Chapter Twenty-Seven

The wind blew—a strange, eerie sound—as if the planet itself were mourning the loss of the queen. Lightning flashed in the sky and thunder signaled the coming of a vicious rainstorm.

I crouched near Philippa’s body and set her limp hands on her stomach. I withdrew the pendant from my hair, dislodging the ashen blonde locks that Clarice pulled together so neatly. Two words resounded within my hollow mind:

Protect them.

Philippa told me to call upon the pendant to use the power within me. She told me to choose my destiny.

I didn’t know how I would do it, but if I had power in me, then I would do anything to save the ones I loved.

Loved. A word I hadn’t used in such a long time. But now, as I exited the garden and sidestepped the bodies of unconscious guards, I realized that the people I cared about were the very reason I was moving forward. Two months ago, that would have sounded comical to me. Foolish, even.

I moved with precision, my hand grasping Mother’s pendant tight in my palm. It grew warmer as I continued—and I knew it wasn’t from my body heat. Whenever it was near the king, the pendant had grown warm. When I saw the cloaked man, a voice told me strange things. It was warning me of the danger at hand. How could I have been such a fool to ignore what was in front of my eyes this entire time?

By ignoring the signs, Philippa had died and I had been unable to save her. Just like Fallon and Odelia.

But now it was different. I would not let anyone die. I made a promise.

And I was angry now.

                                                ————————

The storm outside the castle was ferocious, ripping at the skirt of my sleeveless crimson dress. I walked deliberately toward the stables. I knew I couldn’t defeat Kasib alone.

And there was only one creature that would be able to help me succeed.

I opened the door of the barn and entered the dim structure. The moon cast my body in a shadow that filled the walkway, creating a monstrous, haunting figure. The water horses whinnied and screeched in their stalls. They knew something was wrong.

I sucked in a breath. I didn’t know if this would work, but it was the only hope I had left. Otherwise, Kasib would kill Titus and Clarice. And all the other Royals, too. Just like Philippa.

I refused to let my gut-wrenching fear slow me down. “Natz!” I called to the cavernous room, causing the water horses near me to buck in their pens. “I need your help!”

Silence.

“Please, it’s Lannie Brackenbury! Helena’s daughter.” I paused for a long moment. The quiet was permeated only by the frightened noises of the horses and the raging wind outside. “The Harbinger.”

At that, immediate silence dominated the air. The wind stopped and the horses calmed. A relieved, shuddering sob escaped my lips.

“You finally figured it out, did you?”

Natz stood in the doorway of the stable, the moon casting him in a shadow that was far beyond his height. I approached the short man and knelt to meet his eyes. “I need you to help me. The castle is under attack by an Orandine.”

His grizzled face contorted with surprise. “So that’s what’s goin’ on out there.” The tomte’s brows crinkled. “How do you guess I’d be of any help?”

“The Orandine killed her…” I murmured. “The queen is gone now because of me.”

His bright eyes went wide shock. “What—? How—?” Natz stopped, apparently unable to speak.

“Please, Natz,” I said. “Help me defeat the Orandine. Help me save the Royals before…” I didn’t dare go on. The massacre of guards in the castle proved that Kasib would get rid of anything that stood in his way. I extended my mother’s pendant to Natz. It gleamed a soft blue glow in the moonlight. “I need to stop him with this. He told me to meet him in the throne room and I have to use it somehow, but…” I trailed off. Please let him know what it is, I prayed silently.

His eyes narrowed as he inspected the piece of jewelry. “The communicator,” he mused, his voice shaking slightly. “Helena had this. Never activated it.” Natz’s intelligent gaze settled on me. “That’s something you need to find out for yourself.”

I was dumbstruck and felt like crying, but the tears were gone from my drained body. Philippa was dead and now even Natz refused to help. Why did I have to figure everything out by myself?

“However,” the tomte went on, “I can help you when you do activate it.” He put his hands into the pockets of his leather trousers. “But you’ll need to act quick. Those beasts are mighty powerful.” His expression darkened. “As you have already discovered.”

I nodded, swallowing heavily. He must have been talking about creating a time barrier. “But what about the others?” I asked. “If Titus and Clarice are frozen when the Orandine breaks your barrier, they would be simple targets.” Even though they might already be dead, I didn’t say. I wiped that thought from my head. Kasib specifically said to meet him in the throne room. Masochists like him would wait to kill hostages.

“That prince?” Natz snorted, apparently forgetting that I had included Clarice as well. “Trust me, missy. He won’t need it. He’s got that one’s blood in his veins.” I didn’t know what he meant, but he stuffed a sheathed dagger in my hand before I could interject. “Take this and go. I might do a barrier. Might not. ‘pends on everything,” he said. “Do what you need to do. Avenge the queen. Save the world.”

“But—”

Yet again, I blinked and the tomte was gone.

I exhaled sharply and gripped the dagger in my palm. Even though I knew I had to defeat Kasib, I was scared.

But Mother told me to face this darkness.

And that was exactly what I was going to do.

                                                ————————

As I stood in front of the entrance to the throne room, my pendant burned in the palm of my hand. It had guided me here, just like it had led me to the castle on the night Kasib attacked me in his Orandine form. It was dark save for the glowing pendant, which illuminated the bloodied, unconscious guards on the sides of the doors. Natz’s sheathed dagger was concealed within my dress. Though it wouldn’t be very useful, at least I had something to defend myself with.

