TWENTY THREE

Chiara meandered her way from the palace toward Chainhome, since she knew Destin would not go back to his home and put his siblings in danger once he had reappeared from the dead. She was both surprised and impressed he had remained hidden so long, especially since she had been at the mating ceremony, but she had been incredibly distracted. She wasn’t disappointed, though, and she wondered how she would handle the situation once she found him.

Chiara smiled as she approached Chainhome and saw Miris was on guard. She raised an eyebrow slightly when she noticed that he was working on something small and seemingly delicate in his hands. Since when did Miris have any association with anything delicate? “You look like you are concentrating a little too hard there, dear Miris.”

He was startled, since he had indeed been focused on his work, but he didn’t try to hide it once she’d seen it. “That’s…possible, Highness.” He turned to bow slightly, then stood rather than remaining in his seat. “Been working at it for several months here and there, but it’s not quite finished yet.”

“Interesting piece.” She glanced at it once, but it was clear that she didn’t actually care about it. Chiara had enough shiny things, and even if Miris had been working on something for her for months, it wouldn’t change the fact that she was unable to make any choices for herself except for who she would enjoy from one night to the next. Devon had been too rebellious for her parents, and Miris would be good enough for no one. As long as her family didn’t see him as a threat, they would leave him alone. “Has it been a quiet night?” She reached out and ran her fingers along the length of his arm.

“Up here, yes.” Almost no one had come by Chainhome for the entire night he’d been there, but he didn’t try and pretend he didn’t know why. “I heard about what happened down near the capital. With the Lord of the Reef.” He nodded toward the door. “Destin’s human went up to deliver this morning and her lover with her. Haven’t heard any more about her since I was relieved on watch. I don’t know if the Captain knows about that or not, but I expect he’ll be along soon if he’s only got until morning.”

“You’re an interesting wolf, Miris.” She ran her touch down from his arm along his side before she leaned in and left teasing kisses along the side of his neck. He was her type when it came to intimacy, but otherwise he was just fun to play with. She couldn’t and wouldn’t allow herself any more than that. He was interesting because he didn’t seem to care about his own life any more than she cared about her own. “You know I’m here for Destin, but you don’t seem to care.”

“Is there a reason why I should?” He asked without returning the intimacy at first, since he always liked to make her work for it, at least a little. She could feel his attraction to her even with the first touch, that was never in question. “I have nothing to gain if he and his friends succeed in what they want to accomplish. Nothing to lose either, maybe. But neither do you, really.”

“You have enough to gain, even if you don’t see it.” She chuckled against his skin, and she continued to tease with a few nibbles as she pressed herself against his side. Chiara could sense that Destin was nowhere near Chainhome yet, so she had time to kill. “I’m just here for the show.” Chiara kissed underneath his chin and let out a soft breath afterward.

You know more about me now than anyone else, Miris. Isn’t it terrible that it still doesn’t give you any power? I’m as useless to you as every one of those slaves in there. Her relationship with Miris had started out as simply physical, but nothing with her was ever as simple as physical attraction. His perspective about their world was too similar to her own for her to help enjoying the connection between them. He was one of a few people left who she trusted, even if she had relieved him of some memories of the depth of their connection. He was better off not remembering everything. It kept him safe.

I know better than to go looking for power. He grabbed her by the front of her robes when she began to pull away. He’d always been rough with her, but that was only because he knew she wanted him to be. I’m not interested in power. Or in war. What I am interested in, you’re no good for at all. Never have been and never will be.

What is that, Miris? Her violet eyes locked onto his hazel eyes, and she just smiled up at him as he handled her roughly. Love? You’re right, I’m not good for love. Maybe once I was, but not anymore.

I’ve got no interest in love. He scoffed at the idea as he thought back over all the couples he’d ever known who claimed they loved each other, and who had all been broken in one way or another. All it does is kill the ones it claims. Just like it killed you.

Am I dead? She pulled out of her robes he had within his grip just enough that it exposed her skin underneath when she leaned in to kiss him. Chiara bit his bottom lip hard, tugged at it slightly between her teeth before she broke off the kiss. I feel alive right now, but you’re probably right.

