Shield of Sparrows

Ramsey had tried to kill Ransom’s mother. Evie’s mother.

So who was Evie’s father? Ramsey? Or Zavier? Had Zavier and Ransom’s mother had an affair?

“I have questions,” I said.

“Of course you do.” Ransom chuckled, leading us down a different street, taking a path that would extend this walk and, hopefully, give him time to explain. “My mother is the daughter of a Turan nobleman from Perris. He amassed an incredible wealth from shipping lumber across Calandra. My grandfather, my father’s father and the king, needed coin. My mother’s father wanted his daughter to be queen. So, he bought my mother a crown she didn’t want to wear. And the first time my parents met was on their wedding day.”

“Sounds familiar,” I muttered.

“She never loved my father,” he said. “But she did her duty, ensuring Turah had an heir to the throne. And my father…”

“Resented her?”

“No.” Ransom slowed, pressing his free hand over his chest. “He loved her. He used to tell me that she was his life. He tried, for so many years, to make her love him, too. He hung on her every word. He indulged her every wish. If she wanted to sail to Laine for the summer, he’d send her with his best rangers and enough coin to fill a ship of its own with herbs and spices and oils.”

Ramsey wasn’t a person I wanted to pity, but I felt for the king. For a love unrequited.

“Mother didn’t loathe my father. She knew he had feelings for her that she didn’t return, and she was always gentle with him. She let him have those feelings, not encouraging them, but not smothering them, either. She simply accepted them. But my father is a king. He wanted her love, and as the years passed, as he realized he would never earn it, it changed him. He sharpened and hardened.”

Was that why Margot was so rigid and bitter? Because she loved my father and Father loved my mother’s ghost?

“He used to laugh and smile. He was my idol,” Ransom said. “Exactly the man I wanted to become. But it’s been so long now, I can’t remember what his laugh sounds like.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He made his choices.” A ripple of anger rolled off his frame as we continued down the quiet street. “To my knowledge, my father never strayed from my mother. He was wholly devoted to his wife. But I cannot say the same about her.”

Ouch. “She had a lover.”

“Yes,” he said. “My mother’s parents and her brother were killed during the last migration. They took shelter as soon as the first scout was seen. They had a room built with supplies stocked beneath their home in Perris. But at some point, they took ill during confinement. Likely from mold and poor air supply. Maybe if they’d waited another few weeks after the scout, they might have survived. We’ll never know.”

Every migration began with the scouts. Solitary crux that warned the migration was on its way. According to records, once a scout was spotted, the horde of crux usually came within a month or two.

Margot had told me we wouldn’t shelter until the horde. That we’d spend as little time as possible beneath the castle.

Burrowing into the ground or finding shelter in caves was said to be the best way to survive the crux. Some risked their homes, would stay indoors and simply pray to the gods for mercy. Sheltering wasn’t without its own risks. Many who hadn’t planned accordingly would starve. And others would succumb to sickness.

Humans weren’t meant to live without the sun and moons and clean air to breathe.

“Had Mother not just wed Father, not been in Allesaria, she might have been in that shelter, too. As it was, she became the sole owner of her father’s empire. Someone had to take over the shipping business. And since she couldn’t run it herself, she chose her father’s replacement. Mikhail was a young captain from Ozarth. Her brother’s best friend. And her lover. I’m not sure how long their affair lasted. Maybe years. Maybe the reason she didn’t love my father was because her heart had already been claimed when she was young.”

“You didn’t ask her?”

“I love my mother.” Ransom frowned. “But I empathize, in a way, with my father. He wasn’t the only one who was hurt by her affair.”

“Is Mikhail Evie’s father?” If he’d been from Ozarth, maybe Ransom’s mother had gone there to have the baby. It explained the blue starbursts in Evie’s eyes. Except Evie looked like Zavier. The chocolate brown hair. The shape of their faces. Their smiles.

She looked like Ransom.

Granted, I wasn’t sure what their mother looked like, but Ransom resembled Ramsey.

“No, she is not,” he said.

So Evie was Ramsey’s daughter. A princess of Turah.

“It wasn’t something she’d planned or expected. She hadn’t told Father yet when all hell broke loose. I think, had Father known, I wouldn’t have had to stop him from killing her.”

