’s feisty. You picked well.”

Chaz glanced at me in confusion, and I narrowed my eyes at Lark and Horace. “What are you talking about? Picked who for what?”

Twisting her lips, Lark said, “I think we should wait until Rissa gets here.”

My muscles tightened in frustration. What was going on? And why had Rissa not told me about it?

The leader of our cloaked group was late for the meeting. Clarissa had asked the four of us—her “trusted advisors,” she jokingly deemed us—to meet at the normal tavern in the south sector one final time before the tournament began. We’d claimed a table in a secluded corner of the Drakin’s Lair, where nothing but the cockroaches gracing the wood floor and the birds perching outside the cracked glass window could hear us.

“I think I see her,” Chaz commented from across the table, peering to his right at the front door of the tavern. It was blown open, letting in a balmy breeze and a glimpse of the night sky beyond. Between the numerous bodies of townspeople drinking and chattering further down the bar, I saw a familiar lithe figure slip among them, a burgundy hood concealing her features. Except…

“Is she limping ?” Lark hissed. I’d noticed her strange movements, too, and my blood heated, momentarily forgetting my irritation with all of them.

Clarissa approached silently and took a seat at the table, lowering her hood to reveal blonde curls, a fair, freckled face, and eyes that gazed back at me with a warning.

Beneath one of her onyx eyes, the twin to my own, was a darkened circle of sickly green and yellow. A mark that had certainly not been there this morning. I gritted my teeth and gripped the corner of the table.

“Before you go off and kill someone, little brother, let me explain,” Rissa said to me, raising her hands.

“There’s nothing to explain , Rissa. Who hurt you?” I snarled, straining to keep my voice low.

“One of the guards saw me shifting as I snuck off palace grounds earlier. He must’ve thought I was from Drakorum and trying to mess with the tournament. Don’t worry—you know I heal fast. The bruise is already almost gone. And besides, he looks worse than I do,” she said with a smirk.

Next to me, Horace’s body stiffened. I knew how uncomfortable he was with being part of the emperor's Royal Guard, with their elitist attitude and violent reputation hanging over him everywhere he went. But he was a good man. He’d joined the Guard many years ago, when he was too young to see how corrupt the emperor’s hold had grown. Over time, however, his eyes had been opened.

He told us how he’d witnessed countless beatings of innocent civilians, how the Royal Guard would often accept coin in exchange for letting crimes slip through the cracks. How they intentionally turned a blind eye to the seedier areas of Veridia City, such as the south sector the Drakin’s Lair resided in, because it was heavily populated with provincers. Many residents here were forced to sleep with blunt knives beneath their pillows or tucked into their waistbands when wandering the streets. They, like myself, had learned long ago to never expect safety from our dear emperor.

It hadn’t always been this way. But most of us were too young to remember a time before.

Horace had experienced this injustice firsthand when he’d been foolish enough to try and approach Emperor Gayl with his concerns. He had been threatened with removal from the Guard’s ranks should he continue questioning their methods. Though he’d never spoken of it, every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of lacerations peeking beneath his clothing, crawling up his neck and down his shoulders.

Whip marks. All because he had the courage to speak his mind.

That was when he found us.

The Sentinels, a group of Veridians who sought peace and justice and weren’t afraid to use an occasional blade to accomplish it. Adding a member of the Royal Guard to our numbers had been a stroke of luck; it gave us inside access to some of the most important people and resources in the empire, as well as eyes on any suspicious activity within the palace walls.

Horace looked like someone you wouldn’t want to cross, with his towering frame, his unruly blonde hair, and eyes that gleamed with savagery. Yet beneath the hard exterior was a man of few words who wanted to do right by his people, who would gladly give his life for those he called a friend.

While I was hard pressed to bestow much honor to the Fates after what they’d done in my life—in all our lives—bringing Horace to us was one thing I would always be thankful for.

“Told you it wasn’t wise to go sneaking around there this close to the tournament,” Horace commented gruffly. At the same time, Lark stood from her chair and rounded on Rissa, her frustration and concern both evident as she examined the injury.

“He’s right—everyone is on high alert right now,” Lark agreed.

“I’m fine, Lark, honestly.” Rissa waved her away. “More upset that he messed up my pretty face than anything else. You might actually be the better looking twin tonight,” my sister said, shooting me a wink. I put an elbow on the table and squeezed the bridge of my nose. Only she could find humor in physical assault.

