Page 78 of A Reign of Roses
“Vendetta like that…” Hart shook his unruly head of hair. “Why’d you stop looking?”
“I had…” Kane tucked his chin down as if he’d almost faced me but thought better of it. “Other priorities.”
“Well,” Hart said, letting his leg drop over the edge of the sideboard. “He’s in Rose, somewhere.”
“What gives you that idea?”
“Ethera told me. When we were…” Hart jerked his chin toward me with a boyish smirk. “Having intimate relations, as you said. The two of them made a blood oath years ago. Probably right around the time he left Lumera and swore his army to her cause.”
“What was the nature of the oath?”
Hart shrugged. “No clue.”
Kane scratched his chin in thought. “I always assumed a mortal like Ethera never aged due to some kind of spell or curse…Seems it’s the blood oath that keeps her so young.”
“And so fucking crazy…” Hart said, eyes glazing over as if recalling a specific memory. When Valery cleared her throat, Hart’s eyes found ours and he schooled his face. “Look, betrayal a half century ago or not, Aleksander Hale’s Blood Fae army is ten times more powerful than Rose’s mortal one. They’remachines. They draw their power fromblood. Drinking it, pulling from people’s bodies, corpses, necrophilia, lathering themselves in it…You know what that means? Carnage, war, losing a fucking limb—it only makes themmore powerful.”
“I know that,” Kane gritted out. “It’s why my father enslaved them in the first place. Both to fight for Solaris and to keep them from turning that power against him.”
“You’re going to let your hurt feelings stop you from using an army like that?”
Kane remained silent, though his jaw had gone rigid.
“He tried once,” I said softly. “We have no reason to believe Aleksander wouldn’t deceive us again.”
“Gods, he betrayed the fallen son of Lazarus. Who’s now full-blooded…He’s a dead man anyway. He’d probably be thrilled to work off his debt to you.”
Kane only said, “We’ll get through to Ethera, somehow.”
“So,” I said, my mind swimming a bit with all the new information. “Hart will get word to Amelia to somehow extricate the blade from the palace in Solaris in return for her life, and we’ll speak with the Scarlet Queen and convince her to rally her army for our cause? Without endangering thousands of southern Rose lives…”
The sharp-boned witch nodded in my direction, though Hart’s expression darkened with doubt. And I didn’t blame him. It was ambitious at best.
“Amelia won’t believe you and I are aligned,” Kane said to the rebel. “Her default is distrust. Here.”
Kane pulled his mother’s black signet ring from his pinky and offered it to Hart. “She knows what it means to me. Tell her it’s a sign of my word.”
Amelia, who had been one of Kane’s closest friends. One of his only friends. Who knew his history, his suffering—my heart stirred for the bond they’d both lost.
Hart nodded, placing the onyx-and-silver ring in his pocket with care.
“Once we have our armies and the blade,” I said, “we’ll bring everyone back here. How long do you think it will take Lazarus to rebuild even half the lighte we destroyed?”
“Two weeks,” Hart said. “Three, tops.”
“We’ll move quickly, then,” Kane said.
I was way ahead of him, already easing myself from the bed and sliding on borrowed boots.
Kane motioned back toward me. “Thank you again, Hart.”
“Don’t mention it.” Hart hopped down from his spot atop the sideboard. “Kane, once we win….” For the first time, Hart appeared less assured. He shot Valery a look that I couldn’t quite read.“I don’t want our good men to war over the throne, and I know it’s your birthright, but—”
Kane shook his head. “It was my brother’s, not mine.”
An ache pulled at my chest with his words. With the memories I knew plagued him. Kane never wished to usurp his father. Not before he rebelled, not after when he inherited the throne from King Oberon in Onyx, and absolutely not now that he was full-blooded. It was his father’s dream to have a true Fae heir on the Lumerian throne. Kane would never fulfill it.
Hart remained silent, showing a tact I’d yet to see from the spirited would-be king. He was waiting Kane out. Allowing him to make the first offer.
