Secrets of the sphere, p.26
Throne of Betrayal, page 26
“We will be close by, all night,” Evrrin reassured specifically to me and Claude. His blue eyes lingered on Claude a moment longer than necessary, and I saw her face flush when she realized.
She did look striking tonight. Her dress was a deep purple, so deep it was almost black. It hugged around her waist and cupped her voluptuous breasts high on her chest. Her red hair she’d braided just down the middle in three separate strands. It tapered at the base of her neck and cascaded into her usual curls that danced along her waist.
I glanced between her and Evrrin and wondered if the other night above deck it was him she was with. The thought of them together made my chest warm with happiness for her.
“After you.” Cassius gestured to us from the open door of the carriage.
Claude stepped in carefully, hoisting her dress around her as she slid along the bench seat. I lifted my foot to step in after her and Cassius leaned into my hair. My skin prickled at the feel of his breath along my neck.
“I will follow your lead tonight, Adelaide,” he whispered. “Just tell me how you need me.”
I nodded breathlessly as I forced myself out of his proximity and into the seat beside Claude. Cassius pulled himself in after, taking the seat across from us. I tried to quiet the roaring flush of my cheeks as he smirked at me.
He gave a firm knock against the roof of the carriage, and it lurched forward in response. My stomach flip flopped as I watched the shoreline disappear and trees, bare from winter, replaced it. They danced along the sides of us as we journeyed towards the castle. My pulse thrummed loudly in my ears, almost in rhythm to the clopping hooves outside. I worked to steady my nerves as I fiddled with the sword from Cassius strapped to my side. The metal taper at the end of the handle was smooth against my anxious fingers.
Claude placed a hand on my knee, her fingers squeezing ever so slightly.
“Do you think it will look different?” I spoke to no one in particular. My eyes glazed as I continued to stare out the window of the carriage.
“The people in it will be different,” Claude said plainly. “But I think it will still echo home to us.”
I met her eyes with a soft smile and placed my hand on hers. “Thank you for being a sister to me all these years and sticking by me now. I am so grateful to you.”
Claude sniffled and shook the tears from her eyes. “Don’t do that, you’ll ruin my makeup,” she laughed. “Besides, do not thank me as if we will be saying goodbye soon. I must watch you rise as queen and take back Tellus and then have little heirs for me to care for.”
Claude’s face dropped awkwardly after the last part, but it didn’t feel like an awkward subject to me. I turned my face to Cassius who was staring at me carefully. I could tell he was gauging my reaction to her words, so I simply smiled in reassurance. The sides of his mouth tugged upwards, his eyes sparkled at the possibility of the future for us and both of our kingdoms. My chest swelled. I prayed the future was bright.
Chapter 47
Before long, the Clydesdale’s feet clopped over the cobblestone streets of Windengard. The familiar taverns and shops lined the sides of the street. I glanced around to see the people of the city, but no one was there. It struck me as odd, given the vivacious nature of Windengard normally. People had usually flocked to the streets even in the evenings, playing music or gathering around the warmth of the taverns.
“Where is everyone?” Claude asked the question I was thinking myself.
“Perhaps they’re all by the castle watching as guests arrive,” I whispered unsure. A small sign for the city’s best baked goods creaked eerily as it swung in the breeze. Something did not feel right.
Misplaced trash tumbled across the road in front of us, and I followed it to where I saw a trail of massive pawprints. I tried to stifle my horror, but I grabbed ahold of Claude’s elbow, gesturing towards the sight.
“By the Mother…” she breathed, staring after the tracks that paraded against the dirt.
Cassius followed our gaze, and slowly wrapped his hand around the hilt of his own broadsword.
“What is it?” he asked, trying to study the prints from a distance as we rode past.
“Therion,” I whispered, watching them slowly disappear into the tree line. My stomach rumbled with terror. Could Phillip have unleashed it upon the people here? My people?