“It’s not funny, Rissa. You need to be careful. If they find out what you’re doing…” I trailed off, the air suddenly heavy with tension.

When my sister decided to create the Sentinels over five years ago, we never imagined what it would grow to. A network of at least two hundred spies scattered through the capital, plus many in each province, all connected through one purpose: ending Gayl’s rule and bringing harmony to the empire, regardless of magic or background.

If Gayl caught Rissa or myself where we didn’t belong, he’d find some reason for execution simply because of who we were. Who our parents were. But the fact that Rissa was also actively leading a group of people in committing treason against him…

He would have her head mounted on his wall in a heartbeat .

My sister and I had gone our entire lives looking out for one another in the midst of a cruel world that hated us for what we were born into. The number of times I’d seen Rissa come home battered and bruised still made my hackles rise. One look at the mark on her eye and the wince on her face as she crossed her leg under the table made the Shifter half of my blood stir while a growl built in the back of my throat.

Without knowing what I was doing, something long slipped from beneath my cloak and flicked angrily in the air.

“Hey,” Rissa said softly, putting a hand on my knee. “I’m okay. Trust me, alright? I’ve had worse—it will heal.” When she gave me her beautiful crooked smile, my chest constricted. She looked so much like our mother.

The closest people left to me in this world, and one was lying in a sickbed while the other was trying to save the empire. Two of the strongest women I’d ever known, both fighting for their lives in very different ways.

Rissa asked me to trust her. And I did. But that didn’t make it any easier. It didn’t make her pain any less hard to watch.

“Leo, put that away before someone sees,” Lark scolded from across the table, motioning to the tail still twitching in anticipation. I hastily tucked it under my cloak as my anger began to cool, and the memory of why we were here came rushing back.

“So, what is it you three have been hiding?” I asked Horace, Lark, and Rissa in an even tone, rapping my fingers on the tabletop.

My sister sighed. “We’re not hiding anything. There’s a…sensitive mission Lark has been working on. But it’s finally been set into motion.”

“A mission? Why wasn’t I made aware of this?” My sister may be the unspoken leader, but she had always confided in me. Always looked to me for support. It had been her and me for so long, ever since our father died and our mother took ill.

With a wince at the betrayal in my tone, Rissa said, “Well…you do know about it. Just not everything.” She motioned toward Lark, as if to say, “your turn.”

Lark straightened in her seat, looking to the side to be sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. We weren’t too concerned about the kind of patrons that frequented the Drakin’s Lair overhearing our conversation; for the most part, everyone minded their own business here in the underbelly of the capital. If anyone did hear, they were more than likely already connected to the Sentinels or would have no qualms with a rebellion against the emperor. It was why we met at this location so often. Still, one could never be too safe.

“It’s about Gayl,” Lark started, and my jaw ticked involuntarily. “We’ve had definitive proof for some time now that his spell created the Somnivae curse all those years ago, as you know.”

I nodded. For a while, the entire empire was convinced Branock Aris had cast the curse—some still were. But when he died fifteen years ago, questions arose. We had tracked down a healer who had been there the night the curse began and got her firsthand account of what happened. How Gayl had saved Evadine Aris’ life with what the healer believed was dark magic. That’s what finally solidified our theories that Theodore Gayl was the one behind it all.

Lark continued. “Locating his Grimoire has been our biggest obstacle, not to mention somehow getting him to reverse the spell.”

I interrupted her with a growl. “I’ve told you, let me try. I’m the only Alchemist here, I can?—”

“ Half Alchemist, Leo, and as I’ve told you , that’s out of the question,” Rissa interjected.

I bristled. “You can’t sneak around without telling anyone and get yourself caught by palace guards, then force me to stay in the dark.”

“I can, and I will. Unless you’d like to challenge me?” Rissa’s voice hardened, her black pupils elongating slightly as her eyes took on a golden tinge—a sign of her imminent shift. A powerful leader ready to stake her claim .

Sometimes, I forgot exactly who my sister was. What she was born to be.

I held her gaze, grinding my teeth. She knew full well I wasn’t going to challenge her for leadership; I respected her too much. But that didn’t mean I had to approve of her running headfirst into danger any chance she got, nor that I was pleased with being excluded from plans while my constant request to do something was once again ignored.

