Fantasy of Fire (The Tainted Accords Book 3) (32 page)

My eyes fly open. “None? What happened?” I blurt. I wonder who the three women were. If only they’d waited a little longer! And I knew about the men here, having seen their piled bodies on the roof.

“They just stood there, for a day and two nights. Now we know they were waiting for the signal from the Elite.” He rubs his jaw.

“They came all this way from Osolis, then turned around because a fire wasn’t started?” I ask slowly.

Jovan shrugs. “The Ire showed up too. The Solati may still have engaged my army despite the unlit signal, but I believe the Ire was too much of an unknown factor, and tipped the odds too strongly in our favor. I never got a chance to sever your Uncle’s limbs from his body. The Solati began retreating through the Oscala during the third day.”

I brainstorm out loud. “I wonder if it’s a ploy so we’ll follow them to Osolis. Solati have always won battles on our home ground.”

“I don’t want you thinking about those things yet,” he says, locking his jaw. “You’ll be happy to know Jimmy is alive and well.”

A happy smile spreads across my face. Thank Solis. “Thank you,” I say.

Jovan stretches to his full height. I stare with blurry eyes at the taut muscle he reveals in doing so. He kisses me and makes for the door and I wish I could ask him to stay. But this is how it will always be. The desires of my heart will always come second to what I know I should do; second to what I know is right. It’s no different for Jovan.

But, with all of that, he still loves me. I’ll hold on to that forever.

“King Jovan,” I call as he places a hand on the door.

“Tatuma Olina,” he says with a half-smile.

I grip the furs on my lap, unsure of how to form the words and set the next stage of my life into motion. It’s been my ambition to rule my whole life, but in recent months I’ve danced around the thought, knowing it would come to this, just uncertain exactly when the timing would be right. My people were
starving
. The Tatum has committed too many crimes.

Jovan still waits for me to speak. I decide to call a stone a stone. Bruma value bluntness.

“I need to kill my mother,” I say.

My comment would make a normal man wonder at my sanity, or edge away, but Jovan’s half-smile grows. There’s no humor in it, only a detached calculation. It’s the look of a man who has been pushed too far.

My whole body stands on end as he replies, one eyebrow raised.

“We do.”

The Final Installment of Olina’s Story

!!!COMING IN 2016!!!

Book Four of The Tainted Accords

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