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Jarin quickened his pace, his breath shallow with anticipation. Within moments, Reynard would reunite with his cache of guards, and the pirate would lose the ability to speak freely with the king. So, speak he must, regardless of how ill-prepared he was for the confrontation.
“Garstang!” he shouted, his deep voice filling the high corridor.
That was all he had. Jarin didn’t know what to say next. Reynard turned around slowly, like he didn’t fear a thing in the world. Jarin strode within three paces of him.
Reynard squared his shoulders, squinting at Jarin’s masked face. The pirate was close enough to make out the king’s mismatching eyes. One was clear and pale blue, and the other was nearly closed over, the flesh red and scarred.
“The sorcerer Polinth seeks to assassinate you this evening,” said Jarin.
The lie came to him so easily. If a man like Garstang cared about anything, it was his own hide. Even if he doubted Jarin was telling the truth, the king hated mages enough to act on suspicion alone, surely.
“Then, he ought to join the queue,” replied Reynard with a growl. “And who are you?”
Jarin hesitated. Should he tell the truth about his identity? He wanted answers about his mother, and Reynard might have them. But tonight was about Riella.
Tonight could not be about Levissina, who forfeited her right to piety when she slaughtered innocents. He knew that. He just had to know one thing.
“Did you kill her?” he asked, trying to keep emotion from his voice. “Levissina.”
Garstang stepped forward, regarding Jarin with genuine curiosity. “Who are you, that you would care about that demonic wench?” He put his gloved hands on his hips. “Remove your mask.”
Regret flooded Jarin’s entire being. What had he done? Riella needed him.
“No,” he replied.
“I am King Reynard Garstang of Morktland and if you do not obey me, I will have you beheaded this very night.” From behind his mask, Reynard’s eyes drifted to Jarin’s chest, where his mother’s gold pendant gleamed in the candlelight. “Remove your mask,” he repeated.
With one hand, Jarin took off the black skull.
“I thought as much.” Garstang snorted. “You are your father’s twin. Well, I’m thrilled to inform you that your mother is dead. Gutted like a fox. I expect you’ll be relieved, no? You can crawl out of hiding now.”
The air left Jarin’s lungs. His feelings about his mother had always been an incomprehensible mess of anger and love and resentment and sadness, and hearing of her death only amplified these emotions. For all her crimes, she died alone and by violence in a foreign kingdom, like his father.
With both parents gone, and Riella living her final night, Jarin felt profoundly untethered to this world.
The sensation was oddly freeing. He had nothing to lose. With his invulnerability gone, it was almost like fate was daring him to offer himself in Riella’s place. Why else would the prophecy exist, unless someone was meant to subvert it?
Neither of his parents would sit idly by while the person they loved was in peril. They’d fight with everything they had. Perhaps they watched him from the Beyond now, urging him onward, and would lend him aid on his mission. If he succeeded, he’d meet them again soon.
Fate demanded a life tonight? Let it be his. He who’d never belonged. He who carried the weight of his mother’s crimes like lead in his blood.
“I’d ask if you ever faced her in a fair fight,” said the pirate to the king. “But I believe I can guess the answer.”
He tossed aside his skull mask, turned his back on Reynard, and went to find Riella.
“There is no fair fight where demons are concerned!” called the king after him. “But justice will always be done, in the end.”
As he strode in the direction of the ballroom, Jarin privately agreed. He, the son of a renowned murderess, would save a siren—a defender of innocents. Vengeance would not come into play. This was about justice. And he was prepared to take anyone with him who tried to stand in his way.
“Are you Jarin?”
A black-robed acolyte stepped into his path, her hood down.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Neve and the High Magus sent me to assist Riella. She’s looking for you. And Polinth.”
“Well, where is she?”
