Page 64 of Shade of Ruin

If Cole had been human, and I’d been meeting his father, I’d have wanted him to hold my hand, to show some bit of comfort, but not here. Here, if he were to show me any softness, it’d be looked at as a weakness, and his father would have even more reason to be furious.

I try to situate myself to look stronger and more presentable. More regal… if that’s even possible. A tingle runs up my spine, and I stiffen. I glance at Cole and try to be strong and cold. I need to be as Fae as possible.

His father walks into the room then, and both of us look toward him. The sound of his feet, covered in thick black boots, is booming with every step. He’s wearing a bright red and gold long jacket. A military coat. Crimson fabric that’s been embroidered with golden flames and golden buttons. His long, black hair is swept back and pulled into a tight braid.

His shaven face looks as youthful as Cole’s, and other than a few traces of gray in that long black hair, there’s not a single sign of age on him. Except the way he looks at us. That’s not the expression of a young man. There’s too much hate and fury for a young man to be capable of.

Across his exposed forehead, a crown has been painted or tattooed onto his skin. Wrapping around, the colors of the crown seem to shimmer. Where my dress looks like flames, but isn’t, the crown looks like… fire. Pure, unfiltered fire that constantly burns across his forehead.The Painted Crown.

“You’ve decided to waste your betrothal on a Wyrdling?” he says through gritted teeth. His dark eyes seem to flare with every word, and he doesn’t even glance at me. “Not just a Wyrdling. A powerless one you’ll have to take care of for the rest of your life. This is something so incredibly stupid I didn’t believe that even you would do.”

Cole gives him the same smile he gave me when he told me knew about my deals with the Shade. That almost sadistic looking smile that holds no happiness whatsoever. “This is Maeve Arden, father. Maeve, this is my father, Casimir Cyrus, the current King of Draenyth and the world beyond, as well as the King of Flames.”

For the first time, Casimir turns to me, absolute rage in his eyes. His face is as cold and emotionless as the marble his castle’s built of. “Welcome to my home,” he hesitates, and then, without showing a single bit of the emotion I can hear in his voice, he finishes, “Maeve.”

It’s as cold a greeting as I’ve ever heard. I think this might be worse than him being outwardly furious. If he were spouting flames and throwing chairs, he would get some of that fury out of him. Instead, it just builds. There, behind his eyes, I can see the fury growing.

Servants, many of them looking like Nevan, bring food to us as we sit quietly and stare at each other. I’ve never seen or smelled food that made my mouth water this much, but I don’t dare look at it, much less try to fill my plate.

Cole sits with that smile on his face while his father returns his gaze with a steady calmness. Finally, Cole breaks the staring match and says, “I saw Rhion today. He looks well.”

Casimir blinks and says nothing for a few moments. “He is as he’s always been. His father’s son and nothing more. You, on the other hand, should be more. Rhion has ridden his father’s coattails since he was born, never amounting to anything more than a pretty bird, always preening and convincing people to look at him. You were born with so much power, and you’ve…”

He shakes his head, and Cole arches an eyebrow. “Squandered it?” he asks, guessing at what the King was thinking. “Father, I’ve done exactly what you wanted. I’ve been ready to fight the House of Steel for more than a century. Every one of them is afraid to duel me, and if it came to outright war, I would be ready and on the front lines. That’s why you had me, isn’t it? To have someone you could trust to protect you from King Gethin? We don’t agree on things, so I’ve stayed away, but I’ve never been more than a two day’s flight from home just in case it came down to a fight, and I needed to do my duty for our House.”

“Do your duty? Like you did during the Shattering? When we struck down our enemies? I hardly think you did your duty that day.”

I have to try very hard to stay silent to keep from drawing attention to myself after Casimir says that. The room becomes deathly silent as they stare at each other again. Then Cole moves, reaching for a roll, and it’s like I can breathe again.

