The Broken Kingdoms of Osvolta (Kingdoms of Osvolta #1)

46. Not Worthy of a Promise

Chapter forty-six

Not Worthy of a Promise

S olveig may as well have slept on the hard, damp floors of the dungeons for all the sleep she managed in her bed that night. She’d tossed and turned for hours. Even the calming draught hidden in the wall didn’t help. Once the inexplicable, soothing warmth of the prince’s presence had faded, her mind refused to quiet. Plagued by thoughts of the boy she was to slaughter.

Could he be innocent?

Was his only crime his relation to a known—and now dead—anti-magicist?

The same man who was her last official execution at the mine.

No, there had to be more than that. Sending an innocent man to Luxenal was one thing but slaughtering them in front of the entire city. Would her family stoop so low to protect themselves?

How many of those she had committed to early graves had truly been guilty? Did she want to know? She had a mind to storm straight to the prince’s room and confront him for the part he had played in the softening of her heart. Despite her best efforts, she’d allowed his kind eyes and warm smiles to penetrate her shadows. Deep enough, she was sure she’d never be free of him.

A knock sounded at the door, followed by Teris’s swift entry. The usual breakfast tray wheeled in behind her, but in place of a pretty dress. Today she carried Solveig’s black leathers, the costume of the Reaper.

“Good morning, ma’am,” Teris said, as she laid the outfit across the chaise. “You’re wanted in the grand hall after breakfast.” She brought a dressing robe for Solveig to slip into. Stomach churning, she walked over to the breakfast set up, knowing she would have to eat to keep up her waning strength.

The king and queen had chosen her because they wanted a show, and that meant the boy would have to die by Solveig’s magic and not her blades. She would need all the strength she could get to sustain it.

She watched as Teris poured her a steaming cup of coffee. Mixing it with honey syrup and lavender milk, as she dug into a bowl of porridge dressed in autumnal berries and dusted with cinnamon sugar. It warmed the freezing, aching parts of her that surreptitiously longed for the prince’s touch.

She dressed quickly, the black suit fitting like a glove before Teris braided her hair into a bun. With each button, clasp and scrape of steel she donned, the wraith stirred in her mind, falling into a stoic mask, gaze utterly blank and unfeeling.

Solveig stalked the castle passageways, every inch the reaper. Once she arrived before the doors to the great hall, she took one last steadying breath. Locking away the princess whose heart the prince had softened, before swinging the doors open with her head held high.

Ice-cold water splashed violently across his face, biting the tip of his nose and the edges of his mouth. Prince Emmerich shot up in his now sodden bed, cursing under his breath.

“What the fuck?” He grimaced, wiping the icy liquid from his sleep drawn eyes.

“Get up.” Teris tossed a robe at him.

“Teris?”

“Where were you last night?”

“Out.”

“Doing what?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“I swear to the heavens if you have jeopardised your family.”

“What Teris?” Emmerich snapped, standing from his bed. “What are you going to do? You forget that the only thing keeping me alive here is their belief that I am the sole heir to Elithiend. They won’t risk open war by locking me up or worse.”

“These are the same people who turned their daughter into the perfect weapon. They ordered her to kill innocents for years. They would care little about adding your name to her roster.”

The prince hesitated, and Teris, sensing the weak spot, lunged for it. “Tell me, Prince, do you think Solveig would hesitate? If it were your life or hers, do you think she would hesitate to kill you?”

Emmerich stared at her in silence, because truthfully, he didn’t know. He and the princess had formed an uneasy alliance. He cared for her despite knowing it was unwise, but he didn’t know where her heart truly lay. Could only assume that she would act the same as him. If taking her out meant saving himself, saving his kingdom, if there were truly no other choice, then no, he wouldn’t hesitate, he would do it. As would she.

“I’m going to take that as a no,” Teris surmised, “and yet last night you were reckless. You think I don’t know what you were up to, but I do. Wrenn talks in her sleep, Your Highness.” She stabbed a finger in the centre of his chest. “I said to get to know her, not put everything on the line for her. She, who wouldn’t only watch the lights leave your eyes. She’d be the one stealing them.”

Emmerich went on the defensive at the harsh truth in her words. “Why are you in here at the break of fucking dawn telling me all of this?” he snapped.

“Because you’ve already risked everything to get that book, you’re hiding under the pillow.” Her eyes flashed over to his bed. “You should at least put it to some use.”

Emmerich eyed Teris, his brow wrinkled beneath the mess of curls, heart thudding in his chest. “What do you know?”

