Vengeance Throne (The Callistra Chronicles #2)

TWENTY-EIGHT

Chapter Twenty-Eight

At the helm of his vessel, Warin Praeston took a horrified step back.

And watched the Isles descend into flames.

***

Mirza Volos needed a second to take in the sight of them: splayed out on the floor from the impact of the blast, still smeared with silver river water in some places, and damp from the water of the spilled bowl in others.

A hole had been punched into the ceiling. Daylight was filtering through happily, not knowing what it was intruding on.

Mirza quite clearly wanted to sneer or convey his disgust, but it was a bad look in front of the knights. The King Consort settled for merely clutching his hands in front of him.

"Escort them out," he told the knights.

Seth stood on his own before any of the knights could get to him, his eyes blazing with fury. It was a look that Pasiphae seldom saw: one that would frighten her if she didn't already know his heart wholly, for it was not just the threat of violence that was etched into his steady stare, but the promise of it.

"You'll do no such thing," he spat, trying to brush off the knights.

Pasiphae, meanwhile, remained on the floor, calmly closing her chain back around her neck and raising a single eyebrow when a knight tried to make a reach for her. He snatched his hand back immediately and looked to Mirza in question.

"We're only escorting you to the main palace to discuss what you just did," Mirza said neutrally. "I am your king, Sesostris."

"You are not—" Seth cut himself off upon glimpsing the nobles that Mirza had brought with him into the weaponry hall. This was more than the nobility crowding around the latest scandal: this was posturing, this was Mirza showcasing his power, and making it very clear that even if Seth could strike him down with one blast of his magic, he could not overpower Mirza with the entire inner ring of high nobles there too.

"We have an order in Airesi," Mirza said now. "You launched a weapon onto Callistra without approval from the throne. That is treachery—"

"We just stopped the Unseelie army from invading allied land," Pasiphae cut in drily. "You're welcome, by the way."

Of course, war was exactly what the nobles wanted.

Mirza eyed her with distaste, then the emptied silo and the hole in the ceiling letting in the bright daylight. He waved a hand at the knights. "Escort them," he repeated.

This time, the knight did grab Pasiphae by the shoulders, and shove her out of the room.

"Ease off, ease off," Seth snapped from behind. "We can walk on our own. And, you—" This was directed at the knight to the left of Pasiphae who had an iron grip around her arm. "Hands off before you lose them."

The tight grip eased loose. Pasiphae harrumphed and performed her best pretentious sniff while passing the nobles, but inside, she was starting to panic, wondering if they were in trouble. She craned her head back, making eye contact with Seth and silently asking in one glance what to do.

He mouthed back, Wait, then tilted his head towards Mirza who had paused to talk to Herayn Micorphius. It would have been a worrying sight, only Herayn kept glancing away from Mirza and settling her narrowed, calculating eyes on Pasiphae and Seth.

They couldn't throw Seth in a cell and charge him as a usurper—not now, not yet. Not unless Herayn wanted Juventas' reputation thrown down the drain too.