I rested back in my seat as we passed where I normally would’ve led Triton to the secret alcove. Nausea roiled in my gut at the thought of Phillip and his men being the last to use it. Used it to slaughter people behind my walls in the dead of night and steal my family’s home from under us.
The nausea burned into anger as I felt myself grip the hilt of my sword tightly until my knuckles cracked and blanched white. There would be no forgiveness for him, I decided.
The dusk sky began to illuminate around the carriage as we slowed. I peered out the window and realized it wasn’t the sky that was lighting, it was the glow of the castle. The layered torch light around the stone walls bathed us in its warmth as we approached the gate. I mustered a deep breath as I felt the horses pause momentarily.
Cassius placed a firm hand against his own sword, his breathing slow and heavy as we waited. What seemed like hours passed, but the carriage pushed forward again. The thick, stone walls passed by the windows as we were welcomed inside.
Cassius relaxed his hand from his sword and drew his eyes to mine. A smirk played against his lips as he knew the game was about to start.
“Let’s give them a show, yes?” he said.
“Yes.” I nodded slowly. I forced my face to calm into a resting expression of distaste, as if everyone here were beneath me.
Claude did the same, squaring her shoulders as Rolf opened the carriage door. He gave a quick, closed mouth smile to us before standing aside so we could pass.
Cassius exited first. He straightened the sleeves of his tunic and adjusted the belt that held his sword before turning back to me. His firm hand stretched out for me, and he gave an encouraging smile. I inhaled deeply, placing my dainty hand in his as I let him lead me from the concealment of the carriage. Once my feet were firmly on the ground beside him, I exhaled and stared at the castle before me.
The beige stone almost beamed as it laid before me. Its large wooden doors were held open by guards that led into the heart of it. Torches flickered and glowed, casting light along the grounds. My mother’s old gardens were still dead as I’d left them, though I knew green sprouts would be emerging soon. A lattice that clung onto the side of the castle had gone void of any remainder of the torpor flowers that had thrived there. They probably were one of the first things to go as Phillip took hold.
I heard Claude step behind me and Kerrigan and Evrrin strolled to flank our sides. No one except a few guards were outside, giving me only a few moments to prepare for the shock that would ensue once we were inside.
“Do not let them see you uneasy,” Cassius whispered as he looped my arm through his. “You are a queen. They took this home from you as a princess and you have come back as a queen. A commander of a honed army, and the owner of a wyvern. They are beneath you. It is them who must kneel before you. Show them they will regret the day they took this from you, because you have come to take it back.”
I took each word Cassius said and wore it like armor around me as we walked up the castle steps. My heart thundered in my chest and echoed in my ears as we passed through the large, open doors. Music trilled from inside as people danced around the room. They were lively and carefree, and I envied it. Either they were oblivious to the blood that had been unjustly spilled here, or they didn’t care.
Cassius squeezed my arm with one last reassurance as our footsteps found the marble floor. The people who had danced in front of us stopped abruptly. Their eyes were wide, and their mouths hung agape slightly in shock. The musicians themselves seemed to play softer as if our entrance had drowned them out. Several whispers began around us, and I heard my name in a few of them.
People began to scuffle aside in the distance, forming a sort of opening around us. They tripped over themselves as they moved out of our way as if they had seen a ghost.
I studied the sea of faces, searching for anyone I recognized. There was a duke and his wife, a few lords and ladies, but no friendly smiles. No Elliott, no Miss Partridge…
My home suddenly didn’t feel like home anymore. I was greeted more as an unwelcome guest than a returning queen.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked away the sting in my eyes. My fingers dug into the crook of Cassius’ arms as we reached the end of the hall, where two, very familiar faces stared back bewildered at us. Cassius squeezed his hand around mine, reminding me to stay strong.
The thrones had been moved from the throne room out here into the hall. They sat atop a wooden platform used as a makeshift dais. On what was once my mother’s throne, and then mine, sat no one. The chair was bare and cold like the trees outside. But my father’s throne, the tallest of the pair, held one occupant. Phillip leaned against it as he spoke to him.