I probably am. He took advantage of her own eagerness, as always, but he didn’t push things between them, since he was on watch and she obviously had other business as well. I’ve only ever been interested in peace. Which is not something you have a talent for, Princess.

Peace? It will never exist. That’s not how power works here. She enjoyed his touch on her skin, and she wished she had enough time to enjoy him fully. We’re similar in most other ways, Miris. I enjoy your company. Even now, even when I know what is going on in your thoughts.

He tried not to react to that, but it was a useless instinct against a Heartborn, especially one that had woven herself so completely into his mind over the past few years of their association with each other. He wouldn’t go so far as to call it a relationship. Yet you’re going to do nothing to stop me.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. She shrugged, but she remained close to him afterward. The closeness was addictive, even with someone like Miris, a wolf who most others avoided. There’s no reason to stop you. It’s like you said. I have nothing to gain, and I’m dead. Chiara blinked a few times until she shivered from his still wandering touch. And what you don’t know…She gasped softly as he pulled her close, and she decided to whisper into his ear instead. “I was a part of this plan once before.” He knew more information once. But she had ensured he wouldn’t remember.

She was right, he hadn’t known that, and he admitted that it surprised him, but he didn’t pull away. “If you were involved with the Captain before, then why fight him now?”

“I was never involved with Destin.” A wave of emotion burned through her, but she tried not to focus on the source. “You know, Heartborn, though supposedly a sign of purity and royalty, are not much different than Ironborn. We’re meant to behave, to do what we are told, and to stay away otherwise.” She took a deep breath and pulled back slowly. “It’s only a matter of time until someone actually kills me, but until then, I’ll continue to enjoy the game. Right now, I’m to seduce Destin, though he is quite resistant. I have two wolves I care about in this world, and as long as they’re safe, I’ll do as I’m bid.”

“Two?” It was a commonly held notion that the only person Chiara had given half a thought to after returning from her brief exile had been her brother Damos. The other wolf certainly wasn’t either of her parents or her other brothers, whom Miris knew she hated viciously, so that kind of declaration confused him. “Don’t pretend you actually care what happens to me, Highness. We both know you’re not that sentimental, however much you do seem to like the earrings I gave you.”

Chiara smirked as she kissed his jawline and shook her head. “I care about what you do to me, but you’re not demon enough to win my heart, Miris. The pieces that remain now belong to another dark-eyed wolf.”

He had no idea what that meant, but he knew if she wanted him to know, she would have told him. He did, however, see movement on the trail leading up over the barren stone that surrounded Chainhome on all sides, and he knew it was probably Destin. “There’s your Captain, Highness.” His eyes turned back to her as she lingered in the entry of Chainhome itself. “I’ll send him in for you. And if your world is still standing by sunset, perhaps you’ll think to remember how agreeable I’ve been to you, and be of a little more use to me in return, eh?”

“I’ll make sure you’re taken care of, Miris. But always remember that a Heartborn can’t be relied on to keep a promise.” She righted her robes and slipped into Chainhome. Chiara went to wait by Adriana’s cell, even though Miris told her that Adriana was with her lover in the birthing rooms. She leaned back against the cold bars of metal and waited.

Destin went up to Miris and moved past him quietly, the two men exchanging a quiet nod on the way by and no more. They had come to an understanding the night before and there was nothing more that needed to be said.

Miris started to open his mouth to warn the captain on his way by, but he stopped himself before he actually produced any sound. He had no way of knowing if Chiara was nearby, and if she was, he was no match for her. She could twist him inside out and make him do anything that came to her mind. He had to pick his battles, and as his mind raced through the likelihood of what was to come that day, he decided that fighting Chiara directly was not the kind of battle he was going to pick.

He sighed as he looked back toward the dark hallway within Chainhome, and headed off down the ramp. He was abandoning his post, but that was the least of the offenses he intended to commit against the royal family that day.

Destin made his way down the hallway quickly, but as silently as he was able, past all the sleeping bodies of the slaves, huddled together in their cells for warmth. The thought occurred to him that it was the last night Adriana would ever have to spend in such conditions, and it brought a smile to his face.

