Page 27 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

If only he could truly see how she was doing.

Without his wicked grin, his guardianship, his friendship, her heart was hurting. Without his hands, his kiss, his heart…everything was flat.

“You need to centre your thoughts, Emara,” Sybil warned. “I can feel your energy shifting. Not here. We can both freak out together after the summit. Not here. Not before you get what you came for. Not in front of them.”

She knew who they were. The elite. In fact, anyone who thought that women shouldn’t have the same rights as men. The men who viewed women as weak, lesser than them. They thought they were too emotional to make decisions and too tolerable to fight the Dark Army. They were too weak to wield a sword and too maternal to put a dagger through an enemy’s heart.

She had to get it together.

Today wasn’t about her broken heart; today, Emara Clearwater was going to change life for every young girl and woman in the kingdom. Emara hoped with all her heart that she could make everyone equal.

“Good day to you all.” The chief commander nodded as he rose from his chair before placing his hands behind his back. He was so official. He never took a step out of turn. It was times like this that it was hard to imagine Artem and his father coming from the same clan. “If I could have your cooperation for silence, that would be much obliged. There are a few decisions to be made between factions today involving marriages, guards, and territory.” He walked to a table with documents stacked rather high and began his first assignment.

The chief commander talked through territory, stations of men, and where the Fae would like their army placed or pulled back. He covered Shifter business with Murk and touched upon finances with the Minister of Coin, whose appearance made Emara’s skin crawl. It always reminded her of the self-indulgent, greedy, ostentatious faction he represented, and she wondered if she would ever see the good in what he embodied.

Once the chief commander had sent his congratulations to House Water and Clan Coldwell on the news of their growing family, his eyes landed on Emara. “Can the Empress of Air please rise and take to the centre of the room?”

As the leader of the hunters, it was also his duty to read from a letter that had been sent to the prime, and it was clear he was shocked by Emara’s request. As he looked at her over the paper in his hands, his eyes narrowed. Emara took a deep breath but held herself the way Naya had taught her as she walked onto the floor that would be her stage. All eyes from the factions were on her now, and the silence of the room was staggering.

Finally, the time had come for her to appoint a new guard, and she was ready to advise who she wanted.

The chief commander’s eyebrows scrunched again, and his mouth moved from side to side like he was deep in thought, possibly trying to process his surprise at the contents of her request.

He ran a large hand over his chin. “I hold a very interesting letter here, Empress Clearwater.” He finally put the letter on the table in front of him and looked at her. His skin was the same colour as Arlo’s, and she could see some resemblance in his tall frame, thick arms, and russet hair. But the hunt had aged him before his time. Creases around his eyes showed wisdom, and the lines around his mouth demonstrated experience. He wasn’t as handsome as Artem or Arlo, but he did have a charming quality about him.

She adjusted herself, pushing her shoulders back and raising her chin. “I hope it caught your attention in the best of ways, Chief Commander Stryker.”

The full room was so silent you could hear a pin drop, but she tried to focus on the reason for being here. Determination ran through her veins.

“It has absolutely caught my attention, Empress of House Air.” Chief Stryker’s voice was deep with meaning. “Call me highly intrigued.”

Emara paused, halting the conversation; he held the power in this discussion, and so it should be him to ask the next question. She had to remain poised and look like none of the pressure was getting to her. She allowed one eyebrow to rise.

He observed her silence. “For the members of the summit here today who have not read the letter from the Empress of House Air, she is in need of a replacement for her late guard, Magin Oxhound.”

The Minister of Coin spoke in the same way all elite men did, looking down their nose. “I don’t see what needs the attention of the prime; surely that would be arranged with her closest clan.”

“You will see why it requires our attention,” The chief commander mused as he gestured his hand for Emara to give insight to her letter.

She blew out a short breath. “As the court knows, my guard was murdered in cold blood by his own brethren—who turned dark—at the Amethyst Palace during the winter solstice.” Emara kept her gaze on the commander, feeling like if she placed it anywhere else, she would lose her nerve. “We are six moons on and yet I haven’t replaced him—”

“Down to your choice, Empress Clearwater,” the chief commander commented. “I have offered plenty of hunters for the position of your third. Yet, you refuse them.”

“I do…I have,” she cut in sharply, not allowing him to dominate from an early point in the negation.

Nip them enough to bleed so they know you want blood, Torin would have said.

Dominance.

“Please do not take my refusal of your hunters as a means to wound your offer,” Emara continued. “I am very grateful that you have presented such fine hunters for my counsel, but from my letter of request, you now know why I cannot accept them.”

The chief commander rolled his lips, and the rest of the prime sat with intrigued looks plastered on their faces.

“Whilst reevaluating my situation and that of my coven, I have found that my trio of guards requires something more diverse,” she disclosed, finally finding her feet in the flow of her political stance. “Something that looks more inclusive. Something that works for me.”

A few murmurs broke from the court.

“I believe that my next guard shouldn’t be of hunting blood, but of wolf’s blood.” Emara pulled in her cheeks and lifted her gaze to every man who sat on the prime panel, before saying, “I believe that the third person in my trio of guards should be a woman.”

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