Deadliest of Bonds: (The Blight 2), page 7
Chapter 9
Silence fell over the clearing for a second.
“You know where the Cup is?” Thea snapped suddenly.
If Ash did, it changed everything, Fyreen realized. Thea didn’t need to find the Inferling and ask him and they wouldn’t need him to get to the Cup. Even if she didn’t like the idea of strangers knowing what their goal was, she had to admit that she would rather work with them than the Inferling.
“How do you know we’re looking for it?” Fyreen asked. There was no point denying Ash’s words. He knew. The credens only knew how he had found out.
Ash smiled then. “I can help you find the Cup, and I’ll do it as long as you help us find Egene.”
He didn’t add anything else, completely dismissing Fyreen’s question. Biting the inside of her cheek, Fyreen fought the urge to ask again. And to ask who this Egene even was. She buried her fingers in Star’s mane instead, doing her best to ignore the weight of the dark-haired woman’s gaze on her. She didn’t know why she was still staring at her, but it made her heart beat faster than necessary.
“Why are you looking for Egene anyway?” Thea intervened. She didn’t seem all that worried about the fact that strangers were searching for whoever he was, which made Fyreen think that she must not have a good relationship with him, as the strangers had said. After all, there must be a reason why she had never mentioned his name before.
“Why are you looking for the Cup?” Ash shot back.
No one answered for a moment, and a smirk twisted Ash’s lips. He had won that round, but Fyreen had a feeling Thea wouldn’t give up just yet.
“So you propose a deal, then?” Ariella inquired, one thin eyebrow raised in interrogation. “We help you find Egene and then you lead us to the Cup?”
Ash’s smile grew, a flash of white teeth. “Exactly,” he replied.
“And what guarantee do we have that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain?” Thea crossed her arms over her chest. “What tells us you’re not lying about knowing the Cup’s location and that you’ll bail as soon as you get your hands on Egene?”
“Trust is a powerful and important thing,” Ash replied, his eyes twinkling. “You should try it sometime.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Thea snarled.
Fyreen’s eyes bounced from one to the other. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks springing off them as they sparred.
Ash cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “No patronizing from me,” he claimed. “Only friendly advice.”
“You consider stalking people and offering them strange bargains friendly?” Thea retorted.
“I—”
“How about we stop arguing and start speaking like adults?” Brado gently cut in.
Thea’s glare sent a shiver up Fyreen’s spine—she was glad not to be on the receiving end of that one. And she made a mental note not to wake Thea up again. Apparently, she wasn’t a morning person.
Ash nodded with another smirk. “How about we sit down for a start? I would have loved a cup of tea as well, but in the woods…” he said, striding forward. Fyreen felt Thea tense when he passed by her, but she said nothing as Ash came to sit on the grass against a tree and stretched his legs before him, the picture of entitlement.
Fyreen blinked, as if trying to convince herself that her eyes weren’t tricking her. The nerve this man had… it astonished her. And she didn’t know if it was in a good way or not.
Thea rubbed her temples and let out a long sigh.
Ariella arched a brow at Ash’s behavior but said nothing, instead motioning for his friends to move forward and join them all to sit on the ground. Fyreen had no idea what was happening but she stood frozen as the blond siblings took a seat beside Ash and waited. The twins looked at her with questions to which Fyreen had no answer, so she only shrugged, turning around with Starspinner’s reins in her hand. She needed a second to gather her thoughts, and her mare provided the best excuse.
Intending to lead her horse back to the others, she spun on her heels, only to end up face to face with intense burgundy eyes. The woman she’d seen in the woods—Sil—stood before her. Fyreen hadn’t even realized that she hadn’t joined her friends.
“Excuse me,” Fyreen muttered, dragging Starspinner to the side.
“I am the one who owes you an apology,” Sil replied. Her voice was smooth, low and melodic. She spoke in a way Fyreen had never heard before, and part of her was mesmerized by the sound of her voice.
