Page 42 of A Kiss of Flame

‘He asked me to marry him,’ she said, the tone revealing what she thought of that prospect more eloquently than words ever could.

‘Well that’s not going to happen,’ Roland replied before Finn could even protest. ‘Not even if you begged me. It was a ruse anyway, a means to upset you. Pay him no mind. He’s a whelp who has lost power and is trying to punish everyone around him in retribution. That scene was more designed to embarrass Hestia and me than anything else.’

‘But he’s still dangerous,’ Finn warned them.

Roland nodded solemnly. ‘I am aware, which is why we need you to keep close to him. Who knows what else might take his fancy to do while here.’

Finn gave a curt bow. What else could he do? The Grandmaster commanded him and he was sworn to obey.

‘Why does Finn have to deal with him?’ Wren’s voice sounded thin and stretched, ready to break. She was worried about him, he realised. Light bless her, she was trying to protect him. Even now.

But Finn already knew why he had to be the one. His birth, his blood. Everything. Because he might be the only one who could right now. With Alessander’s favour and Hestia’s enchantments, they might keep his half-brother at bay until he could be removed back to Sidonia, his apologies made.

‘Prince Leander is not a threat at present. He is an honoured guest on a mission of reparation.’ Finn’s voice dripped with loathing he couldn’t even begin to disguise. Roland almost smiled. Almost.

Wren was less impressed.

‘I hope you’re a better liar than that when speaking in public,’ she snapped at him and then turned on her father instead. ‘Have you told Elodie he’s here yet? What do you think she’ll do when she finds out?’

FROM THE TRIAL OF AERYN OF ASTEROTH BY DENEATHIAS

When the day of the trial arrived, they said the sun shone even brighter on fair Pelias. The slumbering Aurum made no sound and, as the people gathered, rumours began to spread. The queen had left her throne, abandoned her people in their hour of need, even as war broke out. She had hidden away from them for twenty years. Some whispered that the woman now coming to trial was not Queen Aeryn at all but an imposter. Or that she had entered into some kind of unholy alliance with the Nox to save it and had been irrevocably corrupted.

And a few, just a few, still believed in her innocence. She offered no defence.

The Aurum would judge her, they said. And if she was found guilty, she would be given to the flames.

No one expected anything else.

CHAPTER 21

WREN

Wren expected Elodie to be enraged, to vow retribution and break out of the Sanctum to track Leander down and expel him bodily from Pelias. But she didn’t.

When Wren told her, she already knew all the details of what had happened, and she just bowed her head and nodded. Perhaps, with the beginning of the trial, there were other things on her mind. There was nothing she could do about it anyway. Not now. They were expected in the Sacrum any minute and it was the first chance Wren had managed to secure to talk to her since the ball. A kindness on behalf of Maryn and the maidens, she suspected.

Which was not comforting.

‘To be expected, I suppose,’ Elodie said at last. ‘Alessander would not want to break the Pact. Not now. So he will humiliate Leander willingly. Perhaps even gleefully. He does so love to teach people a lesson.’

‘Why not now?’

Elodie raised her face so that the sunlight fell on it and she smiled, so sad a smile. ‘They want to see me suffer. They’re here as witnesses. They want to see me condemned.’

‘But you won’t be. You aren’t guilty.’ Wren took Elodie’s hands in hers, wrapping her fingers around them. ‘Elodie, you can’t give up.’

Birdsong was her only answer, the music of Cellandre.

‘Do you remember the forest, Wren? Do you remember them singing to you like birds?’ Elodie whispered. ‘They sounded like that. If we could just go back there, they might still be able to help.’

What was she talking about? Elodie looked broken somehow. Afraid. Wren had never imagined she would see such a thing.

‘What do you mean, Elodie? What’s wrong?’

‘It’s up to the Aurum now. And the Aurum has been silent for too long. You may need to be prepared, Wren.’ She pulled her in for a hug. ‘This may not go as you wish.’

A deep booming knock sounded out, not from the direction of the gate, but further in the Sanctum, where it met the Sacrum and the home of the Aurum itself.