He could have eaten three more of Yveun’s hearts, and it still wouldn’t have been enough. Cvareh chewed and tore his way through every last bite. He didn’t care much for the taste of Rok blood—even though victory was its own spice—but the magic it brought back to him was essential to merely breathing. His lungs felt in no better state than they had following the Alchemist’s removal of them for Arianna. If anything, they could be worse.
His joints ached, and his body was ravaged. But he was Dono. So Cvareh consumed every last bite of Yveun’s heart, both for sustenance and for ceremony.
All eyes were on him, and not one Dragon or Fenthri moved. Cvareh wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He needed to stand, needed to step into his role as Dono.
But the moment he tried, his legs buckled and he struggled to right himself. A strong arm appeared around his waist, connected to a sturdy and familiar form. Arianna had tugged his arm over her shoulder, supporting him before Dragon and Fenthri alike.
Yes. The word coursed through his mind at the woman’s presence. He wanted her to be seen at his side. He wanted the world to know that she was his and now that he was Dono, there would be no questioning the fact. Cvareh saw the wary eyes from those assembled, but not one Dragon stepped out of place.
“We need to get to Lysip,” he wheezed. Cain appeared before him, offering to help support him as well. Cvareh waved away the offer, trying to stand on his own. “We must get a boco—a glider, it will be faster—to Lysip.”
“The battle is won, Dono.” Hearing the title from Cain’s mouth made it all the more real.
“Not yet.” Cvareh pulled his arm from Arianna. The moment he tried to step away, however, the world tilted and he lost balance yet again. Cain moved for him, but Arianna was faster.
“Coletta,” Arianna finished the thought he couldn’t quite seem to get out before.
“Yes.”
“What about the Rok’Oji?” Cain hadn’t quite kept up. Cain was close, but the Fenthri woman at Cvareh’s side was the other half of his mind.
“Do you think she’ll accept Cvareh as Dono gracefully?” Arianna spoke loud enough that everyone could hear.
“She doesn’t have a choice,” Cain insisted.
“Like she didn’t have a choice at the Crimson Court?” Arianna fired right back.
Cain floundered.
“Cain Xin’Ryu To,” Cvareh announced, elevating Cain to the societal rank of To with a breath. “I request for you to defend my honor on Lysip. See that Coletta assumes her responsibility as the Rok’Oji, under me as Dono, or that she perishes.”
Whispers and a few gasps arose from those observing. But there was nothing else he could do. Even if he was the Dragon King, a title alone would not replenish his magic enough to give him the confidence to fly to Lysip. He knew he was sending his friend into the asp’s nest. But what else could he do?
“And,” Cvareh continued, “you will take Ari Xin’Kin To with you. She will assist however you deem necessary.” Whispers and gasps grew louder as Arianna was quickly elevated in both society and House as well.
He locked eyes with the woman at his side. Arianna almost wore a frown. Was she not happy? He’d won, and he could see her forever have a place on Nova.
“We should go.” She looked to Cain with renewed purpose. “I’ll pilot the glider.”
“Lead on,” Cain agreed with a nod. To the others assembled, he said, “See your Dono is well cared for and recovers to full strength. We will need him in the months ahead.”
Cain’s order spurred the scene to life. Arianna disappeared from his side, replaced with a woman that he’d never seen before. Cvareh remained focused on his childhood friend, but mostly his eyes were on his lover.
“Go safe.”
He wanted to say so much more. But the woman was strong. Cain was strong. There would be many more opportunities, he assured himself, to say all that needed to be said.
ARIANNA
Wind whipped her hair into the face of the man riding the glider behind her.
“It’s there, ahead.” Cain pointed over her shoulder and Arianna thought, not for the first time, of dislodging him from his spot with a particularly sudden roll.
“Yes, I can see that. Just focus on staying on.” Did he think that she honestly couldn’t tell where the isle of Lysip was? There were only three main islands in Nova and, given that they floated nowhere remotely close to each other, she could only assume that they had successfully made it to Lysip when another gigantic land mass came into view.