She didn’t dare turn around to face Sil again, even if she could feel that the woman had turned around to look at her, now facing her back. “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“For sneaking up on you this morning,” Sil explained. “It was not my intention to startle you.”
Fyreen swallowed hard. “Thanks,” was all she managed to say before forcing her feet to move forward again, heading deeper into the forest.
Her head spun. Too many revelations in too little time. She didn’t know what to think, who to trust… And she couldn’t shake the feelings clinging to her skin like dirt.
She made a detour for the stream, as much to let Star drink as to cool herself down. Plunging both hands into the clear and cool water, Fyreen splattered her face with it and rubbed her skin, as if she would somehow wake up from a dream. Once her mare had finished drinking, she guided her back to the other horses, made quick work of unsaddling her and tying the rope back. She didn’t have time to groom her properly now, but she promised the horse that she would come back after all this mess was settled.
Part of her didn’t want to go back there. After all, Ariella, Brado and Thea seemed to know what they were doing. Did they really need Fyreen? She didn’t even know Egene, so she would be of no use to help them find him. But a part of her knew that she needed to go back to her friends. She needed to be here to support them, to be aware of the situation.
So, with heavy feet, she forced herself to walk back to camp.
The group was quiet when she stepped into the clearing, although she had heard voices on her way back. Everyone had sat in a circle, the strangers on one side, and the others on the opposite. Fyreen hurried to them, worried that they might be waiting for her to resume the conversation, and sat next to Ruelle as quietly as she could.
Fyreen sighed and relaxed when she felt Ruelle’s hand brush hers, comforting, only to tense again when she lifted her eyes. Of course. She had to sit in front of Sil, who was staring at her still, a gentle, shy sort of smile on her full lips.
Fyreen offered her a tight grin in response, unsure of what to do, and waited, like everyone else, for the conversation to resume.
Unsurprisingly, it was Thea who broke the silence first. She had never been a very patient person, and given the animosity between her and Ash, Fyreen wasn’t surprised by the harsh tone of her voice. Especially since she had missed part of the conversation. “So, what do you want with Egene?”
Again, Fyreen bit her lip not to ask who he was.
Ash lifted his eyes from the blade of grass that he was busy cutting into tiny pieces in his hands. Fyreen expected him to send Thea another snarky retort and she blinked in surprise when he actually gave an answer this time. Maybe he had realized that Thea was too stubborn. “He has some information that could jeopardize our safety, if it falls into the wrong hands.”
Fyreen frowned. “What sort of information? And whose hands?”
Ash’s eyes fell on her, but there was no anger or animosity there. “Dangerous information about the people I love. And by ‘wrong hands’, I mean the Queen’s.”
The Queen’s? Fyreen’s heart leaped in her throat, and she did her best not to grab the vial around her neck that somehow seemed to weigh ten times more than usual. Did he know who she was? Thea had given him a fake name, but if he’d recognized her in any other way…
“Is this about magic?” Thea asked suddenly. It would make sense. If they had magic, then they must have found a way to survive the Blight. To survive the Inferling and the Queen’s order to kill every magic bearer on the land. So if Egene knew about their magical abilities and told the Queen, she would surely send Rogan back to finish the job.
Or she would have if she’d still owned the Inferling. Which wasn’t the case since the vial was now weighing on Fyreen’s chest instead.
Ash’s eyes darkened and Fyreen saw the two warriors around him tense. Neither of them had spoken a word since they stepped into the clearing, and it unnerved her more than she would have liked.
“Yes,” Ash replied.
“Do you have magic?” Ariella inquired, curiosity coating her words.
Ash swallowed and released the tiny pieces of grass still in his hands. He closed his eyes for a beat and Fyreen could have sworn a wind swept over the group. “You don’t need to know the details,” Ash eluded. “Just know that we need to find Egene and prevent him from spreading information that could endanger us.”
