Page 86 of Conspirators' Kingdom

“I’m scared,” Taisiya whispered.

“Be brave, love,” Mereruka choked out. Magic, bright and colourful as an aurora, gathered and danced in his palms.

“Ready?” Vasilisa asked.

“Now!” Mereruka said.

Taisiya, mercifully, blacked out.

Taisiya’s bloodless lips grimacing in agony. Copper hair a wild mess about her haggard face. Her amethyst eyes glistening with fear. A bronze blade glinting up at him from her gut, the accusation of his overconfidence spelled out in rivulets of her blood. The wet, sucking sound of the blade’s removal from her flesh had nearly undone him. The sound alone would torment his every nightmare for decades. The sight of her before him as he wove his limited healing magic had imprinted itself behind his eyelids, a penance he would pay every time he closed his eyes. Mereruka cursed himself for not taking the time to have stronger healing magic inked into his skin. When he finally managed to close the wound, he nearly vomited. Hands trembling, he reached out for her. The panicked creature inside his chest needed the warm weight of her against him. He’d almost lost her.

Bas handed her over to him. Mereruka cradled her in his arms. He struggled for a shred of control. Helplessness was a potent, vicious thing in his breast. It reminded him of the loss of his sister, Nefertnesu, the woman who had all but raised him, and whose very soul had been ripped out of her. He’d borne her loss, even though it had changed him to his core. But this felt different. He didn’t think he could bear the loss of Taisiya. He felt like he was one step from shattering, even though her heart beat steadily against him.

“What happened?” Mereruka asked.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I was walking around the mansion. I smelled blood and found one of our guards with his throat slit, hidden in an alcove. I rushed to your room but the soldiers there had been hypnotized and said you’d both gone for a walk with the dead guard. I told Qar and grabbed Vasilisa and we scoured the desert around the manse, looking for you,” Bas explained.

Vasilisa’s eyes were haunted. She smoothed the hair off Taisiya’s face over and over, as though in a trance. Mereruka felt an irrational sense of anger towards her. She was supposed to protect Taisiya with her life.

“And you? Where were you?” Mereruka growled at Vasilisa.

Trance broken, Vasilisa slowly raised her eyes to meet his. She looked at him with the eyes of a furious, wild beast.

“Me? Where wasI?” she asked, her voice calm in the same way as the eye of a storm. In a blink, the storm was upon him, a snarl in her voice. “Where wereyou?! What in the hells wereyoudoing?! What the fuck kind of all-powerful fae are you?! She almost died because you didn’t protect her! If you wereanyoneelse, I’d-”

“What?! What would you do, you useless, fucking wraith?!” Mereruka yelled.

Vasilisa shrieked, her body bursting into opaque, inky black flames. Black talons replaced her fingers and where her eyes might have been, crimson, glowing orbs stared at him with animalistic malice.

Good. He wanted her anger, and needed her to be the object of his.

“I’d drag you to the void-”

“And feed me to it?” Mereruka interrupted, goading her as he bared his own teeth.

“I’d rip you to shreds and devour whatever remained!” she howled.

“Enough! Enough!” Bas threw himself between them, his claws out as he pushed them apart. His eyes were wide with horror. “Both of you, stop!”

Mereruka blinked in surprise at the sharp pain of Bas’s claws in his flesh. He hadn’t noticed his own racing heart, or his shuddering, angry breaths. He clenched his teeth. This was wrong of him. Vasilisa had done no wrong. He wasn’t mad at Vasilisa, not really. He was furious with himself. It was he who had failed his wife.

The black flames coating Vasilisa dissipated, though her rage remained.

“I stopped sleeping in Taisiya’s shadow after she marriedyou. You… you made anoath.Youwere supposed to protect her, too!”

Tears of shame burned his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he whispered, clutching Taisiya closer.

“Let’s… let’s go somewhere safe. The barge is tethered near the manse,” Bas hedged, his voice placating, trying to soothe their hopelessly frayed nerves.

Mereruka nodded. Vasilisa wiped away errant tears with the palm of her hand, smearing blood across her cheek.

“Who stabbed Taisiya?” Mereruka asked.

Vasilisa walked over to the body, kicking it before she crouched to inspect the face.

“One of the nomarch’s brats,” she announced.

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