Page 22 of Inheritance
I breathed out, “This is Zurie, Ama’s best friend. Zurie this is Colt, Finias, and over there—“ I nodded towards Damien, who was striding towards us, “is Damien.”
“That doesn’t answer—“
“Ama’s mates. All of us are Ama’s mates,” Finias answered, smiling good naturedly. “Good to meet you, Zurie.”
This fucker could be nice to her? Was he for real? He suddenly had manners?
Zurie blinked and narrowed her eyes, “All four of you are—“
“There are seven of us,” Damien admitted. “Really long story.”
“I see,” Zurie nodded slowly and eyed all of us. “Okay, well, I will hold off on kicking your dumb ass, Drayven, until I hear what happened from Ama herself. But you’d better get my girl back because if not, you’re going to learn really fast how scary shit can get.”
And then she was gone, using her subset of Reaper capabilities as a ghost to vanish. It was intriguing because she wasn’t considered a hybrid in the kingdom—the dead parts of ghost were accepted in the Kingdom of Death as simply a different classification of Reapers.
“She is sort of scary,” Damien leveled honestly.
He wasn’t wrong.
Shaking myself from the death threat, I glanced at Damien, “Are you good to go knock down the barrier for your army?”
“I can take them,” Colt offered and nodded behind me, “It looks like you have some people to talk to.”
I turned around as they took off, noticing the number of soldiers leaving the castle and how unhappy they appeared. I wanted so badly to tell them to suck it up, but unlike the stupid political bullshit the court played, I knew these soldiers needed to be properly inspired to commit to the cause.
I just needed to figure out how the hell I would do that.
Turnedout it wasn’t nearly as hard as I would have assumed.
Apparently, I’d been surrounded by political bullshit for too long because, when it came down to brass tacks, the soldiers cared about the future of the house more than any issues they might have had working with hybrids. More so, they wanted their families safe, and once I promised to house them in the castle—which I ordered immediately—it appeared the soldiers were completely on board. Which was good because the more walls that fell, the shorter amount of time we had as House of Runes prepared their counter attack...and I had no doubt that was coming.
After a quick discussion, we had decided to gather all the forces in Mortem because the castle was situated on the higher ground that sloped down towards the capital, providing us a tactical advantage. The barriers still stood around the capital itself in front of us, but those around the other four houses had fallen, leaving only House of Sin and House of Runes still isolated, which was probably a good thing. As I looked at our troops gathered, I found myself feeling determined and positive about the outcome of this mission. Jace’s hybrid army looked prepared, and the militia from each of our houses patiently awaited our commands. The other princes stood next to me as we waited for intel.
Pandora spoke from behind us minutes later, “It appears they are gathering near the barrier to bring down the wall. I would suggest we move forward to meet and overwhelm them before they have a chance to gather numbers.”
“Let’s fucking do this.” I nodded sharply at Jace’s words, feeling a brotherhood between the seven of us that I knew was more than just our connection through Ama. It was that, yes. But it was also this war—this battle for our realm’s future. I think it had all of us considering our priorities and where we would go from here.
I made haste towards the barrier, mounted on my horse as our military moved in a uniform pattern at a steady pace that belied the buzz of bloodlust and energy I could feel filling the air. It was energizing, but it also reminded me of how little my life had consisted of before I’d come to terms with my feelings for Ama. Before I’d realized that I could no longer deny the truth of what lay between us—could no longer deny how much I fucking loved her. How inevitable the two of us were.
I hadn’t always thought that, though. For a long time, I’d thought it would never happen. I’d been certain the feelings I had for Ama were ridiculous...
“You’re fightinglike shit today...you good?” James asked, hitting me with the blunt edge of the sparring sword. I muttered a curse and stepped back, moving my eyes from where they had been glued to the observation balcony where the king sat watching.
“I’m fine.”
“Clearly not,” my friend said, looking towards the balcony. “Drayven, don’t tell me you’re nervous because the king is here. The guy fucking loves you.” That wasn’t the problem at all, but it was probably better that he assumed it was.
“I’m fine,” I promised.
Three minutes and several jabs later, I was leaning over and breathing hard, James watching me in amusement. “Fine, my ass.”
“Who the hell is up there with Ama?” I finally spat out. He gave me a bewildered look and turned to glance towards the balcony. My princess sat next to the son of some fucking half-wit court member who had just been promoted. I had no idea who the asshole was, but it was very clear he wanted to know who Ama was, and I had no idea why the king was entertaining it, let alone letting the boy join them. It made me seethe with jealousy, and that wasn’t an emotion I was used to feeling.
I would have loved to blame it on being fifteen, but I knew it had to do with Ama. It always had to do with Ama, and that infuriated me. It was like I couldn’t think around her.
“Oliver? His father was just promoted. Why do you care—“
I was already across the training field on my way to the balcony, and the king watched me with a knowing expression. I think he knew how protective I was over my friendship with Ama, and I was just thanking the devil that he hadn’t questioned my emotions towards his daughter. I didn’t make a habit of lying, especially not to Death himself.