When he got to her cell, he recognized the orderly way she kept the scant possessions slaves were permitted. Her pallet was pressed against one wall, close enough to feel the pathetic warmth of the fires in the walkway, kept barely bright enough to keep the slaves alive. The stink of the place was worse in the summer, but the winter wind had stripped and sterilized most of the foulness from the air.

Even without it, though, the place felt like a tomb, and the sensation wasn’t helped by the screams echoing off the stone and warped by the echoes until they might as well have been the howl of a distant wolf. They faded into abrupt silence as he came to a stop in front of Adriana’s cell and narrowed his eyes, trying to pick out her form in the dark. “Adriana?”

Chiara was just past him in the darkness and as she leaned against the cell, she almost felt bad for him when he leaned in to look for his absent lover. Chiara knew Adriana was alive and well, though she was in pain from her progressing birth. “She’s not there. Neither of them are.”

Destin was immediately on the defensive at the sound of Chiara’s voice, but he didn’t move away from her. She was no threat to him physically, even if he knew better than to underestimate her in any other way. “Where did you take them?” He growled across the space, though he wasn’t sure why he bothered. If she was there waiting for him, then she wasn’t going to give up their location easily. She might have even killed Adriana already and was waiting to gloat.

“I didn’t take her anywhere. She disappeared earlier in the day to go give birth to her tiny little rat.” Chiara sounded bored, but being so close to Destin made her tremble just slightly. The memories he invoked were hard to ignore. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t turn her when you had the chance.”

There was no point trying to lie to a Heartborn, especially one that knew him and his situation as well as Chiara did, so he didn’t even try. “Because while she is human, she is nothing to your parents. They would ignore her so long as I didn’t make it obvious how valuable she is to me. Your father would have jumped at that opportunity, if I’d taken her to keep for myself over you. If I’d turned her, they would have found an excuse to kill her, if they even felt they needed one.”

“But now, because you didn’t, she died in childbirth after living a horrible life here in Chainhome. Are you sure you still made the right decision?” She moved closer to him so that he could see her, and while she knew he physically had the strength to kill her quickly, she had the power to stop him if he tried. “Her human lover has now been moved to a different female. I do, however, have her child. If you are interested.”

Her words froze him on the spot more effectively than all the wind and ice outside the prison, and he looked back and forth from one of her eyes to the other, trying to see some flicker of truth or falsehood within them. “You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie?” She lifted an eyebrow and she stared into his deep blue eyes. “Even if she hadn’t died in childbirth, I was still sent here after you, which means that I was instructed to get rid of anything in the way. I would have been required to kill her if she didn’t die, so the end result is the same. She’s dead.”

He expected the royal family to come after him directly again as soon as he’d revealed publicly that he’d survived, but he had to give them credit, he hadn’t expected them to act quite so quickly. He couldn’t process the news that Adriana was dead. If she was, he knew he wouldn’t care what happened to him in the coming day, so long as it ended with his family safe elsewhere. He would return to the ocean and let it take him, for good.

“Why are you even here, Chiara?” There were years of history behind the question, behind them both, and he made no effort to hide the different layers of his curiosity from her in his mind. “You know how this ends. For me and for you.”

“They still want us to do what they’ve always wanted us to do.” She looked him up and down once, and even though it wasn’t the Fulness, she wished that she could just get it over with already. “They also think that they can squash your rebellion by getting rid of you, which I don’t think is the case, but who listens to me? After spending a lot of time with Devon, I know how many wolves support your family.” She moved closer to him still, but she didn’t try to reach out and touch him.

“They held me in place as they took each of my newborn puppies and threw them into the ocean. Malis held me so tightly I thought my arms would break off, but nothing hurt more than the feeling of each of those lives, ones I had grown and created, being snuffed out when they hit the stones or the water below. You can’t imagine that kind of pain, Destin. I’m here because whatever future I still have left, I never want to feel that ever again.”

The rage that rose up in Destin reminded her, just for an instant, of the passion that his brother Devon had possessed in such vast quantities. It was even directed the same way, in a kind of instinctive protectiveness of her, and of her broken children, Destin’s own kin, even if they’d been hers as well. He didn’t dwell on the surprise of information about Devon and Chiara with the threat of her in front of him. What he still knew was that Devon had died because of Chiara. She was the reason.

