Page 124 of A Dawn of Gods & Fury

Finally, he relents, releasing me. “I knew there was something happening. A plot of some sort.” He paces back and forth in front of my chair, his footsteps soundless. “Two elementals fled from Argon. According to Romeria and Atticus, they came to Cirilea and helped your brother and my sister escape. Who knows what else they were up to.”

“Mordain have been scheming,” I agree. “Wendeline played her role in my parents’ death, though she swears she had nothing to do with what Ybaris was planning.”

“She did not. In fact, her actions foiled much that day. That one … Gesine, she is known to be particular about those basement-dwelling scribes. They live and breathe prophecy.”

I can hear the disdain in his voice. “For a royal family who relies so heavily on the power of casters, you seem not to like them much.”

“My mother relied on them. I would have much preferred they remained on their island. She didn’t trust them not to cause havoc which is why she kept the elementals in the tower.”

“That’s rich, considering she’s the one who used them to summon a fate.”

He shoots me a sideways glance. “Again, I had nothing to do with that.”

“And yet you went along with it, shuttling your sister’s poisonous blood all over my land, ending untold innocent lives.”

“As opposed to the untold innocent lives lost in Ybaris through centuries of starvation, while your kind flourished from rich soils in Aminadav’s name, the very fate who continues to punish us, season after season?” He adds, “And half sister. We do not share the same father.”

I gasp. “I knew it. Who is her father?”

“It does not matter. We must leave, Annika. Tonight. Now.” He rummages through my wardrobe. “Why is there nothing in here for you to wear? Not even another dress, let alone sensible clothes.” He pushes the doors open to show me a bare cupboard.

“Perhaps the seamstress is preparing such things.” That dress must have been his late wife’s. I push aside the shudder with that thought. “And leave to go back to what? My parents are dead. Presumably my twin brother is dead too.” Should I have felt the moment it happened? Mortal twins always talk about a bond, a connection, they feel to each other, but if I have ever felt it, I’m unaware. “If Zander is alive, he is exiled and off in the mountains with Romeria. Islor has fallen to rebellion. What am I rushing back for?”

“You may be the sole heir of your realm.”

“Of what? A kingdom in flames? And besides, the last I heard, your mother was crossing into Islor with an army we could not beat, fractured as Islor is. I imagine I would return home to her sitting in my throne. Oh, but you could deliver me to her!” I exclaim with mock excitement before letting my face fall flat. “No, thank you.”

“So what? You wish to stay here?”

I shrug. “You heard the king. He will make me queen.”

“That is who you want? That fossil of a human.”

“He is not that old. And, as if who I want has ever been a topic of conversation. My brother tried to marry me off to you.”

He cocks his head. “Oh, come now, would that have been so bad?”

“Worse than terrible,” I toss back, though I will admit, I don’t feel the same abhorrence as before. Tyree has proven to have some good qualities. And this is the first civil conversation we have ever had.

He shamelessly studies the plunging neckline of my gown. “You cannot even bear his children, Annika.”

I blush under his gaze. “I cannot bear yours either.”

“Who knows, with this latest development. Maybe that has changed too. I wouldn’t mind trying.” He winks.

I ignore his overt flirting. This is the Tyree I know, and it means nothing. He’ll kill me in the next breath if it serves his purpose. “Udrel’s throne will be mine when King Hadkiel passes on in, what, twenty years.” A blink of an eye.

All humor fades from his face. “You are actually serious.”

“Yes. I can’t think of a good reason to go.”

He seems to ponder this. “I will not force you—”

“Really? Not like in Cirilea?” I quip.

His jaw tenses. “I did not have a choice. Plus, you stabbed me.”

“So … we’re even?”

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