My face burned with fury as I took him in. His eyes, light blue, widened in shock as they found me. The freckles that spattered across his nose and cheeks drooped with the falling open of his mouth. His blonde curls framed the top of his head which now held a crown, signifying the position he did not earn.
The crown of my father.
James.
Chapter 48
Phillip turned his bald head towards Cassius and me. His face contorted from surprise to anger and then back to an eerie stillness.
We stopped several feet away from them, allowing us both the breathing room we needed. The music had officially stopped, and the room was silent. I could feel the tension as everyone waited with bated breath for the first person to speak.
“Adelaide…” James’ voice cracked as he called down to me. My name reverberated off his lips through the hall.
I stared him down, forcing my buried heartbreak to come forward for him to see.
He tried to stand from the throne, but Phillip urged him back down with a firm hand on his shoulder. My eyes flickered to him, and I allowed them to swallow themselves with hatred. I prayed they burned into him as he stared back at me.
“Phillip, I wanted to thank you for inviting us.” It was Cassius who broke the silence. His tone was even and cool as he acknowledged the man that was responsible for my father’s death. He passed it off as if everything was normal, as if I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
“Cassius.” Phillip grinned menacingly. It didn’t suit his face, forced to be too wide. It made my stomach knot. “It’s always a pleasure to have you.”
I felt James’ eyes remain fixed on me, but I refused to acknowledge him. Instead, I maintained my own gaze on Phillip who now stepped off the platform and inched closer to us. His beady eyes locked on me.
I noticed the sword that clicked at his side, and I tensed my body in preparation. My own sword was rigid against my hip. Cassius relaxed around me, and I knew he saw it as well. I could practically hear him telling me don’t let him see you afraid.
I squared my shoulders and Phillip stopped. He was only a few feet away from us now.
“You…” he pointed to me. His dagger-like gaze stabbed into me. “You slipped through my fingers.”
I mustered a smirk to him. “And here I thought you’d let me go, considering how easily I managed to.”
Murmurs echoed around the hall as Phillip flexed his jaw at me and then turned to Cassius.
“My friend, you would be wise to hand her over,” he growled. “This girl is a traitor’s daughter and by definition a traitor herself. Did you know my sons were found slaughtered in the woods just outside of here when she fled? No doubt work of hers. Slaughtering my line in hopes of taking me down, finishing her father’s work.”
Cassius did not flinch an inch as Phillip spewed the accusations across the hall. The slander dug into my heart with their claws as I embraced every blow. We couldn’t reveal Cassius had been the one to kill James’ brothers yet, not without causing a bloodbath we weren’t prepared for.
“Lies,” I spit at him. “I am innocent in this as was my father. You are the one who ignored evidence of this and waged war to gain the lands you always wanted!”
“Ha!” Phillip bellowed and turned behind him.
A large, black trunk sat to the side of the thrones ominously. He clicked the lock open and reached inside. Claude gasped, turning her face away as he pulled its contents free. I wanted to avert my eyes, to avoid the sight altogether, but I was frozen.
“Is this the sight of an innocent man?” Phillip shook my father’s dismembered head in his fist.
It had begun to decay already, the skin sagged slightly, and eyes void of any sparkle of life. I tried to remember the man it had been when he was alive; those cracked lips full of his smile and laugh in my childhood. But I couldn’t turn it back into the man I knew. I convinced myself it wasn’t him; it was the only way to not vomit onto the polished marble floors or scream the pain I felt in my chest.
Phillip grinned devilishly at me, knowing he had hit his mark.
I answered back by wrapping a hand against the sword at my side, wanting to stroll across the hall and pull his own head from his shoulders. Dangle it for all his friends to see. Cassius gently placed a hand around mine, reminding me I would get the chance, but not now. I forced myself to release the sword, and threaded my fingers through his, using him for my strength instead.
