Page 33 of Cold Hearted
“The one whom my soul seeks,” he breathed.
“What?”
He gave me a look, like he didn’t want to scare me. “Just a favorite poem of mine.”
I wanted to ask what that light was, what the feeling in my chest was, but I was also frightened of the answer.
“You lied to me about who you were,” I said, but my breathless words had no sting.
“Not true. I am Roan Zander Warrick. Brother to the Ethereum lords of the Western, Southern, and Eastern Kingdoms—commander of the Northern Army,” he stated boldly. “I just also happen to be the lord of the Northern Kingdom. If you were from Ethereum you would have known that the commander of the Northern Army and the Northern lord are one in the same.”
All of his important titles gave me chills. “You knew who I was from the beginning?”
He shrugged. “I suspected. We expect your assassins every hundred years. It’s been about that long. You clearly weren’t from around here and the cuffs wouldn’t fall off.”
I nodded because he was right. “We have no choice. Your ancestors stole the magic of Faerie and cursed us, and ever since our world starts to die every hundred years without retrieving it back.”
He tapped his chest, right where his heart was. “And I should be punished for something my crazy ancestors did a few thousand years ago?”
That shut me up. Because I had no argument there. No, he shouldn’t suffer for what his forefathers did.
Everything I was taught was now put into question, and it caused panic to rise up in my chest.I couldn’t think straight, so I pushed it away by focusing on something else.
“Who took the city from you? As an Ethereum lord your power is next to none.” I thought about the black glass shards he’d used against the bandits and shook my head. I’d been so blind not to see him for what he truly was earlier. Still, from what I’d been taught, that was just a small sample of his capabilities.
He motioned that I come sit on the furs by the fire with him and I did, not complaining when he took me into his arms. I leaned against his chest as he held me. That kiss had changed everything. It scared me, and yet it felt so right.
“The rondak,” he said, and I waited, not knowing who or what that was. “A creature from the darkness that spelled me so that my powers as an Ethereum lord are muted. He also cursed me so that I can’t kill him, or a blistering plague will fall upon my people. My brother Cal was the previous Northern lord. When the rondak infiltrated his castle, he took half the Northern Army with him. So over the past year I’ve been rebuilding my troops, and I’m hoping they can take him down.”
I frowned. A spell that muted his powers and a plague that fell on his people if he killed the rondak? Sounded like advanced dark magic.
“What other powers does the rondak wield?” I asked.
“He’s able to cloak himself in darkness, similar to the voidspawn that you just killed, but on top of that he’s able to breathe fire hot enough to incinerate a man. Guarding his bedroom door is a three-headed dog that will remove a man’s limbs with one bite. The rondak is said to feast on man’s flesh and doesn’t let any of his men get close enough to him for fear of being killed by his own ranks.”
I frowned.
Zander yawned, the day’s journey clearly catching up with him. “But we’ll get him. I have to, for my people.”
He lay back on the rug and I snuggled closer to him, feeling like I was at home in his arms and yet also feeling like a traitor to my people at the same time.
“We have to leave the city before dawn. It’s too dangerous to be here for long because the rondak can sense me when I’m near,” he said, his voice slow and weighed down with exhaustion. “But it’s been a couple days since I last slept, so we can rest for a few hours.”
My heart pinched. He didn’t sleep the night before because he was up watching over me while I recovered from expending too much power. He made himself vulnerable, for me.
Zander’s breathing evened out and I found my mind racing.
I thought of my mother,mypeople who were suffering from the curse the ancestors of the man who held me enacted. I thought of the woman outside being whipped and how Zander could do nothing about it. I thought of the screams of my people as the water level got too high for them to survive, of the acid rains and black clouds and wilting crops. I thought of the other three Ethereum lords, Zander’s brothers, just sitting on their thrones throughout the realm, their black hearts beating with the magic I needed. I thought about it all until tears flowed down my cheeks and onto the fur rug.
I might not be able to kill Zander, but I couldn’t allow the genocide of my people.
Lightly squirming out of Zander’s hold, I sat up and looked down at his peaceful face. The mound of maps and guard schedules was right beside him, and I couldn’t help but think that I had the perfect set of skills for his problem. I was a trained assassin. I had three different types of poison on me right now. I could make this rondak breathe his last breath tonight and give Zander his kingdom back. It was the least I could do before I left to hunt down one of his brothers. A consolation prize.
I took one last look at his plump lips and a small ache formed in my chest that I wouldn’t be kissing them again. Something had shifted inside of me with that one kiss, something profound that I couldn’t explain.
But my people were counting on me, and with Zander unable to kill the rondak himself, he was counting on me too, in a way. He just didn’t know it yet.
I sprang into action, soundlessly digging through my bag until I found what I was looking for, a small vial, unmarked save for a drawing of round purple berries. Not a poison but a tincture of soporberries, known in Faerie for their ability to deepen sleep.
