A Queen of Thieves & Chaos (Fate & Flame, #3)

His deep chuckle carries. “This is where I could say that I will help you. I know a thing or two about ruling.” He pauses. “But honestly, you have taught me far more about leading people in the last weeks. I keep asking myself, ‘what would Romeria do?’ and the right answer always seems to come.”

His words are sweet and unexpected, but I can’t find too much joy in them. “I’m not sure all of my decisions have been the right ones.” My brow furrows with worry. “When we left Cirilea, the keepers and mortals were storming the castle. I don’t know what’s become of it.” I wanted to go back through the nymphaeum door the second I felt my affinities replenished to find Wendeline and Annika, but Jarek talked me out of it. All we needed was for one guard to see us vanish into the stone, and there would be a ring of soldiers waiting around it for us to come back through. If they’re not all dead.

“We will march south and deal with it.” Zander squeezes my hand. “But our focus is here tonight.”

“One day at a time.”

“Exactly.”

Caindra’s roar echoes as she leaves her perch on the Ybarisan wall, alarming the horses. My heart races as I grab my reins tight, fearing mine will either take off running or throw me over the bridge.

She swoops down to land in front of us, blocking our path and putting herself between us and Jarek.

Zander frowns curiously. “What is this about now?”

“I think she wants something.” It’s how she was sitting outside Ulysede’s gate earlier, with her wings tucked against her sides. I dismount and make my way over to where she waits, nerves stirring at the sheer size of her. “Thank you for earlier. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She brings her head down to meet me at eye level, like she did before, and I smooth my hand over her snout. “At least you understand me.”

A puff of hot air breezes over my face.

And then I’m in her grasp and we’re flying high into the sky once again.





CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE




ZANDER


“Romeria!” I bellow as the beast carries her south without warning.

Jarek charges up on his horse, his face hard with fury. “That’s what she did last time. She grabbed us and flew away!”

“She will bring her back before Hudem’s rise.” Abarrane tries to assure me as we watch the dark form shrink in the distance. “She must.”

I sigh. “I hope you are right. Until then, we must prepare.”





CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO




ROMERIA


I can just make out Bellcross’s purple banner as Caindra soars over the approaching army. Rengard answered Zander’s call. It’s impossible to gauge how far off they are from the rift—a half day, maybe? The Nulling will be open by the time they arrive.

Still, Zander’s allies haven’t abandoned him.

I smile, even as the soldiers below shout with terror, the dragon’s massive body unable to hide in a cloudless sky. Caindra continues south and it’s not long before I spot a second army, this one’s banner green and gold. It must be the soldiers Atticus sent north. The company is comparable in size to Bellcross, and it’ll likely arrive within hours after them.

Fresh fighters. That’s all we can ask for.

In the far distance, a large swath of forest coats the land. That must be Eldred Wood, where we met the Legion after escaping Cirilea. Those days feel like an eternity ago.

Caindra banks right and turns back the way we came. A part of me wants to prod her to continue to Cirilea, so I can see the state it’s in, but we don’t have time for that now. She only brought me here to show me help was coming.

“Thank you!” I shout, though I doubt she can hear me. I settle into her grip and admire the view—of rolling hills and snowcapped mountains, of the two full moons. Despite the chaos that is coming, no one can claim that Islor isn’t breathtaking.

Suddenly, Caindra dives to land in an open field, setting me down gently.

I find my footing in the grass. “Why are we here?” There’s no one and nothing around. Not a single house.

Her head tips back and I brace myself for one of her terrifying roars, but it doesn’t come. Instead, she curls her wings around her body, almost like a shield.

I watch with my mouth gaping wide as her massive form shrinks, turning and folding into itself much like Lucretia did when she morphed from her serpent form to the human female body she uses now.

In moments, Caindra is gone and a familiar face stands before me.

Oh my God. “Bexley?”

“I told you I could be your greatest ally, did I not?” She strolls toward me, her gown shimmering in hues of indigo and rose gold like her scales in sunlight, the neckline plunging as per usual. “I all but handed you a second throne today.”

But … “Bexley?”

“Oh come, you cannot be that surprised, can you?” Her violet eyes flash with mischief.

“That you’re a dragon? Yes, I am exactly that surprised.”

“I will confess, I was startled to discover what you were too. I love this form, but I cannot sense caster abilities while I’m in it.”

Lucretia’s words stir in my mind. “You were hiding where everyone saw you but no one knew.” As the owner of a seedy brothel, selling blood and flesh. And an Islorian immortal. “But you fed on mortals.”

“It is the form I chose to take.” She flashes a smile, just long enough to show her elongated incisors before they tuck back in. “I must say, I will miss it.”

“You can’t stay as her?”

She shakes her head, her expression growing serious. “With the return of the nymphs, I become what I am again. It is more difficult to change each time. Even now, my bones ache terribly and will until I return to my primary body. But I needed to take this opportunity to speak to you before I no longer can, about what is to come.”

“You mean what’s about to crawl out of the Nulling.”

“Crawl, fly …” She winces as she steps closer. “Long before Aminadav’s fury split the earth, when the nymphs were here and the door to the in-between world was open, creatures would pass through and appear as if out of thin air, in random places. One here, one there. It was annoying, but it was manageable. They did not all come out of the rift in a flood, like cockroaches running from the light. That only happened with Farren’s meddling. It seems as though the veil between the worlds is thinner in there, easier to emerge from.”

It dawns on me. “You were alive when King Ailill was here.”

“I have been alive for it all, watching these fools make the same mistakes over and over again.” She sneers. “I will be at the rift tonight at the height of Hudem’s full moon, and I will steer away the worst of them for the time being.”

But not forever. “How?”

“By being me.” There’s an air of haughtiness in her tone. “You and the king and all your casters must take care of the rest.”

I nod. “And what about Malachi?”

“What about him? Malachi is a fate. He will come, one way or another, but he will not crawl out like a common fiend. He will find a different path.” She looks up at the Hudem moon. “We should return.”

“Wait!” This is the last chance I’ll ever have to talk to Bexley.

Her eyebrow arches.

“Did Atticus know what you are?”