The Cursed Heir

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Wait—I thought you fought a couple of battles before you were pulled off the lines." There was silence at her back. Cassie twisted around, her eyes narrowing. "Are you whistling a sharp?" she asked.

Avery leveled an annoyed glance at her. "When have you ever known me to make up stories?"

She was almost tempted to smile at his disgruntled tone. "Never." Practical, pragmatic Avery. The man had never even cared to stay for the songs of the past at the end of banquets. Wasn't worth the lost sleep, he used to say.

He waited until she was facing forward again to speak. "I may not have shown anyone the letter until after the second battle."

"What? Why? Of all the stupid—"

"I deserved to be at the front of the lines," Avery said tightly. "It was my fault we were caught. If I'd been more careful, if I had been smarter about it..." He shook his head. "We were caught, and I couldn't protect you. I deserved—"

"You deserved to live," Cassie said hotly. He was going to act like his life was worth less than hers? "The amount of people I've lost in the past year, and you thought you would maybe add to their number—" Her fury choked off the rest of her tirade. "Don't you ever—"

"I got it," Avery said, placating her. "Hard to be loyal if you're dead."

"Exactly," Cassie grumbled.

Her mood was not improved when a single set of hooves quickened and James came alongside her.

"Go back," she hissed at him. "I can't even look at you."

His eyebrows lifted. "Burr under your saddle?"

"You called the Guard on me?" Cassie was shaking slightly, tremors of anger moving through her. "I told you—I told you—I could not go back, and so you tried to force me out—and maybe burn down half of Telyre, just for good measure?"

James' jaw clenched. "It was the only way."

"The only way for what? Ruining everybody's lives, not just your own?"

"I owed the witch a debt," James replied, his heated voice kept low so the rest of the Guard could not hear their argument. "She sent that soldier to save you, and in return, I had to end the war." He stared at the road ahead of them, his shackled hands gripping the reins. Somewhere near the front of the group, Sarita rode in silence. "After that last battle, it was the perfect opportunity to convince Marius to break the betrothal they'd made between the princess and Frederick of Trenoriah." Both sides had to be so sick of war, of death, after ten years of it, that both kings must have been eager to listen. "And forming a new alliance, tying the lines together—it was the best way. I thought it was you—I thought there was a way...but you wouldn't listen. You would not consider leaving."

"So you forced my hand." His explanation did not lessen her anger.

Orenda had not sent Tarun to save her. He had died in her arms, had broken her past the point of endurance.

And past that point, there had been...acceptance. Healing, of a sort. Or at least recovery, in a way that would not have been possible if Cassie had not been forced to face her own personal grief.

Had it been necessary for him to die to save Cassie?

If so, how had Orenda known he would reach Telyre in time? How had she known he would be gravely injured in an unpredictable accident, so close to their town?

Unless...it had not been unpredictable, much less an accident.

Surely not.

And for James to be complicit in that...it was horrifying to even contemplate.