“I am on.” He said it as though the fact should be obvious.
“Stay that way.” Arianna ground the words between her teeth. He was very good at acting like he hadn’t nearly fallen off twice already. Though Arianna was equally skilled at acting like one of those hadn’t been her own attempt to shake him.
“The estate is there.” Cain pointed at a massive complex that was unmistakable even to someone who’d never seen it before.
“My eyes still work fine under my goggles.” She sighed loudly, wanting to make sure he heard it over the wind. Arianna pulled on the handles and pitched the glider toward the estate.
As they approached, a sharp tang hit her nose and went straight to her head. Her lungs burned, her magic fighting whatever the wind carried. Arianna slowed, making a wide arc and banking away.
“Why aren’t you—”
“Can’t you smell it?” She pulled on the levers, bringing the glider into a hover.
Cain seemed as though he was going to protest, on principle more than anything else, but when he stopped and took a proper breath his expression changed.
“Coletta.” She said the name they were both thinking.
Arianna lowered the glider, moving slowly over the estate. A glimpse of one of the outdoor arcades, corpses lying prone, confirmed her suspicion.
“Twenty above… what did she do?” Cain whispered in horror.
“She refused to let us win.” Arianna scowled and tried not to be angry or frustrated at the fact that she would not be the one to kill Yveun’s mate. Was one kill really so much to ask for? Her neck ached, reminding her of Coletta’s handiwork all too well.
“She killed her own? No that’s impossible, even for her . . .”
Arianna finally brought the glider down, bringing a hand over her nose to combat the smell of death, blood, and poison. No one rushed to meet them, no one swarmed in greeting or combat. Their only company was wind. The whole manor was unnervingly still.
“I think you need to come to terms with the impossible,” Arianna suggested as she rolled over a corpse with her foot. In the center of the dead woman’s chest was a slit, right between her breasts, that had gone a dark gold from the festering poison that oozed from it.
“Why?” Cain muttered, looking at a loss. “Why would she kill her own?”
“She’d lost.” Arianna looked in the room attached to the landing area they’d chosen at random. Sure enough, no signs of life. “And she couldn’t handle the idea of us besting her house.”
“But—”
“It’s not a Dragon-like thought, I know. But take it from me, this woman knows no limits.”
Cain was silent, respecting the darkness that hovered over her words at the mere mention of Coletta. Arianna knew well enough how low the woman would stoop.
They wandered the estate, looking for signs of life, for any signs of the woman who had reaped such destruction. But none were to be found.
“It’s as if she’s disappeared into thin air.” Cain slammed his fist against a doorframe, splintering the wood and bloodying his hand in anger. “How many bodies have we looked through?”
“Not enough.” Arianna crossed her arms over her chest and thought. If she had been in Coletta’s position, what would she do?
The realization dawned on her as a Rok man stepped through the doorway.
“I found them!” he shouted, presumably to others. “I found the Xin murderers! They have a Fen!”
&
nbsp; “Wait, what?” Cain stalled in his hesitation.
Arianna sprang into motion. She lunged for the man, claws drawn and honed on his chest. Before he even had a chance to react, he was dead.
“We have to get back to Ruana.”
“What?” Cain stared at the Dragon she’d just killed, as if debating if he should feel remorse over the death of a Rok.
“We need to go.” Arianna grabbed his forearm and tugged him forward. He began running on his own as they sprinted through the manor, toward the glider, and away from the sound of rising voices.
“I don’t understand.” He skidded to a stop as she jumped on the glider, grabbing both handles firmly.
“Coletta means to pin these murders on Xin. The longer we stay, the more we play into her plans.”
“But she—”
“She’s not here!” Why couldn’t he see that? It had become so painfully obvious to Arianna. It was so objectively clear how stupid they had been.
“Where is she?” The horror in Cain’s voice betrayed the fact that he had finally been brought to understanding.