“What do you mean by ‘prevent him’?” Thea asked.
“I mean use any means necessary.” What Ash implied by that was clear enough to send a shiver down Fyreen’s spine.
If Thea was shocked or disagreed, she didn’t show it. She only nodded sternly. It made a thousand more questions about that mysterious Egene spring to Fyreen’s mind, but she didn’t dare ask them in front of those strangers.
“And what makes you think we know where he is?” Ariella asked.
“You know him,” Ash said. “That much is clear. And I’m willing to bet you don’t like him either.”
Ariella tensed at that, but she said nothing.
“If you know him,” Thea intervened, “then you know that he has magic as well. And that his power makes him particularly difficult to locate, let alone…intercept.”
Fyreen bit down on her tongue to swallow back the questions filling her mouth. She should have stayed with Starspinner. She was clearly of no use in this conversation, especially since she knew nothing of the man they were discussing.
“That’s why we need help,” Ash agreed. “From you.”
“And what makes you think we’ll have any more luck finding him than you?” Ruelle asked.
Ash’s eyes landed on her, heavy and amused. His smirk made another appearance as he replied, “Because if my suspicions are correct, then Egene went straight to the Queen, intending to sell us out. And as it turns out, your little rebellion group gathers not only people who are very close to Egene, but also a certain princess.”
Fyreen froze as Ash looked right at her.
“And I believe she can help us reach an agreement.”
Chapter 10
Fyreen was almost certain she wasn’t breathing anymore. As if her body expected her to disappear if it stopped working.
She did not disappear, much to her dismay. Instead, she felt all the strangers’ gazes on her, overwhelming. None of her friends turned to her, probably still trying to hide her identity, but it was no use. Ash knew exactly who she was, despite the fake name. Just like he’d known about the Cup.
“What are you talking about?” Thea asked, sounding bored—but Fyreen knew it was just a front.
“It’s useless to try and deny it,” Ash said, a smug smile on his face and Fyreen felt her cheeks heat. “I know that Fyreen—” he stressed her real name “—is the Princess. Which means that she knows the castle—and the Queen—better than anyone else. And that she will prove very useful to find our common friend there.”
“That doesn’t solve the issue of Egene being literally uncatchable,” Ariella countered. “He can teleport from one place to the next in a heartbeat.”
What the credens was Ariella talking about? Was that his power? How could they hope to catch a man who could do such a thing? It was impossible.
“Let us worry about that,” Ash replied.
“That sounds like a terrible plan,” Leethan mumbled, speaking for the first time since the conversation had started.
Fyreen was inclined to agree with him. What good would it do to go all the way to the castle hoping that Egene was there if he could teleport at any time and be out of reach in a blink?
But at the same time, Fyreen couldn’t forget who else waited in the castle, with no way of escaping—her brother. If Ash was intent on using them to get there, if it was the price he demanded for leading them to the Cup, then maybe they could use this opportunity to get Kirion out as well.
Two birds with one stone.
Not that the prospect of going back to Citadia sat well with Fyreen. She would rather stay away from this place. And keep the vial out of her mother’s hands at the same time.
“If,” Thea said, “emphasis on the ‘if’, we agree to go with you to the castle and try to capture Egene. You will lead us to the Cup? Even if we don’t manage to actually catch him?”
Ash’s eyes bore into hers, intense and full of determination. “Yes. I vow it.”
A shimmer seemed to shake the very air at his words, as if the vow he had just made went beyond words. As if his sentence were binding.
A shiver raked up Fyreen’s spine as the air grew heavy and she rolled her shoulders to release the tension. The mere thought that these strangers knew that she was the Princess unnerved her. What else did they know? And more importantly how did they know all this?
Had they been spying on them for longer than they had realized? Gathering information to appear in power when they actually showed themselves?
“And how do you imagine we can help you get into the palace?” Thea intervened, challenging. “If we’re out here, it’s for a reason. We don’t plan to go back to the capital, nor are we safe there.”