“If you two are finished, can I continue?” Lark’s sharp voice broke our stare. She cleared her throat. “I had already found someone for the job. An acclaimed Alchemist from Feywood. We’ve been in contact for the past eighteen months, working to get him here for the Decemvirate so he could get close enough to find the emperor’s Grimoire. From there, we had a plan to figure out what we needed to do to reverse his curse.”

“ Had ?” Chaz asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Lark’s dark features twisted into a grimace. “We hit an…obstacle. But I think I’ve found a solution.”

“It involves someone in the tournament. That’s all you need to know,” Rissa jumped in. “Horace knows because he’ll be inside the palace and can watch over them and relay messages if needed. But the less people who are aware of the details, the more likely we’ll be able to keep this task out of prying minds.”

Frustration roared back in full force. Lark and my sister had been planning this for eighteen months without me? Was Rissa truly this intent on keeping me from it? On refusing my petition to sneak into the palace and steal Gayl’s Grimoire myself? Or perhaps it was because she had so little faith in my ability to be successful. Half Alchemist, as she had thrown at me.

Her fair features softened as she took in my reaction. “Leo, I promise this isn’t about you. You know I trust you more than anyone. This is about keeping the mission and all involved safe. The more people who know, the higher chance something slips.”

I ran my thumb along my lower lip, willing myself to hold my resolve against that face she always made. The one that would have me handing over my piece of cake when we were kids because she begged for it. The one with the big, sad eyes, the slight pout of the lip, the batting eyelashes.

“You’re impossible,” I grunted, and she beamed. Fates, I could never stay mad at her for long. “But how do you know you can trust this person, whoever it is?” I pressed. “How do you know they’re capable of doing the job?”

Sneaking around the palace for any reason, much less to locate Gayl’s personal Grimoire under his very nose, wasn’t a feat most people could take on. It was why we hadn’t succeeded thus far. A few Sentinels had volunteered a couple years ago, and they had ended up either victims of Gayl’s guards or dead by their own hands, unwilling to risk betraying the rest of the rebellion if subjected to torture and questioning.

Too many lives had been lost for this cause. Each time, I urged Rissa to let me try. And each time, I was denied. Was this mysterious spy simply going to be another tally added to the list? Or who was to say they wouldn’t betray us for favor with the emperor, or lose their nerve?

Lark’s lips thinned. “Let’s just say they have a vested interest in things going our way. As for being capable, only time will tell. But they’ve been highly vouched for by someone I know and trust. Horace and I will do our best to keep them as safe as we can inside the palace.”

I knew by the look on her and Rissa’s faces that there was no point in arguing. While the two of them may believe this was a good plan, the idea of placing this responsibility into the hands of a stranger made me uneasy. Outing Theodore Gayl as the Alchemist behind the Somnivae curse and finding the spell he’d used to cast it was essential to ending his reign. We had to remind the people how much better this empire could be when out from under his thumb. How it had once been. That Veridians should be united again, without fear of crossing borders or suffering attacks for being different or staying silent because you knew no one would care. It was perhaps the most important task we’d ever have, and we were handing it over to someone most of us had never met.

The small, selfish, prideful side of me couldn’t help but think it should be me risking my life to bring Gayl down. It was a vow I’d made to myself all those years ago when our father died: vengeance on the man who had ripped the legacy from my father’s name and the crown from his head.

Rissa turned to me, seeming to read my thoughts no matter how hard I tried to cover them. She tilted her head, a mass of blonde curls trailing down her side. The bruise on her eye was nothing more than a shadow now, the healing powers of her Shifter blood working quickly.

“Come on, little brother,” she said, a sly grin pulling at her lips. “Look at the bright side. After all these years, don’t you think it’s about time we avenged our parents?”

Chaz lifted his glass, and the others followed. “To Branock and Evadine Aris.”

His murmured toast echoed from the lips of our friends, and I met my sister’s gaze. The firstborn to Emperor Branock Aris. Her black eyes tinged with gold held such power, such cunning determination, that it caused resolve to thicken inside of me.

Yes, it was about time.

And when the person Lark had selected to infiltrate the emperor failed, I would be ready.

It was time for Theodore Gayl to burn.