Page 80 of A Kiss of Flame

‘Wren, please,’ Finn whispered. ‘Stop. You’re helping her, aren’t you? Making her stronger. Please stop. This isn’t the way, love.’

‘He almost killed you,’ she said softly as if waking from a dream. ‘He would have killed you. I had to stop him, Finn.’

So it was her then. Her magic. Not the Nox itself but its power. And it was pouring along her veins now, swallowing her up more and more by the second. It would burn its way through her, destroying all that there was of her, of the Wren he knew and loved. He’d seen her almost lose herself before, and he couldn’t let it happen again. Not for him.

He wasn’t worth that.

‘He’s almost killed me more times than I can remember. And he will try again. But this isn’t you. We need to go, leave this place. It isn’t good for you. It isn’t safe.’

‘Good,’ she murmured. ‘Safe… they’re just words. Maybe I’m not good. Maybe nowhere is safe. Maybe I belong here. The Nox can help us.’

Was this Hestia’s doing? He glanced at her. Had she enchanted Wren or… or what? His cousin was furious, he could see that and understand it too. All her plans had come to naught and if Leander was to be believed her sisterhood was plotting behind her back. But would she use the incarnation of her goddess to have her answers? Would she destroy Wren to get them?

Of course she would. Hestia wanted peace and she’d have it at any cost. Even if it meant destruction.

He reached for Wren’s hand, carefully, cautiously, advancing on her as if she might explode, and lifted it in his. The air between them crackled and he felt that sweeping maelstrom of need in him again, rising like the storm. How he longed to give in to it, to be hers and do whatever she commanded without thought and without hesitation. One day he would. He knew that. When Wren lost this fight, so would he.

But not yet. Not today. She wasn’t gone yet. And he wouldn’t let her go. Though everything in him longed to fall at her feet and worship her, there was enough of his own will left to let him do this one thing. For her. For Wren.

He pressed his lips to her skin. She felt so cold, it was like kissing ice. But he didn’t care. ‘Maybe you belong with me. Maybe somewhere else. But Wren, not like this. This isn’t you. Let him go.’

Her eyes flickered again and she glanced at him. A look of confusion passed over her beautiful features and she frowned.

‘Why would you save him?’ she asked.

‘I’m not saving him. I’m saving you. Let’s go and find Elodie. She can help you. She’ll understand. She loves you. Please?’

Wren sighed and her body gave a shiver, but she didn’t pull away from him. Abruptly the power holding Leander vanished and he slumped down onto the crimson carpets of the gallery floor.

‘We still need answers,’ Hestia protested. ‘The Asterothians will demand them. Or blame us.’ The shadow kin were gone. The power in her was diminished now and though she was still a sorceress, she couldn’t sustain that sort of spell alone. Wren had been fuelling her power. That was a conversation for another time and Finn would get her explanation for it. But not now. What answers was she after? What did she suspect Leander of now?

‘And I don’t have answers.’ Leander’s voice came out between a sob and a snarl. ‘I’ve tried to tell you, Hestia. None of this is my doing. Yes, I tried to kill Finn. I want him dead. But none of the rest of it.’

Finn narrowed his eyes, suspicion making him listen even more closely. He was missing something, something they had deliberately kept from him ever since they arrived here. ‘What are you two talking about?’ This wasn’t about Sassone and Elodie. It wasn’t even about Wren. There was more to this. ‘What else has happened?’

Leander had picked himself up again, still in obvious pain but he dusted off his fine clothes and glared at them all. Anselm and Olivier had fallen back behind Finn, flanking him. Guarding him.

Hestia gave in first. She sighed and then lowered her hands. ‘We weren’t only here for the trial, or for Leander to apologise, and certainly not for him to pull his petty little stunt in the Sacrum. We weren’t even just here to meet Wren or to attempt to broker a permanent peace. There’s a problem back in Sidonia, Finnian, and the sisterhood sent me here to find out the truth. Someone has been passing our secrets to the rebel witchkind through Pelias, and sold shadow-wrought steel to Sassone here, clearly. The College of Winter may be involved and we have servants there trying to find out the truth. They are moving against both kingdoms, trying to destabilise us and disrupt the powers themselves. They seek to destroy the Aurum, the way Elodie destroyed the Nox. We came to find out who, and why.’

‘And so far all she has done has been to torture me,’ Leander growled at her. ‘And now she’s brought your beloved in on the act. Promising to teach her and help her embrace the dark, as if she can control the Nox. There’s no control, when it comes to that power. It will burn through you and destroy whatever is left of you. And it will laugh as it does so. You’d have to be a naïve fool to believe that kind of power can be controlled by one woman.’ He sneered at her and Wren took a step back, her face very pale. Fear or anger, Finn wasn’t sure. He put himself between them all the same. ‘Believe me, I am going to remember this. When I take the crown, Hestia?—’

Hestia snarled at him and flexed her fingers. He flinched and this time she smiled. He wasn’t as brave as he pretended. Not anymore. The Ilanthian court was intent on flaying the arrogance out of him, the sisterhood most of all, it seemed. Had he crossed them as well? How great a fool had Leander become?

‘Don’t let your father hear you talking like that or I will be the least of your worries, you stupid boy. He’ll hand you over to the sisterhood completely to do with what they will and all this will seem like a pleasant dream. Well?’ She turned to Wren. ‘Can you tell?’

Wren shook her head and Finn studied her. She seemed more herself again. When she saw him watching her she curled in against him once more.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Hestia offered to help me control the shadows instead of fighting them. And then Leander attacked you… And I?—’

Hestia offered to help. Well, Hestia could be persuasive when she wanted to be. Oh he should never have left Wren alone. She had wanted to know more about her powers, about the people who would accept the darkness in her. Finn understood that and he should have predicted it. He didn’t have to like it but he at least could understand. And there was Hestia, of the Sisterhood of the Nox, offering to explain it all.

He could imagine. The betrayal burned in the pit of his stomach. He should have expected it. She was blood of Sidon too, after all.

‘Let’s go home,’ he told Wren softly, more a plea than an order.

‘But it’s not my home, Finn. It never will be.’

‘It’s all we have,’ he replied, trying not to hear the pain in her voice. She truly hated it here. Pelias was nothing but a cage to her. Coming here had cost her everything, as she had always feared it would. ‘We have to see Elodie and Roland. They need to know about this as well. Your investigation, Hestia, should have been explained in detail from the start.’