Fyreen was impressed by the way she had phrased it. She hadn’t really revealed their situation, and yet, she had conveyed the important message.
“I believe you have friends in the capital who can help us,” Ash replied, his eyes landing on Ariella and Brado. “I believe your little group isn’t as small as you want everyone to believe.”
“And how would you know all this?” Brado challenged. “If you have all this information already, surely you can manage this by yourself.”
Ash’s smile was feline. “I have information. You have access to the palace. It’s a fair trade.”
“We will need to discuss it among ourselves,” Ariella said.
“Of course,” Ash agreed amicably. He rose elegantly, then winked at Thea and said, “You know how to call for me.”
His companions had risen too, and Fyreen forced herself not to look at Sil, whose gaze she knew for a fact was on her again. Instead, she kept her eyes resolutely on her hands as the group strode away, waiting until she couldn’t hear their steps anymore.
Once they had disappeared entirely in the cover of the trees, Fyreen allowed herself to release the tight breath stuck in her lungs.
Thea slumped backward on the ground, laying back as if it had taken her all her energy to speak with Ash and his companions. Fyreen felt mostly the same but didn’t dare say anything, biting her lip. She felt as if they were still here, watching, stalking from the shadows. Maybe they’d been doing that for days. Weeks.
“What do we do?” Ruelle asked.
“Are we supposed to just take their word for it that they even know where the Cup is?” Leethan commented. “They knew we were looking for it, it would have been easy to lie about knowing its location to get us to agree to their deal.”
“I second that,” Thea grumbled. She sat back up and ignored the surprised look Leethan threw her way. “I don’t trust them,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, it’s a vibe, a feeling.”
“Can we really trust your feelings?” Leethan snapped. “We all know where they led us last time…”
Fyreen bit her tongue at the harshness of his words. The accusation in them. And the scowl that accompanied his sentence.
“I felt it too,” Ariella intervened. “They’re not telling us the entire truth. But they really are looking for Egene to prevent him from endangering them, that much is true.”
“Is someone going to tell us who the credens that guy is?” Ruelle asked.
Finally, Fyreen all but cried.
Ariella’s face grew tense, and Thea flopped back down, throwing her arm over her eyes to protect her face from the sun. “He’s Thea’s father.”
Fyreen’s jaw must have been on the floor by now. There was no other option.
Egene was Thea’s father? And inherently Ariella’s ex-lover.
What the credens was going on here? How did Ash and his friends know him? Why didn’t Thea and Ariella seem to hold him in their hearts?
“Does anyone actually know if he is indeed in the castle?” Leethan asked.
“Thea saw him when she was there,” Ariella explained.
“Then it’s possible that he’s already told my mother about this information they want to keep secret,” Fyreen commented.
“Yes,” Ariella agreed. “But telling them that would not go in our favor.”
“Is there something else we should know?” Ruelle inquired carefully, sensing the tension.
“He’s an asshole, that’s about all there is to know,” Thea grunted. “And I couldn’t care less what happens to him if Ash gets his hands on him. In fact, I’m hoping we catch him.”
That explained why she had never mentioned him before. But what had happened for both Ariella and Thea to hate him that much?
Curiosity gnawed at Fyreen’s insides, and she knew that it was a hundred times worse in Ruelle’s mind. She always liked to know stories like this. But even she didn’t dare ask for further details when Ariella didn’t contradict Thea’s words.
“I have something to ask,” Fyreen said gently.
Ariella smiled at her immediately. “Of course.”
“I—” Fyreen swallowed and fought the urge to wring her hands together. “I was wondering if we could also get my brother out. If we do agree to help Ash and the others, I mean.”
Ariella’s face softened and Fyreen felt Ruelle’s hand slide in hers and squeeze. “If we do agree to go with them to the palace in search for Egene, then I don’t think a little detour to get the Prince out would be too much trouble.”