“Get on,” Arianna demanded, disturbingly calm. She was going to take off with or without him.
Cain made the smart choice and quickly jumped on behind her.
She yanked the handles and her magic shot into the wings, pulling them upward. Arianna leaned into the movement, as if with force of will alone she could see the glider all but teleport back to Ruana. She ran through everything again in her head, but there was no other option.
“You don’t really think she . . .” Cain trailed off, no doubt running through the same probabilities and series of ideas as Arianna.
Coletta was a woman who’d lost everything to one man, who was now not only the Dragon King, but the head of the House she so despised. If she was willing to kill her own for the sake of vengeance against them, what would she do to him?
Arianna swallowed hard and struggled to keep her grip on the handles as her palms grew abnormally slick.
She had to get to Cvareh.
CVAREH
His bed didn’t feel different.
One would think that, lying beneath the weight of kingship, one would sink further into the mattress. But he didn’t feel any differently. In fact, he felt so very much the same that Cvareh was worried he had somehow missed an important step in becoming the Dono.
It did not feel real yet. He, Cvareh Xin, was the Dono for all of Nova.
Every member of House Xin had begun to fawn over him with renewed intent. Every man and woman seemed to want to get him something. He wished he hadn’t sent Arianna and Cain away. House Rok could wait; he needed his two greatest allies to fend off those who would seek to pour praise on him to the point of nausea.
Exhausted and overwhelmed, Cvareh had ultimately sent them all away.
His lungs still ached from the quick successions of stopping time. They’d felt raw from the harvesting; now they felt utterly foreign. They’d been taken out, grown again, ripped apart, and put back together so many times that it was still laborious to breathe.
Yveun’s heart had helped exponentially, but even that surge of power wore off. Every inch of his frame had sustained enough wounds and expended enough energy that all he wanted was quiet. All he wanted was sleep.
So, he allowed the attendants to look after him long enough to make minimal treatments to his wounds and then dress him for bed. But it was the silence after they left that he’d truly relished. Silence that now was his only companion in the wake of his ascension to Dono.
Cvareh closed his eyes. His thoughts did not drift to leadership. Nor was he visited by some prophetic vision of Lord Xin blessing him with divine right to rule. Behind his eyelids, he found the face of one woman—Arianna. And with no one to know, or judge him for his daydreams, he indulged the thought.
He saw them sitting together, thrones to match. They would be a beacon for Loom and Nova, a symbol of what their worlds could be, of the partnership that was required for all of them to seek the freedom they had long desired. And, as Dono, he would see that she never wanted for anything.
Dreaming numbed the pain, and soothed him enough that sleep could take its hold.
Movement stirred him. His mind was sluggish, but his body was already feeling much stronger from however much rest he’d gotten. Cvareh groaned softly, trying to dismiss whatever unnecessary helper had disturbed his sleep.
His eyelids fluttered, and he caught a glimpse of red.
Red.
Cvareh’s eyes shot wide open as he felt a blade plunging between his ribs, straight into his heart. They took in the face of a woman he’d only seen in passing before. Her eyes were dead and emotionless. She could have been sipping tea, rather than killing the Dono in cold blood.
The blade burned as she removed it. The hole closed, magic knitting over the small incision quickly, but the fire remained.
“Coletta,” he snarled.
“A gift, for the new Dono.” She smiled, exposing teeth that looked more like worn-down knives. Her gums were gnarled and recessed. “I used the same poison on your sister.” Coletta’s hand cupped his cheek, almost lovingly. “I thought you would want to die as she did.”
With a primal scream, Cvareh summoned energy he did not think he possessed, bolting upright. One hand gripped the woman’s frail shoulder, feeling bone snap under the force of his fingers as the other hand plunged into her chest. Coletta coughed blood onto his chest, leaning against his cheek. She reeked of death and strawberries.
“Rok will forever seek to regain the throne that is rightfully theirs,” she swore darkly.
