Page 8 of The Blade in the Ashes
I didn’t know how to get Thea out of the castle I once locked her in.
“I don’t think another attack should be our priority right now,” Rankor warned.
Perhaps I’d been mistaken in thinking that Rankor and Thea had developed a deeper friendship than the others realized. Clearly, he didn’t care for her as much as I thought he did if he was so willing to leave her in enemy hands.
“Thea is theonlypriority.”
Iris slammed her palm onto the table, the sound of the slap so sharp that Elaina flinched.
“You’re thinking like a heartsick boy and not a king,” she hissed at me. “If you want us to trust Thea, then you need to do the same! You need to trust that she can manage Hyrax on her own for now while you start beingthe leader we need. And if you won’t do that for your people, then do it for her because we both know Thea would expect you to be a king right now. A damn good one at that.”
There was a second heavy thud as she slammed the tip of her blade onto the table, slicing through the map easily. The force made the dagger shake, but she kept her eyes locked on mine, unflinching.
It struck me then how different she was now from how we had been as kids.
Now, I felt like I didn't know my cousin very well at all anymore.
When Iris had left to join the Order, she had changed and come back as something much darker. At first, she had put on a good show of being the happy girl she used to be.
After Lorelai died though, she stopped bothering to hide all that darkness.
“Eagirton.”
Camilla’s voice was nothing more than a timid squeak as she looked at the spot on the map where Iris’ dagger now sat.
The room turned to her, and for a moment, she was oblivious to our attention.
It was the first time in what felt like an eternity that I heard silence. My ears felt hollow without anyone talking or screaming or crying.
Until Camilla abruptly snapped into alertness and shook her dark hair off her shoulders.
“Eagirton.” She pointed to the map. “We can go back to Eagirton. He has plenty of space.”
I frowned, remembering our meeting with Nikolai a few days prior.
We had met with the infamous leader of the nation’s largest crime ring, hoping he might have The Book of the Gods, but Pasnia already had it in her possession.
Elaina tilted her head in agreement. “He has somewhat of an army in his own right.”
He had an army of thieves and murderers.
The last person I wanted to be relying on was Nikolai Legum.
Camilla looked to me, imploring me with her eyes to see the logic in her suggestion. And, Gods help me, I did. As much as I hated the thought of having to ask a man like Nikolai for help, Iris was right. I needed to think like a king.
And kings knew when to make alliances.
“Very well,” I agreed. “We’ll go to Eagirton first.”
“First?” Rankor asked.
I nodded, pulling the blade out of the wood of the table and extending it to my cousin. She looked at it with suspicious, narrowed eyes. Wordlessly, she grasped the blade, not even flinching as it pierced the skin of her palm.
“Eagirton first,” I repeated, watching tiny droplets of blood fall from Iris’ fingertips. “We provide the women and children with shelter there. Then, we rally our allies and build an army.”
Chapter Three
Thea
