Shadow Cursed by May Sage Page 0,57

joins us, holding his hands behind his head, with a straw of wheat in his mouth. He's the picture of casual indifference. "Maybe don't take guard duty together, yes?"

I shrug unapologetically. "No promises."

The Ashes of Ichor

Vlari

I sleep well after our guard shift, nestled against Drusk's chest. When Meda wakes us up, she hands us slices of bread and dry meat. We check our supply and set off on our way in silence.

I don't think any of us take what we're about to do lightly. There's a high chance that some—if not all of us—will never get out of Sandovar.

"If anything goes wrong," Ina says out of nowhere, "you know what to do, right?"

Everyone else either nods or acquiesces, but I don't. A reminder that while they're soldiers and warriors, I haven't been raised like that, though Meda did teach me to fight.

I have to ask, "What are you supposed to do? Get out?"

There's a short silence, but Drusk breaks it. "Exactly. You abandon the plan and get out."

I think I've missed something. Something important. I press, "Drusk?"

Spill.

He sighs. "If we're compromised, our priority will be to get you out."

Me, not the rest of them.

"That's preposterous! I can take care of myself. We should—"

"I have a sister," Jules says, out of the blue. "Arva. Quite the clever thing—she's likely to succeed our father anyway. That savage queen has children and a husband. The rest of us…well, I like most of the people here, but we aren't relevant. You're the last in the line of Nyx. The moment you die, the usurper becomes the only person who is eligible to become high queen of Tenebris."

I hate every single word he's just said, all the more because they're true.

I cannot afford to die.

I lick my lips. "I'm going to give you one clear order. If we're in a position where we're in danger, you will get to safety. Every one of you will think of nothing but your own skin. I demand it as high queen. Understood?"

I'm met with silence. "I don't intend to die," I add. "But I'm a Void. I'm hard to take down. When I get out of there, I want you all to come out in one piece, too."

We've stopped walking altogether now.

Ina is the first to nod, slowly. "If the queen orders it."

They each give me their word—everyone but Drusk. I glare at him, demanding his submission.

He glares right back.

“I'll never swear that. Ever.”

I want to throttle him, and kiss him all at once.

At long last, I give up. "Fine, be an idiot. We have to get going anyway."

We would have reached Sandovar already if we'd gone straight for the main path, but Jules wanted us to circle it to reach the doorway he used to take. It's hidden in a cave, in the surrounding woodland hills. Jules thinks another horny boy had it built; part of me wonders if it was meant for this—to get people out in case Sandovar was ever besieged or taken.

I'm reassured when we reach the cave: it's filthy, covered in dust and spiderwebs. No one has come here in a long time, which suggests the humans haven't found the path. And no wonder.

The doorway, if it could be considered as such, has no handle, nothing marking it as special. It looks like it's part of the cave. Jules calls to earth magic and a hole opens up, giving us access to a path just as dirty as the cave. While there are footsteps, they're covered by layers of dust. No one has used it the last ten years, at least.

"I suppose the boy isn't entirely useless," Meda remarks to Ina.

I'm not surprised these two get along.

They walk in first with Ive, then Drusk and I follow. Jules brings up the rear, and locks the door behind us with a wave of his hand.

"Was it many peasant women you used to visit, or one in particular?" Drusk asks the ranger.

Jules shrugs. "One at a time, many overall. I never saw the appeal of my fellow gentry. They either wanted me as a gateway to my father, or because they wanted pureblood babies—there are few enough of us that most lines are related, these days. And some gentry would rather bed a cousin than take a common fae—or a human."

"Yet your mother was human, was she not?"

"Yes, and my father's mother was, too. My father has no distaste for mortals, though he considers them inferior in many ways. Lower born, however?" Jules winced. "He