“We’re going to kill your parents today.” He said quietly, without retreating, even though he knew he should have started running out of Chainhome the moment he’d seen her. “And your brothers too, if they return in time. I would think out of any death you might care to witness in your life, it would be theirs you’d be most interested in. But here you are doing their bidding instead.”

“They have too many things set in place to keep themselves safe for you and your family to ever reach my parents. Or my brothers.” She heaved out a heavy sigh. “I will die before all of them, I’m certain of that.” Chiara finally reached out to touch him, even though she knew he didn’t want her to, and the moment her fingertips touched his skin he felt warm and comfortable. “Of course I want them dead, but that’s not something I’m going to accomplish. And let’s face it, even if I help you now, your people would kill me faster than mine would.”

Destin couldn’t deny that, and though a part of himself hated how easily she was able to manipulate him, he still relaxed against the bars, all will toward violence or running away gone in an instant. “The best thing you could do, if you want them dead, is stay out of our way. When all this is over, you and whoever else is left can do as you like with the ashes.”

“I’ll let that work itself out without my assistance either way.” She ran her hand slowly up his arm. “What I really want, though,” Chiara leaned in and he could feel her breath against his neck. “Is for my daughter to live.” She kissed along his skin afterward. Her puppies with Devon had all been murdered, but Chiara had more at stake. “And I suppose having your puppies wouldn’t be horrible.”

The longer her touch remained on his skin, the fuzzier his thoughts became, but she could still feel his contempt for her burning beneath the warm haze she’d placed in his mind.

Would he remember anything she had said, if he survived the conversation? The question brought him to a momentary panic, but It did nothing to help his situation. The strength of his revulsion toward her only strengthened her further, but he tried, feebly, to move away from her.

“In the morning, all of this will be a ruin.” He slumped against the bars, beginning to go weak under her disarming assault. “And you along with it.”

“Me?” She chuckled and smiled as the bars of Adriana’s cell moved slowly, since it had been left open after she had been moved to the birthing rooms. Slowly Chiara pulled Destin back up and dragged him into Adriana’s cell. “Well, how about you stay here just to make sure of that?” She pulled her touch away from him and started to back away. “I’ll just get rid of your lover’s baby for you. No need to keep a squalling little rat around if no one is going to care for her, right?”

Anger returned to his eyes almost as soon as her touch left his skin, and one hand shot out to latch around her neck, slamming her back into the bars as he gritted his teeth in a growl. “No.” He leaned in close, looking for any trace of fear in her violet eyes, but there was nothing in them at all, not fear, not cruelty, just an empty shell of a person without even enough of a soul left to be pitied. “You’ll not harm her.”

“Should I bring her to you, then? Do you think you can care for her in this tiny little cell that you left your true love in, day and night?”

“Better that than the cliff your parents threw your own children from.” He said with ice in his voice, attempting to tighten his fingers around her throat even though the warm numbness was starting to spread through him again.

“As you wish, dear Destin.” She said when he slumped back down again, his grip failing. Chiara didn’t reach up and rub at her skin, even though she was sure she would have a bruise of Destin’s hand imprinted into her skin the following day.

Without saying anything, a human slave appeared from the darkness carrying a wrapped bundle and Chiara stepped out of the cell in order to retrieve it. She sent the human on its way again and held out the sleeping child to Destin. “Here. Good luck leading a war from in here and with a tiny newborn babe in your arms.”

Chiara stepped out again and tapped on the bars so loud that it would wake the child, and she looked toward the entrance before she walked out. There was a Stoneborn in Miris’ place, and she barely glanced at him as she spoke. “Takas, seal Destin up in that cell.”

The wolf moved in toward her and bowed as the stone around the cell folded itself around the bars to bind them in place. As soon as the babe woke, it was crying, and Destin moved back against Adriana’s pallet, holding it close to try and soothe it back to sleep. Once it felt that it was warm again, the babe did seem to quiet down, but when Destin looked up, Chiara was gone and he was alone in the cell with nothing but the cold around him.

