The Shadow Queen (14 page)

Lorelai’s voice was grim. “You made the mistake of believing Irina cared about the fate of her people.”

“Yes.” Kol reached up and ran a finger along the thistle and bone collar that wrapped around his throat. “She made a counteroffer.”

“My life for the life of your people.” Lorelai held his gaze and dared him to justify his choice.

“No.” He shook his head. “She told me to return you to the castle. That’s all I agreed to do. But then she required a blood oath, and she changed the wording to say that I agreed to do whatever she asked of me—”

“You made a blood oath with Irina?” Lorelai asked sharply.
“Do you have any idea what she can do to you if she thinks you failed to uphold your end of the bargain?”

Kol’s shoulders drew back, his chin lifted, and suddenly he looked every inch a king. “I die. Horribly. Which is why I’m asking for your promise to show mercy to Eldr.”

Jyn’s face paled, and she stepped forward. “Kol—”

“I’m not going to hold up my end of the bargain,” Kol said. His expression was resolute. “I’m not going to cut out the princess’s heart and give it to Irina. Which means Eldr still needs someone to save it from the ogres.”

“It means you’ll die,” Lorelai said, “and Eldr will be without a king.”

“Better that than for Eldr to have a murderer on the throne.” He knelt before her and touched his forehead in a gesture of fealty. “I have nothing to offer you. I will spare your life no matter what your answer. But I beg you to use your magic to stop the ogres in Eldr and save my people.”

“You aren’t going to die,” Jyn said, her small frame vibrating with anger. “I’ll kill the girl myself, and—”

“Try it, and you’ll have a sword through your heart before you can even finish shifting,” Gabril held his blade steady.

“You can’t kill two dragons in one blow, human,” Trugg sounded furious. “And if you want to hurt either Jyn or my king, you’ll have to go through me.”

“This is the only way.” Kol sounded stoic, but his hands trembled, and Lorelai could see the fear in his eyes as he looked at her. “Please. Promise me you’ll save Eldr.”

The others erupted into arguments and protests while Lorelai’s thoughts raced. If she promised to help Kol with her magic
and let him die for betraying his blood oath, Irina would know that her huntsman had failed, and she’d search for another way to find the princess. Lorelai didn’t need the distraction of staying one step ahead of the queenwhen what she really wanted to do was put into place her plan to honor Leo and take Irina down.

She needed a way to make Irina believe Kol had succeeded in killing the princess. If Irina believed Lorelai was dead, she’d send her magic through the used-up, dying Ravenspire ground into Eldr, which might weaken the queen, and that would give Lorelai an advantage she couldn’t afford to pass up.

She studied Kol, his eyes full of determination and regret, his spine straight though his hands shook, and admitted that while she was furious with his choices, she couldn’t truly blame him for them. She didn’t like him, but he didn’t deserve to die for Irina’s treachery.

“All of you, be quiet. Quiet!” Lorelai whipped her hands into the air, and white light blazed in her palms. Jyn’s mouth snapped shut. Gabril hefted his sword a bit higher and watched his princess. Trugg stared at her hands and whispered a curse.

“Nobody is going to die,” Lorelai said. “And Irina is going to honor her side of the blood oath. Now listen carefully. I have a plan.”

K
OL WATCHED
L
ORELAI
pace the clearing, her bird swiveling its head to maintain eye contact with him no matter where the girl went. Skies, the bird’s unblinking gaze was creepy. He looked away from the gyrfalcon and asked, “What kind of plan do you have?”

“We’re going to trick Irina,” Lorelai said without looking at him.

“That’s suicide,” Jyn said, her voice rising. “At least for Kol. Nobody tricks a
mardushka
—”

“Except another
mardushka
.” The princess gave Jyn a look that would’ve made a lesser Draconi tremble.

The gyrfalcon caught Kol’s gaze and snapped its beak at him, its intentions clear. He did his best to ignore the bird, but he couldn’t ignore the mess he was in. He had been reluctantly willing to honor his blood oath when he’d thought Irina was Eldr’s only salvation. But he wasn’t going to kill the girl who’d saved his life. And he wasn’t convinced she could trick Irina.
He appreciated her attempt to once again spare his life—the thought of dying made his hearts ache miserably—but what he really needed was the princess’s promise to help Eldr. He had no leverage, nothing to offer, but he’d seen the rage in her eyes when she realized he’d been in Nordenberg helping Irina the day her brother was killed. He’d seen the sparks of power glowing in her palms as she stalked toward him while he was defenseless.

And he’d seen the moment she pulled back from her rage and decided to let him live long enough to explain.

The furious man with the sword who watched Kol every bit as closely as the bird did was right. Lorelai was a threat who held her power in restraint because she was just. She was kind. She was committed to doing the right thing, even when it cost her.

He had to make her believe that helping Eldr was the right thing.