“You stopped him?”

“He was strangling her.” Ransom’s hand clamped tighter on mine, hard enough that I flexed my fingers to remind him that we were interlocked. He jerked away, his hand flying open, fingers splayed wide. “Did I hurt you?”

“I’m not made of glass.”

“No, you’re not.” He dragged a hand through his hair as we continued to walk. He made no move to touch me again.

I’d never been so aware of my hand hanging at my side before. I’d never worked so hard not to reach for someone. But it was for the best that we kept our space. Besides, I didn’t even like holding hands.

“Mikhail was in Allesaria under the guise of a meeting with Mother to discuss the shipping enterprise.”

Ransom’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Father caught them in bed together. I’ll never forget her screams. They echoed through the castle. I wasn’t even supposed to be there. I’d gone out for training, but the master blacksmith had stopped me on my way to the training arena. He’d forged a dagger for my birthday. I came inside to put it away.”

He slowed, coming to a stop. Then he tilted his head to the sky above, his eyes closing. Like he was trying to forget the unforgettable memories.

“The guards stood outside her chambers and did nothing. I ran past them into an ocean of blood. It was everywhere. The walls. The floors. The bedsheets. Mikhail’s body was by the door, like he’d tried to escape. His face was…pulp. Nothing but pummeled flesh and bloody pools.”

I swallowed the bile that surged up my throat.

“Father had pinned Mother to the floor and wouldn’t let her go. He kept screaming, ‘You killed him. You fucking killed him.’ No matter how hard I tried to haul him away, he just kept his hands wrapped around her throat. He just kept screaming. Until I took the hilt of that new knife and knocked him on the skull so hard he collapsed.”

Ransom scrubbed his hands over his face, taking a minute to shake off the memory. When he looked at me, the color bled from his cheeks. “I’m sorry. That was too much. It was gruesome, and I shouldn’t have—”

“I’m not made of glass,” I repeated. A violent story wasn’t going to turn me away.

His frame sagged with an exhale. “I guess I’m just used to guarding the harsh truths.”

“You don’t need to. Not from me.” I scanned the street, grateful that we were alone today. Grateful that the High Priest had drawn such a crowd to the courtyard.

Gods. What a mess.

Would Evie ever know the truth? Would they keep telling her lies for the rest of her life? Maybe I didn’t blame them.

“What happened with your mother?”

“I took her somewhere safe, hiding her away while she recovered. It took weeks for the blood to drain from her eyes. For the bruises to fade.”

“Did she ever go back to Allesaria?”

“No.”

Where was she hiding now? In Ellder? In Treow? Was she hiding in plain sight? “Have I met her before?”

Ransom looked at me but said nothing. It was yet another secret he’d keep from his wife.

I couldn’t even hold it against him. If I didn’t know the truth, I couldn’t be made to reveal her hiding place.

“That was over four years ago. When Mother told me she was pregnant, I took her to Ozarth. I thought she’d stay there. Start over. But after Evie was born, she asked me to bring her back. She didn’t want to live apart.”

“From you.” Her son.

“From me.” He nodded. “I went to Allesaria when Evie was a baby. Father begged me to bring Mother to the city. When I asked why, he told me that he needed to finish the task I’d interrupted. I left that day and never went back.”

“What? He still wants her dead?”noveldrama

“He’ll never forgive her betrayal. It was more than a husband scorned. He’s a king with a disloyal queen. His pride won’t let her live.”

“And Evie?”

“He will take her. And ruin her.”

I shook my head, giving myself a moment for this to all sink in. “So you decided to keep Evie a secret. And let Zavier pretend to be her father.”

“Make no mistake, Zavier is her father. He loves her with every beat of his heart, whether she shares his blood or not. Zavier has sacrificed more for me, for this kingdom, than is fair.”

Which meant Ransom would never punish Zavier for stealing slivers of happiness like the one I’d witnessed with Jocelyn and Vander.

“We hadn’t planned on Zavier continuing the facade as my double. But not long after I left Allesaria, I was bitten. And everything changed.”

He’d become the Guardian.

And let his childhood double wear his crown.

“Zavier is my cousin. He is the son of my aunt, my father’s sister. He was next in line, after me. Until Evie was born.”

