Page 83 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

I nodded to Camelya, who was pale and trembling. “Sylviana here will escort you while you retrieve it.”

A hushed, forced silence fell over the ballroom as they departed, the doors echoing loudly behind them as they closed. Tallon kept his eyes on the crowd, never staying on one person for too long, assessing the threat constantly. My magic may have been cooperating in the face of the current situation, but I could feel my energy fading, and if the crowd truly wanted us dead, they vastly outnumbered us.

As if thinking it brought it to life, the partner of the lady who’d fainted surged toward the stage, screaming, “Traitors!”

Before I could react, Tallon’s own magic was holding the man by the throat. He slowly walked forward, his shoes clicking on the mirrored floors as he approached the man.

“You would die for your prince?” he asked the man, nodding down at where Eadric’s body still lay. The man did not answer, so Tallon shrugged. “So be it.”

The crowd’s murmurs were almost loud enough to drown out the choking breaths of the man, but not quite. Again, I did not retreat into my own head at the sound of them. My focus remained entirely on Tallon, on the bright defiance in his eyes, on his relaxed jaw and loose shoulders. How I wished to be as at ease as him. But I would not relax until I was back in my home, until I saw Emyl with my own eyes.

He turned his back on the crowd as the man slumped to the floor and he returned to my side. A frown tugged at his lips and he reached for my hand, sending those warm tingles up my arm to settle in my chest. “It’s almost over, my wolf. I swear it. And then we will get to your brother.”

I nodded, but the softness in his eyes, only for me, emboldened me to add, “And then, we will have that conversation about us.”

The answering smile was wicked, and his voice was like the black velvet that draped from the ceilings. “I’m not sure how much of a conversation it would be, but yes, we absolutely will.”

My face and neck flushed as heat coursed through my body, and I was immensely grateful for the high neckline of the dress that would, at least, cover the worst of the redness.

His face turned serious once more. “I want you to know that I am proud of you. What you did here tonight, I understand it might be difficult. You are a good person, and this…” He shook his head as if he couldn’t find the right words. “I am proud of you. Your grasp of your magic is phenomenal, and…”—he stepped up closer and bent his head to my ear, his voice turning teasing—“to be quite honest, that you have this much power is making you even more devastatingly attractive than you already were.”

I couldn’t find the words to reply, to tell him that it should have been hard, taking not one but two lives, but it was perhaps the easiest thing I’d ever done. If he thought it should have been difficult, I didn’t know what he would think of me if he knew it hadn’t been. I bit my lip. “I?—”

Sylviana once again rescued me, this time by returning with Camelya, who was clutching a bulging black pouch in her hands. The crowd fell into that forced silence once more, everyone waiting for Tallon or me to say something.

Sylviana looked between the two of us, still standing close together and Tallon’s back still to the crowd, with an amused expression.What is happening here?

Tallon narrowed his eyes at the cat. “Does she have it?”

Sylviana inclined her head.

Camelya’s trembling hand held the pouch out towards me and I snatched it, pulling it tight to my chest and opening it. A quick count later, and adding the two I’d retrieved from Eadric’s body, we had fifteen vials. Enough for everyone in Veressia. I swallowed back the burning tears of relief and nodded at Tallon.

“Good,” he said with a smile. He nodded out toward the crowd, still gathered and waiting with bated breath for their fates. “They are yours to decide what to do with.”

“Me? But you?—”

He shook his head, bending to press a quick kiss to my lips. “I am having my vengeance through you, Odyssa, as you have yours. Eadric is dead. I am free.Weare free. They are yours. Do what you think is best.”

My magic flickered in that pit in my chest as I surveyed the gathered revelers, both pleased by the confidence in me and anxious to get out of the castle as quickly as possible. I hardly wanted to be responsible for these horrible people, but Tallon was right that something needed to be done with them.

They would atone for their actions, or rather their inactions, in one way or another, that much I knew with certainty.

“Your prince is dead, and now you all must make a decision,” I called into the room, pulling their attention back to me entirely. Some in the front shifted nervously at the sight of Sylviana sitting protectively in front of me. “If you are still loyal to the corpse there on the floor, you can choose to die here and now. You have my word Tallon will make your deaths quick.”

They looked amongst themselves, waiting for someone to speak up. No one did.

“If you are loyal to Veressia and her people, and you want to atone for your appalling behavior while protected behind your walls of lies, then you will help me distribute this treatment throughout the kingdom and help whoever you can, however you can. Whatever it takes.”

The crowd came alive, small murmurs at first until people were talking loudly amongst themselves. I tensed, waiting for someone with foolish plans to try rushing us again, but it seemed the warning blows from earlier held true.

Tallon nudged my back, and I took a deep breath. “Whoever knows where the prince kept his money, I want it distributed throughout Veressia as well. To those who need it most. To those who lost the most first.” I stepped forward to the edge of the stage, letting coldness into my voice. “If I discoveranyof you takeanyof that money for yourselves, you will not like the outcome.”

Silence washed over the crowd on a wave of anxious shifting. Finally, someone spoke. The voice was so soft and timid I could hardly hear it through my fever-addled ears and the ringing that still filled them. “Does this mean we can leave the castle now?”

“I insist upon it.” I nodded to Camelya. “Camelya is going to oversee getting the treatment split out and distributing it throughout the kingdom.None of you are to leavewithout seeing her firstand ensuring you have both direction and treatment to take with you. By dawn, everyone is to be out of the castle.”

“What happens at dawn?” someone shouted. “Why do they need the treatment now? It’s over!”

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