Page 39 of Crown of Wrath

Rhion chuckles and turns back to Cole. “One day, I’m going to get the fight that you owe me, Prince Cole. I’ll have the fight that will end with one of us dead.”

“I look forward to it, but it’ll be another day.”

Rhion turns away from us and leaps, his monstrous legs propelling him high into the air as he regrows a new set of wings before he’s neared the apex of his leap. Cole and I both watch as he flies away from us, not looking back even once.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” I finally ask as Rhion becomes a speck on the horizon.

Cole’s silent for a few moments, but I don’t push him. I’ve never known him to make what looks like an obvious mistake because of his emotions.

“I understand Rhion,” he finally says without looking at me. “We grew up together. He was always younger, always trying to compete with me when I never cared. I was just trying to survive my father and protect my friends. Rhion, though… He needed to outdo me, but if I let him, then my father would come down on me. I was his answer to GethinandRhion, and if I couldn’t destroy Rhion without a problem, then I wouldn’t be able to protect the House of Flames. But Rhion…”

He sighs and turns towards me. “Gethin is older than my father. He’s older than Brenna or Roderic. He’s ancient, and the Throne takes a toll on the person who sits in it. The stories say that the first generation of Great House Kings and Queens gave up the Throne and faded into the void. That was thousands of years ago. Those were the ones who were given power directly when the dragons became the Thrones. And Gethin was born not long after that.”

Cole purses his lips as he tries to decide how to phrase the next thing, and I frown. What does Gethin’s age have to do with why he didn’t kill Rhion?

“Rhion has suffered in ways I couldn’t imagine. At least my father accepted I would eventually take over his Throne. No matter how many times he burned me, he never even considered an alternative. Gethin has told Rhion since he was a child that he was too weak to hold the Throne. Instead of forcing him to become stronger, he ignored him. He treated him like an unwanted bastard since birth, all because I was stronger than him.”

I blink, understanding their history a little, but I’m still confused. “He’s still the enemy, Cole. He could have killed us. He wounded you. Even fighting together, we had to fight hardto win. Now he’s free to fight us again in the next battle, and we both know that there will be another.”

Cole gives me a knowing smile. “Did we really have to fight hard? You barely know how to use your Earth powers. As soon as you did anything beyond what a normal shadow walker could do, he lost. And I never intended to kill him.”

I grab Cole’s arm and pull him to face me. His smile gets wider. “You were holding back?” I ask, a little more dangerously than I probably should. It verges a touch too close to the way I’d talked to my friends when I’d gone cold.

“I was,” he says. “The goal was to beat him, not kill him. Maeve, you have to understand that the world needs Rhion to live. He’s the strongest Immortal in the House of Steel other than Gethin. He needs to control the Steel Throne when we’re done. The Conduit must be capable of controlling a Great House.”

The Thrones will anchor the magic. The Great Houses will be the Conduit. The Painted Crown will be the balance.

Those words run through my mind unbidden. They’re more words from Vesta that I barely remember. “We have to keep him alive when he’s actively trying to kill us?”

Cole nods. “It’s more than that, though. Rhion doesn’t want to ruin the world. You don’t understand because you didn’t grow up with an Immortal parent training you and watching your every move. It’s almost painful to go against them. I explained how Immortals have children because of their loyalty. No matter how many times I’ve done it, it physically hurts me to disobey my father. Luckily, my father’s first lessons were about embracing pain. Rhion isn’t from the House of Flames, and the thought of disobeying Gethin is inconceivable.”

I sigh, not sure I completely agree with Cole’s decision. He’s not afraid of Rhion, but I am. I’d thought no one could beat Cole, but today’s fight shook that confidence. I watched the SteelPrince move. Even if Cole is better than him, how many soldiers would we lose to him? What if it was Darian or Lee that was forced into that fight?

Is keeping him alive worth the risk?

“There’s nothing to be done about it now, but Cole, I don’t know if this was the right call. Rhion is dangerous. Maybe you could fight him and win, but I don’t think anyone else could.”

The look in his eyes is one of conflict. Not between me and him, no it’s an internal war, and it may not be the first time he’s fought it. “You asked me to stop bowing to you, Maeve. You asked me to be more like I was when you first met me. Should I wait for your decisions, or am I allowed to make my own judgement calls? Do you still trust me?”

I grit my teeth as he uses my own words against me. “I trust you even if I disagree with you this time.”

“I understand, and I think that’s supposed to happen occasionally.”

The silence between us is deafening, but I turn away first. “Well, we saved the village. Do you want to search it for this artifact?”

Cole chuckles. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Chapter 18

I sought the Book and the Cloak. I crossed the Unending Sea. I met The Darkness. Years passed before I saw the light again, and yet, they were right there. To think I’d believed they would be in Kaelith’s Realm. To think I’d believed I could find his world. I was a fool.

~Brenna Morvyn, A Future of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

There was no magical weapon forged by a dragon waiting in that tiny temple dedicated to Veris, god of good luck. All we found were piles of coins and some very startled priests. They kept insisting it was lucky we’d shown up, practically falling over themselves with gratitude. I can’t help but wonder—do they say that every time something good happens? Do the priests of Verisalways credit him for every fortunate event and curse his twin, Taldor, the god of bad luck, when misfortune strikes?

What a miserable way to live. You’d never be responsible for your own choices—every victory and every failure would be because of divine interference. Then again, judging by the sheer amount of wealth tucked away in that temple, Veris seems to have been exceptionally kind to his followers.

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