“But she’s a girl.”

“Succession in Turah does not work the way it does in Quentis. The crown passes to the eldest child of the king and queen, regardless of gender. Evie is Father’s daughter, and when I am gone, she will have a claim to the throne.”

Then Evie would become a princess, and Ramsey would rip her from the only life she’s known.

“When she’s older, if she wants a life in court and I’m still alive, I won’t stand in her way. But I want it to be her choice.”

He was giving his sister the choice he had not been given. The choice I hadn’t been given.

If I hadn’t already fallen for this man, that might have pushed me over the edge.

“She’s only four,” he said. “She’s had enough encounters with monsters already. She doesn’t need to be taken to Allesaria. As far as I’m concerned, she’ll never set foot in the castle until my father is in his grave. By that point, I’ll be in mine, too.”

“Stop saying shit like that,” I snapped. “Please.”

Ransom exhaled, and the weariness on his face made me want to scream.

He wasn’t dying. I refused to accept that fate. Not without exhausting everything in my power for a cure. For some way to stop the infection, magical or not.

“Hey.” Ransom shifted to stand in front of me. “I’m not dead yet.”

“No, you’re not.” I crossed my arms over my chest, giving him my best scowl.

A bit of color returned to his cheeks with a hint of his smile.

Better.

I stepped past him, waiting until he fell into step at my side before I asked my next question. “Does your father know about Evie? That she’s Zavier’s daughter?”

“I’m not sure. It’s no secret that Zavier has a ward.”

“Why not have him claim her as a daughter? Why make her call him Zavier, not Papa?”

Ransom sighed. “For her protection. When she was born, it seemed like the best option. If people believe she’s of a royal bloodline, then she’ll always be a target. We have done our best to make them think she was born to a woman in Ozarth who died in childbirth. That Zavier has decided to raise her as his own.”

“Why not find someone else to fill the role as her parent? Someone far away from the crown.”

“Zavier was with us when I brought Mother back from Ozarth. He took one look at that child, and she was his. It didn’t matter then. I was the prince. He was Dray, a ranger and my cousin.”

But then Ransom was bitten, and everything changed.

“Maybe we should have made other arrangements, but you will take Evie from Zavier over his cold, dead body.”

“Even if she’d be safer with someone else?”

“I don’t disagree. But I also won’t force him to give her up. Despite what you may think, I am not that cruel.”

I’d never thought of him as cruel. Unrelenting. Stubborn. Arrogant. A massive thorn in my side. But never cruel. “So she stays with Zavier. And your mother? Is she all right with this arrangement?”

“Yes and no. It’s been years, but she’s still coming to terms with the man my father has become. So am I. As a boy, I never once questioned his decisions. I believed his every word.”

“And now?”

“He is doing what he believes is right. I won’t stand against him. Instead, I’ll do what I can from this position.”

“You mean as the Guardian? You have the entire realm fooled. They all think Zavier is the prince.”

“I am Zavier.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I am loyal to my people. Does it matter who they believe I am? A prince or a guardian? I strive to keep them safe. From the monsters with claws. And the monsters with crowns.”

“Like your father,” I muttered.

“And yours.”

I scoffed and came to a stop. “My father is not a monster.”

He might not be the kind of father who doted on his daughters, but he loved his kingdom. He put Quentis above all else. Was that really so monstrous?

Ransom kept walking, forcing me to hurry and catch up. “There is a storm on the horizon, Odessa.”

“Yes, it’s called the crux migration.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?” I threw up my hands, stopping again. He wasn’t the only one exhausted today. “I’m tired of asking questions, Ransom. I can assure you, when it comes to my father’s plans, I’m none the wiser. He trusts me as much as you trust me. Meaning not at all.”

Ransom turned and faced me, staring down at me with hard hazel eyes. When had they changed? I’d been so lost in his story, I hadn’t noticed the shift from green. “I believe your father has found a way to break the Shield of Sparrows.”

Father had hinted as much. It would cause chaos across Calandra. It would mean kings were free to attack other kings, and the fragile peace would shatter forever. It was an impossible feat. Or should have been.

“How?” If Father wouldn’t tell me, maybe my husband would.

“By killing the Voster. End the brotherhood, and you end their magic bonds.”