Phillip’s smug face morphed into a scowl as he realized he would not get the reaction he wanted. He threw my father’s head upon the dais, and it rolled to face away from me. I was grateful for that.
“Did you know she is a whore?” Phillip cackled, pursuing a new tactic. “She weaponized her virtue against my son in one last plea to join her, isn’t that right?”
Cassius tensed in anger beside me. “Careful, Phillip.” The words hissed through his teeth in warning.
I finally dragged my eyes to James who looked away at the floor. Coward, I thought. Not only to not speak against this now, but to have even told his father in the first place of our intimacy.
“Tell him, whore,” Phillip sneered at me.
Before I could defend myself, Cassius was in front of me. His sword rang free from its sheath as he splayed it out to Phillip. Guards surrounded us, pulling their own weapons free to defend him. Kerrigan and Evrrin drew their polished blades around us. Cassius didn’t relax his hand.
“That is enough,” Cassius growled. “She is my wife and the Queen of Mare. You will not speak of her this way, or I shall carve your tongue from your wretched mouth.”
Phillip’s face twisted into disgust as his eyes darted between Cassius and I. James’ eyes turned back to me at the admission, and the pain in them was not lost on me. I squared my shoulders, letting the lights sparkling across the jewels that donned the crown on my head.
“Queen?” Phillip seethed.
“Yes,” I said firmly. “And I will demand the respect from you that comes with the title. Your disrespect is grounds enough for me to set my men on you.”
Kerrigan and Evrrin swiveled around beside us, eyeing Phillip in warning. His jaw twitched and he nodded his head to his guards to lower their weapons. They obeyed, and Cassius slowly slipped his own sword back into the sheath at his side.
Phillip snapped impatiently at the musicians to resume their music, and they hurriedly plucked and pulled at their strings again. The music encouraged the crowd to stray from us and back onto the dance floor.
“I do apologize,” Phillip said, with no hint of remorse remotely in his tone. “The Queen of Mare is always welcome in our gates. Please, enjoy the festivities…while you can.”
Our gates. I scowled at his ownership of my home.
He looked at me once more, and turned on his heel, striding towards James. He grabbed hold of his arm, leaning in and whispering something to him.
“Remember that thing I asked of you?” I whispered to Cassius, reminding him of the plan to seek out the secret tunnel.
“Yes, lovely, but we have just caused a scene. Can’t have you slipping off undetected with so many eyes.”
I glanced around, realizing the many people who stared and whispered amongst each other surrounding us.
“Shit,” I breathed, and Cassius chuckled.
“Let’s give them something to talk about?” He held out his firm hand to me, and I took it carefully.
He pulled me further onto the floor amid the couples dancing. They backed away from us, creating a wide circle of space.
“The last time we danced together was here.” I smiled, letting him place a firm grip around my waist.
He smirked back at me, spinning me slowly across the floor. “I don’t think I could ever forget that.”
The people that had danced around us began to stop altogether, until finally we were the only ones left on the floor.
“Should we stop?” I whispered, grimacing slightly.
“No,” he purred, dipping me low. “Let’s convince them we are mad for each other. See how unbreakable we are together.”
A lump formed in my throat as he pulled me back up, inches from his face. Cassius brushed his nose against mine tenderly before taking my arm and twirling me so the green in my dress reflected against the light. I giggled from the dizziness, and he chuckled as he caught me back in his arms.
My back was pressed against him, and he wrapped his hands possessively across my front. They ran along my sides, and he inclined his head to inhale my scent along the curve of my neck. My eyes closed involuntarily, relishing the feeling of his breath there. My skin prickled all the way down to my legs, curving around the apex of my thighs.
We swayed together that way for a moment, and when I managed to flutter my eyelids back open, I saw James locking eyes with Cassius across the hall. Though I couldn’t see it, I knew Cassius was smirking back at him, victorious as he claimed me in front of him.