“Father, I’ve never been quiet about the Shattering. It is not my duty to ruin the world, and breaking two of the Great Houses is the worst thing that’s happened in the history of this world. I was on the front line, just as you wanted. The House of Shadows was broken by my hands while you sat in the Keep of Flames, your hands clean of it.” He takes a bite of the roll as if he wasn’t staring down a man that looks like he wants to murder him.

Cole’s body looks more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. In the finery he’s wearing, he looks like an insolent prince, just like Rhion, but I canfeelthe tension rolling off him in waves. His muscles are ready to spring. The way he lounges in his chair is the perfect position to leap into action, and the tips of his right hand flicker with flames while they’re hidden below the table.

I don’t know what to do. I’m sitting next to two of the most powerful people in the world, and they both seem like they’re on the verge of a fight. The crunch of Cole’s teeth against the crispy outside of the roll sounds like it should echo in the room.

I do the thing that Wyrdlings are always so good at. I’m awkward. “Maybe this is the wrong time, but since you two seem like you’d know, how do you learn to use fire magic without singing all of your hair? I’m guessing it doesn’t affect your skin, but hair is like clothes, isn’t it? Or do some of the Immortals in the House of Flame just walk around with constantly singed beards and hair?”

Cole turns to me, a very confused look on his face, and blinks. Casimir does a better job of hiding his confusion and annoyance,but the fire behind his eyes dies a little. “Right, maybe I’m not explaining it very well,” I say. “I mean, when you’re younger and learning. You can’t feel your hair, so when you’re learning to use fire magic, I would think it would be very easy to accidentally set yourself on fire. Or do you just make all the untrained Immortals cut their hair short?”

“They learn quickly not to burn themselves,” Casimir says. “It’s necessary for anyone who wields fire magic to accept that pain is a part of the process, so frequent burns as children are normal and expected.”

When he turns back to Cole, the bonfire that was raging only moments before is barely more than smoldering now. He turns to the food on the table and begins to fill his plate. Cole does the same, and I take it as a sign that I will actually get to eat tonight.

As I put a little bit of everything on my plate, from jellied fruits to a bit of roasted turkey breast to fried bread to blood sausage, I say, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as grand as the Keep of Flames. I still can’t figure out how everything seems to be built out of a single piece of marble like this. There aren’t any seams anywhere. It’s just… all one piece.”

This time, Cole explains, “The House of Earth built each of the Keeps. Their powers allowed them to create incredible architectural wonders, and most of the major landmarks in Draenyth were built by them.”

“Or the dragons before they left,” finishes Casimir. “No one can deny that the House of Earth was good at building, but they were infuriating to work with. When they held the Painted Crown, it constantly felt like the rest of the High Fae’s concerns were ignored.” I’m not entirely sure why he’s going off on this tangent.

“Maybe it’s because they were so stubborn about letting anyone breed with their house. They held themselves on a pedestal, as though the other Great Houses were less than them.I’ve held it for nearly two hundred years, and I've spent that time doing my best forallthe High Fae. Not just my house.”

Cole’s eyes open wide in disbelief. “Are you serious, father? You really think that you’ve spent your reign working for all of the High Fae? How? The House of Earth and Shadows aregone. It was during your reign that half of the Great Houses were destroyed.By you.”

Damn it, Cole. I’d almost had him calmed down, and now you have to pick a fight with him? Casimir glowers at his son. “I’m looking long term. I’m not so short-sighted to be worried about a few thousand Immortals. The House of Shadows held the secrets of the world, and they refused to allow us to know what they had found. The House of Earth helditselfaway from the rest of us. Their bloodlines were the only ones unaltered from the time of the dragons. You know how hard they pushed to remain pure without a drop of any other house or race. They both had to be stopped.”

Cole smiles at his father and says, “Of course. You destroyed them because of what they’d done. Not at all because you hated sharing the Painted Crown with three people instead of one.” He ends the comment with a smirk and then picks up one of the jellied fruits and tosses it into his mouth.

This isn’t going to end well. It just can’t. Those two are too powerful. Too full of confidence that they’re right. Too… emotional.

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