Page 84 of A Kiss of Flame

True power lies in that balance, in maintaining it, in holding it, like an acrobat balanced high above a ravine.

In the balance. In the corruption of that balance. In the entangling of dark and light.

And in its untangling comes chaos.

CHAPTER 44

FINN

Roland arrived, and all Finn could do was fall to his knees beside the others and pray no one told his guardian that Ilanthus wanted him back. That they wanted to put a crown on his head.

Finn wanted none of it and Roland had to know that. He had to.

But Roland looked like he could happily order the immediate execution of everyone right there at the gates of the Ilanthian embassy.

Including Wren.

Something had happened. Something terrible. Finn knew that without even asking. He just had to look into the eyes of the man he had thought of as his true father to see the desolation there.

‘The queen?’ he asked one of the other knights as they were hustled through the city, towards the gates of the palace. The man glanced down at him from horseback.

Roland had taken Wren up on his mount, riding ahead with her. Finn had been left to walk with the others.

This was not good. Not good at all.

‘What happened to the queen?’ he asked again.

‘She lives. He rescued her. And she’s angry. Understandably. Your Ilanthian friends were helping Sassone. They provided the shadow steel with which they bound her power.’

But they didn’t. Hestia and even Leander had insisted that was not the case. They were as mystified about it as anyone else, desperate to find out how it had happened and who was behind it before something happened. Something like this. Finn had seen nothing while at the embassy to believe any differently. He didn’t think they were lying to him. That was almost a surprise. He had always expected lies, especially from Leander.

But not this time.

Hestia had been his only friend in the Ilanthian court. She was a powerful sorceress, true, and a devoted member of the sisterhood. His father trusted her like no one else. Hestia had never harmed him.

There was always a first time, some dark voice inside him whispered. And Hestia seemed determined to put him on the throne. The last thing he wanted.

The last thing anyone else wanted. If that wasn’t harm he didn’t know what was.

This was all a terrible mistake. All Ilanthus had to know that.

The gates of the palace opened silently. No rain of flowers this time, no cheering crowds, no great ball to welcome them either. The Ilanthians were ushered inside like captives rather than guests and Finn remembered long ago when he had first arrived here, the feeling of those gates closing behind him, like the doors of a tomb.

‘But they saved me,’ he heard Wren’s voice, strident in the still courtyard between the palace and the Sanctum. ‘This is madness.’

‘If you had stayed where you were you wouldn’t have needed saving,’ Roland growled at her, more frustrated than Finn had ever heard him. Honestly, he couldn’t blame the man. He’d thought the same thing himself. Not that Wren would pay a blind bit of notice. ‘And besides?—’

They never heard what else he was going to say because the main doors to the keep opened and Elodie emerged. Silence settled over the whole gathering. She glided forward, head held high. She was a sword, in human form, crowned with a circlet of gold which gleamed in the sunlight. Lynette and several of the ladies-in-waiting came after her, clearly distressed that she had left whatever safety they had managed to construct around her. This was the main courtyard of her own palace. She had already been taken from the supposedly most secure place in Pelias so what did she care for security now? And Finn knew better than anyone at this stage, nothing would stop Elodie if she had set her mind to something.

Not Queen Aeryn, he thought. Elodie the hedge witch of Cellandre. She was the real power here.

‘Wren,’ Elodie said and her voice rang out like a bell.

Wren ran to her. She didn’t even hesitate or glance back, all fear gone. Finn almost felt a pang of grief at the thought. But Elodie had always been there for her. She was her mother and her fiercest protector. She always had been.

Why did anyone doubt that?

The queen of Asteroth enfolded her daughter in her arms and held her close. She lifted her chin over Wren’s bowed head and her eyes locked with Roland’s. ‘Did you find him?’