He wore an enigmatic smile. “I commend you for dreaming big.”
“By all means,” said a voice from somewhere in the darkness of the garden. “Let the fools dream of peace. I, for one, would prefer to make our enemies pay.”
FOUR
THREE LANTERNS WENT OUT, ONE after the other, leaving only the nearest one casting a small circle of light around a shadowy figure. It was the footman I’d seen staring at me earlier.
“We had all kinds of elaborate plans to isolate you, Firefilth,” he said, “and then you wander out here.” He turned a menacing look on the dignitary. “We didn’t expect you tonight, but we’ll take the good fortune bestowed by Fors.”
Though the dignitary hadn’t changed position, tension radiated from him. “The god of the north wind has nothing to do with my presence here.”
“Who are you?” I asked the blond man.
His grin widened. “I’ve been told I bear a resemblance to my brother. Surely you haven’t forgotten him.”
In the space of a breath, it all snapped into place. The sandy-blond hair, the familiar arrogant grin. I would never forget the man he resembled—the man who’d killed my mother. “You’re Captain Drake’s brother.”
“Oh, so the lady does remember. And do you also recall his wife and daughter, watching from the crowd, sobbing their eyes out as you took my brother’s life in the arena?”
I swallowed. “I do.”
“Not that you care, but Ilva died within a week of her husband. They say it was a fever, but I know the truth. Grief killed her. Then my poor orphaned niece sent me a message that my brother’s killer was being treated as a lady and living in the castle. Fortunately, there’s a sizable group of people who want to get rid of you. I only had to join their ranks and wait for an opportunity.”
In seconds, we were surrounded by half a dozen masked figures holding swords. Two of them held up hands coated in frost.
“Run,” I whispered. “I’ll hold them off.”
My companion scoffed. “I was about to say the same to you.”
I threw him a glance from the corner of my eye. “The peace talks depend on you. Go.”
“I’m not here to sign any treaties. Shall we, then?”
The dignitary raised his palms and, in a gesture that held me immobile with stupefied shock, sent twin streams of vivid orange flames toward the sculptures and trees and shrubs made of ice, sweeping back and forth in a searing arc that sent our attackers shouting and stumbling and running for cover. The ice melted into a rushing stream that flowed onto the gravel path, sloshing over my toes and into my thin slippers. I continued to stare at the dignitary—the Fireblood—only the crash of my heart assuring me I hadn’t actually turned to stone.
“Don’t worry,” he said to Drake. “That was just a little stretch. I have plenty left.” He beckoned them forward with a bend of his fingers.
“Where the blazes did you come from?” Drake snarled. “There are no Firebloods left in Tempesia, aside from her. My brother made sure of that. I’d stake my life on it.”
I was almost tempted to thank him for asking. I was wondering the same thing.
The Fireblood laughed. “A foolish bet, since it’s obvious you’ve already lost. Though I’ll gladly collect your forfeit.” Cupping his hands together, he slowly pulled them apart to create a dense ball of flame that grew in size and intensity. Most of the attackers turned and ran, their boots sliding on the wet ground. Only the two Frostbloods remained with Drake, all three of them lifting their palms toward us in readiness.
“My brother didn’t have the gift,” said Drake, “but I do. Finally, it’s a fair fight.”
“Hardly fair when you outnumber us three to two,” I pointed out, my voice unsteady. I still couldn’t believe I was standing next to another Fireblood. Be amazed later. Fight now.
Drake shrugged. “I was never very good at arithmetic.” He yelled an order, and a low, protective wall of frost formed. Then a blast of ice slammed toward us. My hands were ready, but the attack still knocked me off my feet. The dignitary, or whoever he was, managed to remain standing.
Drake was right; a Fireblood of his caliber would never have escaped Rasmus’s notice.
“Who are you really?” I asked, pushing to my feet.
“My name is Kai,” he answered.
“That’s not what I—”
Another wave of frost knocked us back, turning to smoke and steam as it met our fire.
“Form a shield,” Kai said, demonstrating by making a swirling lozenge of fire that grew in size. “Hold it steady. With me.”
I watched and mirrored him. When the two masses of flames combined, light blinded me. I felt my way through the move, forcing the fire into an ever-larger oval.
“Stand your ground,” he told me. “Now push forward on my mark. Hold. Hold. Now!”
We slammed the pulsing fire shield ahead in unison and heard surprised shouts as we broke through their icy wall and the thuds of bodies as they hit the earth. As my vision cleared, I saw figures on the ground, unmoving. I sucked in a breath and stepped toward them.
“Leave them,” said Kai, grabbing my arm. I shook free and ran the rest of the way to the attackers, pulling off the first Frostblood’s mask.
It was Lord Regier. He wasn’t breathing. I found no pulse at his throat.
The other mask revealed his wife, Lady Regier.
“Oh Tempus,” I said. “They’re from Arcus’s council. He’ll be devastated.”
I took her wrist, feeling a faint pulse. Kai shouted a warning and ran toward me, but he halted abruptly at the same moment the sharp edge of a steel blade bit into the skin at my throat.
“Stand slowly,” Drake ordered from close behind me.
I did as he asked, barely breathing as his other arm cinched tight around my waist.
“You kill her, I kill you,” said Kai. “Very simple. Let her go.”
“I swore to Fors that she would die today and I’ve never broken an oath. Now you, on the other hand, the Blue Legion wanted you dead for daring to come here. But if you leave without signing the treaty, they might let you live.”
“Well, normally, I would be only too willing to save my own precious skin,” said Kai with alarming calm—alarming to me, at least, since I was fairly sure I couldn’t summon my heat without Drake slicing me first. “But it happens that there is something I want rather badly—and it hinges on keeping this girl alive.” He spread his hands in an apologetic gesture. “So I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you again to let her go.”
Drake shook his head, the motion making the knife saw gently back and forth against my neck. I didn’t dare bat an eyelash at the sting.
“You can do your best to kill me once she’s dead,” Drake said, “but an oath is an oath. She dies now.” His lips touched my ear as he whispered, “This is for my brother, Firefilth.”
His arm tensed, and for a second I thought the last word I ever heard would be “Firefilth,” and the last thing I ever saw would be a very annoyed-looking Fireblood with hair that refused to be anything but vivid orange, even in the dim light of a nighttime garden.
But then the vivid orange spread and lit the sky in a whip of flame that curled above and behind me, and the tension in Drake’s arm became a tremble in the rest of his body. He fought back, his chest coating with frost as he tried to ward off the fire, but the heat intensified and he screamed.
And then my hands, which had been pressed against his arm, suddenly found they had pushed free, and I was stumbling forward onto my hands and knees, getting thoroughly soaked in an icy pool of water.
I stayed there, just trying to catch my breath. I’d been about to die, and then I hadn’t.
Fire had saved me. And it hadn’t been my own.
I finally looked up to see Kai shaking his head, no longer just annoyed but properly furious. “And how long do you think I can stay here now that I’ve killed a Frostblood, hmm? They’ll be out looking for me in droves!” He spat a few words in what I could have sworn was Sudesian. From the tone, I was pretty sure he was cursing.