I gripped the handles of the doors tight. The throne room was the main chamber of the castle. I had only entered it once. As I pulled the doors apart, I felt as if my whole world would collapse in an instant. Or maybe it already had.

The room spread out before me in a mass of dark marble flooring and a high vaulted ceiling. Torches burned from their posts on five massive pillars that were positioned on either side of the throne room. Kasib stood on the crimson carpet that led to the dais, his hands held firmly behind his back.

But it wasn’t Kasib that made the breath catch in my throat.

It was the Royals.

On the dais, Clarice was chained to the queen’s throne by thick, wicked-looking iron shackles. She was unconscious and her beautiful blue dress was stained with blood. Titus was lying next to her on the ground, his hands tied behind his back by the same shackles.

And it didn’t stop there.

The rest of the Royals from Nor were scattered about the throne room, chained to the pillars that lined the massive chamber. Lucan and Duke Faretra were unconscious on the right side, while Odelia was chained to one of the left pillars. I realized with shock that she was breathing.

I calmed myself, suppressing the cool rage that burned beneath my breast as I stared upon Kasib’s face.

“Ms. Brackenbury,” Kasib said, spreading his arms wide. “How nice of you to join us today. I was thinking of having a coronation ceremony before the wedding. How about you?”

“How—” I gripped my mother’s pendant for comfort. I had to stand strong in front of this murderous Orandine, no matter what the cost. “How? Why?”

Kasib smirked, but there was no joy in his gesture. “How and why? Those are indeed precocious questions. I can’t say that I will be happy to kill such an intelligent woman.”

I stiffened, my heart rushing into a panic of thumps and skips.

“You were quite gullible to believe my guise, though. I admit that I made several mistakes masking myself as the king,” he said. “But you failed to notice any of them.”

My mind reeled. What mistakes? The first time I met the king was when I overheard him talking with—

Suddenly, it hit me. When I became lost in the castle the day I heard Kasib’s voice behind that door, it really was Kasib. But who was that other man with him?

I don’t care what you have to do. This needs to be done before the next two moons. That was what the other man had told him, but…

My eyes widened. Cicero! The emissary must have been the one Kasib was talking to. He was the mastermind behind everything. I knew that, and yet…

Kasib smiled. Again, there was no mirth beneath his violet eyes. “As to how I did it…” The dark-skinned man held up his wrist, revealing the colorful Arian bracelet he wore. “Magical artifacts in the realm of shapeshifting are quite useful.”

I stumbled back. That bracelet—that same, vibrant Arian bracelet—was the one Cicero gave him. It was an artifact. Cicero wanted Kasib to kill the Royals by shapeshifting into the king and betraying them. Why didn’t I try harder to warn them?

My mind was jolted back to the prison. When the “king” had told me to trust him to make the right decision—the decision to free Nezira—that was all a guise to make me trust Kasib. How had I been so gullible? The signs were all there. And I had let my guard down.

“What about the jester?” I asked, my voice shaking despite my efforts to calm it. “What about Nezira and the naiads? Were they just pieces in your puzzle, too?”

“Tools, to be more precise.” Kasib narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, clasping his hands behind his back once more. “There is a rhyme and a reason to all of this, Ms. Brackenbury. You, most of all, should know that.”

“What are you talking about? I—”

Abruptly, Kasib’s form shifted and folded upon itself. He grew until he towered above me in his Orandine form; his jeweled scales glittered magnificently in the firelight.

I backed up in horror as Kasib slithered toward me, his long forked tongue snaking back and forth in between his fangs.

The Orandine hissed, resting his face in front of me. The familiar smell of rotten fish emanated from his breath. “You’re a Harbinger,” he snapped. There was something strange in the way he said it, almost as if he were angry with me. “But you seem to forget that, just like your mother. The world doesn’t need useless beings like you parading around like you own everything. It doesn’t need you, Ms. Brackenbury—and it certainly didn’t need your mother.”

My heart beat quickly. “What are you talking about?” I demanded. “She would have been a far better Harbinger than me.”

“She would have been a better Harbinger had she not been disposed of.” I could have sworn the beast smirked as I inhaled suddenly. “What? Did you think she died of natural causes?”

“She was sick,” I whispered, my voice trembling. A thin, fragile thread presented itself before me. I was balancing on the edge of a precipice. This wasn’t possible. She couldn’t have—

“I pity your ignorance. It would indeed be a shame to have you die without knowing. It would be the honorable way to inform you.” The Orandine flicked his forked tongue at me. “I killed your mother.”

My first reactions were dulled as his blunt statement drilled into my mind like a thin, piercing needle. Killed. Mother. I backed far away from him. No. No. The words of rejection repeated over and over in my mind until I voice them out loud, “No.”

“I suppose I should apologize,” he said. “I was ordered to kill her, of course. She could have no part in my master’s plans. And being a physician made it easy.” The Orandine sniffed at me, his violet eyes remorseless. “Hemlock provided a painless death for the former Harbinger.”

Hemlock.

A plant so poisonous that it killed its victims if not treated properly.

So poisonous that its victims were forced through a torturous death. They were paralyzed. Incapable of speech.

And how did I know this?

Because I sat by Mother’s bedside as she wailed in agony. Wailed so loudly—so painfully—that I cried until her heart stopped. Until her suffering finally ended.

And this creature had called her death painless?

My heart was empty except for a fathomless, raging hatred that was bent on destroying everything in its path.

There was only one thought in my mind at that moment:

You killed her.

And I could not stop the darkness that engulfed me.