“How do you plan to trick Irina?” the man with the sword asked without lowering his weapon.

“And what will it cost Kol if you fail?” Jyn snapped.

The princess lifted her chin. “If the trick fails, he’ll pay with his life. It’s the same price he was willing to take from me.”

“He doesn’t deserve to die,” Trugg said.

“Neither do I. Neither did my brother.” Lorelai’s tone dared anyone to argue with her. “But Irina doesn’t care about any of that. She only cares about power. And because of the blood oath, she owns Kol.”

Lorelai looked at the man with the sword. “I have to test a theory before I know if this plan will work. Gabril, I’ll need your help.”

The man nodded and limped carefully across the wreckage of
the trees Kol had destroyed as he’d chased the princess through the forest. As he walked past Kol, Gabril said quietly, “Don’t let the bad leg fool you, son. If you hurt my princess, I will be the nightmare you never see coming.”

“I understand the lengths we’ll go to protect those we love,” Kol said. He didn’t add that those lengths were what had put them all in this situation to begin with. Or that he wasn’t through fighting for Eldr.

The older man studied him for a moment, his expression unreadable, and then the princess said, “Gabril, let’s get started.”

Gabril turned from Kol and approached the princess as her bird lifted from her shoulder and flew into the sky.

“Where’s Sasha going?” Gabril asked.

“Hunting.” The princess turned to face Kol as Jyn and Trugg flanked him, their arms crossed over their chests and their expressions grim. “A
mardushka
uses her magic by calling to the heart of the thing she touches. Every heart feels a little different—the best way I can describe it is that it feels like the characteristics of the person, animal, or thing I’m touching. I’m going to see if I can trick my magic into believing the heart I hold is Gabril’s.”

“Whose heart do you plan on holding?” Kol asked, half afraid the answer would be his, though he thought he was far enough away from her to have a chance at shifting before she could hit him with her magic.

“An animal’s,” the princess said. Sasha returned, carrying the limp carcass of a rabbit in her beak. She swooped past the Eldrians and smacked Trugg in the head with the rabbit’s body as she passed.

“Stupid bird,” he muttered as he scrubbed a hand over his hair.

“My bird can drive her beak straight through your neck and into your artery in less time that it takes for you to draw a weapon, and she already dislikes you intensely. If I were you, I’d do my best not to antagonize her any further,” Lorelai said.

“I thought the bird obeyed you,” Trugg said.

“Better not antagonize me either.” Lorelai knelt as Sasha laid the rabbit at her feet.

“I’ll have you know that I am a Draconi warrior who graduated from the academy with honors befitting a warrior who— Oh skies, that’s disturbing.”

Trugg fell silent as Sasha tore the rabbit’s chest wide open with one strike. Her second strike ripped the heart free, and then the bird cocked her head and glared at the Eldrians, blood dripping from her beak.

“I see your point,” Trugg said.

The princess held out her hand, and Sasha deposited the rabbit heart on her palm.

“Can you tell it was a rabbit’s heart?” Kol asked, stepping forward despite the forbidding look the princess aimed at him.

It was his fate on the line. His life, his kingdom. He had to see the magic at work for himself.

Brilliant white light shot from her palms and surrounded the heart. “It feels like a rabbit.”

“I should think so,” Jyn said.

The princess stared at the heart. “No, I mean the essence of the heart is very . . . rabbitlike. Arrow-quick thoughts, wariness, and speed. It would never pass for human, even if the size and
shape were right.” She looked at Gabril. “Would you be willing to cut your hand and put your blood on the heart so I can see how that changes the essence?”

Kol took another step forward. “Let me. This is my problem to fix. There’s no need for him to have an injury, no matter how small.”

The princess locked eyes with him, and the disdain in her expression was worse than the disappointment he’d become used to seeing in his father’s face. At least with his father, he could tell himself he’d been misunderstood, or that something his father had done justified Kol’s behavior.

There was no misunderstanding here, and the justification that he was desperate to save Eldr didn’t change what he’d nearly done to the girl who’d saved his life.

“My magic has already touched Gabril’s heart. I know what his feels like.” She cut each word into sharp little pieces. “I’m not interested in having anything to do with yours, even if it could pass for human and not Draconi, which it can’t.”

He absorbed her words and held her gaze. She didn’t have to have anything to do with his heart, but he wanted her to see it in his eyes anyway. Regret for what his choices had nearly cost her. Regret for being at Irina’s side when her brother was killed. And desperation to change the fate of his people without making the princess pay the price for their salvation.

Something soft flickered through the princess’s gaze, but then she turned away as Gabril said, “Ready when you are, Lorelai.”

Swiftly, Gabril nicked the fleshy side of his palm against his sword. Lorelai placed the heart on a nearby rock and watched as Gabril allowed his blood to drip over it. When his cut began to
clot, he reached down with his other hand and smeared the heart on all sides, covering it completely with his blood.

