“Because you’re the fucking Queen,” he said as though it were obvious. “And I don’t just mean the title of it or your birthright. That display today, you leading the attack on those men… you’re more of a Queen than your brother will ever be a King. As much as I would have loved to watch you cower before the men running at you in an attempt to kill you, the fact remains that you battled them with more ferocity than even my own Second. You deserve someone who matches that, someone who will treat you with such an equality and recognize your true core.”
His eyes darkened as his weight shifted in front of her.
“You deserve nothing less than someone who would burn this entire kingdom to the ground for your salvation.”
His voice vibrated her insides. His stare didn’t leave hers, and for a few moments she found herself unable to blink. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin up to meet his.
“Sounds like a fantasy,” she finally managed. “Where would I find such a person?”
“Perhaps the Berdijay is looking for a mate.”
She couldn’t help the smile that rose on her face. “You’re utterly ridiculous,” she told him. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
“Had to take a piss.”
“Ah. Right.” She shook her head as a small chuckle left her. “Where at so I don’t step in it?”
He huffed under his breath, and when he looked down, his hair fell over the left side of his face. She watched his hand reach out, and he touched one of the flowers that was still in her braided hair.
“Honest kids had a bit of fun with you?” he asked.
“Something like that,” she replied, feeling her heart begin to warm as he stared at her.
“What’s this?” he asked as the back of his finger grazed her cheek.
Her breaths danced at the touch of his skin against hers, the way he was staring at her. “One got lucky. I took his head as well.”
Draven scoffed and shook his head. He took a blue flower out of her hair then, and he pushed it behind her ear, the graze of his skin on hers making her nearly forget about the events of the day. His eyes darted over her face, and she thought for a moment he would say something more about the flowers, but instead, he simply turned and held out his arm for her.
“Come,” he beckoned. “Nadir is keen on swapping war stories with my men. You’ll enjoy his tales of bloodshed.”
Her heart fluttered at the quirk of the first smile she’d seen on him since the battle, the touch of his skin against hers when she took his arm. And when she took the deepest inhale of the day as they walked back, she felt the familiar butterflies fill her stomach. The memory of how he’d looked at her earlier on the field made her thighs squeeze. And when she remembered the look of him in the phoenix skull, she felt the goosebumps rise on her flesh. She could have given in to him right there, pulled him to the forest floor and fucked him in the dark.
But she didn’t.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DRAVEN’S QUIET FIGURE only woke her the next morning when he was getting out of the tub. He didn’t say anything when she sat up in the bed, when she wrapped her robe around her and made out for the balcony. She knew it was funeral day, and he would be laying one of his closest friends to rest. She didn’t want to crowd him or start any argument. So she stayed quiet and waited for him to take the steps down before she called for her raven to find Lex.
The Venari funeral included walking the hour to Duarb’s roots. Aydra and Lex followed at the back of the crowd as they walked through the forest to their giver’s tree.
The noise of water rushing caught Aydra’s ears as they neared their destination. A few of the Venari parted off to the east, including Draven and Balandria. Aydra tugged Lex’s arm to follow, wanting to see the Honest boats that Nadir had told her about the day before.
The smell of fire caught her nostrils, smoke wafting through the forest. She’d never seen the Impius River before. It was broad, cutting through the darkened forest like a blade cutting through flesh, splitting it in half. Rocks lined the banks of it.
As they approached the large river, the sight of four boats coming down through the middle of it struck her gaze. Long boats ablaze with soft orange and yellow flames. She could still see some of the flowers they’d laid around the bodies in the boats.
The Venari who had decided to adorn the edge of the river in salute to their Honest brothers all laid their fists across their chests to the left, where the mark of the Honest would have been were they of their kind. Aydra and Lex did the same.
Once the boats were out of sight, Draven and Balandria turned and led them back into the forest towards their giver’s tree. The forest swallowed them once more. Aydra’s raven flittered from tree to tree above them as they walked. Within minutes, she could see the Forest begin to open up again, and the sight of the largest tree she’d ever laid eyes upon sat in the middle of the only open clearing in the forest.
Lex grabbed Aydra’s arm as they approached, and both of them stopped to stare at the beast of a tree before them.
It was practically a monster. The trunk of it was greater than any tree in the forest, thirty feet in diameter and black as the dead of night. The sunlight that had just graced the canopy seemed to hide upon their reaching it, despite there being an enormous gap between this tree’s canopy and the trees around it, as though the trees around