The darkness only seemed to deepen as the little girl settled back into sleep, and Destin was afraid to even set her down for fear of her getting too cold or waking her again. His mind was racing even if the rest of him was incapable of moving.

Adriana was dead. His mind was a jumble…there had been more, something about Devon…what else had she said? Everything was so heavy, the simplest thought was like trying to sprint through a snowbank. The one nugget of information she seemed to want him to retain was the knowledge of Adriana’s death. That was the only fact in the world that mattered for all the meaning of his life to be drained out all at once.

The little girl didn’t even have her coloring or her features to remind him of her. The girl’s hair was a brilliant blonde that he vaguely remembered seeing on the man Adriana had been paired with, and he could only assume the rest of her features had come from the man as well. He would know more certainly as she got older. If she survived childhood somehow, as the ward of a wolf. If any of them survived the day.

“Captain?” He heard a voice from the hallway and saw a tiny figure creep up to the edge of the cell. Destin knew he had once known the little boy’s name during the time he’d overseen construction at the shipyard, but it escaped him, though the boy clearly still knew him. There were tears on the boy’s face that Destin could feel, but his voice didn’t shake, either with the sadness he was feeling or the cold, to which he was obviously accustomed. “I heard what the witch-wolf said about Ana. I’m sorry. I’ll miss her too.”

Destin just nodded, since he couldn’t move otherwise, still lightly bouncing the little girl in arms that were growing more numb by the moment. “Your name is Malcom, right?”

The boy nodded, and scooted a little closer on his side of the bars, looking over the little girl in her wrappings. “Is that her daughter?”

Destin took in a slow breath before he nodded again, trying to steel himself to the void he faced. His mind still plummeted down hopeless corridors in which all he could do was tell the girl in his arms about how incredible her mother had been.

“She looks like Shian.” Malcom said quietly, obviously mourning right along with Destin, but he had seen too much loss over the course of his short life to permit the loss of anyone, even Adriana, to break him completely. “What are you going to name her? We live longer if we get names, you know. We’re just like you that way.”

Destin hadn’t been aware that their superstitions around naming a child had extended to the humans, but he was certainly familiar with them. “You said his name is Shian? The father?” Malcom confirmed it with a nod, and Destin went on, looking down into the little girl’s face with a sigh. “Sheena, then. So she’ll remember both of them.”

Malcom seemed appeased by that, and remained silent for a while before he stood up and flattened himself against the bars so as not to be seen. “Sheena’s a good name. Ana would have liked it.” He glanced furtively up and down the hall, and apparently saw something he didn’t like, since he went tense all at once. “I’ll find someone to wet nurse for her. Takas is grumpy most of the time, but he won’t let the little girl starve. He hates it when they cry.”

“Thank you, Malcom.” Destin was touched by the boy’s concern, but his help didn’t stop the tears flowing down Destin’s face. “Adriana always spoke well of you, and I’m glad you’re still a good friend to her, even now.”

“I’ll make sure the baby is alright. We take care of each other here. We have to.” He said sadly, before he reached in through the bars to pat the little girl on the head gently. “I’ll be back, I promise.”

When the boy was gone, Destin moved slowly up onto the pallet, still holding the newborn girl close against him and rocking her as his tears soaked the swaddling blankets wrapped around her.

“Sheena,” he whispered to the baby, not wanting to wake her again, “I’m sorry.”

He had to catch his breath before he went on, since for once the tears streaming down his face were accompanied by sobs that threatened to crack his own ribs with the force he had to use to suppress them.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do more for your mother. That I didn’t just run when she asked me to. I’m sorry that I wanted a better life for her, when the only life we could have had was taken away.” He shook for a few moments in silence, but when the freshest batch of tears had cleared itself from his eyes, he looked down and the girl’s own eyes had opened just slightly in sleep.

She blinked a few times, and Destin’s heart finally drowned in grief inside him. Adriana’s green eyes stared back up at him, as if accusing him from beyond life, and then closed again as the baby returned to sleep.

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t feel, and he knew that even when the dawn finally broke over the world, it would bring no warmth. Not for him. Not without her.