Cvareh ripped out her heart with ease and pushed her away. Coletta posed no struggle; her triumphant eyes remained wide open even in death. She collapsed onto the floor, and Cvareh discarded her heart across the room, not daring to sink his teeth into the flesh of the poison mistress. Just her blood on his shoulder seemed to burn his skin.
The excitement and exertion quickened his heart. Cvareh collapsed back onto the bed, trying to slow the flow of poison throughout his body. It seared his muscles and sapped his strength.
He stared up at the ceiling above his bed, and wondered what Petra had seen as she lay in an agony that mirrored his.
The door opened and three Xin rushed in, responding to the commotion. Cvareh didn’t know their names, but these would likely be the last faces he saw before he died, so he took them in as though he’d known them all his life.
“I have been poisoned,” he whispered, as if speaking too loudly would cause his blood to pump and his body to give out faster. He wanted to slow the take of poison for as long as he could. He wanted to stall the inevitable. He would say only what needed to be said and preserve all remaining words for the one woman he wanted to lay eyes on before the God of Death cast his shroud over Cvareh’s form at last.
“Who?” They looked at Coletta’s corpse. No doubt, they had never seen the woman before. Coletta avoided public appearances at all costs, since they only sparked rumors of her frailty.
“Coletta Rok’Ryu,” he answered. “When—” the word got caught. He thought of Petra again. His sister had endured the same pain as he, likely worse. He would not break down, would not let the pain get the better of him. “When I am gone, Cain is the Xin’Oji, and the Dono.”
Cvareh closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Stasis. Stillness. He had to persevere, had to hang on.
“When Cain’Ryu and Ari’Kin return, send them to me…”
“Dono, what can we do?” one of the men asked hopelessly.
Had he not heard a word Cvareh had said? Death was inevitable.
“Imbibing will sustain me… but not save me.” It was the only thing he knew to say.
He shouldn’t have been surprised when they returned with a heart in hand a short time later. Cvareh wanted to refuse. It had no doubt been cut from some under-island dweller, someone under the shade of House Xin that he was supposed to protect. But his mind was delirious and focused
on only one thing—seeing Arianna again. He had to see her again. It was a drive beyond anything else. A drive that could push a man to madness.
He brought the heart to his lips and ate, and when he could no longer eat it himself, it was fed to him. Every bite was smaller than the last, his chewing slower.
But still, he held on.
He held on until he saw white against a colorful world, a peaceful break for eyes overwhelmed by the all-too-bright kaleidoscope he found himself in. He held on until Cain’s booming voice summoned his consciousness back toward the surface of the inky darkness he was drowning in. He held on until he felt her hands on him again.
“Ari—”
“Cvareh, I need you to listen to me.” Her voice was hurried, thin, frantic.
He smiled tiredly. She had to be forceful up to their very last moment together. Well, call him a romantic, or just insane, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Cvareh, listen, stay with me. It won’t work if you won’t listen.” She was talking too quickly for him to really listen, and her voice had an odd pitch he didn’t quite recognize. “Cain, help me sit him up. We need him awake—we only have one chance.”
Cvareh groaned in protest as they hoisted him upright. The groan turned into a hiss of pain. It was as if jostling his blood reinvigorated the poison, spreading it further through his veins. Their efforts were long past the point of fruitlessness. Three hearts, now cold and void of magic, littered the bed around him.
But still, Arianna clung to him. He felt her arms around him. He felt her strength. His body ached to return the same to her in kind.
“I know what I want my boon to be.” She was whispering now. It was soft and low, like a lover, like how he’d always wanted to hear her speak to him. Warmth enveloped him, warmth in the shape of a woman. “Listen closely, Cvareh, because all the magic in the world will be yours to see my boon fulfilled. You will have no choice. You must do this for me.”
He leaned against her, let her voice flow through him. This was what he had wanted. This was what he had waited for. This was what kept him clinging to life. To fulfill the contract he had made with a Wraith.