Page 58 of Conspirators' Kingdom

Mereruka would have laughed if exhaustion hadn’t claimed him first.

Chapter 25

“Youshouldhavetoldme,” Vasilisa grouched.

Taisiya did her best not to feel too hurt by her friend’s reproach. It was deserved, after all.

“I know,” Taisiya replied. “It slipped my mind.” It was a weak excuse, even to her ears. She’d been so ashamed of falling prey to yet another fae spell after being conned into this sham of a marriage, she hadn’t had the courage to tell Vasilisa—or even her family—what a complete fool she’d been.

Taisiya pasted the healing ointment over Vasilisa’s wounds. Several more jars just like it had been part of a thoughtful wedding gift from her brother, Theo. Vasilisa had already seen to Taisiya’s wounds.

“I can’t protect you if I don’t know the risks involved,” Vasilisa hissed.

“I know,” she said, chastened.

She could see the darkness mage’s blood boiling.

“If he’d dragged you to the grave, I—” Vasilisa stopped herself, rage still simmering.

She didn’t have to say anything. Taisiya knew how she would have finished her sentence. If Taisiya had died because of Mereruka, Vasilisa would have lost the one person on Oblivion she treasured above all others, and with it, her tether. Without Taisiya, Vasilisa might abandon the world of her birth, walk into the nearest shadow, and never leave the void again.

“I’m sorry. I should have explained when I told you that I was going to take them to the graveyard.”

Taisiya pasted over the last of Vasilisa’s wounds and went to check on Bas. The cat shifter obligingly showed her his healed wounds. He’d disappeared into smoke and reformed himself as a young man, erasing all traces of the attack. An enviable ability.

“If it makes you feel any better, he didn’t tell me about the vow either,” Bas said as Taisiya spread the ointment on where his wounds once were, just to be safe.

“It doesn’t,” Vasilisa sniffed.

“You weren’t at the wedding?” Taisiya asked.

“While everyone was there, I snuck back onto the ship to secure the waters.”

Taisiya flicked her gaze to the man—the liability—she’d wed. He slept fitfully in a hammock, suffering a fever Bas had assured her would pass. Taisiya had never imagined the fae reaction to iron would be so strong or so quick. The knowledge comforted her. No sane fae army would ever dare march on Lethe with its many assorted steel weapons. Then again, she might as well be as vulnerable as her husband to the metal. Vasilisa would no doubt collect and take care of their recent haul of poisonous metal, now that they were about to enter enemy territory.

“It’s strange. I thought you would say your marriage vows with your other name,” Bas mused.

Taisiya thought back on it. She would have repeated the vows using her official name, Spark. They didn’t speak of their true family name outside of the trusted few.

“I did, most certainly. As far as the empire is concerned, the last Dragonsblood was my grandfather,” Taisiya said. “What would that matter?”

“Well, you would still be married, but I don’t think the spell to bind your lives would have actually worked. Fae spells like that only work with a true name, the one you consider true. It’s why some fae use a false name,” Bas offered.

Suspicion and anger began curling in her gut. She did her best not to press too firmly on Bas’s next non-existent wound.

“He told me we were bound. It’s why I made you two officially my family,” Taisiya said.

Had she been foolish yet again? Would these humiliations never cease? If their lives had not been tied, she could have killed him on their wedding night. There would have been no need to leave her home behind.

“Did you feel a spell latch onto you? Did you feel one when you first made your deal with him?” Bas asked.

While Bas remained innocent of her growing anger, Vasilisa did not. She positioned herself closer to Mereruka, an iron needle already in hand.

“I’m not sure,” Taisiya replied. She sent a hard look Vasilisa’s way and the darkness mage backed off grudgingly.

She hadn’t felt a thing during the marriage ceremony aside from her anger, but when they’d officially struck their deal? There had been a faint something, but she’d been so anxious, she’d put it down to the risk she’d been taking.

“I’m sure he’ll tell us when he wakes up,” Bas said.

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