Teris stood rigid, tension leaking through her voice, “that she’s going to be in council with the king and queen all morning.” She hesitated at the forlorn look on the prince’s face before continuing. “You’ll have one window of opportunity to get information to her.”

Emmerich scrambled for the book so he could start reading.

“You have two hours,” Teris muttered, and he stared at her dumbfounded, head shaking slowly. Two hours wasn’t enough time to read and decipher a book large enough to be a doorstop.

“She’ll go to the temple via carriage then. I can get you inside, and you’ll have however long it takes to get down to the temple to tell her what you know.” She eyed the thick tome in his hands. “You better start reading.”

Solveig walked two steps behind King Emerson and Queen Asta as they headed out of the castle. Killian would meet them at the square shortly before the event. Whereas they were heading to the temple for The Oracle’s blessing. The scent of snow, pine and stagnant water drifted across her nose, carried along by the northern wind.

Teris waited beside her carriage to assist her inside, but she was to travel alone. “Good luck, ma’am,” Teris said, not meeting her gaze. It seemed even her closest attendant could not reconcile with her today. Solveig took her offered hand and stepped into the carriage.

No sooner had the door snicked shut, a hand clamped over her mouth. Solveig jerked, whipping a dagger from her holster, flipping it deftly to gut the fucker who dared come after her. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Was this why Teris couldn’t meet her gaze? Had she known someone was in here, waiting for her? A firm hand grabbed her wrist before she could slice into their abdomen.

“You’ve a funny way of greeting your friends, Princess.”

Solveig’s heart practically stopped in her chest as the warm voice caressed her ear. If the spark travelling up her arm hadn’t given it away, his smooth whisky voice did. She nipped lightly at the hand covering her mouth, and he slowly moved it away.

“You’re the one lurking in the shadows of an empty carriage. What was I supposed to think?”

“I thought, perhaps, Teris had warned you.”

“When would she have done that exactly, and more to the point, why would she? How long have you been conspiring with my attendant, Prince?”

“Long enough to get her to believe I’m on your side.”

“That is impressive, since even I’m not sure that you are.”

He stiffened slightly behind her. “We’ll discuss that later. Right now, there isn’t much time.” The carriage shook beneath them as they travelled onward.

“Time for what?”

“I think I can prove the boy is innocent.”

“You think, or you know?”

“I know.”

“Go on.”

“I think The Oracle is draining your powers.”

Solveig laughed in his face. “No shit, Prince, tell me something I don’t know.”

“What?” he demanded, a little too loudly in his confusion.

Solveig sighed, leaning back against the plush velvet bench seat. “Every time we use our magic, our cuffs siphon off trace amounts of it that we then offer to The Oracle as a gift for the continued peace that we enjoy.”

Emmerich only stared at her in stunned silence for a moment. “When were you going to share this detail?”

“It wasn’t something you needed to know.”

“Even you can’t be that bloody dense.”

“Excuse me,” Solveig’s eyes narrowed.

“You wear magic cuffs that steal your powers and still you wonder why some family lines are weakening or losing it all together?”

“Those losing powers have never been our concern, Prince, only the ones who are dying horrible, bloody deaths. But here’s the thing,” she whispered, encroaching on his space. “Lord Aldrik, Duchess Xanthe, and the rest. They have attributed all those deaths to poisoning. That has nothing to do with The Oracle.”

“And what if that isn’t it, Solveig? What if it is the cuffs?”

“Stop!” she cried. “The Oracle has been nothing but good to us. You’re asking me to walk into their house and blaspheme them for all to see to save my own neck, when you still have no proof.”

“But you will take a man’s life to save yourself.” He said solemnly, shaking his head. “Maybe you are a lost cause.”

Emmerich heard her sharp intake of breath as his words hit her. He regretted hurting her. The thought alone was abhorrent, but he wouldn’t take the words back. Harsh as they were, she needed to hear them.

Solveig stared at him and found the same hurt in his eyes that she was sure lay in her own. “You won’t even try, will you,” he continued, “you’re going to go along with it, because that’s the easy choice.”

“Easy?” she sputtered. “No, it’s the only choice.” She could almost feel her heart cracking in her chest, as she fought to lock it up tight to prevent further damage.

“You know that isn’t true,” he pressed, crowding her space now. “Deep down I know you do.”

The carriage came to a stop then. “We’re done here.”

“Looks that way,” he muttered, and Solveig shook her head in resigned disappointment, tearing her gaze away from him.

“For what it’s worth,” she whispered, “I’m grateful that you tried, even if it was hopeless, and I’m sorry I wasn’t worthy of your promise.”