“Now try.”

She reached for the heart and cradled it in her palm. The same white light surrounded the heart, and the princess frowned.

“Did it work?” Kol asked.

Lorelai’s frown slowly eased into fierce smile that had Kol’s dragon heart thumping hard in his chest.

“It worked. Now instead of rabbitlike thoughts, wariness, and speed, I feel quick intelligence, speedy reflexes, and a stubborn sense of duty.” She looked at Gabril. “If I hadn’t recently felt your true heart for myself, I’d believe that this was yours.”

“Except for the obvious problem that it doesn’t look anything like a human heart,” Jyn said.

“No, but a deer’s heart would.” Lorelai looked at Trugg. “How fast can you hunt one down and bring it back to me?”

Trugg looked to Kol, and the king nodded.

“Fine. I’ll go find a deer. That’s exactly why I excelled at flying and battle strategy at the academy. So I could hunt down a deer.” Trugg stabbed a finger at Lorelai. “My king had better be in one piece when I get back.”

“I’m not the
mardushka
he needs to worry about.”

As Trugg shifted and Gabril cleaned his sword on a clump of dying underbrush, Kol took another cautious step toward Lorelai. When she didn’t snap at him to back up, he came close enough to say quietly, “Thank you.”

“I’m not doing this for you.” The wind tossed her curly black hair over her shoulders and the sun painted her pale skin gold as she looked at him. “I’m doing this because if you fail, Irina will
just keep trying to find me. And because if Irina uses Ravenspire land to send her magic into Eldr, it might weaken her, and I can use that to my advantage.”

“That’s more than fair, but—”

She laughed sharply, and beneath it he heard the kind of fathomless loss that had opened up within him the day his family died. “None of this is fair. My father should be ruling the kingdom. Leo shouldn’t be gone . . .” Her voice wavered and broke.

“I’m sorry. I know more than most how useless those words are when you’ve lost so much.”

She closed her eyes as if his words hurt, and when she opened them again, there was a hint of compassion on her face. “It isn’t fair that your people are dying because of choices someone made in another kingdom. And it isn’t fair that you felt you had no option but to tie yourself to Irina because that was better than losing absolutely everything.”

“I have no right to ask this, and I will have no way to repay you the debt I owe, but if this fails, and I die—”

“I’ll send my magic into Eldr and put a barrier between the ogres and your people. Once I’m through fighting Irina, I’ll be able to afford expending the kind of energy it will take to seal them back into Vallé de Lumé.” She said the words simply as if she hadn’t just lifted a weight that was crushing Kol from the inside out. “Now listen, here’s what we’re going to do. Irina will test the heart with her palm. It’s been nine years since she’s laid her hands on me, so my blood on the deer heart should fool her. But she also has a scrying mirror.”

Kol nodded. He’d seen the destruction of his kingdom in that mirror.

“She can’t find me with it unless I’ve recently touched something tainted with her magic with my bare hands. I’ll put my gloves on in a moment and leave this place far behind, and I won’t take them off for five days. That gives you enough time to get to the capital and then meet up with me if you’re still alive.”

He swallowed hard at the matter-of-factness in her voice, and said, “And if I don’t show up?”

“Then I’ll know we failed, and I’ll send my magic into Eldr to form the barrier while I deal with Irina.”

“If that would weaken Irina, won’t it weaken you?” he asked.

“Look around you.” She gestured toward the rotting trees and the dry, crumbling soil. “When a
mardushka
uses a willing heart to do magic, there’s very little cost to either the heart or the
mardushka
. But when you have to overpower the heart and force your will, you drain the heart of its strength and vitality, and you drain yourself. Irina’s been forcing Ravenspire’s land to do her will for nine years, and the land is dying because of it. Irina has to be suffering the cost of that. I, on the other hand, am young and strong, and I will use the one thing in Ravenspire that isn’t dying because of the queen—the rivers.”

“Irina will know where to find you once you use your magic, won’t she?” he asked because it was clear that once again, Lorelai was willing to do the right thing even though it was going to cost her.

Her smile reminded him of the way it had felt to watch the ogres while his dragon’s heart thundered for their blood on his talons.

“Irina is going to know where to find me at the end of those five days no matter what happens with you and Eldr.”

“Where should I meet you?” He didn’t add “if I’m not dead” but the words hung in the air between them.

“It’s better if you don’t know where I’m going. I don’t need Irina to get the information out of you before I’m ready to reveal myself. Just come back here and start tracking me. You’re much faster than me in your dragon form. You’ll catch up soon enough.”

Trugg returned with the deer, and soon Kol had the animal’s heart covered in Lorelai’s blood and secured in a pouch. Before he left for the castle again, he met Lorelai’s eyes.

“Thank you.”

“Try not to die,” she said, and then she pulled her gloves on and watched him shift into his dragon and head for the capital.