Page 117 of Crownless King

I touched the tight weave of the vines that concealed the window, ordering them to move with my mind. They obeyed instantly, shifting aside to create a wide opening.

Dove yanked me back behind the pillar.

“Stay out of sight. We don’t want the king to lose his fated one when he’s just got her back. Besides, I gave him a promise I’d prefer not to break.” She tilted her head in the direction of the window. “Look, but very carefully.”

Out in the gray pre-sunrise sky, a battle raged. I’d seen an attack on Elaros Palace once before, back when Voron had taken the crown. That day, I watched it from the ground. Now, it was taking place right in front of me, and it was even more gruesome and terrifying.

The fighting was happening everywhere, from above to below us. The air was filled with groans of pain and anguished cries of people dying. Feathers of every color churned in the air, stirred by the wings of the highborn.

Voron stood on top of the highest tower of the palace, quite a distance away from us. His wings were hidden. Unused to his miraculous new acquisition, he led the battle the way he’d always done before—on foot.

Guards and warriors flew to and from him with information and orders. In between directing his forces against the enemy, he fended off the attacks of the brave few who dared charge at him directly.

As I watched, a man plummeted toward him from above, a spear directed downwards, aiming to kill. Without opening his wings, Voron leaped aside, slicing the man’s head off with his sword.

I slapped my hand over my mouth. It all happened so fast, I gasped and it was over. The head rolled across the tower platform before dropping from it. The man’s torso crashed at Voron’s feet. He wiped his blade on the dead man’s clothes, then stepped over it, returning his focus to the battle.

“He’s good, isn’t he?” Dove’s eyes sparkled with excitement, as if this was a sport, and Voron had just shot the ball into the net, not cut a man’s head off, risking losing his own in the same manner.

I pressed my hands to my chest, trying to calm my racing heart.

“God, I wish it was over already.”

My stomach lurched as two other men barreled full speed at Voron from two different directions. He evaded the attack of one and met the other one with his sword thrust forward. Blood gushed out, coating the blade anew, as Voron stabbed his attacker through the chest.

“Not long now,” Dove assured me casually. “Look, they already got Lord Vautour.” She pointed at the approaching group of highborn dressed in the uniforms of the royal army.

They carried a man under his arms and dropped him at Voron’s feet. As the lord’s wings fluttered and shook, I realized they had been clipped. The longest feathers on their tips had been slashed off. Even with his wings out, Lord Vautour could no longer fly. He couldn’t get away.

This was the man who wrote the letter to King Tiane with the detailed instructions about my torture and death, the man who sourced the crossbow bolt that had nearly taken Voron out of this world. As pathetic as Lord Vautour looked right now, I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for him.

He crawled backwards, away from Voron, but the king stalked after him. His sword pointed down, painting a line of red on the white marble platform with the blood sluicing from the blade.

Voron said but one word, “Traitor.”

It was both the charge and the verdict. Raising his weapon, the king delivered the punishment next. His sword went through the chest of Lord Vautour, piercing his heart. The red sparks of Nerifir iron danced along the dark blade, startlingly bright in the pale light of the early morning.

“It’s so pretty,” Dove said unexpectedly.

I tore my stare from the traitor, whose dead body was now lifted on a spear for everyone to see until the winds would take every last trace of it.

“What is pretty, Dove?”

There was nothing to admire in the death reigning out there. Even as the battle had already been won, the fighting was still ongoing. Once ignited, the violence wasn’t easy to put out. Some of Bussard’s people were fleeing, but the warriors of Voron’s army were close on their heels, catching them or shooting them with arrows out of the sky.

“There.” Dove swept with her arm toward the east.

The sun was rising from behind the horizon. The clouds pulled back for the first time in so many months. The light of the new day shone like a golden jewel in the bright azure sky.

Dove smiled, basking in the sunlight like a kitten. “I don’t remember the last time I saw the sun so clearly.”

My gaze drifted to the man who had the power to part the clouds. Voron surveyed the battlefield in the sky, rotating slowly. Like the arm of the compass always pointing north, he ended up facing me. Our eyes met.

“Come.” Dove grabbed me around my waist. “I’ll take you to him and be done with my promise.”

Her stunning wings opened, and she hopped from the window, taking me to the tower with the king.

Dropping his sword, Voron stretched his arms toward me, then plucked me from Dove’s embrace.

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