Page 45 of The Eye of the Fifth
She straightened her back and lifted her chin. ‘Let me see him. Before I leave.’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ Lilion said, pulling her glove back on.
Kyra was no beggar. But she could feel herself breaking, her anger ebbing into sorrow. She needed to see Oslan. She needed to see her brother.
And so she appealed to the Lilion she’d met at the age of sixteen, the woman who had taken her in, the woman who, at some point, must have cared for her more than the coin she’d produced. ‘Lilion,’ she said sincerely. Quietly. ‘Please.’
For the first time, Lilion held her gaze. As if she saw that helpless sixteen year old now. But then her expression hardened once more, and any trace of that indecision was gone. ‘I will tell him you said goodbye.’
Anger flushed back through her body like a tidal wave. This woman had given her everything once. A home, the ability to fight, coin,purpose. She had been, in her own, fucked up sort of way, a mother figure.
Now she was a cold-hearted stranger. Kyra stepped forward until her face was inches from hers. ‘You’ll pay for this one day. I don’t know how. And I don’t know when. But for what you’ve done to him, what you’ve put him through… you’ll pay. This I promise you.’
She was halfway out the door, desperate to be out of the enclosed space, when Lilion said over her shoulder, ‘Travel safe, won’t you, Kyra? We wouldn’t want another Earth Warden dead before you’ve even begun.’
Kyra’s hand twitched to her dagger again, but she ignored the impulse and stalked out of the Arc, praying the next time she did, Oslan would be by her side.
The whole time she’d been there, the whole time she’d worked for Lilion, her brother had been there too. And she’d never known.
Lilion had deliberately kept them apart. That was her true crime.
And Kyra would hold that promise true. One day, she would make Lilion pay.
But first, she had an Eye to find.
Chapter Thirteen
Duty And Doubt
???
Dracyg Dominion, Zarynth.
Gedeon.
Outside the doors to the throne room, Gedeon stood waiting with Sekun, trying and failing not to eavesdrop on the private conversation happening within. The voices echoed and shimmied through the cracks in the doors, and try as he might to block them out, to respect his mother’s privacy, Gedeon still heard the tail end of their conversation.
‘Then, I will have to wait,’ the Empress said calmly, though Gedeon did not miss the irritation beneath. ‘You must pray to the Gods that this all plays out the way you intend. Or I will have little use for you going forward.’
He barely heard the subject’s mumbled reply, but the reverence with which she spoke was too prominent to miss.
Gedeon glanced at Sekun, wondering if he too was intrigued by the stranger on the other side of the door, but his brother merely looked bored, picking at his nails.
‘Do not bother me again until it is done,’ the Empress warned. ‘Go.’ There was awhooshingsound, swiftly followed by a command Gedeon knew was meant for them, ‘You may now enter.’
The throne room was empty, save for his mother and the flames wrapped around her body. The Black Throne was an ancient commodity of Zarynth’s royalty, imbued with immovable magic from Fire Warden’s past. That it still burned with his mother’s rule hadnever quite sat right with Gedeon, for she outwardly despised the Fire Mother.
A blatant mockery of Eraura’s power.
Not that he wouldevervoice that particular opinion.
Only when her sons stood directly before her, did the Empress speak. ‘Have the preparations been made?’ she asked Sekun directly.
‘They have,’ he replied. ‘The ship awaits us in the harbour.’
‘Good. Good,’ she said softly. Wisps of smoky shadows began at the Empress’ hand. She lifted it to her eye level, watching as it snaked through her fingers. Her hand curled into a fist, and the shadows disappeared.
An awakened vitality shone through her turquoise eyes, and as she stood, the throne’s flames guttered. ‘The Gods favour us. And the Gods are good. The time is now, my sons. Let us finally restore order in this unbalanced realm. Let us finally sow what was undone. And let all who do not submitbleed.’
