Page 27 of A Kiss of Flame

‘What are you doing?’ Wren asked, incredulous.

The maiden rolled her eyes. ‘Getting you ready for a throne. And hopefully saving those around you. Someone wanted him dead today. The wards were deliberately broken and the shadow kin summoned. If you had not been there, he would not have stood a chance. No, Finnian Ward,’ she said before he could interrupt her. Loyal to a fault, that was Finn. Roland was his hero. He would defend his skill and valour in spite of everything, Wren knew that. ‘He would not have stood a chance if he was alone, off his guard…’

‘But I was there with Roland, when the shadow kin attacked,’ Wren protested. ‘If someone wanted him dead then why do it when I was there? Unless they wanted me dead too.’

Maryn shook her head, her headdress rippling behind her. ‘No, they don’t want you dead. You weren’t meant to be there, I think.’

‘We were late,’ said Finn quietly. He sounded deflated now, defeated. And so very worried. ‘We should have been here earlier and you would have left by the time… Sister Maryn is correct. Roland would have been alone, working, lost in thought probably, as he often is. He would have thought he was safe in there. Someone was trying to kill him.’

The thought of someone trying to summon up shadow kin to set on Roland in his own study, where he should have been protected, haunted Wren. They had been strong, those dark creatures, powerful and clever. Perhaps her fear or anger had drawn them out but they were waiting there until he was distracted, lost in concentration or simply tired.

Elodie was imprisoned. If she was found guilty, Wren would be forced onto the throne. And without the man who was, everyone said, her father to support her, who would step into the gap? Who would claim her next?

Finn was leaving her. Or being sent away. Or going willingly. She wasn’t sure which.

‘Were you going to tell me?’ she had asked as soon as they were alone, in a corridor on the way back to her rooms. Finn stopped and then pulled her into his arms. Someone would see, she was sure of that. It seemed like there was always someone to see, always someone to gossip.

But Wren didn’t care about palace gossip.

She was the centre of it anyway. It followed her like a pack of hounds on a hunt. At the banquets, at the balls and other gatherings, it lingered in the air. She couldn’t avoid it. Sometimes when she walked into a room, everything went quiet for a moment and eyes lingered on her. Few of them felt friendly.

‘I tried,’ he admitted. ‘I got… distracted. I’m sorry, my love. You shouldn’t have found out like that.’

My love. How could he say that and then…

‘But you’re still going.’

‘I have to. My duty is to the crown, to the knights. And if I can use my family connections to help end the conflict between Asteroth and Ilanthus…’

He trailed off, clearly thinking about the enormity of that task.

She gazed up into his eyes. He tried to smile. ‘Do you think you can?’

‘I have to try, don’t I? For both our sakes.’

There wasn’t really anything she could say to that. The last time he had encountered his people, his own brother, he had almost died. They hated him. And she wasn’t sure this wasn’t a trap. But what could she say? ‘Stay safe. Don’t forget me.’

He took her hand and pressed it against his chest. His skin was warm, and she could feel his heart thudding beneath the muscles there. ‘I could sooner forget myself, Wren. You know that. And it won’t be for long. I’m not far. Just down at the city walls. You can see it from here. Look.’

He led her to the window which had a view down over the city rather than out over the sea. The walls were a circle of grey stone, thick and impregnable. She could see rooftops and market squares jumbled together as they spilled down the slope of the mountain. But at the bottom, where the ground levelled off, there were larger structures. Fortifications and defences. And among them, smaller versions of the keep in which they stood.

‘There,’ Finn said, pointing. ‘See the towers on that one, three of them, tall and thin? With the golden spires?’ She picked it out, the decorative stonework beautiful even from this distance. It was different from the stark buildings around it, more like the palace on the mountaintop. ‘That’s where I’ll be. You can watch me from here and I’ll look for you.’

‘I will,’ she told him, and pulled him into a kiss which she prayed would sear him into her memory forever. And her in his. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. ‘Come back to me, Finn. Please.’

‘Always,’ he murmured, and ran his lips down the line of her neck as he gathered her to him. ‘I swear that to you. Trust Anselm and Olivier and stay safe. And I will always find my way back to you, my love.’

She threaded her fingers with his, and drew him after her, back to her chambers.

THE ANNALS OF HOUSE TARRYN AND SASSONE

The House of Tarryn and Sassone is older than Pelias. It is said that when the Aurum first came to the Sanctum, a member of that line stood between the Chosen and the flames. In the first days of Pelias, when the first stones were laid for its walls, Castel Sassone was already there. On the last day, the day of weighing up, when Pelias falls and the Aurum finally gutters and goes out, House Sassone will still stand.

CHAPTER 14

FINN

Rumours were circulating among the men by dawn. It had probably spread all through the night. One of the squires approached Finn tentatively, as he packed his remaining gear, and seemed in awe of him, shuffling his feet and unable to meet Finn’s gaze.