Page 125 of Master of Storms
“Watching you pine over the one woman you can’t have.”
His arrow found its target. The king’s nostrils flared, and he turned toward Marduk, his knuckles flexing.
“If Solveig thinks you were playing games with her in order to spite another woman, she’ll kill you,” Marduk pointed out. “I’ll even hold her coat.”
“What makes you think they were games? Solveig’s a powerfuldrekiqueen with an incredibly formidable nature.”
“On that we agree. But she’smine. And if you try to take her again, I will kill you myself.”
“Is there a point to this?”
“You wanted to know why we were truly here,” he said simply.
“Tell me.”
Draco was a typicaldrekiking. He’d never believe that he could be made to kneel before one of thealfaruntil it was too late. It had been so long since the gates to Álfheimr were open that fewdrekiwho still lived in this world believed in the danger of their existence. They were a myth. An old war between their ancestors. And the tales were terrible, but truly, that sort of thing wouldn’t happen here, in this lifetime.
“My mother’s spirit is still on this place of existence,” he said instead. “She’s currently riding Elin’s body and she has the reins. She’s plotting to overthrow our king, but to do that she needs allies. And she’s found them. Yesterday, Tyndyr—thealfarking’s general—nearly killed Solveig and trapped me in the Abyss.”
“A terrible problem for your king.”
“Alas for you, the problem is not contained to one court. You wanted to know who’s been killing your Chaos-wielders, but have you thought of the consequences now we know who it is?” He gestured toward the courtyard below them. “Elin has no magic for my mother to work with. She wants a newdrekito inhabit. One whodoeshave Chaos magic. My sisters are protected, but I wonder… who will she choose? Viveka? Or Andromeda? One of your other Chaos-wielders?” He shook his head. “No. I think the biggest target is Andromeda. She’s the most powerful Chaos-wielder in your clan. She sleeps alone. And while this castle might be protected, my mother was born here. She knows every inch of stone in this place, and how to creep through it unseen. If she comes back, she will take Andromeda, and none of us can stop her.”
His earlier assessment had been correct, for a dark fire came into the king’s eyes. “How do we kill her? For good?”
* * *
After he’d seenthe king, he ventured toward Andri’s room.
A sharp rap brought a low-voiced, “Enter.”
The room was dark, the single candle burning low. Sirius sat by the bed, his hands clasped between his knees, and his long dark hair tangled over his shoulders. He wasn’t bothering with the eyepatch in here, and the scar where his left eye used to be was thick and gnarled.
It was a stark reminder: Sirius had turned on his father and his queen in a crucial moment, and according to Árdís, he was the only reason Rurik sat on his throne.
“How is he?” Marduk murmured as he approached the bed.
The other male sat back in his chair, looking exhausted. “Empty. He’s empty. The spark that makes him my brother is gone.”
Marduk sat on the other side of the bed.
Andri lay between them, still and pale.
“We’ll get him back,” he whispered. “My mother will have his soul, which means we can get him back.”
Sirius scrubbed a hand over his stubble. “Yes. But at what cost?”
Silence bloomed, tense and wary.
And then Sirius broke it.
“Andri is everything that I am not,” he said. “He was always my heart. My conscience. He was the one thing that kept me from becoming a monster all those years.”
“I don’t think you were ever a monster.” They were difficult words to conjure. “You claim it is Malin and Andri who held your honor, but you were never…. You were never likethem.”
“I killed your father.” There was a dark, bottomless pit of horror in the otherdreki’seyes. “I see his blood on my hands every night.”
Andfuck, it was like a knife twisting in Marduk’s chest. “I see it too. I see his blood on the floor. Drenching the rug.” He forced himself to blink out of those memories. “But you never killed my father. You were merely the instrument my mother wielded.”
